Is writing web content different then writing a book or magazine? YES, there is a huge difference! Lately, this has been one of my greatest challenges in web marketing.
When you get a book, you tuck yourself in the corner to read for an hour or so. Not so on the web! People use search engines, then have a list of possible sites to glance at. People will decide within three to five seconds if it is worth their time. In other words, people scan the web vs. reading every word and comprehending puns and clever sayings typically done in a book.
So what do you need in writing effective content for the web?
- Short titles – (avoid puns and clever wording; use 3-8 words)
- Use good keywords in title and content
- Make it easy to read – (avoid larger vocabulary and make it easy to read with numbering, bullets, italics and quotes to grab attention in the content.)
- Write for the reader not from your perspective – (Instead of saying, “Our Nike athletic shoes are high quality and inexpensive”, write for the user. “You will love these Nike athletic cross trainer shoes because they are inexpensive and very high quality.”)
Content is King! From an SEO perspective, more content is better then quality. This is very different then writing a book with many edits and reviews. Competition with web sites are increasing by the second. Now is the time to get a better handle on what web content is needed to grab someones attention and see your site in search engine results.
Michael (see previous comment posted) asked me if I would comment on Michael Jackson passing away this week. Sadly, we lost two well known celebrities this week. What a wake up call to this world!
In the SEO world, anything that happens in society will bring on the searches in all search engines. For instance, when you read somewhere that something happened to Michael, didn’t you search out the latest news or get on MSN to find out what happened?
You can use this events (positive or negative things that happen in society) as keywords on your site. How? Find an association between the event and what you offer on your site.
For instance, if you own a site and sell athletic shoes, you can mention Michael Jackson, then connect the two subjects by mentioning that exercise helps reduce stress and helps to keep you healthy.
Michael Jackson keyword example:
Michael Jackson died this week. Remember the video Thriller? What a shock!! My condolences to his family and fans. In circumstances when I’ve been depressed or stressed from something, I enjoy exercising and running. My New Balance 622 running shoes help me get through the day and sleep well. The next time you have a rough day at work or get bad news, try running or walking! Make sure to drink plenty of water while exercising.
What do you think about that? I know this isn’t the greatest way for a conversion, but it will help you get noticed and perhaps bookmarked if they like your site. I remember in the past few years other news breaking stories. Jump up when you get an opportunity for keywords that are circumstantially popular.
June 26th, 2009 in
keywords |
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Google has over 200 variables that determine the position of your web site and it’s results. What I want to stress here are the two key factors needed.
1. Good keywords – Adding good keywords to your web site. People are searching for information, Add keyword phrases that people are searching for. Here is an example. Someone who is searching for gym shoes will look specifically for Nike or Reebok or the brand and possibly the type such as tennis or basketball shoes. It is important to use keywords phrases instead of basic one word terms. These keywords are a must in the URL, title tags, and title. (in any of the writing content)
But does this make your site magically appear on the first page of Google? No, it sure doesn’t! Google wants to make sure that what you are searching for is relevant but also popular. So, the question is: How do you make your site popular?
2. Backlinks to your website – Google primarily determines your popularity by the links going to your site and the web page importance )page rank) of those websites. There are many places and tactics to get backlinks.
- Write in article and link to your website
- Write a press release and link to your website
- Add a link in a blog
- Use social media (Facebook or MySpace or Twitter) and add a link.
There are many other aspects that Google looks at, but these two are the essentials. Another thing I notice is that writing for the web is VERY different then writing for a book or print. I’ll write on that in another blog post!
June 20th, 2009 in
Basic SEO |
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As you know, Google looks at 200 aspects of optimization when rankings sites in their results. Some of the more important are PageRank, inbound links and title tags. Addressing these issues first will help out a lot in improving your google search results.
1) Title tags – Should be focused and unique to each page of the site.
2) Broken links – Google webmaster tools shows broken links from other sites that link to you. If you changed a file name or now you use index.php and they linked to index.htm this error needs to be corrected. It is possible to use an .htaccess file to correct some of this.
3) Link text – All internal and external links should use keywords. Don’t use “click here”
4) Build relationships with other webmasters who will give us good links.
June 10th, 2009 in
Basic SEO |
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1) On page optimization – Tags (title description, keyword, headings, body copy) along with a clear subject matter focus
2) Hyperlinks – Inbound links, outbound links, internal links. (gives page rank)
3) Content- Clear subject matter focus built with sentence structure and good keywords
4) Video/Audio – Added to site and to social sites; adding meta tags
5) Marketing – Adding blogs, news press, articles, etc… to other sites to market your own site with hyperlinks
6) Spidering – Crawlable html and xml sitemaps
- Links to other blog posts of interest to your target audience
- Any new products or services that you’ve launched
- Any places where you’ll be speaking
- Events that are taking place within your industry
- An opinion that you have about something that is happening within your industry
- Links to resources that you’ve found to be invaluable
December 27th, 2008 in
Blogs |
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There are 3 main things that control where your site ranks in Google for a given search phrase (keyword). Read more below about the three main search engine optimization concept that controls where a site ranks in search engines.
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November 19th, 2008 in
Basic SEO |
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On page optimization has to do with the changes and work you do to each page of the website.
Here are some important parts of the on page optimization process (in order of importance):
- Having the Keyword phrase in the meta title and meta description tag
- Having the Keyword phrase using the <h> tags on the page
- Having the Keyword phrase throughout the page
- Having as little html code as possible – use external css control
Competition (online)
Competition is the hardest part of the equation to deal with. If you have it, you have to work very hard to rank well in a search engines, if you don’t have it, the seo work is very easy.
A simple way to check for your online competition is to place quotes around it and search for it in Google. For example when you search for – “Broward roofer” the results on the right say there are only five other sites in Google that have that exact phrase. So the competition is low. This would be an easy site to get to the first page of Google, (waterproofroofer.com is my work). If you search for “Police Stuff“ you will see that there are 21,000 other sites in Google with that phrase. That phrase would be much harder to optimize for, (Policesites.info is my site).
Finding a phrase that people are searching for, using a tool like http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com/ combined with using the term in Google with quotes will help you find a good keyword.
Backlinks or inbound links are links pointing at a particular web page
The amount and value of inbound links are a primary way that Google places value on your site.
Google measures this value as PageRank. A web site’s PageRank can bee seen using the free Google toolbar.
The better the inbound links (determined by google) the higher the PageRank. The higher your PageRank, the easier it is to improve your ranking in google.
