Thoughts on Marketing…

This is turning out to be a busy week, with new assignments from current clients and inquiries from new ones. It appears that people used the Memorial Day week-end to think about their marketing and decide to make some improvements. Of course, I think that’s a good thing!

The first thing I do when a new client asks me about upgrading their web copy is to visit their site – and I was a little bit startled about what I saw the past couple of days.

Far too many people are missing the SEO opportunity afforded by Title Tags! I saw lots and lots of pages with titles like “Home” and “About.” I guess you know – those words don’t do a darn thing to help the search engines find your pages!

But still, even folks who are working to put keyword-rich copy into their pages often forget all about the title tags. So go check yours – if they don’t give a good indication of what is to be found on each page of your site, then change them. But don’t do it in a hurry – stop and think about a phrase that will appeal to both the search engines AND any human who happens to glance up there at the top of the screen. You have about 65 spaces to use, so use them well!

A second place that is often ignored is alt tags for photos. These serve two purposes. One is search engine optimization – it gives you an extra place to add the keyword. But it also is an aid to those whose internet connection doesn’t allow them to see photographs – and those who are visually impaired and are using software that “reads” the page aloud to them.

That means each photo should have a caption that describes the photo.

I just read a warning article saying that some people are using that tag to “stuff” keywords – and how they’re apt to be penalized by Google for doing that. It’s also rude – How would you like to be listening to the copy on a page and suddenly be hit with a long list of keywords? Yuck!

So, if your site is about dog obedience training, your alt tag for a  photo might read: “image of mixed-breed dog at dog obedience class.” Or, if you’re a Realtor and show a picture of clients next to the sold sign in front of their home, you might say “Image of happy clients with home just sold by Joe Jones, your Dallas Realtor.”

Both of these items are easy to overlook when you’re hurrying to get a new page finished and uploaded – as is the meta description. I’ve forgotten a few times myself, even though I harp about it. So check your pages – make sure you’re taking advantage of all the simple SEO methods as well as the not-so-simple ones.