Wingnut SEO

Every new client I have ever dealt with has asked the same thing: “How should I write copy to be SEO friendly?”

This is the document that I have handed out for the past year and a half. I didn’t write all of it - most of it came from forums and blogs that are no longer active.

Enjoy

The Basics of SEO Copywriting
Writing for the search engines would be an easy task if all one needed to do was stuff content for website with keywords. But this is certainly not the fact. SEO Copywriting is a challenging task that involves writing content that appeals to search engines as well as to the human eyes. Given below are steps that can help a SEO copywriter in writing search engine friendly online content which is effective.

Researching for Keywords
One thing that differentiates online content from offline content (print) is the use of keywords. Any search engine friendly content needs to make use of keywords and not just that, the keywords need to be arranged in the most strategic manner within the copy giving the impression of professionalism to the reader and a search engine friendly feed to the search bots. So researching and analyzing keywords becomes the primary part of SEO based copywriting.

The important question that you need to ask yourself before researching for keywords is

* What is the Copy all about?
* Who would be interested in the copy?

Answering these two questions can prove extremely helpful when researching for keywords. There are many tools online that can help you find the keywords that people have actually used when looking for similar content. Some good tools that you can use are overture search keywords and worktracker.

Planning the Copy
Planning the copy involves finding out the content that needs to be added in reference to the keywords. This also involves arranging the keywords in an ascending order based on their importance levels. The top keyword is the one that you would be optimizing for and all other keywords will be used as secondary ones.

For instance: A company offering e-mail marketing solutions for small businesses can have the following hierarchy of keywords based on research.
1.) Small Business Email Marketing Services
2.) Small Business Email Marketing Service
3.) SMB Email Marketing services
4.) SMB Email Marketing Service
5.) Affordable Email Marketing Services
6.) Affordable Email Marketing Service

It should be noted that in the above example the keywords have been arranged in hierarchy based on the importance. This means that the first keyword ‘Small Business Email Marketing Services’ is the most important and needs to be optimized to the fullest. All other keywords that follow will act like complementary keywords. The most important keyword will be used as the title, in the heading and included within the first few lines in the content.

Most Important keyword will be included in the;

* Title of the web page
* Heading of the copy
* First few lines of the copy
* Ending lines of the copy
* In bold within the copy

Writing a SEO friendly heading

Search engines place more importance to the heading (especially those placed within heading tags) of a document and not only that, even humans tend to read the heading first. If the heading is good then people proceed towards the copy; if the heading looks bad people might simply turn away. So writing a highly descriptive heading becomes extremely important.

To write a search engine friendly copy, it becomes almost inevitable to include the most important keyword in the heading. The keyword becomes stronger in the eye of the search bots if it is used in the title of the webpage as well. The heading can include only the keyword if it describes the content that follows in a perfect manner; but in most cases this is not possible. In such cases the heading can use three to four additional words with the keyword. Care should be exercised that the keyword is not altered in any manner and even if it is broken the order of the keyword is not changed.

For instance: To write a heading for a copy that describes online marketing services offered by a company which is to be optimized for the keyword ‘online marketing services’ one can write ‘Comprehensive online marketing services for Small Businesses’.

In the above example you will find that the keyword “online marketing seervices” has been complemented by the words ‘comprehensive’ and ’small businesses’ to make the heading more attractive. Though it should be noted that adding more words to a keyword can dilute it.

Writing the SEO friendly Copy
The best way to write an SEO friendly copy is by planning the copy based on the keywords. This will ensure that the copy looks clean and the keywords look blended in, instead of giving an appearance that some words have been inserted later.

The copy should be planned in such a way that the most important keyword (the keyword which has been used in the heading, title, alt tags and Meta tags) is used within the first few lines. These lines are given most importance by search engines and many search engines tend to cache only the first few lines to form their database.

In addition to the first few lines the important keyword can also appear in the main body of the copy and near the ending lines. Care must be taken to ensure that a single keyword is not overused, as this could give rise to the problems of keyword stuffing.

All other keywords can be used within the body section of the copy in the most natural manner. For any copy depending on the length it is best to restrict the use of keywords to a maximum of three to four unique ones. Copy should at-least be 200 words in length with keywords used in the most natural manner.

Breaking unusual keywords
Most People tend to make use of highly unusable keywords while searching online. The problem here is that it becomes extremely difficult to write meaningful copies using such keywords. Inserting them would mean spoiling the entire image of the copy and avoiding them would mean loosing out on visitors.

The solution here is to break up unusual keywords without changing the order and use them in the copy as natural ones. For instance a keyword like ‘marketing email solutions’ can be used in the copy after breaking it up like; ‘We offer online marketing and email solutions ‘. It can be noted that the keyword has been broken down into two without changing the order. This strategy can be adopted even for headings and title tags.

Breaking up bigger copies
Relevant links can be provided within the copy and the copy can be broken up into two in-case it has more than 1000 words. Breaking up copy can give you a chance to optimize for two different keywords by keeping the second level keyword as important in the second copy (refer keyword hierarchy above). Linking to the second copy from the first copy using the second important keyword or the keyword that is going to be important for the second copy will add to its importance. This is because search bots place high level of important to keywords that contain hyperlinks to another page that has content related to the keyword description.

For instance a copy that describes two different services offered by a company can be broken up into two based on the type of service and the first copy can be linked to the second and the second to the first with necessary keywords.

Providing links within the copy
Providing relevant links within a copy is an extremely good practice, but care must be taken not to overdo it. Too many links within a copy makes reading difficult and may give a complex look to a document. Links can be giving using keywords as anchor texts (to documents which relate to the keyword) wherever possible.

Google is great for search… they own it, us.  But when they make it official that they punish people for something they do?

I have a problem with this.  Adwords is a cash cow for Google but when someone else tries to charge someone to place an ad on their site their page rank goes down or worse they get de-listed?

Their mantra is “Don’t be evil” but come on.  Sure - you can say “well, they arn’t forcing you to not sell links… they will just take you off their engine.”

With 65% of the search market and rising a no listing on Google can really take down a sites traffic.  Perhaps enough so that a paid ad isn’t worth putting on your page because you can’t charge more than 10 cents.

It just feels like a slap on the hand to punish us for our wrongdoings.  I’m all for better search but at what cost?  If we continue to let Google rule us what will happen next?  Your site will be de-listed if you don’t give Google your first child so they can feed it to their new algorithm that can only be powered by tender baby meat?

Come on Google, this just feels lazy. There has to be a better way to not pass on PR when someone buys a link other than punishing the seller…

I suppose if I were as powerful as Google, I’d just stop trying too.

Yesterday thanks to our team doing the best it has ever done by more than $20k my boss decided to give us all an iPod Touch. (Sorry if my job perks are better than yours.)

I never thought I would have one of these, hell I didn’t even have an iPod shuffle, and until yesterday hadn’t realized how freaking cool these iToys are.

Anyway - after being giddy about my new toy - I started seeing how much devices like this could potentially change Mobile SEO. The days of needing different sites specifically for mobile looks, at first, like it is going out the door. The iPod touch, much to my delight has Wi-Fi and connects to the interwebs for search and other cool things.

So now you don’t need a special mobile device friendly web-page, right? Wrong. Sure you can see full size pages on these fancy new gadgets but for email and RSS feeds (and really everything else anyone would want to look for on a mobile device) it is still nice, hell maybe better, to have special pages to see everything in a format that doesn’t involve zooming in and out and other such time wasting nonsense. The entire point of being mobile is to get your information quickly and keep going! God bless America.

I suppose the point of all this is (other than bragging that I have a cool gadget) is that although entire web pages can be seen with ease on these absurdly priced hand-candies, it is not going to take the place of sites optimized for mobile devices. It is going to be a long time before everyone gets one of these fancy new iToys and these cavemen are still going to need pages made for their stone-age black berry pearls.

Why did I pick WingnutSEO.com rather than DaveWinget.com for this blog? Simple. I wanted to finally start branding myself - Dave Winget is just a name. A name that people forget and MISPRONOUNCE (I’m talking to you - everyone reading this - it’s Win-JET not Wing-ET)

So now I have a nickname - a brand name. It’s easy to remember and as I continue to build my ever so important social media network - Wingnut might just be a little more simple for everyone to remember. It might be a small help but it’s large enough that it could give me the edge on building a network of friends more quickly.

It’s good to be remembered. Having a brand name that everyone can remember has a chance to become a generic term and this is so amazing it brings tears to my eyes - Anyone have a Kleenex?

Well why do you care about this? Because if you are looking at my SEO blog you are probably interested in SEO (or just really bored) and if you don’t have your own blog already and are thinking about building one. You should remember your name can be important. Don’t get me wrong you can get some great results with just using your given name look at the stuff people like Matt Cutts and Andy Beard have done with their names. Of course they have cool, easy to pronounce, manly last names.

So if your given name isn’t as badass as you’d like, don’t worry. Do what many others out there have done and brand yourself with a new name. Just… Try and make it cooler than Wingnut.

One client I am working for right now doesn’t want to change their site or do anything at all for that matter. Luckily they have a pretty solid site and are still giving me money to run reports for them.

They want more traffic, great who doesn’t?

This company has a pretty general target keyword and they rank fairly well with the words they have. I found, however, that they are not doing well when people insert their term + a city or neighborhood. This is a perfect time to become an internal affiliate.

The way I am going about this is basically like anyone trying to semi-blackhat ninja their way to the top of any search engine… Pick a market area, and then build out a bunch of mini sites that target the product keyword plus the local area. Instead of (example - Shoe store) “shoe store” - “Tucson shoe store,” “(Neighborhood) in Tucson shoes” etc… Build your army of baby sites and cross link/network them into a giganto-baby capable of throwing cars, smashing houses, and most importantly able to grab the top listings in local markets searches.

You turn all of these sites into affiliates, you link-build and other tactics to get your page to the top. If you do it right you can probably get several of them to the magical top three pages then blam tons of traffic for your client and more affiliate money for your company.

When I first started working with SEO for my friends and family the presenting of SEO plans was never a problem. I’d tell them what to do and they would do it. This all changed when I started getting some real clients and my freelance business started expanding and I was having weekly/monthly calls with clients.

I’m a computer guy, I always have been. This doesn’t mean that I am bad at speaking with people - it just means that I’d rather not have to. In the early days I tried as hard as possible to communicate with only e-mail as it gave me time to think about exactly what I wanted to say and more time to plan. This worked well enough, but my business hit a wall pretty quickly. I couldn’t land the large clients.

It was about this time when I realized something that changed my entire perspective.

NORMAL PEOPLE DON’T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT SEO.

If they did, why would they even come ask for your help in the first place? Sure they might have heard about SEO, might even worked with some analytics programs… but when it comes right down to it you have to remember you are the expert. You just have to show them that you know your stuff. The best way I found to do that is with reports.

I can’t believe I didn’t see it before. There I was - two and a half years of SEO work under my belt - before it hit me. I didn’t have to be nervous about presenting a SEO plan to a large client to show value. All it took was a couple fancy reports, some keyword research, bringing up meta-tags… and it amazed (if not bewildered or scared them) into not only wanting me as a consultant but many of them wanted to hire me on full time with their companies.

Now, I’m not saying give them bad information. Quite the opposite. Put some serious time into these first and follow up reports, even if you don’t have time to make a full on battle-plan on the first call with them - don’t be worried. The key is to show them that you are in fact an expert. Answer their questions, show them the research that has been done. The simple stuff will be enough to wow your client and after this, in my experience anyway, they will generally give you more freedom with their sites to get to working on the real SEO.

Something that is often overlooked from newbies to SEO is the power of the press release. I found this article about the important things to remember when doing so. If you’re new to SEO then I hope this will help you out, I wanted to write my own article about this, and maybe I still will, but this one does a great job.

Keyword Research: The first and most important element is to search for keywords and phrases that are likely to deliver qualified leads to your website. A good press release combines targeted keywords with creative writing that makes for a compelling read.

To find these lucrative keyword phrases, begin brainstorming what people would search for when looking for your products. If your products or services are targeted to a particular geographic area, you might want to include these locations in your keyword phrases as well. It is best to target up to 3 keyword phrases.

Keyword Integration & Density: Now that you have chosen the best possible keywords, it’s time to integrate these targeted keyword phrases into your press release. You should include your keywords in the headline, the title, sub-headings and the first two paragraphs. Search engines place much of their emphasis on the title and the beginning paragraphs.

Your title should reflect your strongest keywords, not the name of the company. Include local modifiers if possible. Although it’s often nice to see your company’s name in print, it’s unlikely to bring you the exposure you deserve. Instead, use targeted search phrases that are likely to be used by your potential customers.

Include Hyperlinks: You should also optimize your press release by integrating targeted links within the content. Many press release distribution services and news wires now offer the option of purchasing a hyperlink. You simply convert a keyword phrase within the release into an active hyperlink. This will increase search engine visibility for that keyword phrase and also drive additional traffic back to your website.

Sites that I have used for my own press releases:

PR.Com: A cross between a public relations and advertising entity, PR.com is a directory of businesses, products and services, a press release distribution service, job search website, and online publication of articles, reviews and celebrity interviews. With a full company profile, each business listed on PR.com has a powerful means by which to generate quality leads as well as gain worldwide and local exposure for all of their products, services and other business information.

PRWeb.com: The recognized leader in online news and press release distribution service for small and medium-sized businesses and corporate communications. PRWeb pioneered Free Press Release Distribution and continues to set the standard for online news distribution.

PRNewsWire.com: Now in its 52nd year, PR Newswire Association LLC provides electronic distribution, targeting, measurement, translation and broadcast services on behalf of some 40,000 corporate, government, association, labor, non-profit, and other customers worldwide.

(From Site-Reference.com)

 

You need to know how to set realistic expectations for the results you will see from SEO efforts. Nothing phenomenal can happen overnight so it is important to understand the risks and rewards of SEO. Knowing what to expect can help you become more comfortable with the process.

-SEO Schedule:
If you want to optimize your Web site effectively, you will need to understand how long the process can take. Depending on your keywords, web site focus, and other factors, it can take anywhere from a few months to more than a year to start seeing solid rankings and targeted traffic. This doesn’t mean your efforts won’t be rewarded; if you have competitive keywords or a lot of competitors in the same field, you’ll need to be patient while your SEO efforts work their magic. The timeframe from SEO success will also depend on how long it takes to research keywords and examine your Web site to determine what needs to be done for optimization.

-Getting Involved in Your SEO:
Although you have hired someone for your SEO, you should not feel that your participation is not required. As the client, you will be expected to communicate your goals and needs when your site is being optimized. You may be asked to provide information about your business, give past Web statistics, and other information that we can use to better optimize your site. You should also keep track of the SEO process so you can ask questions or get more information on what is happening with your site.

-Getting SEO Results:
Some SEO firms offer guarantees that promise to get your site ranked on the first page or two of the search engine results. No reputable firm should guarantee number one placement because there are too many variables in place. The search engine rankings constantly change because of new algorithms, changes to the way the search engines look for information, and changes in your competitors’ Web sites.

-SEO Overview
Understanding how to set realistic expectations for your SEO efforts will help you to remain in control of the SEO process and continue your efforts even if you do not see immediate results. This can help you to persevere through the initial stages of optimization and continue your efforts until you see real SEO success.

(I did not write this, it is compiled from several different sources that I cannot remember the links for - I have used this for 3 years as a handout for my clients.)