Archive for the 'Marketing' Category
SEO is a great engine for getting results if you know what you are doing. But what fuels that engine? What is it that drives the great mechanical beast that is Search Engine Optimization? The answer is simple: Content. I ran across a great series of articles by Brian Clark over at Copyblogger about what has been successful for him in his SEO endeavors. Hit the jump and check it out. More than that–his articles are the inspiration for this post.
SEO Copywriting like I said previously, is far from an exact science. There is, however, one aspect in which you have total control: The SEO content. Gone are the days of B.S. content, shameless (and pointless) keywording for the almighty click. One of the overarching themes that we see with Clark’s article is the necessity of not just SEO content, but solid, relevant SEO content. Clark uses the term, “Cornerstone,” which I enjoy. Cornerstone content, according to Clark is,
“A cornerstone is something that is basic, essential, indispensable, and the chief foundation upon which something is constructed or developed. It’s what people need to know to make use of your website and do business with you.”
Phenomenal definition, and kudos to Clark on this. What we see here are the underpinnings of great writing in general–just with an SEO twist. What I am going to focus on is the “essential, indispensable” aspects of his definition.
So, we want content that is Essential and Indispensable. This breaks from the origins of SEO content and copywriting because what we saw back then there smatterings of keywords, random linking, keywords with nothing to do with the topic of the page. Now, we need essential. We need indispensable. Great. What do those mean?
Essential and indispensable; we, as copywriters want our SEO content to be essential and indispensable. Actually, when you think about it, we want all our content to be essential and indispensable. So, take a random keyphrase, Tapioca Pudding Wars. If we were writing SEO content about Tapioca Pudding Wars (TPWs), we would want every person who was interested in TPWs to not only want to look at us, but need to look at us because we are relevant and indispensable.
Because we are relevant, our page fills a need for the searcher. We offer something about TPWs that no one else does. What we say is important. Important enough that Bob doing research for his blog about the TPWs finds our information so profound, that he links back to us. Now, not only does Bob know that we are a great source of information about TPWs, but everyone who reads Bob’s Blog will, in theory, also find our information essential and indispensable. Then, one of Bob’s friends, Bertha finds our page about TPWs through Bob, thinks our content is great as well and also links back to us. So on and so on and so on.
One of the points that Clark makes is that shoddy content isn’t going to do it anymore because search engine crawlers take into account social medias; how many people link to your page, how many views you get a day; have you been Dugg?; etc. The advent of web 2.0 completely changed the game with SEO content writing, in a good way. Now, those people who are expert B.Sers but aren’t don’t actually fill a need are out of the picture, because they won’t get the consumer push because there is no reason for a searcher to go to their site because the B.S. in fact, does nothing. In order to be successful at SEO content and copywriting, you must prove yourself to be reputable, essential, and indispensable. Without that, you will fall off the radar because you didn’t provide a service or fill a need.
You want people to forget that they have a back button on their browser when they hit your site. Solid SEO content does just that because on a base level, it delivers what it promises. It’s not fluff, it’s not pointless, and it wasn’t just a trick to get you to the website. It’s actually pertinent to what the searcher wants.
It seems like this should be pretty self-evident, but even today we find that actually locating something pertinent on the web can be challenging amongst all the drivel. So while it presents itself as common-sense–the evidence is to the contrary. It’s refreshing to know that to those who are willing to put the effort into their sites, and tweak a little bit for keyphrases, they could see themselves on that almighty first results page.
Great SEO content is like the fuel for the engine of your SEO campaign–it doesn’t look like it does much on the surface but without it, you can’t go anywhere.
Till we meet again…
/end Transmission
Sometimes you have to wonder what possesses people to videotape themselves. I’ve presented in front of potential and current clients enough to know that they have certain expectations when you take time out of their busy day to sell them services.
1. They expect you to be well-spoken…Strike 1
2. They expect you to be well-dressed (popped collars work best in 1985 and NOT on suit jackets)…Strike 2
3. Don’t give off vibes similar to that of a used car salesman…Strike 3, better luck next time
The author of the linked article brings up some good points. Where is the line between spam (which internet denizens have learned to tune out) and value-added content that drives traffic. It seems to me that the key differences are commitment to getting a (good) word out and the intent of the word that’s outted.
Key differentiators :
Spammer (either a product/service provider or an agent acting on behalf said provider)
- Employs automated tools to seek out somewhat related content to blindly blanket a target audience
- Probably has no idea what its target audience is (hence the blind spamming)
- Probably has an inferior product or service
Legit Search Engine Optimizer
- First and foremost, they make an effort to understand the client’s product or service and the market they operate in
- Secondly, they work with the client to identify the target audience/customer demographic
- The content that is posted adds value
- The provider understands their product and why its superior to competing products
It’s important to be a solution, not a contributor to the problem. Doing right by clients is one thing, but choosing the right clients to work with means everything in the world.