If you build it, they will come
Well, the actual quote is in fact "if you build it, HE will come." But, you see what we're trying to get at!
It isn't enough to just simply put content live and expect it to work. You need to tailor, yarn, create and twist everything at your disposal.
Whether you're an e-commerce website selling personalised books or a local car dealership trying to promote the latest models - Your level of landing page optimisation can make or break you.
Don't be lazy and run the risk of missing out on increased traffic to your website or blog.
Quality, qualified traffic and therefore conversions are right at your fingertips, this makes on page optimisation for small and medium sized businesses especially important!
The 4 highly actionable landing page optimisation techniques for small and medium sized businesses we outline below can be utilised on any page, from products pages to 'contact us' pages.
The icing on the cake? These on page optimisation tips take no time at all to implement AND you'll love seeing the rewards roll in!
1. Optimise Your Page Title
“Content is king!”, they chanted.
They aren’t wrong either. We live in a time where Google values content and relevance incredibly highly.
Gone are the days where you could jam your main keyword into your title, all over your copy and then sit back with a smug grin on your face as you see yourself rank on page 1. (We might be exaggerating ever so slightly for effect…).
BUT, that’s not to say the value of keyword research is dead, far from it.
We mentioned ‘relevance’ above. What better way to indicate your pages relevance to Google than to optimise your page title to suit?
Completed your keyword research? Good. Now we may begin.
When choosing which keyword to target in your page title tag, a happy balance needs to be met. A healthy formula of product detail + search volume always works well.
So, we want to choose the keyword with the highest search volume possible that also captures the essence of your product or page.
Once you’ve found that keyword gem, try and find ways to branch it out.
For instance, say you’re a company that sells a ‘Slate House Sign’. Don’t just stick that term into Google, see that it has a healthy search volume and plump for it as your page title.
Think outside the box a little. Could there be search volume for terms like ‘Slate House Number Sign’, ‘ Slate House Door Sign’, ‘House Number Signs Made From Slate’.
Build your keyword research out from your first core term, until you’ve found your voluminous, relevant page title.
What you THINK is your best keyword to include in your title, could well just be the tip of the iceberg!
2. Impress With Your Meta Data
Think of your organic listing in the results pages as a free ad.
Your meta data is the copy for your free ad. So why wouldn’t you take advantage of that free ad and make it as enticing and engaging as possible?
Exactly!
Plus, we know that click-through rate is a ranking factor, so improving organic CTR's is a no brainer.
Let’s start with your Meta Title.
It used to be old hat practice to simply copy and paste your page title, stick your branding at the end of it, then hay presto, there’s your meta title.
I know, I know, doing it that way is easy, saves time and well hey, we’ve already optimised our title so why shouldn’t it work as your meta title?
Remember, your organic listing is your chance to show-case yourself. Make sure whatever you choose for your meta title is relevant, as well as eye catching and clickable!
Also, ensure to research your competitor’s organic listings too. Are three or four of them all leading with similar meta title’s? Here’s your time to shine!
Make your listing stand out against your competitors to get that click!
Follow the same logic for your meta description. This is where you can add a little bit more information about your product page.
If written correctly, it’s always good practice to lead with your main keyword near the start of your meta description.
This way, if someone searches for that target keyword, Google bolds it, instantaneously making your add stand out.
Try and keep your meta description under 160 characters. Any more than this could see your copy truncated.
However, it can make for an interesting test to go over this character limit, forcing Google to truncate your copy, which puts a ‘…’ at the end of your meta description.
This can be great practice to leave your audience wanting more and create extra intrigue!
3. Landing Page Keyword Optimisation
Grab main keyword, jam into every paragraph, done. Erm, nope!
This really isn’t the way to be doing it.
As well as Google picking up on keyword spamming, having the same keyword repeated over and over again just isn’t readable and creates a poor website landing page experience!
You want to get traffic to your page of course, but what use is that traffic if it doesn’t enjoy and consume your content?
Plus, ‘time on page’ or 'dwell time' is now a preeeetty high ranking signal for Google, so optimising your on page copy and making it readable and engaging for human consumption is a must!
Latent Semantic Keywords and Indexing.
“What?”, you say. “Latent Semantic Keywords and Indexing!”, I yell back. This is the new way to create awesomely consumable page copy.
In a nut shell, Latent Semantic Keywords are basically keywords that are semantically related to your core keyword. These can include synonyms and phrases that are related in meaning.
Google's algorithm uses these keywords to link together and understand content that may be similar or sentimentally related.
What does this mean and how can we use Latent Semantic Keywords to our advantage for awesome on page optimisation?
So, rather than a paragraph on your page looking like the below…
Discover hundreds of personalised gifts! From aprons to books, these personalised gifts make fantastic keepsake presents. Our huge range of personalised gifts ensure for awesome, affordable gifts for everyone!
It will look like this…
Discover hundreds of personalised gifts! From aprons to books, these personalised gifts for the family make fantastic keepsake presents. Our huge range of gifts with the personal touch ensure for awesome, affordable gifts for everyone!
This way, your page copy contains targeted, relevant keywords, without the need for repetition or keyword spamming.
So, no repetition, check!
Using addition Latent Semantic Keywords will also strongly boost your chances of ranking for multiple terms.
If you're stuck on ideas for the best latent semantic keywords to use for your business, check out some of the awesome latent semantic indexing tools below;
Don't forget Google's search suggestion box too!
If you're are coming from the angle of on page optimisation for a small or medium sized business, try utilising 1 or 2 long tail keywords in your copy as well.
Your long tail keywords will acquire less impressions, but the impressions they do get will be highly qualified and much more likely to convert.
That's our take on landing page keyword optimisation...
More ranking keywords = more traffic. What’s not to like?
4. Use Contextual Keywords for Landing Page Success
“Context is king!”, they chanted.
Alongside the “Content is King” rhetoric, the above statement is now also very true.
We’ve already outlined ways to target core keywords and it’s variants. But when I mention ‘contextual keywords’, what I really mean is ‘contextual words’.
These contextual words bring your content and copy together. They bridge the gaps between your page title, meta data and targeting keywords. In essence, they are the final part of the jigsaw, signalling to Google that everything on your page is relevant and valuable.
In terms of research for these words, for the most part, all you need to do is use your logic. These contextual words aren’t meant for ranking, so search volume isn’t a factor.
So, what sort of contextual words should you use in your content?
Let’s say your business sells home and kitchenware. You’ve just launched a new Personalised Apron.
Now, we can target keywords we want to try and rank for like “Personalised Apron”, “Custom Aprons”, as top level examples. But we also want send extra signals to Google about the type of content we have on the page.
In this instance then, our list of contextual words could include “baking”, “cooking”, “BBQs” or any other terms that can link your prose together.
Come up with 5 or 6 of these contextual words and sprinkle them in and amongst your copy for a beautifully coherent page relevance boost!
Conclusion
From optimising your meta data to utilising latent semantic keywords - Follow all of the steps above to give your website's landing pages the best chance of succeeding!
There are tons more seo on-page optimisation tips you can implement, some of which we'll outline in articles to come.
But for now, the above landing page optimisation tips for small businesses should give you a more than solid grounding!