Second session I’m going on SES, writing for search engines. We decided to divide and conquer, so Thomas is going to the image search sessions. That session is more advanced, this one is again more basic. So I wonder if I will be able to sit this one out 
Heather Lloyd-Martin, Successworks is using an example of AmsterdamEscape as an example of a bad example of duplicate content problems. After cleaning up and adding informational content they came back stronger, but only after 18 months.
Finding new content opportunities when reviewing the site:
- Review titles
- Review pages
- Leverage opportunities
- Decide who does the work
Is there a key phrase focus?
Keyword density in normal text is according to Heather important. Yes we knew this. So what is the optimal keyword density?
Does the key phrase actually appear on the page? Does it not appear in the text, write new content.
What is the optimal length? Around 200 keywords per page…So how does it look like:
- Main body text copy, top to bottom
- Headlines and subheadlines
- Call to action (hyperlinks)
Heather is actually telling the public something that I always use as example. Look at your site from the user perspective and see how you would like to read it.
You want clickable descriptions on the SERP
Google tip for sniplets: Place benefits statements near your main headlines.
Nice teaser thrown in the public hands.
Title is one of the most important tag to optimize.
Tweak the title to reflect the key phrase focus
Tip: try adding headlines and sub-headlines to text
Writing articles:
- General, “How to” information
- Press releases
- FAQ
- Blogs
Jill Whalen from HighRanking.com
Fake content is not King
Keyword research
Base your cope around these words. Answer the question of the searchers who come to your site.
Pretty basic stuff in this session. More tips around which keywords to use and the process of keyword discovery, without telling the public how to discover these. That this is important can be told in one sentence, but getting the most important key phrases could be much more informative.
Endless row of examples of bad and better usage of keywords and phrases in your copy. Generic vs. Descriptive.
Bonus phrases:
- Are descriptive
- Still relevant
- Might be searched upon
Why is Content King? It brings highly targeted visitors that want exactly what you are offering.
Time for Q&A. I wonder what kind of questions we are going to get from the audience.
Q: What is the optimal # of characters in the title?
A: title: 60-70 description: 150-200
Q: How to deal with manufacturers content that they distribute to more parties? Duplicate content problem.
A: Place unique content on the same page, so the content on the page differs from the other parties.
Customers feedback system on your sellers is good not only for search engines, but also for the user experience. Zappos.com is the favorite for Heather.
All in all, again a pretty basic session. The questions are most around specific to the persons situation who asked the question.