A synched, search engine optimized page theme harmonizes your page's content, title and Meta data

As search engine bots become more intelligent and algorithms are tweaked more frequently, it is more important than ever to have the right SEO plan in place. You want to be sure that your site offers the right combination of code and content so search engines can most effectively index and rank your site.

Keywords have long been one of the most basic elements to install as part of a successful SEO campaign, but keywords have not played an important role in search engine algorithms for some time. Ranking algorithms are designed to scan content and interpret a page’s target user without using Meta data keywords as a guide.

Today, when it comes to affecting your site’s ranking, your site’s content is king.

Advanced search engine algorithms are allowing search engines to place less emphasis on Meta data and more on page content. This means marketers need to focus on calibrating each page correctly to give search engines a clear theme, concept or phrase to focus on for optimal rank. SEO practitioners refer to this part of the craft as “Page Theming.”

Instead of idiosyncratic code and keywords, Page Theming communicates with the search engine algorithm in a more holistic way. The algorithm analyzes each site page’s Title tag, H1 tag and published content. A page’s content, title and Meta data have to be in sync to effectively communicate the key terms and phrases you want to rank for.

Understanding how leading search engines continue shift emphasis in their algorithms is important for anyone who wants their website to rank high. The search engines, and Google in particular, want to be sure that a search engine visitor is highly satisfied with their results. The search engines know that their success relies on satisfied customers. To achieve this, they will continue to improve their algorithms so that their top ranking sites effectively reflect the search queries. Matching search queries to Meta data keywords no longer meets that need. Page themes reflecting the holistic nature of the page’s content accomplishes this goal.

And while getting other, external sites to link back to your content is not always certain, and doing so abusively can get you banned from Google’s index, there is one important SEO technique you can use that’s completely within your control – it’s linking, internally, within your own site’s relevant posts, pages, and content.

There are three important reasons to do this:

• Usability - Linking relevant content internally allows people to get more information, particularly to linked words and concepts that are better explained at greater length on other pages
• Passing Page “Authority“ – Google sees pages that are older, more established, and more linked to as having more equity, and therefore, as worthy of ranking higher for certain keywords. You can pass that “authority” from one page in your site to another by linking to it
• Anchor Linking Keywords for Equity - In Google’s eyes, the specific keywords that are linked, and the page they link to, will also play a large role in how well those pages rank for those keyword phrases

For these reasons and more, internal (also known as “deep”) site linking is a key fundamental tool that any site owner/manager should spend time on a regular basis doing.

Internal Site Linking Strategy

As noted above, when linking internally within your site, your goal will be to link specific keywords to relevant content. This will reinforce those pages as having value and authority for the keywords represented.

Anchor Link Text is Crucial

In our experience with working with clients, we’ve found the most linked-to words throughout the Web are “click here.” Beginners and most corporate people typically relegate the link text itself to a generic “click here,” unaware of the critical importance of the linked “anchor” words.

For example, clients often come to us with page links that look like this:

To read a complete breakdown of content marketing ideas sure to bring large amounts of traffic and recognition, click here.

While Google can read and index your text, the only link authority and clear ranking signal that’s being passed from the current page to the linked page is the text labeled “click here.”

The difference in the value of this anchor link text should be immediately apparent:

Click here to read a complete breakdown of content marketing ideas sure to bring large amounts of traffic and recognition.

The search engines now have a chance to understand that the keywords “breakdown, content marketing, ideas, traffic, recognition” are associated with the linked page.

As with most tools and techniques, it requires balance- you don’t want to link every word. We’ve come up with a rough estimate of around one link per 100 words, or five per 500 words, will improve both your users’ experience, and your search engine optimization. And don’t “spam” by repeatedly linking the same word to the same location many times. Once is enough.

Key takeaway: Internal site linking is one of the main on-site techniques to build internal SEO value. Whenever linking, put some thought into what a user might want more information about, and then crafting a relevant phrase to link from.

Do you regularly go back and link your new pages and posts back to relevant older material? Have you done this, and had success? Let me know in the comments below…

Image: Oslo, Norway subway map via Flickr at http://www.flickr.com/photos/magnetbox/4575030/

To solve this problem, we brought the groups together on a monthly basis. Using our keyword research and mapping techniques, we were able to demonstrate the need for integration. As a result, recent content changes are delivering more traffic than before and top rankings are growing. The bottom line is that high value keyword phrases generate more traffic.

One of our healthcare clients decided to redesign their Web site. Their advertising agency wanted to reposition the product claim and eliminate the top traffic-driving keyword phrase for a disease category.  The advertising agency wanted a “consumer-friendly” term to be used.  Our keyword research indicated that the Web site would lose tens of thousand visitors per month by eliminating this keyword phrase plus lose top positions on search engine rankings. We put a full court press on the senior manager to review our findings and we stopped this change.

When facing the challenge of bringing separate client teams together for SEO, we demonstrate the power of using keyword research to create keyword-enriched copy that increase search engine rankings.  By creating a shared vision for the role of search engine optimization, SEO can be easily integrated into all online marketing strategies.