Entries Tagged 'search engine optimisation' ↓

A big part of any search engine optimisation strategy is building quality links.

How do they help?

Well, think of it this way – every web page has page rank (0 – 10 depending on your web page’s value with 0 being the lowest) so when another site links to you (assuming it’s a follow link) part of that page rank filters through to you (what I like to call link juice). So, the more good quality websites you get linking to you, the higher your page rank will go. And the higher then page rank, the more authoritative your website is, so the higher it ranks.

By far the best way to link build is by doing it organically:

• Write great content that people will want to link to
• Submit your website to directories
• Blog linking back to your website
• Write and submit articles

Although this takes time it is very effective and you won’t fall foul of Google.

Is there a quicker way?

If you are the type of person who likes to take short cuts, yes, there is a quicker way.

You can always buy links but, as Julie Joyce on Search Engine Journal explains in her post “4 Huge Mistakes to Avoid When You Build Links“, if you do you’ll be going against Google’s guidelines and you’ll be risking your website.

So if you want your website to climb the rankings safely without upsetting Google, go organic – it’s the only way.

In the red corner is your reader, in the blue corner are the search engine spiders – so who will win?

Well, sadly, when companies create their own website copy the spiders tend to win.

Every business owner wants their website on the front page of Google for their identified search terms. But the belief is still that this can only be achieved if you stuff as many of your keywords as possible into your copy.

Will this get you good rankings?

Possibly.

Will it get you loads of traffic?

Probably.

Will it get you loads of sales?

Most probably not.

How to get great rankings, more traffic and a boost in sales

Those three things are at the top of every businesses wish list.

But to achieve them you need a great website that is SEO friendly, loads of backlinks, and some great SEO copywriting. For the purposes of this post I will concentrate on SEO copywriting.

But before we even consider the SEO aspects of great copywriting, it’s time to go back to basics.

Q: Who will visit your website, read your content and use that as a basis to decide to get in touch and buy your product? Your readers or the search engine spiders?

A: Your readers.

So if you know that, why isn’t the content of your website written for your reader? When they land on your website the only question  they want answered is “what are you going to do for me?” Therefore the type of information they won’t want to read about is:

• When your company was established
• How many staff you have
• What your premises are like
• Anything else that shouts about you

Your website pages have to be all about your reader and what you’re going to do for them.

Take a look at your website now. How many ‘we’s are there within your copy? If there is more than 1 there are too many. If you want your copy to resonate with your reader you must talk to them, and that means using ‘you’ and ‘your’. This writing style isn’t something that comes naturally but it is the only way to engage with your reader and drawn them in.

But if you stuff your copy with keywords your reader won’t be able make sense of it. It will come across as clumsy and unprofessional – not someone they would want to do business with.

Take a look at this example:

Can you believe it? This was taken from an actual SEO Copywriter’s website! They have squeezed the term ‘search engine optimisation’ into that small piece of copy 17 times! The result is unreadable. Would you want to do business with someone who writes like that?

Absolutely not.

Yes your keywords have to be present but not at the expense of clarity. The location of your keywords is far more important as any SEO Copywriter worth their weight in gold will tell you. They have spent many hours studying SEO and understand what it takes to write great copy that will ‘speak’ to your reader whilst providing enough tantalising keywords to keep the search engine spiders happy. So don’t take chances with the effectiveness of your website. If you’re serious about internet marketing and getting the most out of your website, invest in a good SEO Copywriter who really knows what they are talking about.

If you’ve been following this blog for a while, you’ll know that Search Engine Optimisation is a frequent subject that is visited.

It is vital for all internet marketers to get their heads round the concept of SEO as it is probably the most effective long term solution to gaining great Google rankings. And yet, many businesses are still opting for PPC campaigns which are not ideal long term and simply generate traffic quickly (if done correctly).

So what happens when your budget runs dry and you have to back off the PPC for a while? You guessed it, no traffic.

Investing in SEO may not give instant results but, if done correctly, will over time provide great organic listings and a constant stream of traffic.

So what’s the first step?

Keyword Research

One of the most important aspects of any SEO strategy is identifying the keywords you want to target. If you are unfamiliar with this term, your keyword(s) are the words and phrases real people (i.e. your potential customers) would search for to find your business.

But you have to be careful not to be too general in your choice of words. For example, copywriter in Google UK returns in the region of 3,820,000 results and is therefore a very competitive term. But, by going for a more regional term, such as Suffolk Copywriter (which returns 50,700 results) there is less competition and consequently more chance of you hitting the front page.

Keyword Tools

There are a number of tools available out there, but the most popular is Google’s Adwords tool. But, to get the most out of it, you have to learn how to use it effectively. I recently came across  this post on dailybloggr.com – “Tips to Use Google’s Keyword Research Tool Effectively” which will help you understand how to find the optimum keywords for your industry to ensure you attract the right traffic to your website.

Why not pop over there now and take a look and take the first step on your SEO journey.

Sally Ormond – freelance copywriter

Content is King!

How many times have you been told that?

Well, it is true. Internet marketers have been telling you for years if you want more organic traffic you must publish more web content targeted at your long tail keywords. Finally, you’re taking notice and more and more companies are adding page upon page to their websites of new content.

But of course, hiring a talented copywriter doesn’t come cheap. So, adding hundreds of new pages of content to your website is going to be expensive.

Now, there is a group of you out there who think you’ve found the perfect solution to this. I can see you patting yourself on the back because you think you’ve got the best of both worlds – shed loads of new content without the high price tag. If that’s you, you’ve probably done one of two things:

• Out sourced your content writing to an Indian company or elsewhere in the world where you can pick up loads of articles for next to nothing
• Decided to take the DIY approach and written it yourself

Big mistake!

Yes, you are increasing your web content at a great rate of knots – but at what cost? And I’m not talking about how much you’ve paid for it; I’m talking about the cost to your reputation.

Why you shouldn’t value quantity over quality

Watering down the quality of your website content in this way could have a seriously detrimental effect on your rankings. Remember those? You’ve quite possibly spent years working on your search engine optimisation to achieve great rankings, do you really want to jeopardise them now?

A big part of your SEO strategy is building back links. Of course, people will only link to you if you provide great content. If you start to water down the quality of your content with poor articles, people won’t want to link to you. And if they don’t link to you…you got it, you’ll start sliding down the rankings faster than soap down a helter-skelter. If you want to attracts links, your content must be entertaining, intertesing and appealing.

But there is a more serious consequence – yes, even more serious than affecting your rankings. Low quality content will have a detrimental effect on your company’s image. Now for the science bit – take a look at these equations:

Great Content = Increased value + Positive effect on your company’s image

Poor quality content = Disappointed readers + Negative effect on your company’s image

OK, so maths was never my strong point but I’m sure you get the gist.

Why am I telling you this?

Because, if you don’t invest in quality content for your website you are going to do some serious long term damage to your reputation.

If you’re not particularly bothered about anything I’ve warned against here, go and hire a company that will generate oodles of content for you for just a few pounds. But if you do care about your image and reputation, invest in a quality freelance copywriter and focus on getting quality content. Yes, it will cost you more but the long term benefits speak for themselves.

The choice is yours.

Every business that uses the internet wants to get found. That’s pretty obvious, right? But how to you go about getting found?

Search engine optimisation is obviously a big part of this, which is a subject I’ve talked about a lot on this blog. One aspect of that is building back links.

What’s a back link?

If you want people to find your website, you need lots of arrows pointing to it – these ‘arrows’ are back links. Take, for example, the paragraph above. As you can see there’s a link – search engine optimisation – that is an internal link as it points you to a previous blog post. However if I were to write about a freelance copywriter who would be able to boost your businesses visibility and sales by producing eye-catching sales writing that inspires customers to buy, that is a back link because it’s pointing to an external website.

How do you get back links?

Encouraging people to link to your website takes work. Generating high quality content is the key. If you are providing great information regularly, people will  want to link to you. Creating hints and tips in your chosen field will also help elevate you to expert status, and with that comes more links.  But there are ways you can also generate links yourself.

Blogging and article marketing are two very effective ways of building back links, especially the most sought after type – the keyword hypertext link. I showed you an example of that earlier by linking the words ‘freelance copywriter’. This just happens to be one of my key phrases. These are the most valuable links as they relate to your chosen keywords. You can generate a lot of links by submitting your website to directories, however they tend to just link by website name (e.g. Briar Copywriting) rather than by your keywords.

Going back to article marketing for a moment, when you post an article and insert a keyword hypertext link into your text, you are effectively funneling a bit of link juice to your website. That might sound a bit strange, but this is how it works. If you use an article site with a high Google Page Rank (e.g. ezinearticles) and they allow you to add hypertext keyword links which are follow links (as opposed to the no follow link), a little bit of page rank is also passed along the link. Therefore the more links like that, the higher your chances of increasing your own website’s page rank.

Another way of generating back links is by guest blogging and using social media and social networking sites. These are great because you can add your profile details to widen your ‘internet footprint’ therefore boosting your chances of being found online. Some sites even provide facilities to create your own micro-site which gives you even more exposure. Taking advantage of opportunities likes these and contributing to forums etc., will boost your exposure.

One giant step…

Generating back links is invaluable and you would do well to get into a routine to create blogs and articles that constantly generate links for you. Make sure the content is fantastic and keyword rich to encourage others to link to you.

But don’t forget about the other elements of SEO. Back links should just be one part of your SEO strategy. You must also consider your website’s structure and content.

All three elements are essential if you want your website to be found online. But you must remember that SEO is an ongoing process. You have to constantly review your keywords, constantly tweak and update your content to get the optimium amount of traffic and conversions and you must continually build back links.

Your competitors will be doing all of this, so if you stop you’ll gradually become invisible to online customers.