WHERE ELSE CAN YOU KILL TWO BIRDS WITH ONE STONE?

Today we speak with Wesley Virgin, a fitness expert who runs online exercise program, 7 Day Fitness. Virgin discusses why written content, or page text, is a central factor of his - or any - homepage. Page text serves both basic and complex functions in the online marketing of your business.

First, it communicates the information that is most important to prospective clients: what you do, and why you are good at it. "It should be clear and concise, but should reflect your knowledge and professionalism about what you're offering," says Virgin.

A second purpose that page text serves is to incorporate keywords to attract the attention of major search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo so that they rank your page higher and steadily increase its visibility. At the same time, your page text should use these keywords naturally rather than repetitively overloading your written content with them, as search engines will eventually blackball your page because it appears to be nothing but spam.

"We realized that driving traffic naturally would mean more lasting exposure."

For a simple illustration of how to use page text to create organic, first-page rankings versus unnatural, short term rankings, think of your quest to appear on the first page like a resolution to lose ten pounds. Employing informative page text with relevantly incorporated keywords is like sticking to simple goals of eating healthier, exercising regularly, and getting enough sleep. Through these efforts, it may take several months to lose that weight but you will have a better chance of keeping it off.

With restrained and strategic keyword use in page text, climbing up the first-page rankings will take time, but you will be more likely to stay there because Google can tell your site is quality. In contrast, displaying page text that forces keywords into every other phrase is tantamount to going on a crash diet to drop those ten pounds in five days.

You may drop the weight for a short time but will gain it back and then some because the changes you made were drastic and unnatural. Similarly, your rankings may be at the top for a couple weeks but soon after, not only will they drop, they can get your site flagged by search engines that determine you to be all fluff and no substance.

For a practical illustration, read through the page text in the "How To" section on the 7 Day Fitness homepage. One of the main keywords, "online fitness videos," has been heavily analyzed and was chosen for its relevance to the primary service offered through 7 Day Fitness. As important as this keyword is, it is used no more than once per paragraph, and is worked into informative, well-written phrasings (online fitness videos will be customized," "if you are sent online fitness videos and you aren't sure how to do them," "the online fitness videos have a real life person," etc.).

"Visitors appreciate quality in the writing of page content, as opposed to a string of excessive keyword use and sentence fragments that doesn't really tell them about our program, and certainly doesn't back up why our online fitness program is the best," affirms Virgin.

"In just a few months of SEO work, the spaced-out and descriptive use ‘online fitness videos' in our page text has already driven up 7 Day Fitness to #5 on the first page of Google." Patience and discipline really do pay off.

Let's recap 3 ways that page text can add value to your homepage:

1.)    Informs prospective customers about exactly what you do or offer.

2.)    Elaborates on why your brand of this product or service is the best.

3.)    Attracts positive search engine attention and boosts your rankings.

Thanks for reading. Jason.
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