Tag Archives: SEO

Moving away from SEO

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How important is SEO to SEM today? Is SEO losing the edge? Are small businesses finally breaking free from the power of SEO and getting recognition still? Are we moving away from the obsession with SEO? Some intriguingly different questions indeed!

SEM rules still

The number of online customers making their purchases is continually on the rise. One click opens the virtual store and shows a range of products and services and all the information needed and another click clinches the deal most satisfying mutually. Today internet marketing is very much in; SEM rules the roost.

Importance of SEO

Until now, SEM blended the free SEO and the PPC to increase the exposure of any website. Search engine marketing campaigns all focussed on search engine optimization with keywords or increasing the pay per click – again on a key-word related ad. And SEO was the favourite all round. SERPs, Meta tags, keywords, keyword-rich contents, SEO keywords and keyword research – these words seem to be resonating in the web writing world. The first advice to any freelance writer is still ‘learn all about SEO.’

A Change is on the way?

Maybe it looks like things are changing, albeit slowly, but steadily. No, no, the SEM is here to stay and keywords and keyword-rich contents are all still the way to go. But maybe a day will come when search engine ranking or search engine optimization will not be the ruling factors to define the success of a website. Google has developed systems which are not SERP controlled and which are giving more attention to small businesses with far better analytics. Now the trend is moving beyond just the search engines and the search is on to find and nurture customers on social media – on networks like Facebook and Twitter.

Importance of Social Networks

Today, social media is gaining more importance and relevance in the search world. Search engines are incorporating media status updates into their search results – kind of a mixture of search and social media! So Digg, Delicious, Facebook and Twitter – where people like to belong to, are gaining importance and status updates on these sites influence the ratings. Already Google and Bing ratings are linked with social media site postings.

How to attract Social Users?

Quality content! Quality content is the only way to go. Make the content attractive enough and there will be enough flies to flock to the honey! Content that gives answers to their search, content that provides solutions, content that pen-pictures the product and content that will stir the consumer’s interest will make the visitor come away satisfied and eager to go back to and recommend to friends. Original and quality content will increase conversion.

Google’s definition of need for quality content is illuminating – “Delivering high quality, informative and well constructed content is what differentiates you from your competition and defines your web presence.”

Adding fresh content will keep the visitors come a visiting to the site. RSS feeds and even videos can be used to keep the content up-to-date. But unique and web-product relevant content should dominate the site. Quality and high-value content will be the major force to sell the products.

Will SEO be one day really obsolete?

Definitely not! Already the algorithms are changing. Blog-driven links and social-media tagging are taken due notice by the search engines. Google is also implementing personalization. Actually a highly efficient SEO never just is counting keywords or their placement. It recognizes the value of good and quality content. Compelling to read and easy-to-find content will truly be the king and SEO will revel in it.

Choosing the right keywords for content marketing

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What is content marketing? It is claimed that content drives the Internet. Does it then make content marketing too this powerful? Are right keywords all that essential to successful content marketing? And how can we choose the right keywords for content marketing? So many questions! Come, let us find a few answers.

How different Content Marketing is and the principles of content marketing

As opposed to traditional marketing, content marketing is all about sharing quality information that is relevant and current, with your prospective customers and clients. Whereas the traditional marketing uses interruption techniques, content marketing will gently but firmly hold the consumers’ attention and build brand loyalty. This is done more by educating the customer and letting him/her recognize the advantages of the product/service and go for it with the conviction of right choice. Knowing more about the product/service, trusting and starting to like it will be the way content marketing works.

The idea of creating and sharing content is aimed at rather gentle persuasion, targeting an intelligent and informed audience to let them accept the brand as a thought leader and industry expert. This shared content will grab a potential customer’s attention, make him read it, think about it and decide after learning all about it. Most of the content will aim at solving their problem along with entertaining them and make them feel good all over.

Some of the different forms of content marketing are

  • Custom publishing – Custom media
  • Branded entertainment – Branded content
  • Database marketing
  • Corporate media – Corporate publishing
  • Corporate journalism

What is the importance of keywords in content marketing?

Online information that is concisely and succinctly expressed and worded elegantly and interestingly will be the way content is going to be presented. But how to get the customer know about the content? What will make him/her visit your site? Videos, blogging or PDFs are all great platforms but the most essential will be the right keywords that will drive the traffic towards your content. The keywords should be such that the search engines are able to index and rank your website according to the relevant search terms being used by their users; your website is then rated high in SEO.

Choosing the right keywords for content marketing

Right keywords are those:

  • Words that fit as header tags (HI, H2, H3 etc) to facilitate the search engines to pick them up; especially the H1 tag carries a lot of weight.
  • Words that fit individually as page tags depending on what is on that page.
  • Words that can flow naturally and meaningfully with the content but yet can be repeated for the required density without an obvious put-on effect.
  • Words that can be bolded and italicised where needed fitting with meaningful flowing text.
  • The operative principle is that written text and chosen keywords present a meaningful and naturally flowing text.

Well, it may not be an exaggeration if tomorrow more than 80% of marketing strategy will be via content marketing. Content marketing creates so much credibility and trust with such persuasive authority that there will be no sales resistance left against it.

Focused content writing actually means SEO

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What exactly does SEO (search engine optimization) mean? It means generating and organizing your online content in such a manner that search engines can appropriately rank it for the related keywords and key phrases. If you are writing a page on providing content writing services or blog writing services then the search engines should be able to rank that page higher on the SERPs (search engine result pages).

Of course your source code must be free of unnecessary clutter and you must have the right information in your meta tags, but the real SEO juice comes from your content — what you are writing to describe your message. It’s important to know what keywords and expressions must be used and avoided; you don’t want to rank higher for all the wrong keywords (there is no harm in it but that traffic gives you a false sense satisfaction and that might be bad for your marketing efforts).

So decide on the topic, make a list of the words you must use to describe that topic and then start writing. Talk about the subject and try to focus on it — the search engines prefer focused, targeted content. Just be careful not to overdo it. There is a very thin line between keyword stuffing and optimized content.

Does the language you use on your website or blog affect your search engine rankings?

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words-search-engine-ranking

By language here I don’t mean English or Portuguese or French; by language I mean the words and phrases that you use in order to create content for your website or blog.

Creating search engine optimized content is all about conveying the right message for the appropriate search terms. Whenever you are writing for your website you have to keep in mind – if it is important – for what search expressions your website should draw traffic from various search engines. For instance, my website is about offering content writing and online copywriting services. So any mixture of these expressions must get me higher rankings if I want to keep doing business through search engines.

There are many webmasters and Internet marketing experts that suggest that one shouldn’t solely depend on search engine traffic and this is true. Nonetheless the majority of your traffic comes from search engines if you don’t have thousands of incoming links from other web sites and blogs and you haven’t got tons of money to invest in online advertising. Traffic from search engines can be an invaluable, low-cost opportunity that you must leverage, and this can be done by using language that conveys the most appropriate message to the search engine algorithms so that they can rank your website or individual web pages accordingly.

Language definitely affects your search engine rankings at least in the current context. People talk about semantic optimization, and even natural language processing, but right now it doesn’t seem to be happening. The actual words still matter. If I am promoting content writing I’m not getting search engine traffic if people are searching for a creative writer, even if I wish I did and suggested subtly somewhere on my website – I get found if people are looking for a content writer because I talk so much about content writing.

This I learnt the hard way. Before deciding to become a content writer I used to design and develop websites. Due to some vague reason I ended up optimizing my website for the term “Web designing” rather than “Web designer”. I featured on the first page of Google for Web designing for a good two years and I didn’t generate much business (blogging hadn’t arrived at that time otherwise I would have converted the website into a blog). I should have actually optimized my website for web designer (of course the good side is I became a content writer). These are the small things that can have long-lasting repercussions if you’re not careful about the language you use on your website.

Image source: brandis78

Writing for traffic or for the right audience?

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You many often come across blogs and articles telling you how to get spikes of traffic by writing content that pulls people towards your website or blog. They advise you to use “highly compelling” titles and submitting your link to social networking and social bookmarking websites such as FaceBook, Twitter, Digg and Delicious. I wonder how much this sort of traffic helps your business. Mind you I’m not questioning the process and I’m not even suggesting you not to indulge in such activities, I’m just thinking about it.

For instance I provide online writing services, so I would, ideally, like to draw traffic that can fetch me more business. This doesn’t mean I don’t want other people to visit my website. After all I share my thoughts on various subjects on this blog for instance, and I’d love it if people from all over the world access my blog and participate in various conversations. I feel good when all of a sudden 200 extra visitors come to my website and 5 among them subscribe to my RSS feeds or my e-mail updates. Even if they never do business with me, it is exhilarating to see the number rising day bay day. The good doesn’t always come from prospective clients.

When more people, let’s say 2000 in a day, visit your website and read your blog post or article, all of a sudden so many people are made aware of your existence and what you do. If you somehow keep on generating such spikes this number keeps on increasing. Get 4-5 traffic spikes every month and you can easily become a known person.

Does becoming known get you more business? It certainly does. As they say, success begets success. Similarly, traffic begets traffic, popularity begets popularity and trustworthiness begets trustworthiness, and all this is needed to generate more business.

When people know you, they eagerly link to you. I’ve seen even dumbest posts by popular bloggers getting popular. They bookmark you, they forward your links, they follow you on Twitter (want to follow me? It’s @amrithallan) and they add you as a friend in FaceBook. All of a sudden, heavy traffic becomes a regular affair because even the search engines begin sending you 1000s of visitors every day. All this helps you build your brand.

Having said that, slow and steady wins the race. You don’t have to prove anything as long as you meeting your business goals. Just be regular and share your experiences sincerely. The traffic will magically pick up.