A Beginner s Guide to SEO Part 2 - All About Content
So, we now know what the search engines are, what they do, and what they want. As we discussed, the first thing that search engines want are answers to questions. These answers are contained within web pages, and I refer to this information as content.
Content takes several forms: Text, images, video, flash, audio, and so on. The one that search engines are most concerned with (At this time, anyway) is text. While search engines are beginning to archive and index images and video, this is still a very new area of the internet, and ways to optimize this content have not yet been established. You can certainly use this type of content, but there must be some sort of text along with the images and video for the search engines to be able to drive people to it.
As a website owner, it is your job to have lots of good content available on your site. You can write this content yourself, or have someone else write it for you. There are also software packages available that can "generate search engine optimized content" for you as well, but I do not recommend them at all. In fact, websites with computer generated content are unlikely to rank as well in the search engines as they may have been able to in the past, and are generally a bad idea. The ads are tempting, but the reality is that high-quality original content, even if it is not optimized well will always rank better in the search engines than low quality "optimized" content.
In short, when writing content, don't cheap out. Put in the time to do it right. In addition, high-quality original content can be leveraged (in other words, used) in many ways that low-quality, computer generated content can not.
Alright, so when it comes to content, the first step is figuring out what to write about. Think about what you know as well as what you enjoy. Think about a unique perspective you have on the topics. Also, think about your potential readers. What do they want to read about? It never hurts to do a little research here. As I said in my last article, carefully researching and planning what to write about can produce better search engine results.
Before writing your articles, think about topics. Usually these topics can be summarized using keywords. These keywords are an extremely important part of your content, as they directly relate to the searches that people do on search engines. For example, "dog" is a keyword. "Dogs" is also a keyword. "Dog training" is a keyword, as is "dalmatian dogs". All of these keywords could potentially be used by someone on a search engine to find information.
When it comes time to write your content, keep your article focused. Think about a few keywords, variations to those keywords, and don't stray too far out of those keywords. If you find that you are going outside of your focused topic, consider writing a second article about the second topic. Being careful about what is contained within your content is extremely important. By carefully planning, you are making sure that you are writing relevant content that the search engines and human visitors will love.
Many SEO's talk about the importance of writing content for the search engines. This worked great 5-10 years ago when the search engines were still fairly new, and didn't know the best way to rank content. However, now, it is becoming increasingly important for you to write content for your human visitors. Afterall, the search engines don't care what your content says, your visitors do! The search engines aren't your customer. They send you the customers. A search engine's reputation is based more on what its users need. A search engine that sends people to bad websites with bad content will probably not last too long. Because of this, search engines are likely to keep getting smarter in picking out good content (aka useful content for humans), and filtering out bad content. In short, write for humans.
Here a few guidelines when writing content:
1. Keep your topic focused.
Example: Writing an article called "Western European History 1850-1950" is a very broad topic, with literally thousands of different keywords. You aren't likely to find someone who wants all of this information at once. You are much more likely to find someone who wants to know about a specific topic within that general topic. For example, you could write a page about The Causes of WW1. It's fine to take a very broad topic, and break it up into several smaller topics. In fact, if you have a very broad topic, you should break it up for the sake of the search engines and your human visitors.
2. You shouldn't use too many keywords per article. 5-10 at the most, with 1/2-2/3 being keyword variations.
Example: Say you're writing an article about how to tune a guitar. Your two essential keywords are "tune" and "guitar". You should also use the keywords "tuning" and "guitars". You could also use "how to" and "how-to". With all of these keywords being used, your site is more likely to be returned when someone searches for "How to tune a guitar", "guitar tuning how-to", "guitar tuning", etc.
3. Use your keywords at the very beginning of the article.
Search engines don't read entire web pages, so it's best to include your most important keywords immediately. I always try to work in some of the more important keyword variations in the beginning too. Always try to include plural versions of your keywords at the beginning of your content.
4. Use natural sounding language.
It's important to include keyword variations in your writing, but only if it sounds natural. If a human reads your content, and the grammar is bad because you tried too hard to cram all of these variations into your content, you will likely lose some authority in the eyes of your visitor. This is not good, so be sure your writing sounds natural and is easy to understand.
Once you have produced this good content, you have done the hardest part of SEO. The next step for you is to tell the search engines about it!
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