SEO - Express Writers

SEO-Optimized Web Content: How Do You Optimize Without Overdoing It?

January 1, 2021March 15, 2014 by Adam Oakley

Search engine optimization? Isn’t that dead? Nope! If you thought it was, then you were misinformed. SEO isn’t dead or dying, it’s simply evolving, according to our SEO predictions for 2014. And it’s still important to know how to optimize without overdoing it. When is the last time you overdid something? Be honest! We all overdo things from time to time because we get wicked excited or have a habit of overthinking and second guessing. It’s nothing to be ashamed of because it amounts to human nature. But when it comes to something as important to your business as SEO-optimized web content, how do you make sure you don’t overdo it? Is there anything wrong with overdoing it? That’s exactly what we’re going to discuss. The SEO Golden Rule There’s a golden rule in every industry, isn’t there? In a lot of industries, the golden rule boils down the age old saying, “The customer is always right.” When it comes to the content industry, I’ve heard a slight various to this adage: “The audience rules.” Fact: you can create a beautiful website packed full of content, but it’ll be dead on arrival if the audience doesn’t like it. Truth: the audience really does rule the content kingdom. According to KISSmetrics, the golden rule of on-site optimization is this: When using any…SEO elements [don’t] overdo it. The thing about golden rules is that they really should not be broken. And when it comes to search engine optimization, you DON’T want to break the golden rule. So, to answer one of the questions we posed in the beginning of this post, YES there absolutely is something wrong with overdoing SEO. Don’t believe us? Let’s talk consequences… The Consequences of Breaking The SEO Golden Rule Or… …why you don’t want to overdo SEO. Let’s be brutally honest, shall we? Most of us small to medium sized business owners broke the rules to get where we are today. Thinking outside of the box and stretching AND breaking the rules are part of entrepreneurship. But along the way we learned that certain rules cannot be stretched or broken without hurtful consequences. Writing over optimized web content is one of them. Back in March of 2012, Search Engine Roundtable published an article entitled, Cutts: Google to Target Overly SEO’ed Sites within Weeks. You should definitely check out the audio recording from Cutts in the article. In case you’re unfamiliar with the name, Matt Cutts is the person to know when it comes to SEO. He started out with Google in 2000 as a software engineer, and today he’s the head of Google’s Webspam team. Breaking SEO news on the dos and don’ts of search engine optimization—especially the don’ts—come from him. When Cutts speaks up, you listen. Back in 2012, Cutts made it clear that websites overdoing SEO were going to get unwanted attention: they would be penalized by Google. The idea was to level the playing field and promote a right way of doing SEO-optimized web content. As you can imagine, the change in policy caused a sizeable stir. Fast forward to today, 2014, and the policy still stands. If you overdo SEO elements on your website, it won’t help you; it will hurt you. Your search rankings will drop, and you’ll end up in the one place you don’t want to be: Google’s penalty box. So, how do you do optimized web content without over optimizing? How do you cross your T’s, dot your I’s, and come out on Google’s good side? The working tactics just might surprise you. 3 Ideal Tips for Optimized Web Content Search engine optimization doesn’t have to be hard. In fact, it comes down to using a little common sense and knowing where to look if you have questions. A lot of well researched and credible resources on SEO are available online; just to name a few: Search Engine Land, HubSpot, The Content Marketing Institute and KISSmetrics. But we’re here to get you started with some simple, common sense tips to keep you from overdoing web content optimization: Forget about keyword density. When the three little letters s-e-o come together to form the content marketing buzzword SEO, we tend to see people automatically raising questions about keyword density. If my blog is going to be 500 words, at what density should my keyword be? If I want to insert my keyword 4 times, how many words should make up my content? Forget about keyword density. I know, I know! It goes against everything you’ve had drilled into your head about SEO since this type of optimization started. Trust me; we know how hard it is to kick old habits. But this is one that has to go. Even Matt Cutts says there’s no such thing as an ideal keyword density. Stop keyword stuffing! Cutts’ video talks about this tip. Google frowns heavily on keyword stuffing, which can happen due to unnatural overuse of a keyword or phrase. The keyword to note here is “unnatural.” It’s okay to incorporate keywords and phrases into your web content. In fact, they still need to be there so search engines can understand what your content is about. But don’t stuff them in like a Thanksgiving turkey. The trick is to craft them into the copy so that it reads naturally, as if the words were meant to be there. Never, ever strain to use keywords, jamming them in for the sake of presence versus readability. Don’t go link crazy. Since the New Year, you’ve likely heard a lot about SEO and backlinking. Pay attention to the links you choose to use for backlinking. Why? Because you don’t want to be spammy. That is a big no-no that will land you in Google’s penalty box. Rule of thumb: only backlink when the link is relevant to your content and expands on it in an easy to see manner. In other words, don’t backlink to content that is a stretch in comparison … Read more

13 Ways to Optimize Video Content

January 1, 2021March 14, 2014 by Adam Oakley

Optimizing written content for people and search engines is relatively simple when compared to video content optimization. After all, you usually only have a limited amount of space or words to use in conjunction with the video. And, let’s be honest, if you open the “About” section on a YouTube video and see more than a few hundred words it quickly dives into “tl;dr” area and you might find yourself thinking “I came here to watch a three minute video, not read War and Peace That’s the bad news. The good news is that there are plenty of ways to optimize your video to get the results you want whether it’s encouraging your customers to purchase something, getting shares, getting noticed by search engines, or simply getting views. 13: Know The Goals This is just good advice for any time in life, but it also applies to marketing your video content. Knowing goals doesn’t just mean knowing your goals. You obviously know your goals. It’s important to know the goals of your customers. Keep them in mind and you’ll be able to make great video content that truly connects with them. This means that you should know how your customers feel at the moment, know what you want your customers to feel, and evoke those feelings. If you are evoking a negative emotion (like fear) then your video content should lead your customer to a remedy for that feeling. If you are going for a positive emotion (like joy) then you should let your customers know how you can help them continue that feeling. Let’s be clear: evoking a negative emotion doesn’t always mean making them paranoid or generally unhappy. Allstate’s Mayhem commercials do a great job striking the balance between raising their awareness of certain concerns while having a sense of humor about it. 12: Create a Call to Action Making sure that you have actionable content is absolutely necessary for any type of success with your video content. There are several different ways to do this. One of them is obvious: put a call to action somewhere in the video. Another, less obvious tactic, is to put a call to action in the description of the video (for example “Buy the album here” with a link following). The call to action that falls in the description is frequently used by musicians, although this particular video features both types of call to action: 11: Know Where to Host Your Video Content Now, when most people think of optimized video hosting they think of sites like Metacafe, YouTube, or Veoh. They’re quick, easy, and cheap. What’s more is that they have a built in audience that might accidentally stumble onto your videos while looking for something else, allowing you to passively build a crowd. It’s like being the opening act for The Rolling Stones (if there were 3 million other bands playing at the same time). While that sort of video hosting does have a lot of merits and is very tempting, it won’t necessarily keep people coming back to your site. If you want to do that then it might be better to host it yourself on your own site (or host it through a major hosting site but only have it viewable on your website). But what if you don’t have any frequent visitors but you want them? Then it might be nice to give them a taste of what you have on YouTube and then direct them to your site for more frequently updated video content. One example is how the Food Network’s Cutthroat Kitchen uses this strategy to bring people to additional content on the Food Network website as well as tuning in for the shows (although Alton Brown does the call to action in a very… Alton Brown-y sort of way): 10: Analytics, Analytics, Analytics This is a ridiculously obvious tip but it likely has a place in every blog post on this site. Use your analytics to their full potential. They’re not there for no reason. If you’re an American from Nevada and you find out that a strange amount of your views are coming from Iceland, it’s probably important to find out why. Maybe your views are peaking in mid-October. Knowing why a lot of your viewers are coming from a certain region or at a certain time can help you ask specific questions that you need to know to expand your market and keep the viewers you have. 9: Use Better Meta According to Kissmetrics.com, metadata is an interesting little background figure because it has such an impact on our content but kind of blends into the background. It’s like a really good bassist in a band. You may not notice that they are there, plucking away during your favorite songs, but you’d notice if the instrument were gone from the mix. Basically, metadata is the data that describes the data. It’s the text portion of the dating profile that is your content. “I am your YouTube video on how to properly iron your socks. My keywords are: How to, laundry, ironing, housekeeping. I enjoy walks at dusk on a sandy beach but am paradoxically annoyed by sand between my toes.” You’re only fighting half the battle if you just know what it is. Using metadata properly is another beast entirely. For an example of high-quality metadata, check out the title and description of this TED talk about tying your shoes. It mentions the name of the speaker and a concise, accurate description in the title (that doesn’t have unintentional ellipsis at the end) and describes the talk and the speaker, including the date, in the description. It will also tell you how you’ve been doing a basic skill slightly wrong for your whole life, which is always humbling. 8: Amusing or How To Videos People love funny videos and how to videos is usually one of the … Read more

Google Plus to Overtake Facebook: Prediction or Fiction?

January 1, 2021March 12, 2014 by Adam Oakley

Marketers across the web are starting to ask a big question. Is Google Plus (G+) the future of social media? Opinions are split. Let’s begin by taking a look at what the facts say. In 2013, Social Media Today published an article starting that Google Plus (G+) was the “one (social media platform) to watch.” While Facebook and Twitter had already established themselves as “go to” social media brands, G+ appeared to be a wild card in the mix as sources across the Internet contemplated just what Google’s social media experiment would accomplish. Mashable pointed out that, according to research, although Google+ boasts 20 million users or more, they weren’t spending a lot of time on the site. Social Media Today went onto say, “It’s all well and good having masses of members, but it means nothing if they are hardly using the network.” The Google Plus To Facebook Comparison The question is: can we accurately compare Facebook to G+? It’s important to note that the G+ platform is different from the platforms of Facebook and Twitter. According to Social Media Today, the G+ platform is a “different type of platform, with a different target audience.” As such, a fine line exists between social media made for socializing and social media made for business. The biggest Google Plus benefits are for the business users because this is the target audience. It isn’t your typical feed, where you see what type of cookies your sister baked and when. It instead allows you to connect powerfully with a world that could return your ROI—customers, employees, colleagues and peers. AND friends. (We’ll put them last. Not really, but you get the idea!) Express Writers has seen a huge impact from Google Plus, and it’s the platform type that makes all the difference. We recently connected with Rand Fishkin in a Google Hangout. This wouldn’t have happened if it wasn’t for the existence of G+. Will Google Plus overtake Facebook? One argument, extrapolated from the Social Media Today article we referenced at the outset, is that one cannot truly overtake the other because of the platform differences: Facebook is an avenue for joking with your customers and running competitions or giveaway. It’s a place to build a “cult following.” Twitter is prime real estate for getting personal and talking directly to your customers. G+ is a professional landscape, geared toward connecting businesses and professionals with each other, and opening the door to engaging with individuals outside of your usual social circles. It’s like comparing apples to oranges. But statistically, Google Plus just might have a shot at trumping Facebook. Facebook’s Response to a G+ Social Media Takeover Talk about Google’s social media experiment overtaking Facebook goes all the way back to 2010. Facebook published an interesting response to the question, “Are you worried Google will overtake Facebook?” In essence, Facebook pointed out that although Google had repeatedly attempted to build a viable social network, they were continually unsuccessful. However, since the publication of this response, we’ve seen Google Plus grow in leaps and bounds. As of June 2013, G+ turned 2 years old. And according to Marketing Land, G+ “has seen both solid growth and criticism during these years.” G+ managed to hit 135 million “in stream” users, and although it trails behind the well-established Facebook network, it is undeniably growing and growing substantially. G+ To Overtake Facebook by 2016? As Google Plus turned 2 years old, a new study hit with a shocking prediction. Although the two platforms can be dramatically different in terms of target audience and content, a new study predicts a G+ takeover of Facebook by 2016. According to Real Wire, sharing of online content by Google+ users “is set to surpass sharing by Facebook users by February 2016 according to a new US study from search and social analytics specialist, Searchmetrics.” According to the latest data published by eMarketer, Facebook is the most popular social network. Approximately 51 percent of global Internet users log into Facebook at least once per month. With 26 percent of Internet users’ worldwide, logging into G+, Google comes in second! There’s no doubt that with each passing year Google grows stronger and bigger. But is it enough to overtake the current social media giant? According to the case study reviewed by Real Wire, “Facebook is growing from its extremely large base to something larger, and is therefore slower.” Although the blue mega network is continually growing, which is remarkable, the “data shows Google+ can catch it if growth rates for sharing activity continue as they are.” As of 2013, “the absolute number of shares for Facebook was over 29 billion compared with just over 2 billion plus ones for Google+.” The News as Of 2014 In February of 2014, Hot Hardware published an update on Google Plus statistics, revealing that Google+ now has over 1 billion users and is building to overtake Facebook. Popular opinion has it that G+ is a ghost town, hardly frequented by members. Facebook, on the other hand, seems to be a constant buzz of activity. Just why do people think of Google Plus as a ghost town? It’s primarily due to the platform and target audience difference. For folks who prefer the lighthearted interaction of who’s baking what and when, Facebook will immediately appear much more active than G+. But for businesses and professionals, G+ is bustling with professional activity promoting growth and connectivity with allies and the competition. As of February 2014, Google Plus houses over 1 billion registered users. Facebook has 1.19 billion. Says Hot Hardware, “It’s true that Google+’s stats are somewhat artificially inflated due to Google integrating accounts for its various services. However, Courtney-Brown [at SiteProNews] says over 540 million Google+ users visit their profiles every month to share photos, update their statuses, post comments, and more. And that +1 button? It’s being clicked over 5 billion times a day across the web.” Many of G+’s … Read more

6 Ways to Recover If You’ve Lost Your Web Page Rankings

January 1, 2021March 5, 2014 by Adam Oakley

How are your web page rankings fairing? Have you sunk, swam or treaded water? In one of our New Year’s blogs we discussed the tricks of SEO optimization as they applied to the latest and greatest Google algorithm updates. After seeing three major algorithm updates in 2013, it isn’t surprising to see 2014 already graced by yet another Google update. Google Updates Its Page Layout Algorithm for Web Page Rankings It was bound to happen. As the face of search engine optimization continues to evolve, Google unleashed their first algorithm update of 2014. According to Search Engine Land, the update specifically targets websites that are “top heavy” with ads. Matt Cutts, Google’s lead of web spam, released the announcement on February 6, 2014, stating it was a “refresh” of Google’s Page Layout Algorithm, otherwise known as the Top Heavy Algorithm. This marks the third confirmed update to the algorithm, which aims to penalize websites featuring pages that are top-heavy with advertisements. What does this mean for you? Simply put, if your website buries content under lots of ads, you were in trouble back in 2012. If you’re still cramming ads in above your content today, you’re about to end up in even more trouble. According to Search Engine Land, sites choosing to use overlay, pop-up and pop-under ads are not impacted by this algorithm. How much top ad is too much? There doesn’t appear to be any set ruling. However, you should take into consideration how your page displays. Content should be the anchor of every page. Ads are simply additional icing, meant to decorate not overtake. Remember: Google’s updates are all about improving the user’s experience. Users want to see more beneficial content and fewer advertisements. Google Shakes Up SERPs Before refreshing the Page Layout Algorithm, Google made what DejanSEO called the 6th largest update in a year. It caused a search engine results page shake up that shook cyberspace like an earthquake for the first time in a year. DejanSEO reported a culmination of “a massive 2.91 roos.” What exactly did the cyber earthquake do? Near as we can tell, it shook up and rearranged where many websites placed on the SERPs. A prime example of this comes from Search Engine Journal, where Hin Lai shares the shocking news that after the quake their website dropped nearly 130 spots. Maintaining Your SERPs The updates to algorithms in 2014 beg the question we posed in the opener: how are your search rankings fairing? Have you sunk, swam or treaded water? If you’ve managed to tread water, then you’re obviously doing something at least partially right. And you’re likely breathing a sigh of relief, thanking the search engine gods. Breaking even is always better than coming up short. Now, how do you improve? If you’ve swam so far this year, then your search rankings have risen; you’ve definitely got the hang of 2014 SEO. However, if you’ve had the unpleasant experience of sinking, you’re no doubt trying to claw upward. You need air, and you need it now, before the first quarter of the year is out. Survival instincts are kicking in! But can you raise the submarine before the first quarter of 2014 passes? After all, isn’t Google hardcore about penalizing offenders, keeping their heads held staunching underwater to teach them a hard learned lesson? Based on Hin Lai’s experience, you might not feel your head held underwater for too long. Lessons Learned Early in 2014 Once Lai realized the search ranking drop looming before him, he did something not all of us would think to do at a moment of crisis: create a timeline of events. Google’s first update of 2014 hit on January 8th, and at Search Engine Land Lai recorded the following timeline: “January 9th – Site was hit by the penalty and dropped from rank 5 to rank 124. January 19th – Investigations led to having a PRO exact match anchor text link removed. January 26th – Monitored the results of actually saw a further drop of about 60 places since the link was removed. Fell to rank 101 at this point. January 28th – Decided to change the URL to avoid using my exact keyword. 301 redirected the old URL to the new one so that existing link juice would flow through. January 30th – Huge jump back to page 1, woohoo! February 1st – Site climbs to rank 6. February 4th – Site climbs further up to rank 5.” As you can see, the website seems to have been able to regain ranking almost as abruptly as it was stripped of it due to good changes—the kind that Google smiled favorably upon. So, what can we learn from this example? How can you recover from falling search rankings in 2014? 6 Means of Repairing a Sinking Ship We can learn a lot from what Lai did to recover his rankings. He points out some interesting lessons, and we’d like to expand on these lessons (or means of repairing the sinking ship): Lesson 1: Content is, yet isn’t the king. We’ve talked a lot about how content is king this year. We’ve discussed the need to put your audience first, tailor to their needs, educate, inform, compel and engage. Content needs to be well written and properly formatted. It needs to rival traditional editorial standards. And that’s why you should consider getting an industry copywriter. While quality content is an essential to a well-planned SEO strategy this year, it cannot be your sole savior. Take Lai, for example. He had immaculate, quality content and still his rankings got hit. Invest in quality content, view it as kingly, but do not allow it to stand alone. The King on the chessboard is the key to the game, but he cannot stand without his army. Lesson 2: You can pass all link juice via 301 redirects. We take this lesson directly from Lai’s experience. He points out that Matt Cutts publically stated “all link juice is … Read more

What Happens When Your Rankings Vanish? 7 Judgment Day Preparations

January 1, 2021March 3, 2014 by Adam Oakley

You know those houses that are all shelled in… with capsuled steel windows that can open to reveal the daylight or completely close shut to put the dwelling into twilight zone? Or those “zombie” shelters built feet and feet below ground, with beautiful living areas, advanced lighting and power technology included? Those people got it goin’ on. Now, consider your livelihood. How would you like to know it’s bulletproof…just like that previously described house or bomb shelter is? If you’re an Internet marketer, this should be just as important to you as it is to the landowners on Doomsday Preppers (a reality TV show where all the people prepare for earth’s apocalypse with aforementioned and described dwellings, for the non-nerds out there). Let’s Talk About Preparations… For The Rankings Apocalypse Hey, it’s a serious thing to make yourself sure of. With all of the algorithmic updates and changes to PageRank that Google is using to try and minimize black-hat SEO it’s likely that, unless you’re one of the bigger companies out there, you’ll be hit. One day you might wake up and find out that your visibility and rankings have dropped drastically (like many sites did in 2011 after Google’s Panda algorithm update). How do you prevent this from happening in the future? Or, if the worst should happen, what do you do if you lose visibility? Fortunately for you there are ways to defend against it happening and ways to reverse your rankings if it does. Most of these strategies you should be using right now to defend yourself because, as everyone knows, “the best offense is a good defense.” As long as you’re implementing strategies early and continually cultivating hits and strategies in unambiguously legitimate ways then there will be nothing to worry about when it comes down to another Google PageRank update. 1. Links How can you prepare for a “zombie apocalypse,” so to speak, that could (could not, could, your pick, hmm, or Google’s pick?) occur and fell your link strategy? Private Link Networks Are Dying! It’s common knowledge that PageRank takes into account incoming links. In order to prevent your site rankings from getting hit with penalties it’s vital to let your links come as naturally as possible. This means that there should be no private link networks! Google is going full force and ripping these shady techniques out by the roots. Honestly, private link networks might not be a temptation for the big boys but for a startup it’s a tempting and temporary solution for rankings, that can get your site slapped with a penalty. Incoming Hyperlinks. But even if you’re not intentionally attracting shady links, you may have some less-than-savory links coming to your page and affecting your rankings. The links themselves may not be the problem but it might be overused anchor text that is the dead weight that might get Google to drop the hammer on a keyword it sees too often, according to a Moz blog on how rankings can vanish. There’s also a problem if the quality of the hyperlinks isn’t good enough. Google adds any anchor text linking to your site to your keywords. If your incoming links are frequently using “click here” in anchor text then your visibility will skyrocket when someone searches “click here.” But who actually does that? If you find an important site linking to you with bad anchor text then contact them and ask them to change it. Don’t Look Stupid. While you’re watching the sources that are linking to you, check to see the other places they’re linking to as well. Google sure is. If your site is linked on the same pages as www.terriblewebsite.com then you’re going to be associated with that crowd rather than other, authoritative sites. This goes double for your outbound links. For one thing, you’ll lose credibility with your visitors if you’re linking to unreliablesources.co.uk just as fast as you’ll drop in the Google rankings. 2. Design Obviously this is almost as important as your linking strategy, and remember—this includes real people too, since it’s the forefront or cover to your strategies. Forget Search Engines. The New York Times didn’t get readers through keyword mining and artificially inflating their readership by tricking them into picking up a paper. They gained rankings and popularity by being a quality newspaper with generally reliable information. Giving people what they came for will gain repeat visitors while making pages for search engines will cause visitors to bounce out faster than a boxer’s speed bag. That’s not to say that you shouldn’t use smart SEO strategies but deliver what you promised and you’ll have to worry a lot less about gaining rankings, traffic or conversion rates. Watch Your Visitors. Another way to gain traffic, and conversion rates, is to simply pay close attention to your visitors. This means that you should always be thinking about optimization (even during website redesigns). Whether it’s making a responsive website that is viewable on PCs, tablets, and smartphones or making the behind-the-scenes aspects easy to crawl through and audit, providing an easy, pleasurable experience will keep people coming back and increase your rankings. Remember Search Engines. Google’s PageRank algorithm isn’t just going through your website and links to pick up on exactly what you are and whether you’re worth it. They’re going through your background nuts and bolts. Use your meta descriptions even if you’re not using meta keywords (which are basically obsolete for the time being). But, really, this falls under forgetting search engines too because it’s your blurb on a search engine page. If you make your meta description more interesting than your competitors then you’ll see your click-throughs jump. 3. Content This is considered today as a foundation of SEO. So let’s see just how you can be ready for the zombie world when content changes, too. Be Useful. There was once bottled water… for pets. Notice that last sentence is in past tense. Everyone who guesses … Read more

The Tale of Too Many Keywords: Optimization in Content Marketing

January 1, 2021February 21, 2014 by Adam Oakley

According to Moz, Google algorithm changes happen about 500-600 times yearly. That’s quite a bit of change in the way Google SERPs analyze and rank your content. The good news? There’s a distinguishable trend towards favoring a quality flow across all content pages published over the web. Yes, one of the online content trends for 2014 is quality. And we’re not just talking about the quality products or service your brand or business is offering. We’re taking quality content, which boils down to good old-fashioned quality writing. True quality is going to be integral and depend on: Proper planning Keeping it interesting Keeping it relevant and fresh Seasoning with search engine optimization techniques Creating backlinks Once Upon A Time, Keywords Ruled When SEO was young, it was a kingdom ruled by keywords. If you wanted to be the king on any search engine results page, you had to research and insert specific keywords and phrases into your web pages and online content. It didn’t matter if the keywords read perfectly in the sentence or not. They had to be exact – otherwise rankings fell. Google Panda was the game changing algorithm update here. In late 2011, a big change was made from ranking keyword-focused content to higher quality, more reader-friendly content. What exactly was the big change? According to HeBS Digital, Google said goodbye to keyword-centric SEO and changed the very direction of search engine queries in relation to websites. The change directly affected marketing strategies. Instead of providing searched for keywords to website analytics tools, Google moved to a nondisclosure policy. Says HeBS Digital , “Google is not disclosing to website owners the keyword terms visitors use to find the site, e.g. ‘downtown Houston hotels’ or ‘Hotel near Times Square’.” At first, this change felt like doom rolling into the SEO kingdom. Businesses gasped in horror because a strong percentage of their sales came from website revenue, revenue that was directly related to the influx of traffic via keyword placement! “The major shift on behalf of Google marks the end of the keyword-centric era and ushers in the page-centric era,” wrote HeBS Digital. “This new initiative is in tune with [the] Google Panda Update, which punishes low-quality content that provides poor user experience and engagement.” The New Hero, Quality Content As the Keyword King was dethroned, the new fearless hero made an entrance. However, this hero wasn’t really a new face. According to HeBS Digital, “Without keyword-specific data, SEO marketers must focus on what [we have] been supporting all along: relevant, editorial-quality website content.” Instead of depending solely on keywords to drive and corral the audience, it was time to use the more precise tools of the newly, officially crowned hero: Create engaging content Use professional copywriting Develop a content creation plan Use SEO monitoring technology Matt Cutts, Google’s head of web spam, expanded on the new way of doing things. Cutts said, “A lot of people [think] there’s some one recipe, and you can just follow like baking cookies, and if you follow it to the letter, you’ll rank number one.” However, this way of thinking was shockingly incorrect. No single, perfect recipe for quick bake SERPs exists—not then and not now. How does the Google expert say to use keywords? Instead of haphazardly stuffing content, Cutts says, “Think about the keywords that you’d like to have in your copy. Make sure your copy is long enough that you can work those keywords into your copy in a natural way and not an artificial way. And my recommendation is to either read it aloud or read it to someone else or have someone else read it, and sort of say, ‘Do you spot anything that’s artificial or stilted or that doesn’t quite read right?’ And if you can read through the copy, and have it read naturally where a person isn’t going to be annoyed by it, then you’re doing relatively well.” Why the change? Wouldn’t stuffing keywords be easier than actually writing editorial-quality copy? The biggest reason for this change was to cut down on the spam in keyword-focused pages. Keyword-focused pages might well have increased website traffic and led to a statistical increase in several key areas, but they also accomplished on major thing that even Cutts said to avoid: they annoyed readers. The old keyword techniques just don’t work as well as they used to. “When was the last time that anyone wanted to read copy that included many repetitions of a word that didn’t provide any additional context or information which helped the reader? Not very many,” says Search News Central. Google’s Panda upgrade permanently dethroned keywords. And it all happened for one simple reason, which Search News Central sums up by saying, “The biggest reason [for this change] is that documents that lace themselves with hundreds of keyword repetitions looks like spam. So much so that it becomes unreadable for the normal human being.” Plot Twist: Your New Focus Since keyword research is clearly no longer a driver in SEO, what should you focus on? Well-researched content that delivers stellar readability is HUGE. This will do so much more for you than content that solely focuses on keyword optimization. Instead of zeroing in on a keyword, make it the last thought as you write your content. You might say it’s time to start thinking of keywords and phrases as takeaway points. They are that tidbit of information you want the audience to remember. It’s likely your keywords are all related to your niche. By infusing the takeaway moment with your keyword or phrase, you’ll silently train your audience to come back to and look for your content in regards to that topic or key point. Write to educate, inform, and share knowledge. What lasts longer than the latest and greatest product or service? A way of thinking. Your goal should be to generate the kind of well-researched and well-written content that educates, informs, and shares knowledge with everyone … Read more

SEO Optimizing Your Online Copywriting: Tricks of the Trade

January 1, 2021January 30, 2014 by Adam Oakley

Search engine optimization is a bear of a topic. Many of us feel like we’re staring down a ferocious bear as we try to wrap our heads around SEO optimization of our online copy. It can seem like a daunting task, even when we hire a professional. Today, our goal is to turn that ferocious bear into a teddy bear by the time you finish skimming or reading this blog. Are you up for the transformation? SEO Updates: Pandas and Penguins and Hummingbirds, Oh My! Writing for the web has been said to be a beast of a task. Unlike traditional copy where you wrote for the audience, online copy demands that you write for the search engines too. Google, the king of search engine beasts, makes no secret of their requirements for proper SEO optimization. The guide they provide is great, but suddenly we find ourselves being hit by various creatures. In 2013, we had a panda, a penguin and a hummingbird thrown at us! Since when is throwing untamed wildlife at us okay? Panda, Penguin and Hummingbird were all updates to SEO. With each one, the focus of optimization and rankings changed. At times, it felt like we were being attacked by wild animals. Now that the dust has settled (and the wildlife seems to be caged, at least for now), the ferocious SEO bear really does look a bit more like a cuddly teddy bear. The Truth about Keywords In all the wildlife excitement, someone had the courage to start a vicious little rumor that the days of keyword optimizing were going, going, gone. Based on Google’s SEO updates, we respectfully disagree. It is undeniable that how we use keywords has changed, but we have by no means been discouraged from using them altogether. As a result, you still need to tackle keyword research and keyword usage when optimizing online copy. Keyword research is a frightening topic. “Research” isn’t a word most of us appreciate. It brings to mind painful classes and scary essays. What exactly is keyword research? Well, it boils down to discovering which words or phrases your target audience will use when conducting an Internet search. We published an informative blog about keyword research that can open your horizons to this concept in more depth, back in December. You’ll want to pinpoint the top 1 to 3 keywords for your target audience. These words should be inserted into the following places: The title tag The #h1 headline Image alt tags The body of the text (usually in the first and last paragraphs) SearchEngineLand published a fantastic article about optimizing a single page of content with multiple keywords. If you need (or want) detailed information about where and how to place your keywords and phrases, it’s a great additional resource. Keyword usage in copy is a whole new ball game these days. In the past, Google’s search algorithms weren’t synonym smart. As a result, we had to use specific keywords and keyword phrases. It wasn’t uncommon to read copy that made both the writer and editor cringe. Proper grammar? Forget it. Semi-proper grammar? Maybe. Keyword phrases were often out of order or senseless because they had to cater to the search engine. Thankfully, search engines are smarter today. Not only can they handle synonyms, but they can also adapt to variations! Instead of having to insert “sandwich peanut butter” into a sentence and cringe, we can now write “peanut butter sandwich” and the search engine will still grab this key if someone types “sandwich peanut butter” into a search query. Keywords and phrases still need to be researched and used, but they don’t have to be used at the expense of quality content. The general rule is that a piece of content should have a keyword density of approximately 1 to 2 percent. However, the flow and quality of the copy should take priority because, as CopyBlogger points out when writing about SEO copywriting, “Google treats the truth and authority of your domain, what others think about your content and the words they use to describe it, as an important indication of quality and relevance.” The Importance of Relevance and Authority The primary way websites are ranked today is through a combination of relevancy and authority. In essence, search engines want to see relevant content conveyed by a credible or authoritative entity. They have numerous algorithms designed to determine relevancy and authority; geo-location, search history, Query Deserves Diversity and Query Deserves Freshness, just to name a few. Domain authority is growing more and more relevant to SEO. At first, wrapping your head around it can be a terrifying prospect. I’ll be honest: the first time I read about domain authority, I felt like I was sitting at a tech conference. I thought, “My god, I’m in way over my head.” The SEO bear was growling at me, and I could have sworn he was about to swipe. Then, I started to find resources that helped me make sense of the tech jargon. Moz published a great article about domain authority. Personally, I had to read it a couple of times to grasp it all. Don’t feel bad if you have trouble understanding domain authority at first. The learning curve isn’t as steep as it appears, and it really is natural to feel a little lost. Here’s what you need to know about domain authority in laymen terms: Domain authority, or DA, is very difficult to directly influence. A DA rating represents how a website performs in search engine rankings. One way to begin increasing your DA is through SEO linking, but don’t expect immediate or noticeable results. The only sure way to influence your DA is to spend time improving your overall SEO. The Trick to Improving Your Overall SEO The ultimate trick, the perfect key, the guarded secret…it all comes down to one primary thing: quality content. SEO is literally all about creating content that is so compelling, so … Read more

Re: Matt Cutts, Is Guest Blogging Dead?

December 31, 2020January 21, 2014 by Adam Oakley

This is a direct reply written by Julia McCoy in response to The decay and fall of guest blogging for SEO. If you’re up on the game in SEO, you know a big name in it is Matt Cutts. The leader of the “webspam” team at Google, he’s a proclaimed “voice” in SEO and all things rankings. When he talks, people often listen; retweet; share; and reply. The latest buzz from Matt Cutts was posted on January 20, 2014—just three days ago. And already it’s been viral in the Internet world. The reason for the intense, instant feedback was the topic he wrote about. Matt’s blog was entitled “The decay and fall of guest blogging for SEO” and posed the statement, guest blogging is dead. “Google Will Take a Dim View” …The Worst The Blog Got The blog basically stated that all who were guest blogging should stop, and that guest blogging has gone from respectable to totally spammy. He said to stick a fork in the whole opportunity and don’t rely on it for SEO. Note, he never said it was entirely dead, not once in his whole blog; his most distinct ending words were that “Google will take a dim view of guest blogging going forward.” Matt Takes It Back? Matt actually added an “add-on” within 24 hours of writing his blog (possibly affected by the huge amounts of noted blogger voices on Twitter and other platforms denouncing his view) saying that he didn’t mean to “throw the baby out with the bathwater.” He stated very plainly that he did not mean to discount high quality and multi-author blogs, that he stated are “compelling, wonderful, and useful.” He Actually Has A Point About The Spam OK, so just like everything good, anyone—and on the Internet, seriously, anyone—can take it and turn it into something bad. Dirty, grimy hands have touched things like articles, blogs, press releases, web pages, and of course—guest blogging. I recently received a LinkedIN invitation to join a guest blog. I’ll put their name out there: SEO Libra. The invitation read, “Regarding For Free SEO Guest Blogging. Add Guest Posting for Free. Regards.” Ugh, it makes me shudder again. Grimy fingers like these turn content into spam, spin and trash it, try to recycle it, and overall give content a bad name in various avenues. But does that mean content in general stops working for everyone? Of course not. It only stops working in the wrong hands. In the right hands, content becomes well-written. It is original. Creative. Powerful. It has the possibility to go viral and make a positive impact on the web. Case Study Express Writers started blogging on SocialMediaToday about 5 days ago. We’ve had over 300 social shares on each post that was a featured guest blog on SocialMediaToday; new followers on all our social media platforms; connections from other writers and peers; and more than 10 new client inquiries. Guest blogging, my friends, is powerful. It works. What Did You Say, Cutts? Don’t forget, Cutts has said other things in the past that were discounted. A couple years ago, Cutts said a statement in a Google forum stating that press releases no longer held value for SEO. He was since proven wrong by SearchEngineLand experts, who did an actual case study with screenshot results that showed exactly the opposite of Cutts’ statement—that in fact, PR links were being counted by Google. Copyblogger’s CEO Weighs In The CEO of Copyblogger, Brian Clark, said it best on Twitter: Why change because Matt Cutts said something? Build quality, no matter what. (For more, read Copyblogger’s blog on why guest blogging isn’t done yet.) Excellent advice. Don’t change what’s working because one person said something. Keep it up, and always maintain quality—and you’ll always see results.

10 SEO Predictions for 2014

January 1, 2021January 21, 2014 by Adam Oakley

Last year, search engine optimization (SEO) gurus rode a wild rollercoaster of change as Google updated a slew of search engine algorithms. New and exciting algorithm changes are expected for 2014, but one staple of SEO seems to remain static: high-quality, fresh content. SEO Is Not Dying, But Evolving The truth is: SEO is far from dying; it’s evolving. In 2014, Google will be working overtime to weed out fraud. To ensure that you’re earmarked as a productive plant instead of a weed, here are some of the top SEO predictions and how to apply them: Prediction #1: Google’s Crackdown on Spam “Cheaters never prosper.” This idiom holds unmistakable application to SEO cheaters and spammers, the folks who rely on shortcuts over good, old-fashioned hard work. Those who cheat will lose credibility and reputation in 2014. Eventually, they will fail altogether. Guidelines aren’t issued just to look pretty, and Google is getting more aggressive about penalizing sites who insist on operating outside of their posted SEO guidelines. Familiarizing yourself with Google’s guidelines is important as we embark on a new year because spammers and cheaters will find themselves getting the ranking boot. Here’s what to avoid: Don’t ignore Google’s SEO guidelines, familiarize yourself with them. Don’t load your content with keywords over quality, relevant material. Don’t backlink without proper research. Don’t use shortcuts thinking they will give you quick ranking until you “find time” to flesh out content per SEO guidelines. Prediction #2: Negative SEO Attacks Are a No-No The competitors’ war wages on and, unfortunately, some like to take their gloves off in the ring. In 2014, you’ll need to be wary of competitors who attempt to attack your rankings through low quality links. Search Engine Watch published a great piece discussing the ins and outs of negative SEO attacks. In essence, a negative attack occurs when a competitor tries to destabilize the organic visibility of a website or single page on Google. Some experts predict such attacks to grow in 2014. The good news is that Google is aware of such unscrupulous tactics and while they admit damage to rankings is possible, they stand by their webspam team. Crackdowns on spam will be the undoing of anyone choosing to wield this tactic. Prediction #3: Social Media and Google+ We already know social media is a cornerstone of search engine optimization. The staple platforms continue to grow and adapt to the needs of audiences, businesses and marketers. Social signals are predicted to grow continually important throughout 2014. Search engines are now crawling actual social sends, and it’s practically assured algorithms will adjust accordingly. Social network dominance will only improve your SEO results. If you aren’t using Google+ religiously to post new content and media, you’re missing out on a huge SEO opportunity. In 2014, G+ Pages and Helpouts will likely drive the popularity of both the network and its weight in the SERPs. You see, Google’s emphasis on author rank is quickly becoming an effective means of significantly increasing your credibility and reputation. Here’s how it works: Google is encouraging users to get more active on their Google+ profiles by connecting to their content. By linking articles, blogs, press releases, etc., to your Google+ profile and making a link appear on your profile page, author rank will be triggered. Google+ posts are crawled, and index almost immediately— and, thanks to Google Authorship, all of your content will be branded to you. By using Google+ consistently, you can increase your SEO results exponentially. Prediction #4: Long Tail Keywords In 2014, long tail keywords will likely grow in popularity. Such keywords consist of 3 to 5 word phrases designed to target specific, relevant search phrases with the goal of pulling in traffic through targeted content. We expect to see the popularity of these keywords increase due to Google’s focus on generating more targeted search results. Consumers know what they want. They are more likely to enter a phrase versus keyword into a search, such as “how to plan a wedding on a budget” versus “wedding planning.” As a result, the more focused you become in your optimization efforts, the more likely you are to see excellent results. Google’s search algorithms are armed with the ability to detect synonyms. Quality content won’t be stuffed with long tail keywords. Instead, it will be well-written, engaging and fresh. Keywords can and will be adapted to preserve the copy’s quality above all else. Prediction #5: Linking Is Not Dead Contrary to popular opinion, link building for SEO is not dead. Surprised? It’s true that in 2013 we saw a lot of hype from many sources, all crying wolf that link building was coming to an end. Google says differently, and they are the ultimate decision maker. SiteProNews put it perfectly, link building for SEO is still important “because search engines…need context about the content you’re publishing, and its related utilities.” Link building is not a simple matter of linking to random content or popular websites and expecting traffic to roll in. On the contrary, link building is a well-researched strategy. When choosing links, keep the following in mind: Ensure the content of the link add to or expand on the topic of your content. Research the link prior to using it. Things like Domain Authority (DA) matter. You might try using a free tool, such as MozBar, for researching links. Back linking is beneficial. It’s like a personal recommendation and establishes content specialization. It will become more important in 2014 as longer more specialized content becomes the trend for website owners seeking to command traffic and conversions. Advanced techniques—like finding and filling broken links on popular, high-ranking websites—will be “un-sexy but highly necessary,” according to SiteProNews. Prediction #6: Responsive Designs Will Win Mobile web surfing will increase in 2014 as people move further away from laptops and desktops in favor of tablets, smart phones and other mobile devices. Therefore, simple responsive designs will make you a … Read more

How to Research & Prepare Your SEO Keywords for the New Year

December 31, 2020January 8, 2014 by Adam Oakley

According to Search Engine Watch, a leader providing search engine industry analysis, SEO marketing “finally matured in 2013.” In a single year, over 500 algorithm changes took place, changing the face of search engine optimization forever. In 2014, you’ll need to adapt to change if you expect to hold onto your SERP (search engine results page). In preparation for the New Year, we’ve investigated multiple resources and sorted out the pertinent research that will prepare you for the new word of SEO. SEO Copywriting Is More Important than Ever Newbie webmasters and business owners sometimes falsely believe that SEO copywriting is neither useful nor necessary. Such ideas could not be farther from the truth. In fact, we tackled this topic head on in one of our blogs on SEO copywriting. If you doubt for even a nanosecond that optimization for search engine placement is dying, you had better catch up by reading our post! In 2014, SEO will become more vital than ever. However, it absolutely must be handled correctly, otherwise it will be for naught. And the work you’ve already put into optimization now needs an overhaul, otherwise it’ll be hopelessly outdated and nonfunctional. You want website traffic? You want conversion and sales? You better listen up… Keywords Matter but They’re Not Almighty Over the years, opinions and facts about keywords have rapidly changed. At one time, content was bursting at the seams with keyword after keyword, repetitively stuffed in to gain high search engine rankings. Google put the kibosh on this outdated (and frankly, irritating) method of optimization for ranking in favor of quality content. People aren’t robots; they’ve never “crawled” over content and “indexed” it like early model search engine robots. Instead, audiences the globe over have cried out for the chance to read quality content, not sift through incoherent piles of keywords and phrases culminating in an “Order Now” button. As we wrap up 2013, one of the biggest and most buzzed about changes to SEO keywords is the loss of the Google Keyword tool. Moving forward, what does this mean for you? A Moment of Silence, Please Putting the Google Keyword tool to rest is an eventuality almost all of us have been expecting. For those of us neck deep in SEO research, we understand the transforming fact: users want quality content and a great experience above everything else, and Google has heard their voice. Cut the fluff and educate! That’s what consumers want. Back in 2011, Google started dropping hints to SEO marketers that their models and algorithms were about to change. The Panda, Penguin, and Hummingbird updates pushed an attention shift from the almighty repetitive keyword insertion to content quality and relevancy. As we step into the new world of 2014, it would be prudent to take a hard look at your SEO campaigns. It’s time to ensure they’re keeping up with the changes. Otherwise, you’ll be pushing campaigns that won’t push business, and that the last thing you want to do. It would mean a complete waste of planning and funds. SEO Content in 2014 For those of us on the warpath, determined to give our audience of potential customers exactly what they crave, many of the same standards we’ve adopted in the past year are still relevant. For example, we have written on our blog about never sacrificing content quality for rankings. This philosophy is still one of the essential SEO content writing tips and the best policy going into the New Year. In fact, you might say it’s the only policy. Climbing the search engine rankings is about to focus on longer quality content, relevant material and the use of keywords with variations. As the New Year is ushered in, every business owner and marketing guru will meet the change of dealing with new obstacles. Let’s take a look at 3 of the most monstrous obstacles: #1: Traditional SEO Methods Won’t Cut It Remember the days when inserting keywords and variations of those keywords equated to higher SERP rankings? Don’t live in those days because they’re going, going, gone. Mobile searching has taken root, and the almighty Google has made it a point to determine where users are searching from. As a result, SERPs are not static. Google is also tossing customer opinion into the mix. What customers say about you is going hold more weight than other SEO elements on your page. What does this mean for you? It’s time to see beyond an SEO strategy. You’re going to need a local, national, and international strategy so that searchers from any location have a chance to see you. Local search terms are about to be vital for your local SEO success. Customer testimonials will be more important than ever. #2: Static is Out Neither Google nor your market is static. Just because you hold a high search engine ranking today, doesn’t mean you’ll still hold it tomorrow. You have to play defense to keep your rankings high, and you have to expect them to fluctuate throughout the year. What does this mean for you? Ranking competition is fierce. You need a defensive strategy to survive the upcoming competition of 2014. SEO isn’t a one-time deal. It must be maintained and evolve as SEO practices change. If you plan on successfully defending your visibility, traffic and conversions to sales, you need to allocate both money and resources into your budget for 2014. Skimping is out of the question! #3: Quick Fixes Lead to a Quick Death The rule of 2014 is to following SEO best practices. Cutting corners and attempting quick fixes—you know, the “I’ll tie up the loose ends later” approach—is something Google will not tolerate. A quick fix would get you quickly banned from Google! The 2014 SEO Game Plan Now that your head is reeling from the challenges, let’s talk game plan. It’s time to push a positive spin on the new frontier of SEO. After all, it’s entirely possible you already have plenty of best … Read more