SEO Cheat Sheet
How to set up your web page for SEO (search engine optimisation)
Writing SEO content isn’t as difficult as it may seem. The key is to focus on what you’re selling -usually a product or service- making sure to use practical language that accurately represents it.
Unique, interesting copy might be good fun to write or resonate well with your target audience. But, if the search engines can’t successfully crawl your page and understand what you’re selling, they can’t easily promote it. You’ll be missing out on a higher ranking, better visibility and more website hits.
Basically, you’ll be making it harder for people to find you!
To help you get started, we’ve highlighted;
7 areas you need to focus on when writing SEO content.
For the sake of this article we’ll use imaginary company Femfit and their brand new product, the Prima women’s gym bag, as an example.
Femfit is a proudly female owned and operated sportswear brand. Their latest product, the Prima gym bag is a revolutionary sports bag designed to support the modern women on her fitness journey.
Let’s break down how we would go about preparing SEO content for this product’s landing page.
1. Select your primary keyword/ phrase
Start by identifying the key word/ phrase. This will be the focus of your page, usually the product or service you are promoting.
Make sure it is as accurate as possible. In this case the product’s name is ‘Prima’ and it is a gym bag for women. Simply choosing ‘gym bag’ as your keyword isn’t ideal as it will put you in a highly competitive, generally male dominated market. Away from your target audience.
Note we’ve used ‘gym’ and ‘sports’ bag interchangeably in our product description earlier. Both are technically accurate and help describe the product, but this is where doing some research is incredibly helpful. Find out what your ideal customer would describe this product and make that is your first choice.
The Femfit team come from a personal training background and much of their creative features women in the gym, so they’ve decided to run with ‘gym bag’.
Key phrase = Prima women’s gym bag
2. Discover related keywords
Not everyone uses language the same way, so it helps to brainstorm a few alternative ways to describe your product. Try to think of how people search for products and possible word combinations they may use. Doing a bit of research is very helpful at this stage. For example, people from North America often call sports bags ‘duffle bags’.
Aim to come up with 3-5 (or more) alternate or related keywords that you can include in your copy.
Alternate keywords:
Women’s sports bag, Women’s duffle bag, Women’s workout bag, Women’s exercise bag, Workout bag. Workout bag for women
3. Content length
Aim for around 400 – 800 words, more if you can but don’t drag it out if you don’t have to. Format your text into small paragraphs with supporting headers, no one likes to read a wall of text. Doing this also makes it very clear to your reader – and the search engines – what information is included on the page.
4. Page Title (H1)
Your page title must include your primary keyword e.g. “Prima Women’s Gym Bag”. This tells your customer and the search engines that they’re in the right place and exactly what content to expect on the page.
5. 1st Paragraph
Including the primary keyword in your first paragraph is highly recommended as it reinforces the focus of the page and helps add to your keyword count.
“The Prima Women’s Gym Bag is the must have accessory for your fitness journey…”
4. Padding the copy
Throughout the rest of your copy, aim to include your keyword/s around 3 – 5 times across the page, including headers. This can become a balancing act because if you overstuff your keyword it’ll start to read poorly and is no longer favourable for SEO.
Take your time with this. Don’t be afraid to ask for a second opinion to make sure your writing still reads nicely and actually communicates your intended message. A common mistake is to begin every sentence with your keyword, try and avoid this.
5. Images and tags
All good websites include a few images and for a product page they’re critical. Google’s AI is powerful, but not quite powerful enough to interpret all your images for you.
Editing the image URL or image tags helps search engines know exactly what’s pictured and why it’s been included on your page. Many people search via the Images or Shopping tab first, especially for consumer products, so you’ll want to make sure your product appears there.
You can take this further by including a description to assist those who are vision impaired and may use image readers. Ensuring your page is as accessible as possible keeps your potential customer base wide and makes your website earn a better ranking.
e.g. Image file name: “femfit-prima-womens-gym-bag-salmon.jpg”
Image description: Pictured is the Prima women’s gym bag as seen from the side. It is a mid-sized bag, rectangular in shape with a long shoulder strap and shorter handles. There is a large central zip and multiple side pockets. The bag is salmon pink in colour with cream detailing and black trim.”
6. Meta Description
A meta description is the little preview that appears under the page title when you do a Google search. A small snippet of text that summarises your page. Generally, this is written into the html of the page, but is almost always editable. Particularly if you are using a platform such as Shopify, WordPress or Squarespace to build your website.
The meta description should include your focus keyword as early as possible and be between 120 and 158 characters. Any longer and the text will become truncated and won’t appear in full.
e.g. “The Prima Women’s Gym Bag is the must have accessory for your fitness journey. Stylish and highly functional you’ll wonder how you ever hit the gym without it!”
7. URL
Always include the primary keyword in the URL. Again, with any platform editor you will be able to edit/ select this for yourself. If your website doesn’t have this capability, you’ll need to speak with a developer.
https://www.femfit.com.au/products/prima-womens-workout-bag
And there you have it, 7 areas to focus on for good SEO.
By formatting your content correctly you’ll be on your way to better ranking, higher visibility and more website hits. Giving your product the best chance to succeed online.
If you’d like to keep these guidelines on hand, click here to receive your free SEO workbook!
If that all seems too hard or you just can’t quite seem to crack it for yourself, that’s okay! Get in touch and we can chat about ways we can help you set up a great looking website or landing page with high performing, search engine optimised content in no time.