The Perfect SEO Page

First of all, Google tells us exactly what it is looking for.  Here are the Google guidelines for good content.  But, what we need to do is translate that into actionable steps.  Here is an example of what we want to create for a page.

We want an H1 tag headline for the page and and 2-3 H2 tagged sub-headings in the body of the page.  We should also have a Title and Description tag all supporting each other.  The page above demonstrates what I might have if I were writing a page about using social media.

Importance of Title and Description Tags

The keyword for this sample page is "social media" and we should have Title and Description tags that repeat that word, which is true in our example.  These tags are what Google displays in a search results page ( Also called a SERP - Search Engine Results Page).  The underlined portion of the results is taken from the Title tag and the portion under that is taken from the Description tag.  If they are missing, Google will use the first text it finds for its underlined title line and the next text it finds for the description.  This may not be what you want displayed about the page.  Attention to these tags can reap the benefits of more clicks to your page.

Importance of H1, H2 and H3 Taging

Even before the text of a page is written, you should have in mind or on paper a "blueprint" of the page. The blueprint should contain the following: Title, Description, and H tagging that will appear on the page.  After these are reviewed and approved, you can then write the actual text.  The text should be written to match the tags specified.  In the long run we are after search rankings for long tail phrases as is demonstrated in the following graphic.

Long Tail Phrases

The problem with long tail phrases when it comes to SEO, it that the phrase usually has a low volume of searches.  However, if one has a specific page wirtten and optimized for a long tail phrase one has a better chance of a high ranking.  A long tail phrase generally has lower competition than a short tail phrases.  Our example shows the short to long as: Social -> social media or social media marketing-> social media marketing company Orlando.  As one goes doown this stream there are both less searches made and less competition for that phrase.

As in many endeavors a little planning goes a long way to creatig the desired result.  Of course if the main tactic is long tail phrases, one will need a lot of pages to make up for the decrease in traffic.  However, more pages of long tail optimization will lead to equivalent and more focussed traffic.