Web Marketing: A few words about words
Date: 12 July 2007

Ok, so how important are the words on your web site?

Vital! In our last article we said that search engines can only read and “index” the words it finds on your site. So you must make sure that the words on your site are the words that you would like users to find you by.

Words are important in a number of places on your web page and the Internet including;

In page text
In titles and Meta Tags
In links

But let’s briefly start with your page content and we will investigate the others later.

For example, if you have a bed and breakfast in Christchurch you would probably like users to find your site in the results of a search for Christchurch bed and breakfast. So you actually need to make sure that these words are in your text (and other places) often enough so that the search engines recognise that this is a key focus of your site.

However, there are many ways you can write your page text. Let’s explore 2 extremes. We’ll call them the “warm and fuzzy text” and the “search engine overkill” text. We’ll assume that the site should be found in searches for “Christchurch Bed and breakfast”.

The Warm and Fuzzy text

“Mary and Joe moved to the country after a long career in the city and would love to welcome you to stay their beautiful purpose built home. In the morning there will be a wonderful feast for you to enjoy in your own sun soaked lounge, or out in the stunning gardens” etc

A search engine will probably never show you in the results if someone searches for “Christchurch bed and breakfast” – these words just aren’t in the text. However we see many sites with similar text to this – perhaps fine from a marketing point of view if you are trying to convey a warm and inviting place to stay, but hopeless for search engines.


The Search Engine Overkill text

Mary’s Christchurch Bed and Breakfast offers bed and breakfast accommodation in Christchurch. Your bed is a nice warm bed and breakfast is served in the bed and breakfast room. Mary’s Christchurch Bed and Breakfast is the best Christchurch bed and breakfast.

Ok, so extremely tedious to read and we hope you would never write it. Hopeless from a marketing point of view, but it would certainly let the search engines know the page was about a Christchurch bed and breakfast.

Some sites might also have hidden text on the page that said Christchurch bed and breakfast 20 or 30 or more times – this is an absolute no-no and can get you penalised by search engines.

It is obvious that your text needs to be somewhere in the middle – enough warm and fuzzy to grab your potential client and make them feel good about your product. But also with a good number of the words that you would like to be found for in searches.

That’s difficult, we know, and a real skill to be able to do it. But it is important and worth considering how it may be achieved. There are a few people out there who have businesses specialising in writing web site text. Rachael McAlpine wrote a very good book called “Web Word Wizardry” a few years ago. Limited numbers of this book are available at http://www.fishpond.co.nz/product_info.php?ref=702&products_id=616887


We suggest you review the text on your site and think about how it may be improved. Next time – what is a keyword?

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