STEP 5: WIX SEO COURSE - On-page content!

We have already established earlier on in this course, that content is one of the main ranking factors, so we need to look at what things are important when it comes to the content on your website.

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1. Talk directly to your audience – Write your content as though they were standing in front of you.

2. Solve their problems – What problems do your customers have that your business can solve?

3. Make each person who reads your content feel as though you are talking directly to them as an individual – If your content is too broad and generic, it will feel that it is written for just anyone to read.

4. Be unique and different – What makes your business unique and different? Outline why your potential customers should contact you to solve their problems or to purchase your product, instead of your competitors.

5. Connect with them on an emotional level – Emotion drives conversions. The bigger the emotional attachment people have when they read your content, the more engagement you will receive which increases your website visitor-to-lead/sales conversion rate.

6. Does your content make sense if you read it out aloud? – It may seem like a silly thing to do but go through your website page by page and read all your content out aloud. If it makes sense when you do that, you are on the right track. It is surprising the number of times I have asked a client to read their website content to me, and they stumble because it does not really make any sense.

7. Do not worry about content length – There are no minimum or maximum content length guidelines your need to follow when writing content for each page. What is important is, you ensure you provide the information the searcher is looking for and inform them of the next steps they should take. If that takes only 300 words to do, that is fine. If it however takes 3,000 words to ensure you match the content on the page with the search intent, that is fine also. The important thing is, your content totally explains the meaning of the page.

 

The difference between a 404 and a 301

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When it comes to on-page content, it is important that you understand what these two numbers mean and what related actions you need to take.

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What is a 404?

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This just means ‘page not found’. The page (URL) you are trying to locate has moved to a different URL or it has been deleted. It is as simple as that. A 404-error means, the page you were looking for does not exist anymore on this website.

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What is a 301?

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A 301 is a Permanent Redirect. If an existing page has been deleted, it is important (ESSENTIAL) that you use a 301 redirect from the old URL to a related URL on the site.

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You can find the simple to use 301-redirect tool in Wix by browsing to…

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Marketing & SEO > SEO Tools > URL Redirect Manager and click the ‘+ New Redirect’ button in the top right.

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From here, there are two types of 301 redirects you can setup…

 

1. Single redirect – Redirect traffic from an old URL to a new URL.

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Enter the old URL you are directing traffic from in the top field (box), then add the new URL that you want people to find in the bottom field (box).

 

2. Group redirect – Redirect traffic for a group of URLs that share the same path.

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To redirect a group of URLs (e.g., all forum posts in a category), enter the old, shared path in the top field (box), then add the new path you want people redirected to in the bottom field (box).

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What you need to consider before you delete a page

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UNLESS IT IS ABSOLUTLY NECESSARY OR THEY ARE DEAD PAGES WHICH HAVE NEVER BEEN VISITED ONCE, NEVER DELETE AN EXISTING PAGE.

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If you need to delete a page or rename the URL, you need to consider the following:

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• If you are renaming a URL, setup a 301 redirect from the old URL to the new one.

• If you have deleted a page, it is essential that you setup a 301 redirect from the deleted page URL to a related page on the site.

• If there are any other internal pages linking to the deleted page, you need to change those links to the new URL.

 

Understanding duplicate content issues

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It is a myth – Google do not have such a thing as a duplicate content penalty.

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It is however important that each page on your site contains unique content and not more than one page is optimised for the same user intent.

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Why?

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Simply because Google will get mixed up as to which page to rank for a given search phrase if there is more than one page on your website which include the exact same content.

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There will obviously be times when you must include a section of content on more than one page This is perfectly fine. I have always used 65% unique content as a rule of thumb. As long each page on your website is around 65% unique, you will be fine.

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Internal linking structure of your website and content

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The different ways to think about structuring your website and linking the content together.

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The main and traditional linking structure of your website

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For this example, let us imagine you run a car showroom and include all your various offerings on your website.

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It starts with the ‘Homepage’.

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There are three pages linking from your homepage…

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1. Car Sales

2. Vehicle Repair Shop

3. Car Rentals

 

That is level one linking structure. Now let us explore level two linking structure.

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From the ‘Car Sales’ page, you link to…

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• New Car Sales

• Used Car Sales

 

From the ‘Vehicle Repair Shop’ page, you link to…

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• Bodywork Repair

• Servicing

• Mechanical Repair

 

From the ‘Car Rental’ page, you link to…

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• Short-Term Rental

• Long-Term Rental

 

Key factor when considering the internal linking structure of your website

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You are providing options for your website visitor to select.  As such, you are ensuring they receive a fantastic user experience. You are making it easy for them to find exactly what they are looking for.

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Let us assume your website visitor clicks-through to the ‘used car sales’ page. The ONLY pages which should be linked to from that page are the range of ‘used cars’ you have for sale. Do NOT link to any other part of your website as they want to purchase or are thinking of purchasing a ‘used car’.

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If you go and link to the ‘long-term rental’ page from the ‘used car sales’ page, you are messing up that person’s user journey and adding confusion into the mix.

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Linking pages through your sales funnel

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What is a sales funnel?

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The traditional sales funnel goes something like…

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• KNOW – For someone to ‘know’ you exist, this is where SEO come in.

• LIKE – In order for someone to ‘like’ you, they must ‘know’ you exist.

• TRUST – In order for someone to ‘trust’ you, they must ‘like’ what you are doing or stand for.

• BUY – In order for someone to ‘buy’ from you, they must ‘trust’ you first.

 

This is the traditional sales funnel everyone goes on about. I am a little different though and have created my own content sales funnel.

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Starting from the top of the sales funnel working down to the bottom, we have…

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• I need to solve my problem – This is the section where people do not know what they need yet, as they just have a problem. Do you have content on your website that educates your potential new customer that you totally understand their specific problem, and outlines the solution your business can provide?

• I know what I want – Now they understand what they need, this section of content needs to explain why your business is the right business to solve their problem.

• I am ready to buy – Now they know what they want, and they trust your business enough to contact you or make a purchase. Make it easy for them by explaining ‘how’ they move forward and what to expect.

• Making contact or sale (if Ecommerce) – Generating the lead or sale. Do not put any barriers in front of them that makes it hard for them to contact you. Provide content which explains the different ways they can contact you.

• After-sales – The user journey does not stop as soon as they confirm their order or make a purchase. You want to turn every single one of your new customers into your unpaid sales force. You want them to feel happy when recommending you to someone else they know who has the same problem. Provide them with after-sales content with tips and guides.

 

Now you understand my content sales funnel, you need to start restructuring the internal linking structure of your information pages. To do this, follow these steps…

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1. Open a spreadsheet and create 5 columns.

2. At the top of each column, from left to right, type the heading of the sales funnel described above.

3. Go through every page on your website and copy and paste the URLs into the column that match which part of the sales funnel that page is in.

4. Do you have any empty columns? If so, you need to create content for that part of the sales funnel (user journey).

5. Once you have all something included in all five columns, you need to start linking the pages together.

 

The content in the ‘I need to solve my problem’ column, will link to ‘I know what I want’ which will link to ‘I’m ready to buy’, which will link to ‘Making contact or sale (if Ecommerce)’, which will link to ‘After-sales’.

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You get the idea.

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A couple of things to note…

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1. It is fine if one page includes more than one part of this content sales funnel. In fact, you might have all the top four points within a single page if that page is structured correctly. Just link all your internal pages accordingly.

2. A business website is not just your online shop window to show-off your brand. It is an effective marketing tool and as such the purpose of your website is to convert people who are not yet a customer of yours into a new customer. When you are writing content for your website or blog, make sure you prioritise content that has the potential to turn into business. A common mistake I see when reading through a lot of websites is, a lot of the content is related to ‘after-sales’ information which will never turn potential customers into new customers. They just fill their website with this type of content because they did not think logically when deciding what content, they needed to write.

 

Always think logically!