SEO And Your Content

Don’t be embarrassed if you don’t know exactly what SEO is. Many people throw around that term without really knowing what it means or why it’s so important.

SEO 101          
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. It is the process of optimizing content of any internet document with keywords and tags that help the search engines to notice it.

SEO helps index a website so that when someone is searching for something, the keywords lead them to the appropriate websites. For example, if you type “water tubing” into Google, what is the very first website that comes up? In Canada, it is a website for the Grand River Conservation Authority’s (GRCA) page on tubing in the Elora Gorge. Whoever performed the SEO work for that website knew what they were doing, simply because that website came up at the top of the list.

Where a website appears in the search results is called the “rank.” The more properly placed keywords and tags a website contains, the more likely it is to appear higher in the search ranks.  This is accomplished through a combination of page source programming and well-written SEO content. Since most of you are not programmers, I’m going to discuss SEO content writing.

The Google Bugaloo
Every website page contains written content. When a website goes live, search engines crawl the internet looking for new keywords, new websites and new information. Every word is indexed for later reference. That is a lot of information to sort through. That is why placing the proper keywords at the beginning of your content is so important.

On GRCA’s web page for water tubing, the very first word is “tubing” and the word appears 19 times on this page. These are two factors that helped them gain such a high rank with the search engines. I also came across a website for a cottage resort whose first lines of content on their home page was:

“Do you need a break from the hustle and bustle of city life? Do you need to get away from it all? Come spend the weekend with us. Rest and relax in the peaceful tranquility of our lakeside accommodations while we pamper you from the moment of your arrival.”

This website doesn’t rank very high. Did you even know that this website is advertising a cottage resort spa on the Georgian Bay? There’s no way you could, because they don’t even mention those words anywhere on the home page.

Restaurants come and go because they don’t mention critical words like “Italian” or “seafood” or “steakhouse.” An “intimate atmosphere” and “gourmet flavours” are fine, but if I don’t know what you serve, I probably won’t want to eat there.

The point is, if your customers can’t tell what business you’re in by the end of the first sentence, you may want to upgrade your content!

Keyword, Keyword, Keyword
The easy way to the top would be to make sure that you mention your business keyword or product as often as possible and as quickly as possible. That’s fine, but once you get people to visit your page, you want them to stay, right? So if you’re in the donut business, you want people to suddenly crave a donut. Writing the word “donut” a hundred times might get you a top spot on Google, but it won’t keep visitors long enough to want to invest their time (and money).

SEO Content Writing is a tricky balance between getting top ranking and using the right words to keep your visitors on the page and keep them reading. Keyword-packed content may rank high, but it can also be boring if you’re not careful.

Discount Content – Designer Sales Figures
Even if your content doesn’t necessarily rank high, you can still end up on top with interesting content that draws high volumes of traffic. If visitors enjoy your content, and find it informative or entertaining, they will mention it. In-bound links from other sources (mentions on Twitter, Facebook, outside blogs, new articles), increase the likelihood that your website will be seen by others, driving traffic in your direction. The more traffic you get, the higher your rank will be.

Sure, you can do SEO content work on your own, but there are a lot of professional SEO writers out there who are masters of their craft. Not only do they know all the tricks of the trade and how to use them most effectively, there are also keyword research tactics that have to evolve as the internet evolves (on a daily basis). If you require SEO upgrades or Content Writing, contact an SEO expert before you get buried in the hyperspace heap.

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