Wednesday, October 26, 2011

How to Write SEO Content, Part III

This month I begin with a few facts about SEO copywriting, and then give you a best-practice methodology for brainstorming a long list of relevant key words. Next month, I'll describe how to select the best keywords from the list. The month after that I'll cover best practices for weaving those keywords into your web copy.

A few facts
SEO stands for search engine optimized. SEO web writing ranks high in search engine results. The higher its rank the more likely your website will flag down potential customers; the better its business value.

When a search engine decides where to rank your website given your key word choices, it may take into account more than 200 factors, some of which have nothing to do with the copy itself:
  • The number of links to other websites
  • The websites it is linked to
  • The rankings of those websites it is linked to
  • The subject matter of those websites
  • The ages of the websites it is linked to

In order to determine which keywords are best for your website, prepare a keyword spreadsheet with the following headings: keyword, search volume, keyword difficulty and current ranking.

Keyword does not mean that you should only list single words here. Most of the time when people do a Google search, they enter in two or more words. Your keyword spreadsheet should reflect that fact.

Search volume refers to the number of times any given keyword was searched. You want a high-volume keyword that is relevant to your website. It's just like picking a location for a brick-and-mortar retail outlet: You want to place it on a busy corner so you have more traffic. Keywords with high search volumes are just like busy street corners.

Keyword difficulty refers to how many websites use that keyword. It is an indicator of how difficult it would be for your website to rank high in search engine results when using those keywords. You don't want a very high difficulty score on your keywords. Why? It indicates you will have stiff competition from other websites when using that keyword. You can use the SEOmoz keyword difficulty tool (at http://www.SEOmoz.com) to determine keyword difficulty.


Current ranking means exactly that: When you fill in any keyword on your current website, where does your website rank in the listings.

Important: You want your keywords to rank high in volume but low in difficulty. Finding those keywords and weaving them into your your copy gives you the best chance of materially improving your search engine rankings.

Remember: The best keywords are usually not a single word, but rather a combination of two or more words. It would not be just cars, but used cars; and it might be foreign used cars.

Here are the steps to follow in compiling your keyword spreadsheet:
1. First brainstorm a list of relevant keywords for the website. It might be helpful to go on direct competitor websites to see what keywords those organizations use. Note what words appear in the headines and subheads on each page. They are important.
2. Go on either Trellian's Keyword Discovery, Google AdWords, or the Wordtracker Keyword Research Tool. Trellian's is good. They have helpful video tutorials explaining how to use their service. http://www.keyworddiscovery.com/
3. For each keyword you enter, the tool suggests other keywords and gives a data volume. Use it as a brainstorming tool.
4. As you are brainstorming keyword possibilities, remember to think as a client, consumer or customer would when filling words into a Google search engine. For example, avoid using technical terms unless you are selling to a technical audience.
5. Chart each possible keyword or keyword phrase on your spreadsheet. This way it will quickly become apparent which keywords are searched the most and have the highest search volume but, at the same time, the lowest search difficulty.
6. Test the difficulty of your potential keywords. A common word like ''coin,'' will have a very high difficulty score, however the name of a specific coin, for example, ''Buffalo head nickel'' will have a much lower difficulty level. A website that is optimized for specific kinds of rare coins will get better results than those that use only the general term.
7. Based on the results from Keyword Discovery, begin to put together longer, more specific keyword phrases. Instead of birdcages, try ''designer birdcages,'' or ''elegant birdcages.''
8. After extensive brainstorming, look through your list of keywords for those that may be low in volume but that repeat throughout your list.
9. See if you can combine keywords that are high volume with keywords that are low volume to create just the combination you are looking for: a balance of relevance to your business and frequency of use.

Note: I've found The Yahoo! Style Guide to be an excellent resource when it comes to keyword selection methodologies.

Next month: How to select the best keywords for your website.

Novel Writing News: Over the last four months, I have rewritten my first novel and changed the title. It is now entitled, One Hour of Passionate Kissing. Literary agents have been far more receptive to my rewrite. A number have expressed interest in reading it. At this time, however, no agent has chosen to represent it.