There is a lot of talk about: articles, press releases, blogs and sharing informative, high-quality content in social networks but the most powerful text is on the best sales tool of them all; your website!

A website should have well written content that reads for customers but is optimized for search engines.

Here are Three Steps toward Optimizing Content for SEO

1. Write with the Customer in Mind

In any form of content writing but especially with a website, always write for the customer.  The main purpose of having a website is to effectively keep the customer on the site until they find what they are searching for.  When a website is loaded with interlinks, keywords, and has grammar and formatting errors, the purpose of the entire effort falls apart.

If you are not a strong writer hire a professional.

You need content that is interesting, informative and strategically leads the customer to the contact page or shopping cart. Not everyone has this skill.

Ideally it is best to find a business writer that has worked on website content before.  If that fails, hire a professional writer with samples and references.  Do not try to cut corners when it comes to your website content.

Read, re-read and revise until the content flows nicely.

Try to read the site as if you have never seen it before and know nothing about the product or service.  Does it simplify what you offer?  Are all of the details present?  Ask friends and family to give it a look over too.

Eliminate redundancy and reduce text.

People tend to ramble about things that they know a lot about. This is another great reason to hire a writer. A business writer will assist with simplifying the information that details what you offer, and will make it easy for customers to understand and digest.

If you are working on your own content, simplify as much as possible by deleting sentences that regurgitate the same information and text that serves no purpose.

2. Know your targeted keywords and know how to use them

When writing content for websites, keep the primary keywords in mind that are being targeted for your seo campaign.  Use these words and phrases sparingly throughout the text.  Use your keywords in some titles, sub headings and a couple of times in the main body.

Remember to always write with the customer in mind.

I highly suggest writing the content first and then going over it afterward to add in the keywords.  This will prevent overuse.

A great place for seo optimized website content is in an FAQ section.  A frequently asked questions page provides the opportunity to “ask questions” that will likely be typed into search engines by potential customers, and then answer them.  This serves as an excellent way to establish authority in your industry and receive more results in search engines for phrase matches when people type questions into the engine.

Another tip is to use synonyms (similar words of the same meaning) of your keywords.  Not only does this keep you from writing the same boring words over and again but it helps the search engines to figure out exactly what you are offering and rank the website accordingly.

3. Don’t use your Web Content for Advertising

After writing seo optimized content, try to avoid copy and pasting text and using it for online advertising and listings, or even on your Facebook and LinkedIn page.  Your content is sacred.  Don’t share it with anything or anyone.  Write a separate description for each page and advertisement.

This will help to avoid duplicate content.  It is also advised to run your content through Copyscape every once in a while to make sure that nobody is stealing your web content to use as their own.  This could result in the search engines perceiving another site or blog to be, “the original” and for your own to drop in rankings.

In Conclusion

The best content that is optimized for seo will also have the “behind the scenes” text taken care of as well.  This is the content that only the search engines will see, not your customers.  If you are unfamiliar with this process again, hire a professional.  It’s worth it.  For your on-page seo content, follow these simple tips to ensure the best results for keeping your customers on your site, and succeeding with your seo marketing campaign.

Kaleena Lawless writes about a variety of topics and built a successful business around a blog alone, leading her to a career in business writing.  She is the lead writer and content manager for http://www.directhitswebmarketing.com/