This is part of out Search Engine Optimization Series by Shannon Steffens. This is continued from Sunday’s post here.

The previous article talked about your title and your meta keywords. Remember “keyword stuffing” this is the term Google uses when you use too many keywords or descriptors for your web site, well this is going to continue to be important as we talk about the next items: meta descriptions and finally searchable text.

For most photographers the landing page is the same as your splash page. I am once again using Jodi’s site as an example of what to change or what not to change.

Remember to view your source code click on your landing page, then right click and view source. Then you will see a page like this. To edit your splash page you will open your index.html file using notepad.

Your description should be a simple overview of your business, with a few keywords and also include your business name.

Jodi’s description is: MCP Actions: Resources for photographers – Photoshop Actions | Photoshop Workshops and training – MCP has multiple choices for you.

This is actually a great example of what to do. It’s short, describes the two key elements of her business and has her business name. The only thing I might changes is make one of the MCP’s into Multiple Choices Photography.

Your description may show up in engine results, so it is important that your information be relevant to what you want potential clients to see.

Now we will move on to the searchable text. Google and other search engines know what information is ‘hidden’ and what is not. So you need to provide visible text for them to search. If you have a site created with HTML this is easy, you have searchable text on every page. This will allow search engines to index your site’s content easily. However, if you have a flash website, you need to provide this searchable text on your splash page. This is where things get tricky, as many people have interpreted this to mean that you make a large list of all the possible search terms you can use in a long list, which is considered keyword stuffing. The terms can be there but they need to be within a relevant sentences. The shorter you keep this paragraph the better off you are going to be.

Jodi has the following at the bottom of her splash page. She has given us a great example of key word stuffing. She starts off great, but then her last sentence is 11 lines long with just a long string of keywords she is hoping will be search terms to bring clients to her site. This is what you want to avoid.

Jodi has the following at the bottom of her splash page. She provided us with a great example of key word stuffing. Her paragraph starts off great, but then her last sentence is 11 lines long.  The result is that she has “stuffed” a sentence with keywords. Her goal is that these search terms to bring clients to her site, but what this can and will do is get your site penalized by Google.  This is what you want to avoid.

MCP Actions is a one stop shop for photographers. MCP offers has large selection of Photoshop Actions to enhance your photograpy. MCP offers online one-on-one Photoshop Training classes and online group workshops, teaching you retouching and photo editing. MCP has many amazing free actions. MCP has actions for photoshop elements. For Photoshop 7, CS, CS2 and CS2, MCP has eye pop, eye action, eye pop actions, smooth skin, smooth skin action, color pop, color pop action, color pop actions, selective color, selective color action, selective color actions, selective colorization, black and white, black & white, black and white actions, black and white action, chocolate actions, chocolate action, vintage actions, vintage action, sepia action, sepia actions, frames, borders, frames and borders, product photography, frame actions, frame action, border action, border actions, scrapbooking, designers, artists, wacom, amazing color, vivid, eye doctor, dentist, complete workflow, frosted memories, urban cover model, cover model, coloring book, color magic, gallery frames, eye doctor action, dentist action teeth whitening action, complete workflow actions, workflow actions, workflow actions, color burst, color explosion, old school vintage, grandma’s vintage, haze actions, haze action, polka dot, storyboards, templates, collages, storyboard, template, collage, storyboard actions, template actions, collage actions, commercial editing, magazine ads, sale, for sale, buy.

This is what I would do if I were Jodi for my searchable text:

MCP Actions is a one stop shop for photographers. MCP offers has large selection of Photoshop Actions to enhance your photographs. MCP offers online Photoshop training teaching you how to retouching and edit photos using all versions of Photoshop. Visit MCP actions for free actions and other resources for photographers.

This concludes our discussion of how to maximize your landing page of your website. Please note that once you have made changes it can take up to six months to see a change in your website ranking. If you have questions about why your site does not show up for a particular search or at all please contact Google. Google will let you know if you have been penalized for something you did and if so how to correct it and ask for a review of your website.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 7th, 2009 at 9:00 am and is filed under Business Tips, Guest Bloggers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.