Website Content Worksheet for planning key SEO elements on each page of one's website. Delivered to Sacramento Valley Chapter California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists as part of a training session on Online Visibility
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Website Content Worksheet
Date Page /
Article
Name
What is page
about?
Target Audience:
How does this page
solve their needs?
Keyword Phrases:
What’s the main theme or
message? Related words?
Call to Action: What
do you want visitors
to do on this page?
HEAD TAGS
Tags below are basic “SEO elements” that provide information about each page - located in the <head></head> section, above <body>copy.
Enter content for each tag in w hite cells on right.
TAG / ELEMENT TIPS TAG / ELEMENT CONTENT
Page name (URI) - the file name
Use keyw ordsseparatedby hyphens (NOspaces, NOunderscores) - all low er-
case, NO stop w ords(i.e. the, and), NO punctuation, keyw ordsnear front. Page
name should make sense to people. Keep it short - shortest path possible.
/***.html
<title></title>
MOST IMPORTANT: Each page title show s: 1) at the top of the brow ser, 2) as the
first thing people see in your search result (SERP) snippet, 3) as bold text w hen
people share page on FaceBook or LinkedIn, 4) in visitor’s bookmarks.
Recommend no more than 60 characters, but to avoid the ellipsis (...) in SERPs,
<= 65 char max, best if <10 w ords.
Use 1 major keyw ord phrase, 3-5 keywords. Don't repeat keyw ords; use plural
keyw ordsvs. singular, if applicable. Words at front have most “w eight.”
Capture attention, e.g. magazine headline, elevator pitch. It’s the "main idea or
hook" for page. Use keyw ordsthat appealto readers' interest or "Call to Action."
DO NOT start all titles as “CompanyName – What This Page Is About.” If page
needs company name in title, put it at the end separated w ith a hyphen,
i.e. “What This Page Is About – CompanyName”
<meta name=”description”content=” ”>
SIGNIFICANTLY IMPORTANT: Most search engines use this as the page
summary. Some socialmedia sites use this w hen the page is shared, the snippet
after the title. Sometimes they use the 1st paragraph of text. Best practice is to
have your description be very close to the first body copy of text on the page.
A good description can make or break clickthrough rate in SERPs. Write it like a
miniature ad, as a Call to Action. Make it interesting w hile conveying benefit. DO
NOT repeat the title tag. NOTE: Search engines may generate their ow n summary,
partially fromthis description tag and fromcontent in 1st paragraph.
140 characters preferred, but it page has little content, you can use to 255
characters. Only 140 to maybe 150 characters willdisplay in the search snippet.
<meta name=”keywords”content=” ”>
NOT IMPORTANT: Keyw ords tag is not used for ranking. How ever, keywords tag
may be used for indexing. Use a couple of main keyw ordsonly & misspellings. Use
synonyms/modifier related to theme of page. You may decide to use it to place
keyw ordson page as a reminder of target anchor text for page. Only a few, good
for misspellings, 5-7 phrases max
<meta name=”robots”content=” ”>
OPTIONAL (more advanced)
“noody, noydir” – Prevents Google frompulling description fromDMOZ or Yahoo!
directories
“noindex” – if temporary page, maybe under development, you don’t w ant indexed
“noarchive” – won’t archive page in w hois.org – sale, date-sensitive, temp page
“nofollow” – to not pass PageRank out fromlinks
noodp, noydir
2. Website Content Worksheet
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Body Content (Text)
Copy in <body></body>of your page is w hat visitors visually see and w hat search engines “spider” to index.
EXTREMELY IMPORTANT: Get to the point quickly! Write to grab readers' attention w ith target keywords. Use promo messaging in top 300-
400 pixels, ABOVE the fold. Develop a sense of urgency by using deadline-sensitive promotions & time-sensitive w ords,such as “now,” when
applicable
Use primary keywords in 1st couple sentences, 1st 100 w ords. Use bulleted lists, short bursts of relative content. Breaktext up for short
attention spans. Use bold and italic to emphasize keyw ords. Use <strong>& <em> around keyw ord targets to bold and italicize words.
VERY IMPORTANT: H1 tag is the main headline of each post, like a new spaperarticle headline. It should NOT match title tag. Make it
compelling w ith primary target keyw ords related to content on page. It creates the "juice" for the Call to Action. Only 1 H1 per page. Must be
relevant to follow ing paragraphs.
Use H2s & H3s for secondary& tertiary keyword phrases and sections under main topic. H2 & H3 are one and tw o levels down in importance
and structure.
Links. Include links to other pages of the site using keyw ord-rich anchortext. Linkto externalauthority resources as well.
Mark links as follow s:
Internal links: [w ordsto be linked]</directory-if-any/page-name.html>
External links: [w ords to be linked]<http://w ww.domain.com/directory-if-any/page-name.html>
Link Title text: Include <title =”keyw ord phrase”>on links (to page content, assets). Varytitle text fromanchor text if possible.
IDENTIFY Page Breadcrumb (if any):
Not all sites have a breadcrumb. It’s text that shows at the top of the content area to indicate to visitors w here they are in the site.
OPTIONAL: Example “Home > Location > Map”
Home >
Primary Body Content
Think about your audience’s needs, their need. Don’t w rite in “w e”verbiage but in “you” terms to share w hat’s in it for them.
Each page should have a call to action, w hat you want themto do – call your office, donate, complete form, sign up for new sletter, subscribe to
RSS, purchase product, watch video, etc.
<h1>PrimaryHeadline RelevantTo Following Paragraphs
text
key points listed outas bulletpoints
to explain a series oftopics
where possible
<h2>Title of Sub-Headline
text
<h3> if any...
text
3. Website Content Worksheet
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Contact / Location Pages
ADVANCED: Let Google & Bing know more about w ho you are and your location by using an hcard microformat on your About or Contact
pages. RESOURCE: http://microformats.org/code/hcard/creator
Page Assets (Images, Media)
IMAGES: Tell a story w ith images. Use quality photos or illustrations. If designing images, use text if appropriate for OCR. Use keyw ord-rich
captions, ALTtext & name files with keywords separated by hyphens. Minimum size for images to show in universalsearch is 400x300
pixels. NOTE: If you w ant an image to show up for the search “image,” put the w ord “image” in the file name.
PDFs: PDFs show up in SERPs and should be optimized, similar rules for Title, Meta Description, and body copy. Directions, brochures, white
papers, etc. are good as PDF dow nloads. To optimize PDFs, go to (File > Properties > Description tab) in Adobe Acrobat Writer.
Video: ADVANCED but w orth it: Video is extremely valuable for show ing up in the SERPs. If you can associate video w ith your content, do so!
File name, title & descriptionand meta tags are key. Include the term “video” in your title if you w ant to be found for those looking for video
related to your topic.
Identify images & captions to go below the images,ifany:
Identify other assets on the page here.
Sidebar 1 &/or Call to Action
If site design has a right sidebar, identify item for the sidebars. These may be a graphic or call to action, a fill-in form, related links, links to a
Google map to your office, etc.
text or image or form...
Sidebar 2 &/or Call to Action
Sidebar 3 &/or Call to Action