How Long Should A Web Page Be?
BWMagic's Internet Marketing News!
Read This Newsletter Online:
http://www.bizwaremagic.blogspot.com
.......
Contents:
o How Long Should A Web Page Be?
o Keyword Density Of Your Web Page?
o Are Graphics Important To Your Web Page?
o How To Optimize Your Pages To Get Top Rankings?
o Free Site Page/Site Builder - BlinkWeb
o Free Online Graphics Editor
.......
This week I thought I would give you some direct
information on how I go about creating my web pages.
On many of these points, dealing with creating web
pages, there's plenty of differences among webmasters.
When it's all said and done, you can only give
examples of what has worked for you and what is
currently working for you - based upon my own
experiences as a professional online marketer.
Web pages are what I use to earn my livelihood
from the web.
Because of that, I am constantly aware of what's
working and what's not working in regards to my pages.
Below are some my viewpoints on building web
pages and sites that perform (i.e. earn money!)
for me.
o How Long Should A Web Page Be?
Conventional wisdom says your web pages should be
around 300 words. The reason for this number
is that web viewers have short attention spans
and you also want to keep it short so the search
engines can easily spider and index your pages.
It is probably a good length and idea but in actually
fact many of my own best performing web pages are
much longer than that and some are a lot shorter.
When creating web pages there is no set rule...
just make it easy for your visitors to get the
content. Try to please them first, rather than
sticking to any set conventions. That's my 2 cents
worth.
Personally, I prefer longer pages since I don't
like breaking up an article into different pages
- this is more for my reader's benefit, rather than
practicing good SEO technique since creating more
pages increases your index presence and you get more
traffic.
All the article experts say your articles should
be short around 400 to 700 words. Not so in actual
fact, many of my most popular articles (ones that
bring in the most traffic and links) are in the
1200 to 1800 word range - go figure!
I believe readers want a quality meaty article they
can sink their teeth into and derive some valuable
information that they can use.
If you were reading a quality article in an off-line
real world publication - can you really get a serious
topic or subject covered in 300 words or less? How many
300 word essays did you write in school or university?
To completely discuss an issue or topic, you have
to have a longer piece of writing.
Now, as mentioned before, many webmasters and sites
break a 1000 word article/content into 4 or 5 pages
so that they can increase "pages/clicked" per visitor
ratio and it also gives them more space to place banners
and other advertising.
There's a definite argument for shorter pages but
again I have found longer pages have become my
best performing pages. I believe surfers want their
information in one spot and they don't want to make
5 or 6 clicks to get the content.
Many of my best pages are over 1000 words and I have
no intention of changing the size as long as they
are performing and earning revenue. I have long learned
on here, it something is working for you - don't mess
with it.
o Keyword Density Of Your Web Page?
Another big factor in SEO circles is the keyword
density of your web pages. You shouldn't have you
main keyword repeated too often on your page...
if you go over a certain density and it will alert
the search engines that you're keyword spamming.
Which is a major no-no when it comes to getting
high rankings for pages and keywords. You have
to keep the keyword density low in order not
to send warning bells.
One of the best ways, I found to keep your
keyword density down is just to use variation
of your keywords throughout your page. For example,
I target "internet marketing" as one of my major
keyword phrases... so I use "web marketing" "online
marketing" "net marketing" "marketing on the web"
and so on.
I was recently submitting an article to one of
the major article directories and my article
was rejected because my keyword density was
over 3%. Many SEO say your keyword density should
be around 3% to 5% - anything more and your pages
could get banned or penalized.
Google has 200 rankings factors they use to
rank their pages... I am sure they're looking
at keyword density as an on-page factor. They
would probably lower your page if they believe
you're keyword stuffing.
Again, I think you have to keep your visitor
in mind when creating your pages, if you constantly
repeat your keyword it will simply drive your
visitors away which is very bad for business.
What's the point of getting traffic (by keyword
spamming) if your visitors don't turn into
a prospect or a sale. Again, common sense
should pervade and keep your keyword density
under 3% or what just reads naturally on the
page.
o Are Graphics Important To Your Web Page?
As a former artist, I once did all my own
graphics which was probably one of my biggest
mistakes. My graphics were passable but they
weren't the best. Now I still created very
profitable pages/sites using my own graphics
and I have totally designed all my own web sites,
learning HTML from scratch.
But recently I started using a professional
graphics designer for some of my pages.
(Design Guru Ryan!) I simply don't have the time
to do my own graphics anymore... I noticed a marked
improvement in sign-ups and sales by using these
professionally designed graphics.
The main reason I believe professional graphics
are so important - web surfers have become so
savvy that they judge a page within a nano-second
of viewing it - is this a professional site or an
amateur site? Is this web page worth my time?
Professional graphics make that first impression
and capture your visitor's attention. It also
creates in the visitor's mind... this is a site/content
worth my time. This is extremely important for
any site on the web and it is more important if
you're into website marketing.
And web surfers are getting more savvy as the
net becomes just another feature of modern day
life... you must get your visitor's attention and
professional web graphics can do that within a
heartbeat. If you can afford it - use professional
graphics on all your pages. At least invest in a good
header and footer for your site - believe me, it
can make all the difference in the world.
o How To Optimize Your Pages To Get Top Rankings?
For me what brings in the revenue is top 5 rankings
for my keywords especially in Google. The other two,
Yahoo and MSN brings in some traffic but nothing like
Google so I try and optimize all my web pages for Google.
Needless to say, I have many Top 5 Listings in
Google, and while the main reason for those listings
have to do with the countless backlinks to my pages
mainly achieved thru article writing (yes, this
method is old but it still works) and backlinks
from social media sites. These backlinks come
from just putting the Addthis.com free bookmark
button on all my pages... my visitors bookmark
my content for me!
But I still have certain things I do for optimizing
my web pages for Google. When creating pages I
make sure I have my keywords in the Title, in
the meta tags, in the H1 title, in the URL and
in the first and last 25 words on my page.
I use variations of my keywords throughout
the page but I try to keep my writing natural
and flowing... my main goal is to make a sale
or sign-up. However, I always provide information
that the reader wants and I have learned from
the beginning that "content is king" - you
must give your readers the content they're
searching for and want.
Your primary title length should be limited to
around 60 to 66 characters - I find putting
my main keywords at the beginning helps; so too
does placing a pike "|" to break up a long
title.
Your meta tag description should be around
25 words or 150 characters. I usually spend
a lot of time on my descriptions mainly
because if they get indexed, it is the first
contact I have with my site's visitors.
If you're selling online, this is may be your
one chance to entice surfers to click through
to your pages. Offering deals, coupons or special
bargains are simple ways to get potential customers
to your site.
Again, surfers want quality content and this
may be the most effective way to optimize your
pages. Quality content and information will get
bookmarked, it will get noticed by the search
engines. Just use the simple tips above to make
finding and indexing your content a little easier
for the search engines.
o Free Site Page/Site Builder - BlinkWeb
Speaking of SEO, one of the best experts
in this field is Brad Callen. He's the creator
of such SEO software like Keyword Elite and
Seo Elite - both of which I use and find very
helpful.
Brad also the creator of a free Web page/site
builder called BlinkWeb. It really does help you
create web pages in the blink of an eye - even
if you know nothing about web design.
If you're just starting online or want a simple
way to create web pages you should check it
out here:
o Free Online Graphics Editor
Since we are on the topic of designing
web pages - if you need a good graphics
editor, you can try the free online one
I told you about last week.
It recommended by Design Guru Ryan (The guy
who does my web graphics) and it's really
good.
It's called Pixlr and you can find it here:
http://www.pixlr.com/
Kind Regards,
Titus
P.S. I have placed links to some of my sites,
blogs and social networks altogether here:
http://www.titushoskins.com
Labels: blinkweb, building web pages, creating web pages, making web sites, seo
posted by Titus Hoskins @ 4:37 AM
