Step Two - Content Creation
Welcome to part two in this search engine optimization series.
In part one we covered the importance and tactics for choosing
the keywords and keyword phrases that will provide the highest
ROI for your optimization efforts. In part two we will discuss
how to properly write content for high search engine
positioning.
Content is the key to search engine rankings. While there are
numerous factors involved with the search engine algorithms,
content remains a constant in stable rankings for a number of
important reasons.
Over this series we will cover the ten key aspects to a solid
search engine positioning campaign.
The Ten Steps We Will Go Through Are:
Keyword Selection www.beanstalk-inc.com/articles/search-engine-positioning/keywords.htm
Content
Site Structure
Optimization
Internal Linking
Human Testing
Submissions
Link Building
Monitoring
The Extras
Step Two – The Importance Of Content
There are many aspects of your content that are of key
importance to your search engine rankings and for a variety of
reasons. That said, they can be broken down into their three
main benefits. The three main things you should be targeting
with your content are:
Unique and well-written. The search engine spiders are looking
for unique content and your visitors are looking for
well-written content.
With articles come links.
With quality content comes even more links.
As long as you keep these three main purposes in mind while you
are deciding what you want on your website and how it should be
worded, you will fill this area nicely.
Unique - Well-Written Content
The importance of unique and well written content cannot be
overstated. This is the backbone and purpose of your website’s
existence and it deserves the time it will take to create. When
you are considering what content you want on your site (or what
content should be on your site if this is part of SEO or a
redesign) you will want to make a few considerations.
What does your audience want to find?
Will you have to do additional research?
Are you an expert writer or do you have one on staff?
What Does Your Audience Want To Find?
Assessing your potential visitors wants does not require a
crystal ball. If you have completed and spent quality hours on
Step One of this series, fully researching your keywords, you
are already well on your way. Delving into those keywords you
will often find hints that will push you in the right direction.
If you have an acne site and you have found a number of people
searching for “acne treatment” and “natural acne treatment” and
have thus chosen these as your targeted keyword phrases you
already understand your visitors current situation and more
importantly, their desire. Similarly, if you are a real estate
agent and have chosen “los angeles real estate” as your phrase
you know more than simply characters strung together and dropped
into a search box. You know that you are dealing with people
wishing to purchase or sell a home in Los Angeles. In both
scenarios you know what your visitors want and, assuming you are
already successful in your industry, you know what you have to
do to convert that desire into a client.
Now what has to be done is to create solid, compelling content
that will both grab your visitor’s attention and at the same
time, make them want what you have to offer. This is not the
same as selling to them when you have the opportunity to speak
to them face-to-face. You are working without the benefit of
watching their expressions, speaking to them about their
objections, or even understanding whether they are looking for
information for a friend or if it is they themselves who require
your services.
This leaves you with a lot of room for content. In the online
environment you have to deal with every question before they ask
it, and make every person feel that you can help them even
though you’ve never met.
What does your audience want to find? They want to find a
solution to their problem. How do you provide that? By supplying
them answers to the questions that they don’t have the
opportunity to ask and may not want to give you their email
address to find out. FAQ pages are good but often used as sales
pages, which is fine so long as you are still providing good
content that your visitor isn’t reading as “sales” but rather
“solutions”. Perhaps create pages of replies to emails you have
received. Perhaps place a related “fact of the day” on your
homepage with a link to an archive of facts related to your
industry, product and/or business. You might even want to add a
blog to your site. Regardless, give your visitor the answers
they’re looking for and keep this information updated as you get
new information and you will stand a much better chance of
keeping that person surfing through your website. The longer you
can keep them on your site, the greater the chance that you will
build trust and once you’ve got that, you can help them with the
solution to their problem.
Will you have to do additional research?
For many business owners the gut instinct to this question is“no”.
Of course not, you are an expert right? Well you may be, and so
is Professor Stephen Hawking (http://www.hawking.org.uk/home/hindex.html),
however my bet would be he still does his research.
No matter how much you know there is always more out there and
your visitors are probably well aware of that. If you fail to
address all their questions, your visitors may very well leave
your site in search of the answer. Once they’ve left your site
it becomes other webmasters who now have the opportunity to
present the benefits of their products or services.
Find all the information that you can and make sure that you
include as much as possible on your site. The additional benefit
in doing this is that constant new information on your website
will not only keep visitors coming back to find new information
but the search engines spiders too. If your site changes often
the spiders will pick up on this and will visit you more often.
While this by itself will not improve your rankings it does give
you an advantage. The more often search engine spiders visit
your website the faster changes you make will be picked up. The
faster these changes are picked up the quicker you will be able
to react to drops in rankings. If you know the spiders visit
your site every second day and you drop from #8 to #12 you know
that with proper tweaking to your content you may be able to
recover that loss in as little as two days.
Are you an expert writer or do you have one on staff?
When you need a doctor do you read a book entitled “Heart
Surgery For Dummies” and buy yourself a very sharp knife. Of
course you don’t and while your website may not be quite as
important as your heart, it is how your company is being
perceived online. This perception can be the make-or-break of
all your online marketing efforts.
If you are committed to attaining high rankings, to making money
online and/or promoting your business through your website,
shouldn’t you also be committed to insuring that your
conversions are maximized. High search engine positioning is
important but so too is converting those visitors once they get
to your site. You may be an expert in your field but if that
field isn’t writing, and you don’t have a writer on staff, be
certain to at least consider hiring one to make sure that your
website is conveying the message you want in verbiage that your
visitors will understand. Assuming you choose your writer well
you will not only have a well-written site but you will also
gain the advantage of having an outsider, who is more likely to
write for people who aren't experts, creating your content.
If you feel that you are qualified to write your own content
(which you may very well be) be sure to have it proofread by
someone from the outside. Find someone (ideally plural) from
within your target market and demographic, and have them go
through your content giving suggestions and criticism. Don’t
take it personally, every change they recommend is earning you
extra money. Whether you implement the changes or not you are
learning something new about what people will want and expect to
see on your site.
With Articles Come Links
Writing content is not just an exercise for your own website. We
all know that inbound links to your site help rankings.
Additionally, if those links can be ones that provide genuine
targeted traffic you’re doing very well.
There are a number of methods for driving traffic to your site
with paid advertising, PPC, etc. however one of the most
cost-effective methods is to publish articles. Article writing
is no simple task however the rewards can be enormous. Articles
server two great purposes:
Increased Link Popularity – When you write an article and submit
it to other website to post, they will generally link to your
website from the page the article is on. Here’s a completely
legitimate, relevant, and quality link to your site.
Exposure Credibility – The added credibility that article
writing lends to your business coupled with the added benefit of
the visitors who come to your site directly from your article
are invaluable.
When it comes to article writing there is little in the way of
more effective advertising. You will have to find sources to
publish those articles on, but once you’ve done this
time-consuming task you can reuse the same list for future
articles.
Get those articles on a number of quality resource sites and
enjoy watching your stats and your rankings improve.
With Quality Content Comes Even More Links
Yet another benefit that derives from having a website with
great content and writing articles is that, with time, your
website itself will become a resource. If you provide great
information that other people will find useful people will link
to it naturally.
With so much emphasis in recent times on reciprocal linking some
might think this is the only way to get links at all. Believe it
or not there are still webmasters out there who will link to
sites for no other reason than they feel their visitors will be
interested in it’s content.
Build a good site with quality content, keep it easily navigated
and create sections for specific areas (articles for example)
and you will find that people will link to your site and may
even link to specific articles or your articles index. Perhaps
then your articles index is a good page to target an additional
keyword phrase.
Next Week
Next week in part three we will be covering site structure and
the importance it plays in your rankings and in visitor
experience. This will cover getting a spider through your site
while also giving your visitors an easy path to the pages you
want them on.
Bio In HTML
Dave Davies is the owner of
www.beanstalk-inc.com/
Beanstalk Search Engine
Positioning.
He has been optimizing and
ranking websites for over three years and has a solid history of
success. Dave is available to answer any questions that you may
have about your website and how to get it into the top positions
on the major search engines.
http://www.beanstalk-inc.com/
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