SEO Dance

It’s the question most people dread at an interview but it should be the easiest one to answer. “So, tell us about yourself.” I cringe at just the thought of having to answer the question. Where to begin and what to say? It really is a vague question, don’t you think? Why not ask me about my qualifications?

The open-ended question does it open for the person to answer any way they wish. They might want to talk about their experience or something that is not on their resume but would make them a great asset to a company. The About Me page of a website is pretty much the same blank slate. People can put whatever information they want to. They might want to talk about their experience or knowledge on the subject at hand or they might make it more personal by talking about their family. Whichever route you take, the about page is vital to a website much like the site map. It’s a way for your readers to find out more about you. The about page can also be a great way to reinforce what should be in the title of your page - keywords that your website is an authority on.

Household tips, another 451 Press blog, has a great about page. Right off the bat Stephanie reiterates what her blog is all about by starting off with the words “household tips.” She follows that by telling readers what type of tips to expect. It’s a nice example of a smart about page that tells the reader about the website but also uses keywords associated with the content.

The about page doesn’t have to be a novel. It can be a few sentences of compact information. Use your most important keywords in your first sentence. Don’t fret too much over what to write. Grab a nice cup of coffee or soda, and relax for a bit. Then think about what you want your readers to know about you and go from there. Believe me, the words will soon follow.

about me page

Here it is. 5 days after Halloween and Christmas decorations adorn a lot of businesses. I took notice of it all today as I kicked off my holiday shopping. While I was shopping, it made me think that I also need to prepare my websites for holiday traffic. To maximize the holiday we traffic, it’s best to get those articles written so that they will be indexed by search engines.

For my gaming websites, list of the hottest games for Christmas or from 2007 would be good content. For my household tips and product reviews website, content centered around Christmas parties or cleaning for the holidays would be a good choice. So, part of my holiday strategy is to decide what type of content to place on which websites.

Once I have a plan, then I can think about keywords. Usually I go with the main theme of the article for keywords. It’s really important to get it written and live as soon as possible.

While retailers gear up for the holiday season, so should bloggers and webmasters as the holiday traffic won’t just be on that busy thoroughfare in towns across the country. Think about what content you should be writing this holiday. Is it a how to survive holiday travel or is it more product review related like the best toys for boys?

Christmas is a short few weeks away. Get busy on that holiday content today.

Keyword searches are how Internet surfers find what they are looking for. Using keywords in your content will help associate your website with those words, which will help in search engine placement as well as authority on the web.

Use keywords in your title as titles tell what a webpage is all about. It’s tempting to do cute titles and to use cliches but try to refrain. Using keywords related to your content will be much more beneficial.

Use keywords in first paragraph. Think of your writing as how a newspaper reporter writes his story. He applies what is called the inverted pyramid. This means that the important information goes first. Search engines look to the first few paragraphs to get a good idea as to what the content is about.

Relate keywords to the content of your website. A website about games would do well to use sentences that mention the word games every once in a while in it. Sure, readers might can tell by your Xbox 360 banner that your content relates to the video game console, but search engines don’t have eyes - at least not yet anyway. Reiterating your keywords throughout text in your website will not only help with search engine placement but will help to brand you as a source for the selected subject.

Keywords rule when it comes to search engine results. It’s always a good idea to keep keywords in mind when writing content.

When I write about a place or event, I try to make use of two keyword phrases. My theory is that there are two ways that people search for places: by the name and by the name and location. If I include both in my writing, then I can further my chances of showing up in search page results.

I will be attending Dragon Con in September. It’s a gaming convention held each year in Atlanta. In my writings about the event, I will use two ways to refer to Dragon Con. I will either use the phrase “Dragon Con” or “Dragon Con in Atlanta, GA.” The second phrase is more of a long-tail search result but in theory should have less keyword competition than the first one.

I find myself searching for locations with these two methods. If I don’t find on the first page of results what I’m looking for, I search again by adding the location of the event. It helps to focus the result into actual useful information. I’m betting that I’m not the only one who conducts searches with this method, so I’ve begun to add both keyword phrases to my writings when I’m referring to an event or place.

Alternatively I could spell out the state instead of using the postal code but in this day and age of acronyms, I really don’t think the majority of people will be typing in the whole state name. Still it’s an option to spell out the name of the state especially for states like Arizona (AZ), Arkansas(AR), and Alaska(AK) where the abbreviation might be confusing.

It’s just one small practice I’ve adopted to make my writings about events and locations more search friendly.

Keyword stuffing is the practice of putting excessive non-relevant keywords into web pages for the sole purpose to trying to gain search rank for these words that have nothing to do with the content on the page. This practice is, of course, frowned upon by Google. In fact, a site might be penalized for taking part in such practices.

While we all know that keywords rule the world of search results, it is important to optimize pages for readers to find your work. It’s also equally - if not more - important to have valuable content for readers who are looking for more information associated with the keyword that landed them on your webpage.

From Google, here is a little more information about keyword stuffing and how to fix stuffing problems like hidden text or non-relevant alt tags on images.

keyword stuffing

For many, the best way to learn to by example. The more writing I do, the more I seem to be reading. Whether it’s research or for fun, I read a lot more now than I did before I began blogging. It’s good to read what other people have written because you can learn a great deal without even trying.

I have a writing background in television news, which is a completely different style from print. In TV writing, you do not have to worry about punctuation and spelling(a lot of hard to pronounce words you spell phonetically). With TV writing, you make your point and move on since time is always a factor. Switching gears to write for the web has been a challenge. My writing space is only limited by my Internet storage. I can also take a little longer to make a point if I so desire. I still think it’s important to grab the reader’s attention and to write concisely.

Reading other people’s work will help you broaden your writing as well as learn writing techniques. When I read something that piques my interest, I like to examine why. This can help me incorporate those elements into my own writing and possibly incur a few new readers.

Reading can also be a good way to learn SEO practices. Find out how the SEO experts write and work in keywords into their bodies of work for clues as to how to do it effectively. It’s a fun way to learn and improve your writing skills at the same time.

SEO writing

Promoting and marketing your website are important aspects of building traffic and search engine optimization. When planning an SEO campaign, explore the many options that are out there to promote your website and decide which ones to explore. Writing articles can be one way to “get the word out” about your website.

There are hundreds of article submission websites to choose from. Content management systems like Article Dashboard make it relatively simple for anyone to create their own article submission website, so there have been many article sites that have popped up in recent years.

Webmasters or those just interested in finding articles on a particular subject can visit article submission sites and either browse or search for articles to find what they are looking for. If a webmaster finds an article that he would like to put on his site, then he is free to do so as long as he follows the guidelines that usually consist on not changing the article in any way. Articles will have a small blurb at the end about the author that can be a great spot for writers to promote their website.

While there are many article submission sites, I would stick with ones that have been around for a while. Ezinearticles.com is one article submission website that not only has a good PageRank but has a lot of brand recognition with some webmasters. E-Articles is another article submission site with decent PageRank and shows how many users are browsing articles.

Using article submission websites can be a great way to promote your website to get the word out and drive traffic. Writing articles can be time consuming but can be worth the trouble. People who read your articles and want more will definitely come to your website. Converting those readers to visitors will take compelling content and an offer of more information on the same subject if they visit your website.

Good writing and good information will help to bring in new visitors to your website through article submission websites.

article submission, content writing

A lot of bloggers seem to do most of the blogging during the week and take the weekend off. While I agree we all need a break from work, a new blog post on a Saturday, Sunday or both can help build traffic.

It makes sense that more people spend some of their weekend playing on the computer. For many, visiting blogs is relaxing and fun. If your blog has new content posted that day, it seems fresher than posts that are just one day old. I recently had a weekend where I was actually caught up on offline activities and was able to make a few posts to my blogs. I not only saw better stats but actually had comments on the posts. I learned something that weekend and that is to always stride to post at least once a weekend.

Even if you don’t want to blog on the weekend, do an extra post and adjust the timestamp to go live on the weekend. Check your stats to see if the extra effort is worth it.

We all know the value of keywords when it comes to search engine traffic. Working keywords into content can be a bit tricky and somewhat awkward. Taking care to write for your readership first will not only produce natural written content but will help determine which keywords really belong in the article.

My writing process begins with writing down my thoughts and ideas in no particular order. It’s almost an outline but it is too chaotic to be called something so structured. Once I have my typed my initial thoughts on a subject, I go back to group like-minded thoughts together. Then I read through it and add more thoughts. Finally I do a final read and spell check.

At this stage of my writing is when I begin to think about what my content is all about and how to optimize it. Usually I will find that some keywords are staring back at me or with a little editing I can get my keywords into my writing without trying too hard.

When writing is organic, it flows better and is much more enjoyable for the reader. Writing first, then optimizing the writing for the web makes a better article for the reader. It’s one thing for a reader to find you through a search engine but it’s another to maintain that reader. Writing first and foremost your thoughts then analyzing it for ways to inject keywords will mean a better experience for your audience.

Writing for the web is different from any other medium. One important element of both print and web writing is the headline or title. Newspaper headlines are usually pretty catchy and are a tease to the story. Web titles do need the grab the readers’ attention as well, but there is another audience that will be taking notice of your title.

Search engine crawlers will be paying close attention to a work’s title. The title is made with special header html tags that signal to crawlers that this is something important. It is important to use keywords or good keyword phrases for search engine rankings in your title. It will be a search engine friendly title that can in return help readers find your post.

I love to write witty titles but that doesn’t help my search engine placement. I might like the title, ‘Hotel heiress lands in the slammer,’ but probably no one is going to search for that term. They are more likely to search for, ‘Paris Hilton goes to jail.’

The title of your web page is also important when it comes to web crawlers. Again, the title tag located in the header gives important information as to what kind of content can be found on that page. The title page text shows up at the very top of the web browser. Sometimes I use a web page for a template for another one, and the title is often a tag that I forget to change. When I check the pages online, I usually notice the title since it’s displayed so prominently.

It is a good idea to check your titles to ensure that they accurately describe the web page and to give your blog postings titles that are search engine friendly.

Using the right keywords can help more people find your site through searches. Keyword research can help ensure a greater presence in search engine results. One free keyword tool that is really handy is WordTracker.

WordTracker is a free keyword suggestion tool. Just enter the keywords into the box and click ‘hit me’ for the results. WordTracker predicts how many times those keywords are searched for each day. WordTracker also has a list of suggested keywords. I did a keyword search for ‘household tips’ and here are some of the results:

You can check the search engine results for you keyword by clicking on the appropriate search engine. Its clean interface makes WordTracker an easy to use tool that delivers clear results.

WordTracker, keyword search tool

When writing for the web, phrasing is everything. Content writing for the web is different than writing for traditional media. There is no need to worry about how your audience will find your information as you already know the answer. If it’s television, they will tune in or if it’s print, they will buy your publication. When writing content for a website, the reader is most likely to find your information through a search engine. Search engines will categorize your story from the words that you use. Using keywords in your content will help readers find your website.

Think about how you search for information the Internet. Which words do you use to find information? Chances are that you use a couple of words together. If I was searching for the best hotel deals in Orlando, I might use that phrase but there are several others that I might use. For simplicity I might just search Orlando hotels or best Orlando hotels.

When writing content, keep in mind that most of your visitors will come from search engines. They will find your through keywords they use in a search engine query. Take some time to think about your content and what keywords or phrases are most relevant. Then be sure to work those in naturally to your content. This will help to ensure search engine placement for those keywords and when visitors click on your link, they find valuable information on the subject.

Content writing, Keyword search

Duplicate content penalty. You might have read of that already. But what really is duplicate content?

Duplicate content is blocks of texts that are considerably similar or that completely matches that of another domain’s or even just within a page.

But what if you’re getting all too worried that whatever you write or blog you double-check first using Copyscape?

To get rid of too much stressing over what’s duplicate and what’s not, Google has cleared up the smoke too on what is NOT duplicate content:
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Aaron Wall, an SEO expert and author of SEOBook has just announced his additions to his ebook. Among the updates he has included are mostly about link baiting.

The part of the link baiting post that caught my interest most is the method of formatting a link bait, which Wall has discussed in utter detail.

It’s not rocket science how a list becomes so viral in no time, but here’s how Aaron Wall puts it:

By creating ordered lists of factoids an incomplete story can look well researched, even if it is not. For example, if you make a list of 101 ways to do x people may give a few ideas and some feedback, but nobody is going to sit and list 383 ways to do x.

The power of a magnetic headline can’t also be discounted if a successful linkbait is one’s goal. According to Wall, it’s the behavior of the social news users like of Digg, that makes effective or interesting headlines trample those with great content but lame headlines or titles.

More link baiting wisdom from Aaron Wall.

linkbaiting, SEO book, Aaron Wall, headline writing, SEO copywriting

As an SEO copywriter myself, keyword-stuffing is something that I find hard to avoid. However, I perpetually look for ways to improve my SEO articles to avoid making readers hitting that dreaded X icon while reading my stuff.

Making Content More Readable
Making content more readable by writing engaging content can help. Jokes can’t be so bad in keeping writing light but there are just some topics that can’t be infused with humor.

Search Engines Love-Hate Relationship with Keyword-Rich Content
It’s a good thing that search engines are now learning to despise sites with too keyword-stuffed content. Although that’s the case, SEO content clients still can’t grasp the fact that mentioning keywords to the point of annoying redundancy will soon be a thing of the past and would still request for heavily keyword-rich articles.

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