So far, 50 people have taken the Content Competence Quiz. (Click here to take this content optimization self-test now.) Respondents have been for the most part entrepreneurs and small business marketing folks with varying degrees of familiarity with SEO and content optimization.
The good news is, if you took the test, you’re already ahead of the game – very few pay as enough attention to this critical area of search engine marketing. Here’s the recap.
Do you review your website statistics on a regular basis?
Yes – 74.5%
No – 25.5%
Comment – Reviewing stats is essential for tweaking content. Without facts, content changes are educated guesses at best.
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Do you have a specific set of keyword phrases built into your website’s content?
Yes – 74.5%
No – 25.5%
Comment – It’s likely the same people who are checking their stats are also using keywords.
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Do you have specific landing pages on your website designed for your keyword phrases?
Yes – 31.9%
No – 68.1%
Comment – It is usually more effective to create landing pages dedicated to specific products and services. A good landing page includes a call to action, which is necessary to convert visitors into customers. Using the Home page for this purpose is difficult.
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Do you know the two or three most popular entry pages to your website?
Yes – 59.6%
No – 40.4%
Comment – It’s curious that fewer people check this particular statistic than check their statistics in general. Knowing your top entry pages provides a great indication of where you should focus your content development and conversion efforts.
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Do you know the most popular search phrases people use to find your website?
Yes – 74.5%
No – 25.5%
Comment – The statistics checkers are definitely paying attention to this obviously important information. Knowing what visitors actually search for can be more useful that research in determining what phrases to optimize.
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Do you know whether your website traffic went up or down over the last three months?
Yes – 83.0%
No – 17.0%
Comment – This is impressive not because traffic is a key number, but because respondents are noticing trends. Content optimization is not a project, it’s a process. Respondents obviously realize this.
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Do you know how many unique visitors come to your website every week?
Yes – 57.4%
No – 42.6%
Comment – Tracking unique visitors is a better gauge of site effectiveness than tracking page views (hits).
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Which of the following affect your website’s ranking on Google? (Select all that apply.)
- Number of pages on your website – 53.2%
- Number of keyword phrases in your content – 76.6%
- Freshness of content – 91.5%
- Placement of content on the web page – 57.4%
Comment – Actually, they’re all important. I’m not sure why everybody latched on to fresh content – I hope it wasn’t because the question was confusing.
In any event, fresh content is extremely important, which is one reason why blogs tend to rank high on Google and lift other pages if the blog is on the main website’s domain.
The more pages a website has, the better as far as search engines are concerned. Again, blogs provide an easy way to add pages with meaningful content.
The number of keyword phrases in content is extremely important – too many or too few will work against you.
Where content is placed on a web page matters as well. For example, keywords “above the fold”, or toward the top of a web page, will be weighted more heavily by search robots than keywords at the bottom of a page. Keywords used in headlines and subheads also carry more weight.
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Thanks to everyone who took the quiz. A few people mentioned taking it was a real wake up call. If so, that’s a good thing! Online search is a real equalizer. Entrepreneurs and small companies can move up in the search rankings and compete with much larger firms. Knowing what to focus on is the first step.
More Content Optimization Information
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Sometimes when I hear talk of optimization, keyword density, and Google Analytics – I start to break out in hives, and a line from an atrociously bad movie “Mars Attacks” comes to mind. It’s when Jack Nicolson, as the U.S. President whines, “Can’t we all just get along?”
I suppose one day I’ll find myself bein’ dragged (or is it “drug” – or “drugged”?) into the 21st century. *sigh*
Robert Hruzeks last blog post..Guest Post by Chris Garrett: Confessions of a PDF Addict
Robert, If it makes you feel better, think about content optimization this way. Well executed content optimization helps readers better focus in on your writing, and conveys your ideas with more clarity and power. The extra search engine traffic is just gravy.
Brad Shorrs last blog post..SEO Content Competence Quiz Recap
Hmmm, I think Robert and I might have answered similarly. Keep pushing Brad – It would be a shame for folks not to find and experience his musings.
Fred H Schlegels last blog post..Wolfram|Alpha, Telemarketers and Discoveries In A Bad-Mood
“Reviewing stats is essential for tweaking content. Without facts, content changes are educated guesses at best.”
Brad, these kind of comments bring back the former accountant in me, and all you have to do to perk up the interest of an accountant is to mention anything about statistical analysis of any form.
As a former accountant, I find it truly a refreshing experience to see a marketing professional speak my kind of language!
(I would imagine that you are absolutely right, though, and I could certainly not think of any reason why statistical analysis would be any less important in terms of web page content than in any other aspect of business operations)
Andrews last blog post..You bet, you lose, your problem
Fred, If you work a black Stetson, nobody would ever be able to tell you and Robert apart.
Seriously, thanks for the encouragement. Knowing even one person benefits from all this optimization talk is enough to keep me going some days.
Andrew, Search marketing should be stats-driven to a great extent. Most (if not all?) online marketers are serious about statistics, which makes us different from some in traditional marketing, although I would argue that analysis is essential for any type of marketing.
I don’t know if you use Google Analytics on your blog, but a guy like you could go wild analyzing results and trends, and acting on the information in a useful way.
Brad Shorrs last blog post..SEO Content Competence Quiz Recap
As usual, you are right and you add value to the precious time I spend with you.
Lennie Roses last blog post..Leisure + Work = Weisure
yaa nice explain here content is king in SEO point of view so that it’s need to every one know what the importance when you put content on your sites or Blog!!!
thanks nice ended here!!!