Providing quality content is the key to success with Web users and search engines alike. But understanding the way content is structured and how a search engine might crawl it is also important to consider. Let’s explore some important tips on site architecture and SEO.

Organize Your Content in the Planning Stage

Sometimes the aesthetics of a new website can be intoxicating. But ultimately it’s the content that will attract, retain, and convert visitors. In the early stages of planning for a new website, plan what pages, landing pages, and specific content you’ll want to highlight. By starting this off early, you’ll find that the answering questions about your content strategy may help make design decisions a little easier. Consider how similar pages should be grouped, and how navigation will allow users to drill down into sub-pages.

Utilize Bolding for Emphasis

Bolding certain words within content can help emphasis certain parts of text as users skim through a page. Additionally, bolding can be helpful for SEO as it alerts search engines to important topics and keywords. However, avoid bolding too much – if everything is bold, then nothing is important!

Isolate Flash Whenever Possible

Although Flash is not generally “SEO-friendly,” that’s not to say it has to be avoided at all costs if you intended to be successful in the SERPs. Many high-ranking automotive websites use ample Flash such as this Toms River Ford dealer website. The key to succeed with heavy use of Flash, scripts, and/or images is to balance it out with rich text content that can be easily read by browsers, users, and search engine crawlers. Additionally, using alt attributes to describe Flash and image content can still be helpful in telling search engines what the content is all about.

Avoid Duplicate Content Like the Plague

Duplicate content has never and will never be a good thing when it comes to SEO. Stay away from providing duplicated, repeating, or redundant content across multiple pages. Duplicate content is typically identified when search engines index a given page, and redundancies are eliminated from the index at some point or another. Just don’t do it!

Embrace Header Tags

Once you have a nice page of text to put on your site, you’re not quite done. Organizing your content is also important for a couple reasons. Breaking up a page with H1 or H2 header tags can make the content more readable, since more readers on the Web are likely to skim. A page on Alexandria used cars for example remains easy to read thanks to ample use of headers. But these tags can also help search engines understand the main themes of the page, thus helping in terms of SEO if keywords are present.

Unique Pages With a Call to Action

Each page should satisfy some purpose. Of course avoiding duplicate content is one way to have each page satisfy a specific objective. But pages should also educate or motivate readers. A Finance page from a New York Mazda dealer website for example not only explains financing, but it also encourages users to easily start the car buying process by filling out a credit application. By leaving out that important actionable request, you might as well say goodbye to potential leads.

Maintain Transparency at All Times

Hidden text or links on your website is always an SEO no-no. Sometimes the decisions to hide text or links may not be malicious, but trying to hide content from users in an attempt to appease the search engines will get you nowhere fast!

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Here’s a quick and basic video SEO tutorial to give car dealers a jump start on an innovative automotive SEO strategy.

Targeting specific keywords within your website is generally the primary method behind getting competitive rankings. But this of course is easier said than done as there are many ways this can be executed, and also many ways this can be misconstrued. Let’s take a look at the three main strategies you should keep in mind when it comes to on page keyword targeting.

Avoid Keyword Stuffing

Many webmasters and site owners often interpret keyword targeting as adding blocks of keywords separated by commas. Unfortunately, this is not the proper way to target a keyword as this method is referred to as keyword stuffing and it provides no value towards rankings. Search engines consider an overabundance of keywords within on page content and/or within meta information as spam.

Having dozens or more keywords repetitively placed within any content of a given page leaves your website at risk for being identified as spam. It is best to identify any keyword stuffing and remove it immediately. Just remember, a long string of keywords is not the same as quality keyword-driven content!

Different Pages Should Focus on Different Keywords

Ideally you want your website to effectively rank for a breadth of keywords. The best way to achieve this goal is by having a variety of pages that focus on a variety of keywords. For example, rather than on one page focusing on new cars, used cars, and service, break them up! Having a specific page dedicated on Anaheim used cars for example is the best way to aggressively target that specific keyword. Within that page you can also use variations of that keyword phrase, but remember to stay specific while avoiding keyword stuffing. For the best results in your automotive SEO endeavors you’ll want to be strategic and tailor content to meet the needs of your customers.

Use Different Keyword Phrases

Using the same keyword over and over again can be a risky strategy as it will come off as sounding a bit spammy. Ideally you’ll want to use different phrases or keyword modifiers to differentiate a specific web page. For example, a web page on parts and accessories for Toyota vehicles should also include keywords relating to Toyota parts, Scion accessories, or Toyota truck accessories, etc., in order to provide value without being redundant.

By refining your website’s content, your site as a whole will build the credibility that Google is looking for. In many cases, these strategies will have the  added benefit of being more useful to users as well.

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Insights for improved keyword research can be found soon on this blog.

In the midst of new social media tactics, analytics trends, and insights into innovative technology from the search engine themselves, The Business Case for Content Development at SES San Jose brought information back to the core of SEO – content development.

Content is what the search engines read, it’s what attracts links, and it’s also what ends up converting traffic. Without serious consideration to a website’s content or content strategy, the site will be impaired in its ability to drive traffic, improve rankings, and produce sales.

Health Lloyd-Martin of SuccessWorks pointed out a few examples of websites that seriously improved their performance thanks to content. The first example was Zappos.com, whose blog, twitter account, and onsite content, work together seamlessly to drive traffic to individual product pages. In another example, Heather used AmsterdamEscape, an Amsterdam travel website that actually was banned from Google, but was able to slowly redeem itself by embarking on a complete content overhaul on their website. The website is now back in the index and enjoys strong rankings.

The trap that AmsterdamEscape and other Web marketers fall into is focusing too heavily on keyword density. Search engine algorithms continue to advance and become smarter, and as such, keyword density is an SEO copywriting technique that has become outdated. With semantic search just around the corner, a high keyword density will likely have little effect on your rankings, and may even have a negative effect.

SEO copywriting is about producing direct response copy. It’s about providing valuable information, not an overabundance of keywords. With that in mind, savvy SEO companies are looking for those with direct response or journalism backgrounds to fill the copywriting roles within their organizations.

When building a Web page, Forbes.com SEO Lead Annie Stickney finds that beginning with the small things can make an incredible difference when it comes to search friendliness. Having the appropriate Meta keywords, descriptions, and titles in place that accurately describe the on-page content are typically simple steps to execute. For Wordpress users, there are plugins available that even automate these steps! Although many SEOs will have different opinions about effectiveness of titles and Meta content, it’s the low-hanging fruit when it comes to SEO, and its value, even if pertinent to only a few search engines, shouldn’t be ignored. In the case of Forbes.com, which produces ample amounts of content daily, forgoing this simple step really can make all the difference in the SERPs.

Content is an important ranking component for many car dealer websites and Web pages. Looking at a page on used cars Richmond, the page contains the ample content that focuses on the main topic, used cars in Richmond VA. Although the design of this Washington DC used cars dealer is vastly different, the component that remains the same is the content, both on page content and Meta content.

Any car dealer or Web developer would be wise to consider the value of SEO content development, and understand how crucial it is to a website’s search performance. Not only should on-page copy and Meta content be honed, but audio, image, and video content should be optimized for the search engines as well.

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Find more SEO content tips on this blog.