Tag Archives: seo copywriting

10 tips on how to write SEO content for your website

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how-to-write-seo-content-for-your-websiteContrary to popular beliefs – mostly propagated by snakeoil SEO Experts – SEO content for your website is not a different entity. It is not something that you write or publish specifically to improve your search engine rankings.

In fact, if you are publishing content just to improve your SEO without paying scant regard to how your content converts (how it helps you grow your business), you are just like that proverbial dog chasing its proverbial tail. You go round and round, but nothing much happens, and then you wonder, why nothing much happens?

But it doesn’t mean there is no such thing as SEO content. If you want to improve your search engine rankings then you have to pay attention to creating and publishing search engine friendly content that is ranked well by major search engines like Google and Bing. You need to know how to write SEO content for your website and for your blog.

Although just good content doesn’t guarantee better SEO, it is the first step, and first step is always very crucial. After all, if you don’t have content, what’s the search engines going to rank? In order to enjoy good search engine rankings, aside from knowing how to write SEO content for your website, you also need to

  • Publish content regularly over a long period of time
  • Become an authority in your field so that lots of people link to your content
  • Get your content shared on social media and social networking websites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ and the others

In order for your website to enjoy good search engine rankings, all these activities should go on as a collective effort.

But the focus of this blog post is to know how to write SEO content for your website.

The highlights of these 10 points are:

  1. Define the objective of the webpage
  2. Narrow the topic as much as possible
  3. Try to pack as much information as possible
  4. Thoroughly research your keywords
  5. Optimize for longer phrases
  6. Use headings and sub- headings to organize text
  7. Link to pre-existing pages
  8. Provide answers to questions
  9. Pay close attention to accessibility
  10. Make your webpages as fast-loading as possible

These individual points are explained in detail below…

1. Define the objective of the web page

This is very important. Why are you creating the webpage that you are creating, or the blog post that you are creating? What is the most important message that you want to convey? What sort of information do you want to give to your prospective customers and clients? The webpage should have an aim. It should provide some sort of value to people to find the link on search engines.

When people are trying to write lots of SEO content for their website, this is the aspect that they often overlook. They simply go on publishing lots of webpages hoping that it would improve their search engine rankings. This can have an adverse effect. If you don’t have an objective, how do you think search engines can know what exactly you are trying to do? They need to know it clearly in order to be able to highlight your link in front of the users. If you aimlessly publish content, your SEO credentials will be diluted and your subject-related authority will be undermined.

2. Narrow the topic as much as possible

The narrower the topic, the better will be its SEO prospects. For example, what does this blog post do? It tells you how to write SEO content for your website. It briefly explains that SEO content isn’t the only thing that can give you better search engine rankings, but the topic or the title of the blog post clearly defines what I intend to do. This way, if the search engines decide to rank this blog post, their algorithms will know exactly for what they should rank it: people who want to learn how to write SEO content for their websites.

3. Try to pack as much information as possible

Longer webpages and blog posts are preferred over shorter webpages and blog posts by the search engines these days. This is because writing longer webpages requires effort. Spammers don’t want to spend much effort when creating pages. There was a time when they would simply copy/paste a few paragraphs and that would improve their search engine rankings. Not now. The webpages and blog posts should be well-researched, giving lots of information to the readers. In fact, it’s better if your webpages and blog posts are multi-paged. This way you may be forced to publish fewer webpages and blog posts, but their impact would be much better than smaller webpages and blog posts.

4. Thoroughly research your keywords

Although many discount this, keywords are still important. Most of the search engines these days can rank your webpages and blog posts according to your central message, but irrespective of what language you use, you still need to take care of your keywords.

Keywords are the words that carry the true meaning of your message. They are the words people will be using to look for the content you want them to find. For example, there is a great chance you are reading this blog post after searching for how to write SEO content for websites.

Whether you want to use jargon or not, depends on your audience. Most important is, use phrases and words your prospective customers and clients are most likely to use in order to be able to find your webpage or blog post.

Make sure that the use of keywords and phrases is natural. Use the keywords when they seem like a part of your writing. Don’t force them. The search engine algorithms are so smart these days that they can easily make out if you are needlessly creating excuses for repeatedly using your keywords and phrases. The density of the keywords shouldn’t be over 3-4%.

Definitely use your main keyword phrase in the title.

5. Optimize for longer phrases

People don’t use single keywords. They use sentences and phrases. When people are searching for something, they are prone to asking questions, especially these days when many might be using voice when using search engines, instead of typing their queries. The gist is that people use a combination of three or four words to do searches.

6. Use headings and sub-headings to organize text

Using headings and sub-headings makes it easier for people to quickly scan your content in case they don’t want to read everything. After reading the headlines and the bullet points you can get a fair idea of what I’m trying to say in this blog post.

Whenever possible, try to use your keywords and main phrases in headings and sub-headings.

7. Link to pre-existing pages

If you have links to webpages and blog posts that you have created before, you can link to them from the new webpage or blog post you are creating. This not only encourages people to check out other links on your website, it also makes it easier for search engines to crawl and index more links from your website. Remember that the more links Google can crawl and index from your website, the more SEO significance it gives to your website.

When you link to other webpages and blog posts from you website, use appropriate hyperlink text. This adds weightage to your keywords. For example, if I use the phrase “content marketing”, instead of writing it plainly, I can hyperlink it in such manner: content marketing.

Two things will happen…people visiting this link may also visit the content marketing link, and the search engine crawlers will know that I have more content dedicated to the phrase “content marketing”.

8. Provide answers to questions

Most of the people search for how, why, what, when, who and where. Formulate your SEO content in such a manner that you provide answers to people’s questions. Solve problems and this improves your search engine rankings.

Another benefit of answering questions and solving specific problems is that it helps you narrow down your topic and this in turn helps your SEO. Also, people tend to share the best answers to their questions on social networking website, further boosting your rankings. Search engines like Google favor websites that are large repositories of questions and answers.

9. Pay close attention to accessibility

Accessible content is good content according to the search engines. Don’t hide your content under JavaScript lawyers. When using images use captions that properly describe the images. Use the alt text attribute to indicate what information the image hold.

If you are using dynamic menus use CSS because then the menus can be accessed even when just the text of your website is being accessed.

The accessibility conventions have been formulated in such a manner that if you follow them your website automatically becomes search engine friendly, and so does your content.

10. Make your webpage as fast loading as possible

Yes, even in the times of broadband, how fast your webpage loads, matters.

An Akamai study has concluded that 40% of your visitors may leave your website if your webpages don’t completely load within 3 seconds. It’s an old study, but its significance still stands.

Want to know how fast your individual webpages and blog posts load? Try loading them via Pingdom.com.

In fact, the speedy availability of your content is so important that Facebook has launched Instant Articles so that articles and blog posts can be immediately loaded on mobile phones.

So these are the 10 most important tips on how to write SEO content for your website.

Again, when you are writing content for your website, good SEO should be a byproduct of good writing. If you follow good formatting practices, if you write useful, relevant content, you automatically write SEO content.

10 ways to find the best content writing/SEO copywriting service for your business

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Looking for the best content writing and SEO copywriting services for your business

Looking for the best content writing and SEO copywriting services for your business?

Finding the best content writing service for your business is one of the most, in fact, the most significant part of initiating an effective content marketing strategy.

A big problem on the Internet is, although you can find lots of information, often it is very difficult to find the information you actually need, the information you can use to grow your business.

The same applies to finding the right content writing and SEO copywriting service for your business.

Whom do you hire?

How do you decide?

Sometimes a company looks lousy but delivers great content.

Sometimes a company looks great but delivers lousy content.

A great problem is you cannot find that out unless you have worked with the service provider for some time.

Content marketing, although is the strongest marketing tool available on the Internet, also takes its own good time to give you results and by the time these results manifest, it is a bit late to realize whether you should have hired this particular content writing service or not.

The same goes with SEO copywriting services. Any decent SEO effort takes anywhere between 4-5 months before it begins to show even small results (especially when you face lots of competition).

By the time you realize that you haven’t partnered with a competent SEO copywriting service, you may have spent lots of time and money.

Is there a sure shot way of finding the best content writing service for your business?

Is there a set formula that helps you find the best SEO copywriting service to improve your search engine rankings?

No, there is not. But of course you can minimize the chances of ending up with a lousy service.

What are the best ways to find the right content writing service  or the best SEO copywriting service for your business?

The best way of finding a content writing-SEO copywriting service for your business

The best way of finding a content writing-SEO copywriting service for your business.

Your business is unique, your customers and clients are unique, so your content requirements are also unique.

Why so much stress on being unique?

It is your USP – unique selling proposition.

This is what sets you apart.

With thousands of people offering almost the same sort of service or the same sort of product, especially on the Internet where one website is just a click away from another, how do your prospective customers and clients decide whether they should do business with you or with someone else?

You need to provide something that they cannot get from someone else or at least it is very difficult to get it from somewhere else, or at least, comparatively much more expensive, or whatever.

The thing is, there must be something that should draw them to you rather than to someone else.

Once this is decided and settled, let us explore some ways to find the best content writing or SEO copywriting service for your business.

The service – whether content writing or SEO copywriting – has a website

For a long-term business partnership this is a must.

Yes, you can find good content writers from niche business directories and portals, they are not very reliable because most of them don’t have much stake in being consistent.

Since most of these business directories accept listings for free or at a nominal fee, you don’t find very dedicated and serious people in these directories (I don’t intend to paint everyone with the same stroke).

Of course, if the very same people also have websites running legitimate businesses, things become different.

When a content writing service has a business website it means it is serious and it has invested time and effort establishing shop on the Internet.

The website looks professional

If they have a website, the website should look decent and professional.

It doesn’t mean it should be able to compete in design contests, but it should have a clean design with all the needed information available on the website.

The homepage copy should clearly explain all the services that are being provided.

There should be terms and conditions.

An FAQs is a must.

All the contact details must be available on a separate, dedicated page.

The SEO copywriting service also has a blog

What’s the use of working with a content writing service if it does not promote its services via content?

Most of my business comes from my blog.

My business also comes from LinkedIn and Google, but even traffic from these websites is drawn to my blog so that is the main attraction.

On my blog regularly sharing tips, guides and my thoughts on content writing an SEO copywriting..

Just imagine, a content writing and SEO copywriting service not being able to promote its own services through its own content.

There should be a business blog that is regularly updated.

The content writing service has a mailing list

This is because no matter what people claim, email marketing still rules the roost when it comes to promoting your services and products on the Internet.

500 people subscribing to your email updates are far better than 5000 people “Liking” your Facebook page or following you on Twitter.

So yes, a serious content writing service would obviously have a newsletter subscription box on the website and if it doesn’t, it isn’t serious about content marketing.

Every best content writing and SEO copywriting service publishes a newsletter.

Here, I’m using the superlative “best” as a category. I know there cannot be multiple best services.

It has a solid social media presence

Most of the world these days spends time on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn (just to name a few).

It is also a good way to attract people.

Want to find someone?

Want to find the best products and services recommended by people you interact with on daily basis?

There is a great chance that you will find its reference on Facebook or Twitter (or whatever social networking platform is in vogue when you are reading this).

Also, if the content writing service can be easily reached on Twitter you can get a response faster in case you have some problem.

Your best content writing or SEO copywriting service puts greater stress on quality than quantity

If you have quality content on your website or blog, your search engine rankings automatically improve.

So if a content writing and SEO copywriting service says that you should have lots of content to cover all your keywords so that your search engine rankings can improve, you are being shortchanged.

Of course you need to cover your keywords but that is secondary.

The first priority should be the quality.

The content writing service has a strict policy on plagiarism

Just because text is digitally present everywhere on the Internet it becomes very easy to copy/paste it and then slightly spin it to pretend as if you have unique content at hand.

This is what those $ 5-per-article services do.

It’s a sure shot way of nipping your content marketing strategy in the bud.

The service you’re planning to hire for your business must have a strict policy about how to handle plagiarism and how it controls its content writers in case it has multiple content writers.

Its content writing an SEO copywriting charges are reasonable

Actually what’s reasonable differs from business to business, but you can find out what the industry rates are and do the calculations accordingly.

As I have mentioned above, those $ 5-per-article services can wreak havoc with your content marketing campaign for your SEO strategy, but in the rarest of rare cases, they can also work to your advantage.

If your content writing service is charging pittance try to figure out how it sustains itself.

Take for example charging $ 5 for an article or a blog post.

If I charge you this rate, try to figure out how much money can realistically make.

Even if I write 10 articles or blog posts in a day I will only be able to make $ 50.

How much can I be worried about providing you quality content this way?

It also sends me a signal that if you desire cheap content then maybe you aren’t even interested in quality that much.

It works both ways.

You get what you pay for.

So if a content writing service or an SEO copywriting service charges a very low rate, always be cynical about their offer.

The charges should be reasonable from both ends of the spectrum.

It can scale according to your requirements

It isn’t always about how much content writing and SEO copywriting the service you’re planning on hiring can do, it’s also about how much content you need.

Perhaps you require 10 blog posts or articles everyday but your content writing service can only supply 2-3 at the most.

This deal is not going to work for you.

Similarly, if in a package they offer 20 blog posts every month but you require only 5, and they don’t have an alternative package for you.

Again, it’s a no-deal.

So you should look for a service that can scale according to your business.

Many businesses and individuals vouch for it

Recommendations and testimonials tell you that the agency has provided excellent services – services that have actually helped businesses grow.

Simply writing content doesn’t help much.

The content must be able to take a business forward.

It isn’t also just about improving your SEO.

Your content should also be able to improve your conversion rate and in fact, this is much more important compared to your SEO.

So if a content writing service has actually helped businesses, they will readily provide testimonials and recommendations.

Despite taking care of the above-mentioned 10 attributes that can help you find a content writing & SEO copywriting service for your business you can end up with a lousy service provider, but then this can happen in any industry, in any service and with any product.

Taking care of these 10 things will just reduce the chances of ending up with an inferior service.

What impact will Google Instant have on your organic search engine results

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If you keep a tab on the latest Internet trends you must have noticed the hoopla surrounding the new feature Google introduced a couple of days ago. It is called Google Instant. Now when you search on Google the search results are updated as you type in your query. You no longer need to click the search button (although eventually you can click). Even as you type in individual alphabets the search results are updated according to the search string you have entered so far.

Google instant search results

Many website owners are apprehensive about this new feature and they fear that it is going to disturb their search engine rankings. Is it really going to happen?

According to Google the latest feature does not affect your search engine rankings, it simply makes it easier for its users to find the information they are looking for by instantly showing the results. This will save people lots of time because they won’t have to enter the entire string and then click the search button.

Search engines after all are more concern for the convenience of their users rather than worrying about the nightmares they unleash upon web masters, bloggers and search engine marketers.

Since Google Instant has no effect on your search engine rankings you shouldn’t worry about that. It may change though, the way people process the information they obtain out of the search. Since they no longer have to type in the complete query they may never end up searching the keywords you might be aiming for. Suppose you have optimized a particular web page for “sizzling seekh kebabs instantly delivered”. You rank at the top for this expression and lap up most of the traffic due to this. But through Google Instant your prospective customers may get distracted while they are typing “sizzling see” or even something shorter.

Similarly if you rank well for “freelance writer in L.A.” you may lose some of your visitors if they find something useful while typing just “freelance writer”. What does this mean?

You will definitely need to appear faster and preferably among the first 5 search results for your important keywords and search phrases. You will need lots of content not only on your own website but also on other websites so that you have enough presence to cover most keyword combinations and consequently appear faster on the search engine result pages.

This new development may also work to your advantage without taking extra steps. Due to immediate processing lots of results will be highlighted that were not previously been shown due to longer queries.

Should you do something? Ideally you should always be doing something in order to remain ahead of the competition: there is so much to be done in terms of staying connected through social media and networking websites, publishing your blog regularly and continuously trying to improve your search engine rankings, irrespective of what features Google or some other search engines introduce. Other than that, if you are not doing much it means you are anyway not proactively promoting your business and hence you should wait and watch. Carefully observe the traffic you are getting and how it is impacting your business. If you are getting more business, well and good. If it hasn’t made much of a difference then too it is good. If it is having an adverse effect then you must take some steps, for instance:

  • Evaluate your website for SEO problems
  • Analyze your present conversion rate
  • Mmake note of what sort of content you have on your website and how it can be improved
  • Start exploring other sources of traffic such as submitting your articles to article directories, websites and blogs
  • Enhance your presence on social media and social networking websites
  • Generate more content on your area of interest and business
  • Try to improve your current rankings
  • Make a list of alternative keywords that can fetch you traffic
  • Stay in touch with your existing customers and clients

Now, I’m not saying that you should follow these steps just because Google has changed the way it displays search results; they should anyway be followed. They will certainly help if Google Instant has affected your search engine traffic, at least from Google.

Are you setting goals for your content marketing campaigns?

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Without goals we have no direction and this can be applied to content marketing too. When you set up goals — whether big or small — you have a direction and when you have a direction you know exactly what you have to do and what you should avoid doing.

How does setting goals make your content marketing more effective? Let us suppose in the next four months you want to increase your search engine traffic and you don’t just want any traffic you want traffic that converts, that generates business, revenue for you. Once you have decided that, you figure out what sort of traffic from search engines would have a better conversion rate? Obviously the sort of traffic that is looking for what you have to offer. So write down somewhere what exactly you offer.

In my case I offer online copywriting and content writing services. Very good! Incidentally there are thousands of online copywriters and content writers on the Internet and there might be 10-20 content writers and online copywriters whose links appear before my link on the search engine result pages for appropriate keywords and search terms. In such a case scenario I can do three things (through by content publishing efforts)

  1. Beat my competitors in the search optimization game and make my rankings better than theirs
  2. Target those keywords that are less competitive but that can get me a fair amount of business
  3. Generate content that significantly improves my conversion rate

The first option is obviously good but it may take a very long time and I don’t want to spend lots of money. The second option on the other hand is quite achievable. It won’t take much time and it will give me enough breathing space: I can get business and along with that I can also keep improving my website content for more competitive keywords and search terms.

Having a good conversion rate would also be very important for me because as much traffic as I get I would like to generate enough business from it. Since right now I won’t be able to attract thousands of visitors everyday to my website I would prefer that my content has a higher conversion rate. For me this would be my goal and I would generate all my content keeping this fact in my mind.

You may have another goal. Your goal may be getting lots of exposure on social media and networking websites and you may generate content accordingly. For this you will need to know what sort of content creates buzz and goes viral on social media and networking circles. This way you have a direction.

Simply dumping content on your website or blog doesn’t help you much. You must set clearly-defined goals for your content marketing strategy.

Ways to Improve Your SEO With Content

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Repeatedly, Internet gurus (at credible-content.com we don’t generally believe in such terms) have always stressed the importance of content. Whether in a website or in a blog, content can make or break your search engine optimization (SEO). Readers would not want a blog or a website without contents. Content, no matter what other Internet marketers say is still king.

Below are ways you can improve your SEO with content.

  1. Article Marketing. Article Marketing is the process where you write articles and submit the same to article directories like Ezine Articles, Go Articles or Sooper Articles, to name a few. These articles, aside from being of quality, should have a compelling resource box, where you put your name, who you are or your expertise, and a call to action through a link pointing them to your website or blog. Most article directories allow a maximum of two links, depending on the number of words your article has. Most article directories require a minimum of 300 words. This is also where you could make use of keywords. Most Internet marketers advise on using long tail keywords or Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI), to make your keyword not redundant in your articles.
  2. Pillar Content. Despite your Article Marketing process, your blog should have at least five (5) pillar articles. Pillar articles are words coined by famous blogger, Yaro Starak. Later, several bloggers coined words such as flagship content (Chris Garrett) and cornerstone content from Brian Clarke. In his article on pillar content, Yaro defines it as: “A pillar article is usually a tutorial style article aimed to teach your audience something. Generally they are longer than 500 words and have lots of very practical tips or advice.” This article you are currently reading could be considered a pillar article since it is very practical and a good “how-to” lesson (OK, we’re blowing our own horn here, but well, whatthaheck). This style of article has long term appeal, stays current (it isn’t news or time dependent) and offers real value and insight. The more pillars you have on your blog the better.
    Pillar content is also one way of creating backlinks (other sites linking to your site) because they find your article compelling and helpful. Thus, search engines will start crawling at your website or blog through those links and, in the long run will gain a good page rank. Search engines also rank websites or blogs with the number of quality links that points to it. This is how they measure the blog or website’s authority. Additionally, always remember to use keywords in your articles as this is also instrumental for search engines finding your contents and of course your sites.
  3. Guest Blog Posting. Writing for other websites or blogs, especially those that have gained authority and/or popularity is one way of gaining good search engine optimization. Your content placed on an authority blog or website will likewise create quality backlinks and links to your site. Not all are given the opportunity to guest post in other popular blogs. Usually, blog owners who already have gained popularity or very good page rank would always qualify their guest contributors.
  4. Fresh Content. Readers of your blog or website will usually like fresh content. Thus, it is necessary for blog or site owners to post a least three (3) quality articles in a week to ensure your readers that they can expect new things from you on a weekly basis. Fresh quality content means more visitors. And more readers mean more traffic. More traffic will definitely be of great help as far as search engine optimization is concerned.
  5. Reader-Centered Content. In general, all contents must be reader-centered. You must always know who the target of your articles is. When writing contents for your site, you must always focus on what would your readers like to read. Always ask yourself whether the article you are writing will help your readers, and if you think they will, are your articles simple enough to be understood by all? Make your articles simple so that they can be understood by readers from myriad backgrounds (or at least from your niche).

    6. There you go – the five basic ways by which your contents can greatly affect your SEO. Without these five basic things, you will have a hard time creating the popularity, the authority and eventually the page rank you would want to achieve. Besides, all bloggers and website owners would want their sites to be search friendly. Would you not want your site to gain the same thing?