One of the bigger dilemmas facing sites owners and web masters is the most effective way to promote a site. Should the company or individual in question devote their budget to PPC advertising or concentrate their efforts on search optimization?
If you focus on improving your site’s organic listing, there are a number of optimization steps that need to be addressed in order to see results (a successful PPC campaign takes an active approach as well). According to a report by DMNews.com, apparently, a number of health service-related sites are having a hard time with the natural side of search engine listings.
The article reveals that a Fathom SEO study of 350 health service web sites found that 72% of these sites do not make proper use of title tags, one of the more important components of SEO, in their site’s HTML. Title tags have a direct effect on how search engines rank sites. The problem is these sites are not making proper use of the keywords they are targeting, which causes them to rank poorly for keyword queries they want to be associated with.
During the study, Fathom SEO focused on 10 sites to see how they ranked for keywords they were targeting. Fathom SEO found these 10 sites did not achieve a top 30 ranking 74% of the time. One of the main reasons why they failed to crack the top 30 has to do with the types of keywords these sites were targeting. Fathom SEO’s study indicates the keywords being targeted were too broad (“hospital”) and should be refined to target keyword phrases (2-4 words) that better describe who and what they are.
Michael Murray, vice president of Fathom SEO says, “It’s better to go after search phrases that adequately describe a business and its products and services.”
These findings are important to consider when optimizing your site. Ensure the keywords you are targeting are not too broad. Target keyword phrases that offer a good description of who you are and what you do. Content optimization, while not discussed by the Fathom SEO study, is also an important component to remember as well. Make sure your site’s web copy make good use of the keyphrases you’ve selected to target. Steps like these (granted, they are not always minor) can do wonders for your organic search engine presence.
Chris Richardson is a search engine writer and editor for Murdok. Visit Murdok for the latest search news.
