SEO
(Search Engine Optimization) writing, as a distinct style, was born in the
Internet era and has matured before our very eyes in a relatively short span of
time. Although it is evolving and maturing still, and will continuously do so,
we can define some of the tried and tested steps of content optimization to
help unique pages place at or near the top of search engine rankings.
Some experts go on to say that the goal of SEO is two-fold, with the first
objective to put out the appropriate "bait" for search engine spiders
and the second to serve up useful information to people who want and need it.
Debates about priorities continue among SEO professionals, but it is not a good
idea to devalue the human factors in any success formula. The singular goal,
then, would be to develop, position and refine content in such a way as to
satisfy all visitors to the page and/or site, both human and bot alike.
Rethinking Search Engine Content Terms
"Content is king," goes the old saying - and not only is good content
king, it is becoming more important with every passing day. But the term
content is best taken in its broadest sense. Content is not simply the written
copy placed in a document, assembled on a page, or aggregated at a site. It
includes all this, of course, but content actually comprises titles, headings,
tags, intra-site links and external links, as well.
All
of these components need to work together and form an interconnected whole so
that both search engines and humans find the right things, come to the right
conclusions and, most importantly, make the right decisions. Good writing is
always targeted to the audience, and you are writing for an audience of two
readers, human and software. Remember these two components of the audience and
find creative ways to reach both of them at the same time.
First Things First
Titles are critically important - they are usually the first thing read by both
real and virtual visitors. A title is the "primary topical
identifier" and, as such, has an invaluable function - again, a
dual-purpose one. It must contain keyword targets at the individual word level
while stoking interest in potential readers at the phrase level.
When a person performs a search, the title is both their first indication of
your relevance to their needs and your first chance to compel them to click
through. Search engines, more clinical and objective, give the title importance
because they see it as an indicator of the page's main idea.
Yet many pages on the Internet have no title at all, or share "Home"
and "Untitled" with several million others. There is no excuse for
this oversight. The ignorant cousin of these mistakes, making the company name
by itself the title of every page, is just as bad. Keywords relevant to the
page should be part of every page's title.
Heading tags carry some importance too. Simply put, heading tags define the
headings and subheadings of your article to both readers and spiders. By
default they appear larger than normal text and are bolded. While not a magic
ranking bullet, they are looked at with more importance than average text and
are a chance to show spiders the themes of your content and what keywords you
wish to rank for.
The H1 tag is the main heading of your article and carries the most importance,
like a headline in a newspaper article. It should clearly convey the article's
topic to the reader and main keywords to the search engines. H2 tags are one
level down in importance and structure. Use them to define subtopics under your
main topic, and again use keywords where descriptive and useful. If you needed
to break down your article to sub-sub-headings, you would use the H3 tags, and
so forth.
For
both human and robotic readers, it is vital to keep page content focused. The
"one topic per page" rule is an unwritten one, certainly, and it's
followed by most professional content developers. This has less to do with the
intelligence of the readers (either kind) than it does with several other
considerations. For one thing, search engine "crawlers" have
algorithms that tend to work best on one concept at a time, and most humans
work best this way, too.
In addition, limiting the focus eases the task of placing keywords in the meta
descriptions, page title, body copy, tags and links. Finally, dealing with more
than one topic necessarily means using more verbiage, which dilutes the potency
of a site-wide SEO program and may negatively impact ranking. Better to give
these other topics their own content, strengthening your site's overall
informational authority.
SEO Copywriting Balance
Much ink has been spilled and many pixels propagated in discussing SEO
techniques, analyzing strategies, teaching "web content" writing, and
chasing changing algorithms. Mentioned less but encompassing everything is that
SEO copywriting, like all SEO, is about balance.
While articles such as this one can be helpful, it is important to understand
that SEO will always evolve, change, adapt and improve. Study and implement
tested techniques, but remain flexible and nimble. Writing for search engines
and people at the same time is tricky and challenging at best, and can be
frustrating and time-consuming, too. Approach the challenges in a businesslike
fashion.
SEO content writing at its best balances art with science, blending the craft
of engaging the reader with the dispassionate analysis of keywords on a page.
Follow best practices, but fill each article to the brim with information
useful to your demographic.
In simultaneously targeting a subject, an audience, and an algorithm, a great
deal of creativity must take place to get effective SEO results. And, of
course, it all has to happen in an environment that encourages short attention
spans and constantly tries to lure people elsewhere. It is a major challenge to
craft article titles and copy so compelling as to make people stop and read -
or, better yet, stop and then clíck where you want them to.
Basics, Opportunities, and Consistency
The basic approach to writing for such a dynamic, ever-changing environment is
to get to the point quickly. The "USA Today" news style - which
relies on short headlines, descriptive sub-headlines and a few concise
paragraphs - is perhaps the best analogy for good SEO writing. The important
points (keywords) should appear early and often, and within a short period of
time the human readers should know what they are supposed to do, while the
search engines should be able to tell what the page is about from a consistency
between your page structure and your body copy.
In the eyes of the search engines, everything that it can possibly see counts.
That is, using image alt-text not only helps blind readers and people using
phone- or text-based browsers, it also gives you another chance to add more
descriptive strength to the overall page for the search engines. Do not miss
any opportunity to further empower and refine your content.
And always remember when writing for search engines - keep writing. Write write
write. Search engine bots gorge on new information, and if you consistently
update your site with fresh content they will come around more often. While
this gives you more opportunities to display your value, more importantly it
builds the foundation of information that obviates it.
There's a lot to do, and it all needs to be done well. Use your numbers,
metrics and analytics to point you in the right direction for creating more
content. That's some science. Your creativity and amount of useful information,
on the other hand, will point site visitors and search engines in the right
direction. That's a touch of art. When both aspects of your SEO program are
firing on all cylinders, you should soon be marching up the search engine
rankings.
***
By Matt Tuens (c) 2009
SEO News
[seo@seo-news.com]
