Tag Archives: Content Writing Guide

Avoid SEO Copywriting Errors

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Avoid SEO Copywriting ErrorsWriters work hard to avoid SEO copywriting errors on posts and pages on their websites. But what are the common mistakes that many writers make and what are search engines looking for as well? Ultimately a writer wants his or her page to be indexed and presented to readers on search results. The worst thing that can happen is that the SEO grading is so low that the page ends up at the bottom of a long list of search results. We will examine a few of these issues and most readers will realize that these items are just common sense, but many people still make them.

Avoid SEO Copywriting Errors – Common Errors

The most common and most important is poor content. If it is not original and well written then both the reader and the search engines are going to pass on it giving a high bounce rate and low index rating. This can be the kiss of death for many pages and posts online.

A major contributor to bad content is when writers cram SEO keywords into the text. This process makes awkward sentences and difficult to read text. Sentences may end up being too long and some may not even make sense. Use keywords where and when they make sense and can be comfortably included in the sentence structure.

Long paragraphs, endless sentences, poor grammar, and poor spelling are all contributors to SEO issues. There is nothing more difficult to read than a sentence that is full of spelling mistakes. Focus on getting these items right in your post. Use apps or widgets to help you with both grammar and spelling.

Spell checkers are not infallible. Read each sentence to make sure that the right interpretation of a word is being used or corrected by the spell checker.

Silly Online Marketing Mistakes

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Silly Online Marketing MistakesWriting for Search Engines is necessary; however, writing copy for your readers is also extremely important. Writing exciting content, answering the reader’s questions, and delivering a message are essential things a copywriter/blog writer can do. All of this needs to be accomplished while at the same time meeting all of the attributes that the search engines are looking for. Silly Online Marketing Mistakes can jeopardize your rating. Other articles in this series address the SEO attributes that writers must know. This article will focus on the marketing side of writing.

Silly Online Marketing Mistakes to Watch For

The title and content need to match! Sometimes a catch title is needed to attract readers, particularly online readers, to open the page and review the content. But if the article’s content does not live up to the promises indicated in the title, the reader will move on quickly to another page. Always make your titles catchy, but match them to the content contained on your page.

Duplication of content is confusing to customers, especially if the content sends slightly different messages. The search engines do not like it either. Two slightly different messages about the same content will cause questions in your readers’ minds and could dramatically increase your cost. Imagine a call center taking calls about the same products but described differently. Align your pages or get rid of duplicate content.

If links don’t work your customers will move onto another site, and you miss the opportunity to convert them to making purchases or learning more about your services. Test all your links and ensure they are relevant to the content and subject.

Monitor your Social Links – these days. Everyone is on FaceBook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. You may lose readers here if your pages or message do not convert well. Twitter, for example, only has 140 characters. That is a limited number of words that can attract your readers and get them to click on the URL leading to your page. Always focus on the message and how it is perceived on social media. For more information about writing great content, click here.

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Should we worry about thin content?

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thin contentThe answer is to absolutely worry about thin content if you want your website to rank well in search results. Focus on whatever topic or market you are aiming at. The search engines have traditionally labeled sites with thin content as not being worthy of having the information that their clients are looking for. However, this may be changing as they become more sophisticated at indexing website pages for presentation in search results. Thin content is only one of the variables they look at and we will discuss this in more detail.

Thin Content – Does it Answer the Question

A page with thin content can in fact answer the question that the consumer is looking for. Take for example, “when does daylight savings time begin?”. Search for this string. You will find many pages that have content that is very limited and answers the client’s question.

If the page is informative, useful, adds value, and has the necessary quality for the topic being searched for, then a thin content page could in fact rank very high in search results. As SEO webmasters we need to make sure that the content we write addresses these issues for our customers. While at the same time ensuring a well-ranked page so that the page has a chance of being clicked on when presented in the search results.

We still need to take typical search terms that customers will use. Create pages around these terms while delivering the results that the searcher is looking for. Thin content can be ok in some situations. In other situations for more complex subjects a longer piece of text needs to be used to fully explain the topic, deliver the answer the customer is looking for, etc.

In summary, all content must be informative, useful, add value, and has the necessary quality for the topic being searched for. Maybe this is all I needed to say rather than going into detail to explain this topic. What do you think?

What is thin content?

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thin contentFor many years, thin content has been frowned upon by the search engines. If there was not much content, they figured that there was little value to the content for the reader and ranked a site accordingly. It appears that these views are changing as represented by this slide on the left. Content must be useful, it must be informative, add value to the reader and be accurate or of high quality. If a page could meet all of these criteria yet still considered to be thin content should it rank highly? We think it should and would like to provide an example.

Thin Content – Example

Let’s assume you want to find out when daylight savings time changes are to occur in North America. You search for |daylight savings 2017″ and are presented with over 13 million results. We picked the first one which gave us the dates, times, etc. on a very small page in terms of text. No need for 500 words, 1000 words, etc. or a lot of images. All you needed to know is what the date was for the next time change and it answered this question. The page met all of the criteria we mentioned and still had what would be considered thin content. Yet was the first result on the search results pages.

This is an extreme example with one possible result and a very specific result. However, the message is that the page of content does not have to have a lot of text. What it needs to do is answer the searchers question. They may not even stay on the page very long, but they got their answer.

Our web pages are between 300 and 500 words each and try to zero in on one topic to deliver or answer a question that our readers may have. Let us know if we are addressing these questions and if there are others we should tackle.

Strategic Content Plan

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Strategic Content PlanDeveloping a strategic content plan as part of your SEO responsibilities for a customer is actually much more complex than most people think. After all don’t you just have to have a couple of pages that talk about who your company is, the products and services they offer, and how to contact you? The answer is yes you need these things, but as most web masters for small and large companies know, you are just beginning to scratch the surface. In this post, we will list and discuss a few other topics that need to be thought about when a website is launched on behalf of a customer, or even yourself for that matter.

Strategic Content Plan – Areas to Focus On

  • Company Description – one page
  • Company Services and Product descriptions – many pages
  • Contact information – one page
  • Ordering information – one to several pages
  • FAQ-Frequently asked questions – one page to many
  • Customer reviews – one too many with approval?
  • Images of Products – one too many

The above is definitely important and must be included. However, there are other areas that should be thought about that are aimed at helping the search engines decide how to rank you against other similar web sites. These can include:

  • Linking to other websites
  • Links from other websites
  • Linking to customers, suppliers or even competitors
  • Quality of content
  • Length of pages in terms of text
  • Image control and linking
  • Tracking of customers on your site
  • Chat room capability
  • Content pages related to typical search terms
  • Search phrases and links to your site
  • Conversion rate tracking of visitors to paying customers

Some webmasters would suggest that there are well over a hundred variables that should be taken into account when developing a web site. Following the 80:20 rule, we believe that these are the major ones with the addition of one more.

Every page must offer useful content, informative and valuable content to the reader. Above all, you need to try to answer the question the reader is looking for. If you can do that you most likely will rank well and attract the kinds of customers you are looking for on your site.

 

 

Website Recovery From Google Penguin

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Website Recovery From Google PenguinMany websites were penalized by Google Penguin and other algorithm releases from Google. If you are one of them don’t despair, just get ready to put in some hard work. Be patient as long as you are following the guidelines publicized by Google. Website Recovery From Google Penguin will consume a lot of time. The holy grail of websites is that you must have high-quality content. It must be attractive, informative, and useful to your readers.

This is the first requirement. It is a must-have if you are going to be in this business for any length of time. There are other areas to focus on as well that we will cover in this short article. However, rest assured that this is a complex subject and requires much more discussion. We will focus on what we consider to be the basics of SEO recovery. But do not even bother with these other issues unless you have focused on quality content first.

Website Recovery From Google Penguin

Every time that Google comes out with a new release there are many steps for an SEO website administrator to consider. The first task is to try to asses what the impacts will be on the industry and specifically your website. Many online blogs are dedicated to this subject. It is worthwhile to spend a few hours getting a feel for what the SEO community is suggesting. You may need to adapt your website in order to comply with these changes. This is really the first order of business to avoid your site being indexed and penalized as a result.

Once you feel that all of the steps have been taken to adapt your website to whatever Google has changed in terms of SERP. The next step is to continue optimizing your site to improve the quality of your site. In terms of content, in terms of quality links to other quality sites, and terminate poor quality links where you are able to. You may have to contact other webmasters to request them to remove links so that you can improve your overall link strategy.

Whenever you touch a page, take a few moments to review that page. Update it from the perspective of checking current information to ensure it is accurate and up to date, in grammar, and also spelling. If your company has changed services, products, or policies, for example, this is the time to also make sure that your pages are not only up to date, but they also meet Google’s guidelines for SERP. This is an opportunity to improve your web site every time you touch a page.

 

 

Journalism Principles to Consider When Writing Content

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Journalism Principles to Consider When Writing ContentWriting content for your website is an increasing challenge.  Journalism Principles to Consider regardless of whether you are writing for Google Adsense or to attract customers to your company’s site to sell more products must be considered. Readers have a short attention span and if you do not capture their interest in the first paragraph or above the fold, then there is less chance of them staying on your site. They move on quickly so the first rule of thumb is to put the good stuff up front to keep their attention.

If you are a journalist or a writer for online content, make sure you always place the really good tidbits up front. So in keeping with this rule, the good stuff is always upfront, use catch titles that will attract the reader in the first place, and place enough content on the page so that your bounce rate is as long as possible. We add more on these two topics in subsequent paragraphs.

Journalism Principles to Consider – Bounce Rate

Some people think that Google looks at bounce rate as a measure of interest by the reader. A short bounce rate means that either your content is not very good or it did not match what the reader was looking for. A bounce rate that is consistently short is usually going to mean that Google lowers you on the index results of searches or SERP and then no one is going to see your page. A longer bounce rate or higher one means that readers found your page interesting enough to stay long enough to read it and consider it. The bottom line in addition to placing the good stuff up front is to write consistently great content that readers will stay and read.

Journalism Principles to Consider – Titles

When Google, Bing, or Yahoo presents search results they list the title and a brief summary below the title. Based on this limited information we all decide on whether the site is relevant enough to our area of interest. If it is we click on it and if not we move to the next result. Your title is the most important element at this point and plays a major part in helping the reader to decide if it is worth their time to click on the result or not. Make your titles interesting, clear, and concise so that the reader can decide if this is something they should click on.

There are lots of other factors in Journalism Principles to Consider When Writing Content, however, if you focus on writing good content in a manner that readers will read, then you are well on the way to attracting readers to your site.

Get Rid of Bad Content

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Get Rid of Bad ContentDo you have bad content on your website? What is bad content, and how do you identify it? Many web site owners do not even realize that their content might be considered bad, who gets to decide if content is bad or not. Turns out there are two major groups who will decide if your content is bad, and they both will have a significant impact on the results that your web site is intended to deliver. Results meaning traffic to your web site and customers that convert to revenue for your business. Get Rid of Bad Content Now.

Who are these two groups, and how do you identify them? What can you do to fix the bad content and how do you verify that the results you are looking for are being delivered to your web site. We will try to answer these questions and more in the following narrative.

Get Rid of Bad Content – What is Bad content

Anytime you have content that is  original, well written, uses keywords and phrases that people might search for, is regularly updated and kept current, you probably have great content. Web designers get into trouble when their content is copied. If it is old and out of date and the web site is not easy to navigate it can be rated lower by the search engines. There are many more criteria, however these are probably the main ones to focus on.

Get Rid of Bad Content – Major Groups

Well, it turns out that there is an obvious group and one not so obvious. The obvious one is your customers. If they are not finding what they are looking for, they may tell you and if they do you had better do something about it.

The other group is the search engines. They use their private algorithms to rate and index your web site pages and then rank you in search results. If you have bad content in their estimation, your web site will be well down the list of search results. Chances are people searching for subjects you cover will never be seen by them.

Get Rid of Bad Content – A Program

One way to address your web sites content is to develop a regular maintenance program that will over time, keep your web site up to date and current for both your readers, your customers and the search engines. For example develop a schedule to complete the following:

  • Update the oldest content once a week
  • Add content to the shortest post once a week
  • Update your content based on what readers are reading
  • Add new content on a regular basis
  • React immediately to customer comments

Your regular addition of new content based on new products and services will keep your content looking fresh. It will be up to date for the search engines and your customers.

Write Original Researched Interesting Content

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write-original-researched-interesting-contentGoogle and in fact all of the search engines have been improving their search algorithms to provide better results to their customers when they are searching for information online. Over the years various websites have tried a variety of schemes to arrive at the top of the search results so that online readers will click on their links. Original Researched Interesting Content is the mantra that we should all follow.

Google has launched a variety of programs, nicknames Panda and Penguin along with earlier releases to improve these results so that bloggers and webmasters cannot game the results. The upshot of all of this is that bloggers and website designers are now focusing on providing better-quality content. This is a good trend for everyone since everyone benefits. Readers get better quality content, web owners get better results and web designers can focus on a quality website rather than try to adjust websites each time Google updates its algorithm.

Original Researched Interesting Content

The next time a web design company promises that they will place your website on the first page of the search results for a given term, take the time to understand exactly what they are saying and promising. Writing original researched interesting content about your products and services is pretty easy to do, but will anyone find you when they are searching?

How will they ensure that your content appears in the top 10 search results? What happens when Google or Bing or Yahoo updates its search algorithm? Chances are they will skate around this issue and talk about needing to do more work to keep your site well up in the search results. This is the code for spending more money.

We happen to think that you need to be adding new content all of the time that is fresh and interesting to your clients and readers. We also believe that you need to review your older content from time to time to make sure that it is still accurate and describes your products or services accurately. As you add more and more content there will be more and more information for your readers.

Google Objectives

This is what Google is aiming for, originally researched interesting content that is current and up to date. This content remains that way regardless of what release of search software Google throws at it. The next thing that website owners realize is that they also need to have multiple advertising strategies to help their customers find their websites. Links on Facebook links on business cards and invoices, traditional advertising, and links on all emails that are sent to customers and suppliers. The point is to make sure that your website is well-advertised and provides the kind of information your customers are looking for.

For more information on this topic and others check out other posts on our website about building and maintaining websites.

What should you spend on SEO services

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SEO servicesMany business owners might be wondering what SEO is, let alone asking what they should pay for it! SEO services is short for search engine optimized content for your website. This content is designed and developed so that search engines will properly index your website and rank so that your customers will see your website presented in the search engine results. The ranking is extremely important if potential customers are going to find your site.

Building a website with content that reviews your products, services and whatever else that you decide to provide about your company is a requirement however that alone will not cause the search engines to rank your website highly enough for people to find. It is equivalent to building a brick-and-mortar building, not placing the sign on the front of it, and not advertising in the newspaper or on TV or on radio. You must also advertise on the Internet and to do that you make sure that your website is optimized for the search engines.

What should you pay for SEO services

There are many models available in terms of payment structure, as well as the amount that you might consider paying. Regardless of the amount that you pay, you should set objectives. They should include  the development of content and optimization of content so that you can measure what you’re receiving for what you pay.

Payment methods include a monthly retainer, contract services, fix prices, project-based pricing, and hourly consulting. If there are promises or guarantees, instant results, the number one spot in Google, or shady link building services you may want to ask more questions and or avoid this type of service. There just cannot be any guarantees of results given the competition, and given the way the search engines change their outlook algorithms on a regular basis.

Some issues to consider

Search engine optimization takes time and results can take as long as six months to be achieved. Search engine rankings and search engine changes will take place overtime and your rankings will change as well. Not all SEO services are the same and you must compare cost versus services.

SEO is not an option, you must do it if you want your website to rank well. Hiring an agency with the expertise is the best way to go compared to trying to do it yourself.

Search engine optimization is another form of advertising expense. It can be compared to other marketing approaches such as direct mailing, broadcast advertising and online ads. You need to compare the results that this will provide. Invest for to get the best return on your investment. In our opinion search engine optimization for your website is not an option. It is something that you must invest in, to enable customer conversion into sales for your services and products.

Give us a call today for further information on this subject. We can discuss pricing for search engine optimization of your website. For more posts about making your web site more SEO friendly, click here.