Raise Organic Search Rankings by Reducing Page Content

Reducing the content on a key web-page, if properly done, can rocket a newly slimmed-down page to new organic ranking heights for competitive and valuable Google search terms.

Having a poorly ranking web-page is an opportunity for improvement. First look at the total situation and purpose of the web-page.

1. What I am selling?

2. Who am I selling to?

3. Is my content Concise and Precise?

3a. Can I split up the content on this page into new pages?

3b. Can I reduce the remaining content on my original page?

Many web-pages suffer poor SEO due to long scrolling text, non-essential words and phrases. The same page could suffer from secondary and tertiary content that should stand alone as separate web-pages. The web-page is not focused enough for Google give a good ranking for the keyword(s) the page is trying to target. Too much content, too many subjects produces a page that is not focused, not precise, not concise and not as relevant as it could be.

The Relevancy and Ranking Fix is simple in theory:

1. Put the page on a words diet: streamline the content.

2. Follow good SEO copy-writing practice and don't 'pack' your keywords.

3.Take out surplus content not directly related to the page's mission.

4. Put any important newly removed content into a new, dedicated web-page(s) that is cross-linked with the original page.

When done, instead of having one long, scrolling web-page there may be one, two or three shorter, more concise web-pages that are relevant and related... offering greater content value to visitors and higher relevancy to Google.

This process takes some thought and work. But if done correctly, you'll see spectacular results.

I have web-pages that routinely rank 1, 2, 3, 4 against millions of other indexed Google pages for key search terms... because over the years I have streamlined content, split content and generally tried to make the pages precise and concise and cross-linked to other relevant web-pages.

I have also been happily surprised to see an unexpected web-page become a top-ranked page for a key competitive search-term. When that happens, I am flexible enough to often seize the opportunity and keep the page optimized for visitor relevancy and SEO. It's a gift from Google that can be taken complete advantage of.

Patience and success by trial and error are the norm. Google is the ultimate judge on organic page rankings.... we can only keep trying. Victory may take months to achieve, but the resulting high quality web enquiries produced make the effort worth it.

Back to the Future with Static A-Z Directories

Static A to Z Directories Work.

The Rosetta Stone was a Directory of Sorts.

Call me a "flat-page" reactionary, but, along with good Website Navigation, Cross-Linking, and an Internal Search Engine, I prefer looking at static A-Z directories to allow quicker navigation to relevant webpages.

A-Z listing offer a superior and more efficient experience compared to using flash-enhanced, clicky, interactive "Alpha Adventures" that do not allow broad A-Z scanning, and often result in frustrating dead-ends.

I'm not saying don't use interactive directories, but low-tech flat A-Z pages are very effective, from our experience. Use them both!

With a one-view flat A-Z directory, a visitor can quickly drill-down and find what they are looking for. Website visitors seem to prefer this approach, as these flat A-Z pages enjoy the lowest exit rates on the entire website and have strong traffic flow. In effect, for us, visitors have voted their preference with their mouses. Results were so good we scrapped our complex interactive flash option to find countries... it was not being used.

These mini A-Z pages also benefit us by acting as Site Maps for focused website services and locations sections. They increase link exposure for lower tier service pages, helping our organic search engine rankings. Often these A-Z pages are themselves ranking in top organic search results, based upon on their own merits. These are tremendous benefits for a B2B lead generation website.

As our large B2B website was rapidly growing in services and locations, the expanding complexity of the site demanded further classification, drill-down and navigation tools to help visitors find what they wanted, when they wanted it. We beefed up our website with a better search engine, but needed more. A-Z listings are of course long familiar, in print. I concluded that if this approach has thrived these hundreds of years and was still a durable, popular and common standard, it was good enough to try on the web.

Daring to go Retro, we built a collection of focused and hiearchical static .html A-Z Services and Locations webpages in key folders and sections of the website... with relevant listings linking to niche webpages focused on a particular service or location.

The idea of A-Z Listed Webpages is simple and effective:

An A-Z High Level Directory page for a "Wild Animals" Website for example, could include:

Top Level A-Z Directory:A

Aardvarks (linked to Aardvarks main webpage)

B

Badgers (linked to Badgers main webpage)

A person looking for Aardvarks can click on the Aardvark link. Once on the dedicated Aardvark section in the website.... another more focused Aardvark A-Z directory webpage helps the visitor further drill-down:

Second Level A-Z Directory:

A

Abyssinian Aardvarks (linked to Abyssinian Aardvarks webpage)

Albanian Aardvarks (linked to Albanian Aardvark webpage)

B

Bengal Aardvards (linked to Bengal Aardvarks webpage)

Bulgarian Aardvarks (linked to Bulgarian Aardvarks webpage)

... and so on. An Aardvark-searching visitor has reached Aardvark Nirvana in terms of information.

Low-tech, retro, flat, html A-Z directory pages have worked very well for us and more importantly, for our B2B website visitors.

A to Z Lists on Websites Really Work

CROSS-LINK IT - For Better Sales and Leads