SEO - Content Writing Advice - Web Design

Continuing on our tangent of SEO services yesterday, I wanted to discuss the various components of a good SEO strategy, and how they will help your site achieve top rankings. This is also a good opportunity to look into the mind of an SEO, and find out what goes through our minds as we begin to build a solid SEO campaign.

So, you’ve decided to market your web site to the search engines. You have a viable web site, it’s online, and you’re ready to start converting a steady stream of potential clients into sales. Perhaps you’re considering investing in a Search Engine Optimization campaign. Maybe you would like to perform the optimization techniques yourself. Even if you’re a long ways off from starting to think about jumping into an SEO company and giving them the reigns for your web site, here is a list of the essential components of any search engine optimization campaign. This should help you further understand the complexities that are involved in any such endeavor, and why it isn’t a viable short term strategy.

1. Content Writing

No web site is complete without good content. Search engines want to return the most unique, relevant content for specific keyword searches. That means NO PLAGIARISM, people! The whole point of coming up with great, unique content is that great content is content that people will link to naturally, thereby building your links almost automatically. But, as I said before, no plagiarism is allowed. If you copy and paste content directly from another web site, then your site will get penalized, many times resulting in large drops of your site on the SERPs.

2. On Site Optimization

On site optimization is one of several parts of a good search engine optimization campaign. On site optimization includes: cleaning up the code on your pages, ensuring that pages are interlinked with each other, optimizing your site structure, optimizing link anchor text, ensuring that you have the appropriate H1 tags on your pages, adding site maps, optimizing your Meta Tags, and more. Depending on the complexities of your site, you may end up with a monster of an optimization project on your hand. Keep in mind though, that the above is by no means a comprehensive look at everything involved in on site optimization.

3. Off Site Optimization

Off site optimization consists of searching for quality, authoritative web sites to link back to your own. In essence, a link from another site is that other site vetting you as a worthwhile resource. These links can range from free links to links that you pay for. The primary goal of most search engines is to return web sites that are trusted, valuable resources, and have unique, excellent content that’s relevant to specific keyword searches. If you write excellent content, people are going to link back to it on their own. But, what if the natural link building isn’t enough? What if you want to embark on building links back to your site? There are several methods that you can use to accomplish this.

a. You can copy your competition’s linking strategy. To do this, search Google for your primary key term, and use the links: operator to determine the sites that are linking back to the top sites in the top positions of the SERPs. The sites that show up here are usually sites that Google considers valuable, and if you can get a link back to your client’s site from them, that will help your site rank higher. Repeat this systematically for each site that shows up this way and sooner or later you’ll have the links necessary to propel your client’s site to the top.

b. Create great, unique, compelling content that other people will want to link to. Of course, that’s easier said than done. You’re the one that knows your industry, so perform research. Who are you top industry specific competitors on the SERPs? What kind of content do they have? Why would someone looking to purchase your service/product buy from them? Then, once you have a point of reference to start with, you can copy their content strategy. Notice I said strategy, NOT copying the content itself. Instead, re-write the content in your own words if you absolutely cannot come up with an idea for content on your own.

4. Social Media

Utilizing social media is another leg of the foundation of a good SEO strategy. You need traffic, and you also need to be able to uphold your own reputation management strategy. Sites like Twitter and Plurk allow you to promote your brand and talk about your products/services in a micro-blogging format. Also, it helps to give your company an online presence, thereby increasing consumer confidence and a willingness to do online business with you. Plus, if complaints arise on Twitter, for example, it’s a great way to put the fires out quickly and resolve your clients’ issues.

While the above is not a comprehensive examination of the methods necessary to achieve higher rankings, it should be enough for you to see that SEO is not a short term, get rich quick scheme. SEO is a good, long-term strategy to participate in if you wish to promote your site, gain higher rankings, and increase traffic. It will help you develop a solid foundation of potential clients that may keep your business prospering year after year.

Let’s face it: we’ve all been there. We all see the tempting allure of the dull green piece of paper and want to invest in the best that marketing can give us to increase more of that delicious green. But hark! What is this I hear? I don’t see results 2 days after I purchased your marketing program! Why are you not doing any work on my site? I was told I would get #1 guaranteed placement within 24 hours! Why aren’t you doing your job? I want to cancel! You SUCK!!

While the above is an exaggerated example of a real life situation, there are certainly scams that have a certain knack of perpetuating themselves throughout our industry. Many of them still exist because people don’t know the difference between what puffery is, what is real, what can be guaranteed, and what cannot be guaranteed. Unfortunately, there are individuals who tend to take advantage of this. As a result, many people are so disappointed in SEO that they will not even consider purchasing that kind of a service on their site again. So, in an attempt to help alleviate the danger of others falling for these kinds of scams, here is a list of the top scams in SEO today.

1. Guaranteed #1 Spot in 24 hours, 30 days, or other absurdly short amount of time.

First of all, this is impossible. No one but Google, Yahoo, or MSN (and others) can guarantee what position a site will rank in their respective search engine and when. If someone that is working for XYZ Corporation is attempting to convince you of SEO services, and they use this statement, it’s puffery. Be aware of this and curb your expectations back significantly. Real SEO takes a lot longer than 24 hours or 30 days. In fact, it can take up to 8-9 months to begin to achieve the kind of results you’re looking for. Depending on who you talk to, there are two schools of thought on this topic: Black Hat and White Hat.

Black Hat is focused more on achieving quick results using tactics that are designed to manipulate the search results into giving higher rankings quickly. However, once Google finds out about the techniques being used on the site, depending on the nature and severity of the techniques involved, your site will get banned. White hat techniques are a way of working WITH the search engines, not manipulating them. In fact, white hat techniques are the only sure fire way to obtain long term, top position results. In short, don’t believe that you’ll get top rankings in 24 hours from a brand-new web site or even an older, more established web site. That’s not going to happen.

2. We’ll get you to the top of Google if you buy this key term for $80 per month.

There are certain companies that will sell you services that sound like SEO, but are actually pay per click advertising campaigns. One such company is Netbiz. While they may say they’ll get you to the top of Google, what you’re really paying for is a flat rate for a key term that’s probably: a long tail key term, doesn’t have much advertising competition, doesn’t get much traffic (and a very low CTR) and is a term that you really can get away with paying an $80/mo flat rate to get to the “top” of the pay per click results. Don’t fall for these types of scams, because all they’ll really do is give you an empty wallet. Real Pay per Click advertising campaigns require much more, including maintenance, advertisement adjustments, and ensuring the campaign doesn’t burn a hole in your wallet.

3. If you buy x number of links for thousands of dollars, you’ll get top rankings.

While you may get top rankings for this one, if it’s one thing that will get your site banned is excessive paid links. When it comes to obtaining long-term rankings for any specific keyword, it’s far better to have a mixed link profile with a variety of quality inbound links that match the relevance for the key term that you’re attempting to rank for. Don’t get 1,000s of paid links to link back to your site. It will only be an exercise in futility.

4. Social Media (or whatever is the latest SEO fad) will net you big bucks and gobs of traffic to your site.

Yes, social media is a phenomenon. Yes, it can help you get traffic. But, it’s never a good idea to depend on a single aspect of SEO for your overall marketing strategy. If you want to participate in social media to gain an edge over your competition, you certainly can do so. Let it become an integral part of your marketing strategy. However, don’t let targeting social media be your only marketing strategy. You want to build your online presence so that it’s successful in the long term. And such a presence deserves a strong foundation encompassing a variety of SEO methods that will bring you traffic from multiple sources.

5. “We have a special relationship with Google that will help you get top rankings!”

Sorry. No one on the planet that operates as a third party company separate from Google has a special relationship with them. Every company has a support number they can use to reach Google for support issues, but that’s it. There’s no special relationship with Google or any of the other search engines.

Search Engine Optimization is not rocket science. It is, however, a scientific, analytical approach to obtaining traffic, search engine rankings, and a bigger online presence for your web site. Unfortunately, there are those in the industry that give SEOs a bad name by perpetuating these myths. For those with little knowledge of search engine optimization, it’s easy to fall prey to many of the above mis-representations. To protect yourself, use your common sense and investigate these claims before spending your money. And, ask questions to be sure that you understand everything involved in the search engine optimization services you’re purchasing. Your due diligence will pay off in the end, and you’ll be able to make a sound decision with plenty of evidence to back it up.

If there is one thing that gets my goat, is someone commenting on something they seem to know nothing about.  And, I hate it when someone spreads supposed SEO knowledge and doesn’t get the big picture of things and why some small modification doesn’t work.  And, what’s even worse is attacking an entire industry based on a small incident without educating themselves or performing research about what SEO is all about. Or, if they did, the article certainly doesn’t show it.  The fact is, that there are on page optimization factors and off page optimization factors.   It’s a mix of both that will get you high rankings on Google.  The latest violator of all of the above is this article on PCmag.com written by Mr. John C. Dvorak: here’s the ignorant article.  

In this article, the author talks about an incident where someone advised him over IM about using long URLs as links to the pages on his blog to help increase his rankings and gain the attention of Google.  Well, this is only partially true.   What it comes down to is using actual keywords in the URL, which produces some of the lengthy monsters you see on wordpress blogs that utilize this technique.

What happens is that Google will read the keywords on the URL and if you have some integration of the keywords in the content, then that will add value to the page as well as helping your rankings.  He’s also claiming it does nothing.  Well, sir – when did you check it?  Did you check the page immediately after making the change?  Or, did you wait for Google to crawl the page again to see if it had any positive impact on the rankings? It takes time for rankings to increase and if you check them immediately after making the change, you’re not always going to see an increase in such a short amount of time!

Also, just making a single change like that, while it will work well for keywords with little to no competition, it won’t work for keywords with a high market competition and saturation.  For this, you need to build links to the page in order to compete with the pages that have a higher rankings already!  You’ll hardly stand a chance for the more competitive keyword terms if you don’t get this basic fact!!

The author also claims his page views declined when implementing this practice.  Well, yes, they’re going to decline! You need to implement a 301 redirect in order to redirect traffic to the new URL!  Otherwise, you’re sending your traffic to an empty page. Also, if you were ranking for keywords that were giving you some immense traffic, and you all of a sudden added different keywords to the URL without considering other optimization factors, you WILL lose your rankings and traffic!  That should be common sense!  That should have also been explained to you by the person who advised you of this over IM. Google does NOT redirect your traffic for you. That is YOUR responsibility.

He also asks “So why is everyone doing it, and why does everyone think it works?”  It’s because people are targeting specific keyword phrases (if they have done things properly), and they have also included on page and off page optimization factors that will help the page rank on Google.  Just because someone does something doesn’t mean that it’s going to work for your site.  Why would you not ask which keywords they were targeting in the first place, and why would you not even consider the fact that it was a small part of a much larger SEO campaign?  I can certainly see and understand your frustration with this.  However, taking your anger out on an entire industry when it’s pretty apparent that it’s your own lack of knowledge and understanding of a subject is only going to make you look foolish.

Another unfortunate comment made includes “This brings me to another SEO gambit, this one promoted…” and “…in alliance with the ’semantic web is the future’ dingbats.”  It’s not about the semantic web BEING the future.  It’s about NOW.  The W3C has been in existence for over 10 years.  Writing semantically correct HTML and other code is just good coding practice.  When code is written correctly according to standards and minimization, you get to the root of what helps higher rankings:  the code to text ratio.  With standardized coding practices, you will, many times, be able to obtain higher rankings because search engines have to sift through far less code in order to read your content!  That’s the charm of the semantic web.

Not only is this article far off base when it comes to correct SEO methodology, it doesn’t even come close. As if my repeating this hasn’t been enough of a bore, I’ll repeat it again: on page optimization and off page optimization are required to gain significantly higher rankings on Google.

With off site optimization, you NEED to build links according to the keywords you wish the page to rank for if you ever hope to get to the top of Google.  On page optimization efforts will only go so far, and when they don’t produce the results you want, you NEED off page optimization, or quality inbound links!  It’s a combination of those two factors that will get you high rankings for more competitive keyword phrases.  NOT just on page factors, and much less, long URLs without 301 redirects!

The fact is that search engine optimization is about promoting the web site/web page:  with a mix of both optimization methodologies.  You cannot expect to obtain top tier rankings for a specific keyword without good implementations of both.  If you obtain higher rankings with some on page optimization, then you have gotten lucky with a keyword that has very little market competition.  With higher saturation and competition, you’re going to need to double up on your off site optimization efforts and BUILD THOSE LINKS!!

I feel sorry for those people who are out there that, even though they’re brilliant people and are a lot of fun to read, they just don’t get anything about the big picture of a subject they’re talking about.  What’s even worse is they don’t even bother to TRY to get the big picture or talk to a reputable source.  They just give up, write articles like the above, and paint a negative picture of an industry that doesn’t even deserve it.

SEO is not just an art, it’s also a science.  One of the great things about the field of SEO is that it requires both sides of the brain to work in tandem with one another – the analytical and the creative.  The analytical side works with analyzing traffic reports, the most effective methods in converting leads, where to direct that traffic, site structures, and numerous other aspects.  The creative side includes designing the site itself, working with layouts, writing content, adding photos, and other creative activities where applicable.

A major part of the analytical/creative facets of SEO include marketing elements and lead conversion elements on web site pages.

Include high positioning of your most valuable/popular products on your home page!

In order to convert leads, several essential items need to appear on the page.  One, you need to at least have photos of your product to entice potential clients.  If you sell one product, perhaps a blurb about the product including some basic information below, with a text link that goes directly TO the order form.  If you sell many products, include your most popular products with a link directly to the order form, and perhaps some kind of informative blurb about the product.

Create informative content pages about all of your products!

If you want to rank for specific key terms for your products, it’s essential to have some informative content that’s done WELL.  Bad content will not get you the links that are needed to get your site to the top of Google.  Besides, who’s going to want to link to bad content?  Good content can take the form of anything from impartial, lengthy reviews about the product, to informative articles about the products’ initial conception, development, and completion.  You could even include interviews with the people that created the product.  And, if you can obtain that exclusive content, then that will help you when it comes to garnering a more natural linking profile!

A starter page titled after the main keywords you’re targeting would be good enough, and you’ll want to start out with 6-8 paragraphs of content, and you can add to it as you move forward with your SEO campaign.  It’s important to educate consumers about your product, and provide compelling enough content to get people in your industry linking back to you, which in turn helps your rankings in the search engines.

Include call to action items on your content pages, and even on your home page where applicable.

If you don’t have call to action items, how are people going to want to move forward within your site or want to contact you about your products?  You want to have some kind of form or call to action that entices someone to want to move forward with the purchasing process.  This can be anything from a link that says “click here” to a complete, elaborate form that will send the client’s information to you when they submit it.  This can also be a picture of the product that you want to sell in addition to your product (maybe an add-on product?) on that page, with descriptive text that says “Click here to buy” or “Click here to find out more”.

Without such strategically-placed call to action items on your page, you stand, at best, a very small chance of converting the leads that land on that page.  They’ll just go elsewhere, and to a competitor that does provide an easy way for them to get a hold of you or to order their product.

Now why would you want to send people to a competitor when you know the best way to solve their problems in  your industry?  Include the appropriate items as discussed above, and you’ll be on your way to obtaining better conversions and better rankings.

Search Engine Optimization encompasses many different methods of obtaining higher rankings, from on-site optimization (code optimization, internal linking, inbound linking from other sites etc.) to off-site optimization (link building).  What I want to do for this post is focus strictly on on page optimization elements.

1.  Header tags

These tags are very important to establishing the theme or relevance of your page.  They take the form of H1, H2, and H3 tags.  So, if your theme or primary keyword is about Anaheim Real Estate, then you want that keyword to appear in the H1 tag of your page.  Then, if you have supporting articles, you’ll want to title them with H2 tags, or even H3s if you have that many articles on your page.  The whole point is to tell the search engines (and your readers) what the page is about.  Here’s what typical, optimized Header tag code might look like in XHTML:

<h1 class=”style1″>Anaheim Real Estate</h1><br />
<h2 class=”style2″>Orange Real Estate</h2><br />

The class declaration is an inline style sheet declaration that, assuming the styles are called from a style sheet in the headers or an external style sheet, simply calls the styles for that class and applies them to the Header tags.  That’s why it’s so important to ensure that you use minimal code.  You do NOT want something as silly as 1,000 extra lines of code to drop your rankings.

2.  Anchor text

Anchor text optimization is SOOO important.  It helps the search engines find and rank the pages of your site based off of what is in the anchor text.  So, you really need to make sure that the anchor text accurately describes the page the link is going to.  If you have a page titled Fountain Valley Real Estate, then you want to have the anchor text accurately reflect that page.  Let’s use the following example:

All of the real estate in Fountain Valley tends to be mid-end to higher end luxury homes.  With the standards of quality rising, many home owners simply are not able to afford the most impressive Fountain Valley Real Estate.

The underlined text is known as the anchor text.  This text goes to a page that’s titled Fountain Valley Real Estate, and has a ton of content about Fountain Valley.  However, you can over optimize text and you don’t want to use Fountain Valley Real Estate repetitively throughout your document.  You want to write your text as naturally as possible so that it’s not confusing for the user.  In short, do NOT write your text strictly for search engines!  You could cause your rankings to drop because of it.

3.  Keyword usage

That being said, you still want to use your main keywords that you’re targeting throughout your text.  Use them sparingly, though.  And do NOT give in to the myth of keyword density.   I have never really given much credence to the whole keyword density thing, simply because I’ve seen higher rankings achieved on sites barely any keyword density at ALL.  However, keywords do matter when used within Anchor text and can help increase your rankings.  But, don’t give in to over optimization.  Use keywords naturally and sparingly.  Don’t add 7,000 repetitions of your keywords to one paragraph.  And, for Pete’s sake, do NOT make a paragraph of keywords and make them the same color of your page.  That is spamming and a black hat method and Google will penalize you for it once they find out about it.

4.  Linking

When setting up the home page for linking to your internal pages, you want to pay attention to how you link out to other pages.  Internal linking from the home page to interior pages is important for search engine spiders to determine the kind of content that’s in your site, and how to rank those pages once they’re spidered.  Link your anchor text containing your keywords to other pages that include relevant information about that text.  Plus, it’s just good usability sense as well.  You don’t want to use text links that are confusing and lead to pages that are not relevant to those text links.  There is no need to confuse your visitor or confuse the search engines.

5.  Bolding and emphasizing text

You also want to pick and choose the keywords in your text to bold and emphasize to help with relevance.  Don’t go overboard, though.  Do NOT bold entire paragraphs.  Instead, bold keywords within anchor text, or bold keywords that are within the standard text.

That’s pretty much it for on page ranking factors.  Remember to write your content to be as natural and relevant as possible, though.  Write for your user, NOT the search engines, and THEN optimize your content keeping these on page elements in mind.  People will naturally want to link to your content when it is really great content, which will make it that much easier to obtain those quality one way inbound links that are soooo essential for higher rankings!!

SEO comes into play the second you start building your web site, not as an after thought. The whole purpose of search engine optimization is to develop your site for your user, to develop and enhance the positive lead conversion aspects of your site, so that you can make money for years to come. You need to take into consideration such things as web development, navigation, correct code use, content, and the design/layout of your site.

Web Development

Developing the web site should start out as a framework of thought that puts together the basic pages you’re planning on including on your site. Also, you should continue adding more pages that your site will need based on your target audience. So, if you have a site that’s geared towards real estate, you may want to consider having basic sections such as your home page, about us, testimonials, and listings. Internal pages can include significantly enhanced FAQ pages, pages with informative content geared towards your local market, and even additional pages targeted to relocation clients if that’s a primary target. It all depends on what your market research revealed when you performed your market analysis while setting up your business.

Navigation

Your menu is what your users and search engines are going to be using to navigate through your web site. Therefore, it is of utmost importance to provide at least one text-based navigation menu for your site so the search engines can crawl your site with ease. The text will also be used as a visual cue for your users to navigate your site. You don’t want “mystery meat navigation” (a term coined by Vincent Flanders, author of the book Web Sites That Suck) to be a deterrent for people. Mystery Meat Navigation is navigation that includes no text whatsoever to describe where the button is going to, and anything else that is not immediately clear about where that button will take the user. If you must use graphics for your navigation, at least make sure that you use some text to provide information about where that button will take your user.

Correct Code Use

This doesn’t necessarily mean writing correct W3C valid code. Currently, search engine algorithms don’t really care about that. Instead, this means making sure that you have a decent code to text ratio. The code to text ratio measures how much code there is behind your site compared to how much text is on the page. The more text on the page than code, the better. This means that search engines will have an easier time processing your pages. The easier you make your pages for the search engines (and your user) to read, the better results you can get!

Design and Layout

Search Engine Optimization is but one small part of the entire marketing puzzle. An important part of converting leads is the presentation of your site! Think about it: would you buy from a web site that uses canned language and content you’ve seen before? Would you want to buy from a site that uses the same graphics that are on every other web site out there? Would you want to buy from a web site that causes you think harder about where to click to get to the purchase form? These issues, and others, are why it’s so important to differentiate yourself from your competition. Don’t do what everyone else is doing! Do something that is totally different that solves your clients’ problems in a completely different way!

The latest graphics, Flash techniques, and search engine optimization methods are but a small part of the whole puzzle of SEO. Coding, usability, navigation, and other techniques are also smaller slices of a much larger pie. Despite the latest popular ideals, SEO is not about creating controversy or developing exposure at the expense of other people. SEO is not a set it and forget it deal. SEO is about building a long term business, healthy relationships, and developing a solid client base that will help you make money year after year. You don’t have to make money at anyone else’s expense. Doing so will not win you friends, the very relationships that will help determine your success or failure in this industry.