My mother was a very intelligent individual, a real renaissance woman.  One of the things I most admired about her, however, was her assent to not knowing everything.  She used to say that she was blessed with an “approximate knowledge” of a diversity of subjects.

Most e-merchants fall into that category of understanding search engine optimization: approximate knowledge.  Within the last 10 years just about everyone has become familiar with the term.  However, SEO remains a mysterious science/art/practice/treatment that has become the thing on which urban legends are initiated.  There are, however, some skills that every e-merchant can learn, put into practice on their sites, and begin to appear higher in organic searches.   

In the next two issues, I hope to clarify some of your approximate knowledge about SEO.  This week, I will focus on my favorite part, copywriting.  While no doubt in the minority, I thoroughly enjoy the challenge of taking a low traffic site and writing it into ecommerce greatness.  Well, maybe that’s a bit of an exaggeration, but I will admit to assisting e-merchants gain some well-deserved traction and placement higher in searches.

The points below are a good place to start in your overall SEO knowledge base: 

1. Remember who buys your products and write for them.  It’s not the search engines; it’s the shoppers!  It is very possible to please both, but if you had to make a choice, go for the shoppers.
2. Never try to outsmart the search engines.  Hidden background codes or pages with no substantive function will get you to one place in searches: out.  Search engines consider that spamming and they aren’t fond of it.
3. Learn how people search for your products.  Most shoppers use three- or four-word phrases for their searches. 
4. Realize that well written, keyphrase-rich copy is what draws the search engine spiders.  They are drawn to longer copy, and two to three keyphrases sprinkled in for each 250 words of copy really, really makes them happy.
5. At Ydesigns.com™, for our strategic clients we begin by implementing the 10/3/1 rule: Select 10 pages using three keyphrases each to target page 1 placement. 

It’s also smart to remember that search engine spiders read text, not graphics.  That’s something to think of in your page and site design.  You should also take into account that spiders prefer text hyperlinks and pay more attention to them than plain text.  Make sure that either your actual hyperlink or the surrounding text is keyphrase dense.

BOTTOM LINE:  Know how shoppers search.  Realize that buyers buy and spiders bite.

 A good way to remember it is R-E-A-L:  

R=RELEVANT for shoppers and spiders.  How do searchers describe their search in search engines and on your site?  Too many vendors use jargon and not the language of the shopper on their site.

E=Elegant.  Include select, relevant key phrases on targeted pages.

A=Authentic.  Don’t forget that shoppers often search for brands and model numbers.

L=Limited.  If a page is about everything, it is about nothing.  Focus the intent of each page you optimize on one major topic and support it with supporting—related and sometimes hyperlinked—keyphrases.  Limit your content to no more than 250 words. 

Next issue, we’ll discuss some of that “meta” stuff and make some sense of it for you.  In the meantime, enjoy the journey, and keep it REAL!

Every Success, 

Leta Miller

Matthew Ledford 

For a great book on this topic check out our friend and REAL expert.

Heather Lloyd-Martin-http://www.searchenginewriting.com/ We HIGHLY recommend, her great book Successful Search Engine Copywriting