Tag Archives: seo content writing

Google is rewriting website titles – can you stop?

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Lots of people on the Internet are complaining that Google is randomly changing their website titles. This Moz blog post has just published a complete analysis on how Google seems to be changing titles of various websites and web pages.

A few days ago, I published a blog post titled Why is the title tag so important when writing content? and in that blog post, with a screenshot I had explained what a title tag is and how it is different from a web page or blog post headline:

Screenshot of the title tag
Screenshot of the title tag.

Various SEO experts (people who are constantly observing what is Google doing with their content) began to notice this peculiarity in search results on August 16. Everyone is speculating that the update was introduced on August 15, 2021.

The author of this Search Engine Journal post quotes some website owners who say that the text for the titles is being picked from the page’s <h1> tag, but many have reported that their text was being picked from the anchor text of some randomly chosen internal link.

So much noise was generated on the Internet that Google published an update explaining how and why they are changing the titles randomly.

They have first explained how the titles are generated:

We are making use of text that humans can visually see when they arrive at a web page. We consider the main visual title or headline shown on a page, content that site owners often place within <H1> tags or other header tags, and content that’s large and prominent through the use of style treatments.

Then they go on to explain why they are changing the titles. They have mentioned three reasons:

  1. The title is a very long, needlessly long (Google can display only title characters up to a certain point).
  2. The titles are stuffed with keywords.
  3. The title seems to use “boilerplate” language. For example, a homepage may have just “Home” as title.

Personally, I think this makes sense. If they leave it on people, they are certainly going to use titles that they think are going to improve their search engine rankings and this sometimes triumphs over creating meaningful titles that actually represent what the web page or the blog post contains.

What can you do to stop Google from rewriting your web page titles?

Well, you can avoid doing things that makes Google rewrite your title. Here are a few things I would suggest:

  • Don’t go beyond the recommended title length – 60-70 characters including spaces.
  • Create meaningful titles that represent the body text of your web page or blog post. Don’t create titles just to improve your search engine rankings or to misrepresent the information.
  • Don’t repeat keywords in the title. Keep it to one keyword and one long tail keyword.
  • In the <h1> tag, use a headline or use the text that would also look good, relevant and meaningful as title text when it appears in search results.

These are just suggestions, and everybody is coming up with his or her own set of suggestions. It seems Google is still playing with this new change, and it will take some time before things settle down. Many people are complaining that weird titles are being created by Google. One person said that Google randomly picked a date from the web page and decided to include it in the title text.

My advice would be, create meaningful titles and stick to quality and relevance.

Is it fine to copy someone else’s content?

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Is it fine to copy content for SEO?

Is it fine to copy content for SEO?

You need to know whether it is an ethical question, an SEO-related question or a practical one.

Recently I was brainstorming a client’s content strategy on a Zoom meeting and SEO guy had also joined. I know there are many reputed SEO companies that are doing great work, but I’m quite wary of SEO people who want to manipulate content to improve search engine rankings instead of following the quality and relevance of the content itself to automatically improve rankings.

During the conversation he very casually said that I should copy content from other websites and then shuffle it and change a few words here and there and it would be great for SEO. He said that it’s good to copy content from high-ranking websites because they have already improved their search engine rankings with that particular content format.

I was like, WTF? I mean, I didn’t verbally object because the client is quite enamored with the SEO guy, but inside my mind, I was already figuring how not to butt in and remain focused on the core topic – how to write valuable content that will organically improve the clients search engine rankings.

Let’s put aside the fact that Google may realize that you have copied the content from another website and therefore, you should be penalized, for a while.

Let’s focus on the ethical issue here. But before that, let’s also be realistic.

As a content writer, how do I define “copying content from another website or blog”? When does it become plagiarism?

Difference between plagiarism and ideation

I think we all know the meaning of plagiarism – picking content as it is and then using it as your own, verbatim mostly.

Even if you pick content and then change a few words here and there but more or less keep the entire thing intact without changing even the sentence structure, still it is plagiarism.

Plagiarism is a very serious issue in academics, research papers, scientific journals, journalistic writing and books and novels. As a student you can be expelled from a course. As a scientist you can be debarred and humiliated. As a journalist you invite contamination and ridicule. As an author you can be sued, and you may have to pay damages.

As a content writer, although it may be difficult for the aggrieved party to take action against you, if someone is hellbent upon taking action, he or she can. For example, an aggrieved party can approach your web hosting company if your web hosting company has a policy against plagiarism and copyright violation. They can take down your website. If you’re in the same country legal action can also be initiated.

It’s mostly Google penalization that deters people from plagiarizing content. Google can blacklist your website if you are a repeat offender.

But what about rewriting something completely in your own style, in your own language? Many bloggers do that. I have written tips on content writing and hundreds of other websites and blogs have published tips on content writing. Similarly, websites telling you how to improve your search engine rankings are everywhere. They have the same information, it’s just that, they have rewritten the information with slight changes, and with their own take.

Just because Wikipedia has an article on what is blockchain doesn’t mean I cannot publish a blog post on the topic of what is blockchain. Similarly, just because Investopedia has explained what is bookkeeping, another website cannot explain it. This is not copying. This is not plagiarism. It is because you’re presenting the information in your own language, in your own writing, in your own style. It becomes plagiarism when you directly pick the Investopedia article and publish it under your own domain name as your own article.

What about creating a famous story? Many authors have done that. Mary Shelley’s stories have been rewritten. Greek mythologies have been rewritten. Ramayana and Mahabharata have been rewritten. Sherlock Holmes novels have been rewritten. The main stress is on originality vis-à-vis your style. You can tell the same story in a different matter.

Should you copy content from another website to improve your SEO?

Now that we know what plagiarism is and what is not plagiarism even when you are writing the same thing, let’s come to the ethical issue.

Frankly, to an average client it does not matter how, as a content writer, I write content that improves his or her search engine rankings. The client is not worried about legal issues or even with the prospect of someone accosting him or her and complaining about plagiarism. The client is majorly worried about the SEO implications – Google may penalize the website, or even blacklist it, which would be disastrous. As long as Google is fine, most of the clients are fine.

As a content writer, I’m not.

Almost every client hires me to write original content, even if Google is the only reason. Like pirated software, pretty much everyone is okay with picking content from other websites as long as it is safe to do so.

But I have been hired to write original content. If I’m not writing original content, am I not cheating my client?

You may say that the client is hiring me less for the originality of my content and more for my ability to create content that improves his or her search engine rankings, no matter what.

He or she is not bothered with originality. He or she is bothered with search engine rankings.

If I copy the content from somewhere else, if Google does not penalize the website and if Google improves the website’s search engine rankings, who the hell is the client to complain?

No matter how bad it sounds, I can understand this point of view. Nonetheless, I am a writer first, and then I am a content writer. As a writer, I take pride in my writing. If I copy content from another website, even if someone doesn’t detect that, I know that it reeks of my inability to write effectively. It shows that the other writer whose content I’m copying is better than me as a writer. He or she was able to write that beautiful piece of content that I’m shamelessly copying. He or she is a better writer. I’m just a pretender. I’m just an impostor.

No, I don’t expect clients to understand this.

 

Does your website’s content affect your SEO?

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Note: someone asked this question on Quora but when I tried to post it there, it generated an error. After that, I couldn’t find the question. Since I have already prepared an answer, I’m publishing it here.

To genuinely understand the answer to this question, you first need to understand what Google indexes and ranks? It’s content.

Now, since there may be thousands of web pages, blog posts and social media updates offerings similar type of content, Google uses an algorithm to decide which content it has indexed to rank higher than the other content it has indexed.

Now, Google cannot solely depend on its algorithm because software can always be tricked into believing something that does not exist. That’s why, people were always “hacking” their way into higher search engine rankings. Google also analyzes how people interact with and react to your content. This is called human validation. If humans don’t appreciate your content well or don’t react to it positively, you can forget about getting higher search engine rankings.

So yes, a website’s content definitely affects SEO because one, after analyzing your content, the Google algorithm should be able to make out what the content is about and for which keywords and key phrases it should be ranked in what manner, and two, it should be able to gauge how people are reacting to your content.

What does interacting and reacting mean here? Right now your content (a particular web page or a particular blog post) may be ranking on the fifth page and by some fluke, search engine users reach the fifth place and click your link. If your bounce rate is low – that is, people go to your link and spend some time reading it because it contains useful information – Google takes it as a positive attribute. It thinks that since people are spending more time on the link, the link must be useful and hence, it deserves higher search engine rankings. Your ranking improves a few notches. Conversely, after clicking the link when people immediately come back to Google and explore other links, your rankings go down.

Therefore, to improve your SEO with your website’s content, make sure that the Google crawler can rank your content easily, the algorithm can make sense of your content, and your content is appreciated by your visitors. All these attributes affect your SEO.

How to achieve on-page optimization with content writing

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On-page optimization with content writing

On-page optimization with content writing.

Search engine optimization has two parts:

  1. On-page optimization
  2. Off-page optimization

Off-page optimization is not directly under your control. It is a long-term process. You publish lots of content. People find your content. If they like it, they engage with your content by linking to it, referring to it on social media websites and mobile apps or finding your content useful enough to spend some good amount of time on your website.

On-page optimization on the other hand is completely in your control. Aside from efficient source code, you can write content that is search engine optimized.

A recent Moz blog post shares a few tips on how you can optimize your content for on-page optimization.

Here is how you can use content writing to achieve on-page optimization:

Format content that is easier to read when writing content

When people visit your website or the page you are subjecting to on-page optimization, they should be able to read it as easily as possible. The same holds true for the search engine crawlers. They should be able to read your content without much fuss.

This means making your content writing scannable. Here are a few things you can do.

Use the H2 tags

I have written on this topic multiple times. You should organize your content under different headings and subheadings. The above Moz author says that you should use your keywords – sometimes even the exact keywords you are trying to target – in the headings and subheadings.

Use headings after every 300 words. In this case, by headings I mean text between <H2> and </H2>.

Between headings, also use the <H3> tags as subheadings. This way, merely by looking at the text between headings and subheadings, your readers should be able to make out what your web page is about.

Use shorter sentences and paragraphs

Everybody finds reading shorter sentences easy. Communicate one idea in one sentence. Of course, when you are feeling like writing a long sentence, do that, but most of the sentences should be short. In grammar lingo, such sentences are called “simple sentences”. Avoid using compound or complex sentences.

Use shorter paragraphs. Ideally, don’t use more than two sentences in a paragraph. I tend to use more than two sentences, but I do that when my sentences are very short.

Use the main keyword within the first 100 words of the write-up

This tip isn’t included in the above link, but this can be useful. What does your keyword represent? It represents the core proposition of your web page.

Sometimes the search engine crawler cannot crawl your entire web page. By the time it reaches the body content, it goes to another link or completely leaves your website.

Hence, enable it to come across your main keyword (that represents the core topic of your web page) as early as possible so that even if it leaves your web page in a hurry, it processes the keyword.

Use bulleted lists

Bulleted lists are easy to read. They don’t even need to be complete sentences. You can just use phrases or even one-word expressions in the bulleted lists. Use your primary and secondary keywords in the bulleted lists. Use your hyperlinks.

Optimize your content for featured snippets

Featured snippets are the highlighted pieces of content that appear on search result pages when you search for something, and the answer is well defined. Here are some benefits of writing your content that is featured snippets-friendly:

  • You occupy “position zero”, even above paid links.
  • Getting featured in the snippets section is the ultimate search engine optimization fete, bringing you lots of traffic.
  • It increases your brand authority.
  • It brings you more back links increasing search engine rankings of other links on your website.

You may like to read: Is there a definitive way of ranking in Google’s featured snippets?

Featured snippets can appear in two forms: paragraph form and bullet form.

How can you optimize for featured snippets? By providing the exact answer being asked in a question, and in a manner that it’s easier to understand by Google’s ranking algorithm.

Although there is no definitive way of appearing in Google’s featured snippets, mention a question and then present an answer. Mention a problem, and then present a solution.

Something like:

Guide to using content writing improve on-page optimization?

  1. Divide your content between headings and subheadings.
  2. Use your keywords in headings and subheadings.
  3. Use bulleted lists to organize main points.
  4. Use your keywords within the first 100 words of your web page copy.
  5. Write short sentences that are easier to read.
  6. Write short paragraphs that are easier to read even on mobile phones.
  7. Optimize your text for featured snippets.
  8. Write text focusing on search intent.

The above is the format preferred by the featured snippets section.

Add an FAQs section

Although, you cannot add an FAQs section on every page, wherever you can, do so. For example, if I’m writing this blog post, it doesn’t make sense to add an FAQs section needlessly. But if I have a web page describing my content writing services, it is a perfect candidate for an FAQs section.

Why is an FAQs section search engine friendly? It delivers exactly what Google wants. It presents content in the form of questions and answers.

In the questions of your FAQs section, write the questions as if they are being asked by search engine users.

Take for instance the following question and its subsequent answer:

Can content writing improve on-page optimization?

Yes, content writing can improve on-page optimization if you format your content in such a manner that it’s easy to read both for your human visitors as well as search engine crawlers. Format your text so that it is easier to scan it. Use important tags such as <H2>, <H3> and <LI>. Hyperlink to your existing web pages.

And so on. You can provide a comprehensive answer. Google loves such question-answer types of web pages.

A good thing about on-page optimization is that it is completely in your hand. My personal experience has been that if you solely focus on on-page optimization, the off-page optimization part begins to manifest automatically.

Focus on quality content. Format it well. Use the right tags. Be persistent. Write and publish content on relevant topics. The rest gets taken care of on its own.

Outranking your competitors – can strategic content writing help?

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I’m not an SEO expert so I won’t claim that I can give you a concrete answer. I was going through my content aggregator, and I came across this blog post from Search Engine Journal: How do you outrank bigger sites for high competition keywords?

Can strategic content writing help you outrank your competitors? It can. It requires effort and persistence.

Aside from other things, what I found revealing and surprising is that the author says that the word count doesn’t really matter as long as you have structured your content well.

This means, a web page with 500 words can outrank a web page having 2500 words if the content on the web page having fewer words is organized better than the web page with more words.

I have observed this pattern even on my own blog. Sometimes I’m able to rank well even when the blog post has just 300-400 words. There might be many other reasons, but what I’m trying to say is, a blog post doesn’t always have to be very long to rank well.

So, what can you do to outrank your competitors according to the above Search Engine Rank blog post? Here are a few things you can do:

  • Your web page should be relevant to the query being searched for.
  • The information should be easy to read and longer text should be organized using headings, subheadings and bulleted points.
  • Schema should be well defined – what is the web page about? Is it an FAQs page? Is it a product description? Is it an information article? Is it a review? Does it explain your pricing?
  • You should use interlinking. The crawlers should be able to access other parts of your website and blog through the current web page or blog post they are crawling.

Aside from these tips the author has also explained a few SEO-related things you can do.

How does strategic content writing help you outrank your competitors?

First of all, at least in the beginning, don’t focus on outranking your competitors if you are just starting. Focus on publishing lots of relevant and quality content.

Your competitor – assuming he or she has used fair means – must have spent months or years to deserve the rankings he or she enjoys right now. You cannot suddenly decide to outrank just because you want to.

The better approach is, start providing information that your visitors will find useful. Write content on interesting topics.

Make a list of all the topics that you can write about. The list should be around 50-60 topics.

Then write or get written the best possible content around these topics.

Of course, simply publishing content is half the job done. You need to spread your content. Follow SEO content writing practices. Make sure that your content is written and formatted in such a manner that it is easy for search engine crawlers and human visitors to read.

Share your content on social media websites. Broadcast the links using your newsletter. You need to promote your content. You can also use paid advertisements on LinkedIn and Facebook to promote your links.

Also, focus on longtail keywords containing your main keywords for which you want to outrank your competition.

Even if it is extremely difficult for me to rank for “content writing services”, I can try “content writing services for email marketing”. Or, “content writing services for web design agencies”.

As I have mentioned above, rather than worrying about outranking your competition, try to provide better content than your competition. Your rankings will automatically improve.