Html email newsletters 'need an SEO balance'

Html email newsletters need to include keywords to boost a company's search engine optimisation (SEO), however, the content should still be readable, a report has said.

Writing for Silicon, Stewart Baines, director of Futurity Media, said that while SEO in html email newsletters can be useful for attracting an audience to an online business, if overdone, it could distract people from what they are reading.

In order to optimise a website, content which may otherwise be compelling could be put at risk from too many keywords.

"What's good for Google isn't necessarily good for me, the reader. Google might like keywords repeating, I would like a readable page," Mr Baines noted.

Maintaining a brand awareness through email marketing could also be strategically important in order to prompt customers to go straight to a business website. He cited Maxymiser research, which found that 63 per cent of people go directly to their favourite websites, rather than look through search engine results.

Small and medium-sized organisations class email marketing as business-critical, CBR Online recently stated.

Written by Debra Hastings-Henry