Search Engine Optimization

SEO copywriting, or the art of writing for both humans and search engines, has come a long way since its inception. Back in the day, most SEO copywriting contained so many keywords that it was barely readable, and the writing was so generic that it did little to set businesses apart from their competitors. In this day and age, however, SEO copywriting has to be far more engaging because of the sheer amount of competition and the search engines’ increasingly demanding criteria.

Currently, low quality, SEO-driven content often gets away with ranking on the first page of search engine results, but that’s about to change. Google recently announced on its blog that it will be changing its algorithm to improve its search results. In their own words: “We hear the feedback from the Web loud and clear: people are asking for even stronger action on content farms and sites that consist primarily of spammy or low-quality content.” That means there’s no better time than now to ensure that your site is stocked with engaging, high-quality SEO copywriting that jumps off the page.

Want to improve your site’s rankings, attract a larger audience, and increase conversions? Keep the following SEO copywriting tips in mind.

Use Keyword Variations

Most of you already know that keyword stuffing is a major no-no in the online space. Not only could it get your site penalized, it also makes your site incredibly unappealing to people because it makes for awkward, unreadable content. If you want your site’s copy to engage, entice, and entertain while targeting important keywords, be sure to use plenty of keyword variations; don’t repeat the same keywords over and over!

Break up Your Copy

To make your SEO copywriting more readable, avoid using large paragraphs. Break your copy up into small, consumable chunks, and use bullet points when listing important points. Copy that’s broken up is less overwhelming and more readable for visitors.

Be Original

Some webmasters mistakenly believe that if their content passes Copyscape, it’s good to go. But if you want your SEO copywriting to truly stand out, you need to know what your competitors are doing and make sure that your content is packed with even more value than theirs. In order to attract and engage your readership, your site’s SEO copywriting must be highly useful. Don’t expect rehashed content to do the trick!

Use Internal Hyperlinks

Many webmasters are leaving money on the table when it comes to using internal hyperlinks. Internal hyperlinks are beneficial because they encourage people to spend more time on your website and allow you to link to pages deep within your site with keyword anchor text.

Always Include a Call to Action

It’s important to tell your website visitors where you want them to go and what you want them to do on each page of your site. Whether you want people to sign up for your newsletter, subscribe to your blog, purchase your product, or pick up the phone, be sure to craft a clear call to action. Don’t make your site visitors guess what they’re supposed to do next, or conversions will dwindle.

Remember: the searchers are always right, so write your SEO copy with them in mind. You may think that your prospects are searching for information about a particular topic in your industry, but you should always be sure that there’s data to back up your assumptions. You’re always better off conducting keyword research and writing about specific keyword phrases that your target market is actually using.

SEO is a complex industry. The search engines’ algorithms are constantly changing, so it can be difficult to keep up. Oftentimes, you may find that an SEO tactic you were using has suddenly become out-of-date.

Myths about SEO abound, so many people are implementing tips and tricks that are simply ineffective. To determine whether your SEO strategy is still effective, review the 8 common SEO myths below and make sure that you’re not committing any of these blunders.

1. SEO is a one-time job

Some people still think that all you have to do in SEO is optimize your content for target keywords, add keywords to the meta tags, and submit your site to the search engines, but this hasn’t been the case for years. Nowadays, the search engines evaluate a wide range of factors when deciding how to sort their results, so SEO campaigns require your ongoing attention.

2. Writing content with a certain keyword density will boost your rankings

Keyword density is the calculation of keyword frequency. It is a percentage that can be calculated by dividing the number of occurrences by the number of words. Contrary to popular belief, there is no magical keyword density that will boost your site’s rankings. It’s best to avoid writing with keyword density in mind because it will make your website copy sound forced and robotic. Write for humans first!

3. Don’t use Flash if you want your site to rank well

Completely relying on a Flash website with no text is bad, but you can optimize a Flash site by adding html text to the page, embedding the Flash into html pages, or creating an html mirror site.

4. Content needs to be of a specific length in order to rank well

Some people believe that you have to write content of a specific length in order for it to get indexed by the search engines and rank well, but they are mistaken. Your content can be as long as you want it to be, though you should keep the length of their attention spans in mind when you write.

5. Optimizing meta tags is pointless

Meta tags aren’t as important to SEO as they used to be, but they still matter. Optimizing your meta tags may do little for your rankings, but they play an important role in improving your search results’ click through rates. Therefore, writing compelling title and description tags is well worth the effort.

6. Building nofollow links is a waste of time

Webmasters should build both dofollow and nofollow links because it looks more natural. Besides, some search engines don’t pay attention to the nofollow attribute, so having both types of links in your link portfolio is beneficial.

7. SEO firms can guarantee a number one ranking

No one can guarantee you a number one ranking; not even the most well-known, successful SEO consultant out there. Many SEO firms make this false claim in order to sell their services, but the search engines ultimately decide what a site’s ranking will be.

8. The more links, the better

Links matter, but quality is far more important than quantity. 20 links from high quality sites in your industry are far more valuable than 100 links from irrelevant websites of poor quality.

The list above is just the tip of the iceberg; there are tons more myths where that came from. In order to separate fact from myth when you’re building and maintaining your SEO campaign, keep up with industry news from trusted sources and work with a reputable SEO consultant whom you can rely on to provide solid, accurate advice.

One day you turn on your computer and realize that your website is no longer showing up in Google. Naturally, you start to panic and try to determine exactly what you did that got you into hot water with Google. But checking for Google penalties can be difficult. And besides, it might not even be a penalty that caused your site’s ranking to drop; algorithm changes are often to blame for this. However, if you’ve been experimenting with less-than-ethical SEO techniques, there’s a good chance that your site will get penalized at some point because Google has built filters into their algorithm that detect violations of Google Webmaster Guidelines.

First off, if you notice that your website no longer has the same ranking that it did and you can’t find it in the search results, check to see if your site has been banned by typing your URL (e.g., www.example.com) in the Google search box. If you do that and get a message saying, “Sorry, no information is available for the URL: www.example.com,” your site has most likely been banned. The only other time you’d get this message is if your site is brand new and is yet to be indexed by the search engines. To penalize your site, Google may also reduce the rankings of a particular page of your site or ignore pages of your site for specific search terms.

Wondering what SEO tactics will get your site banned or penalized by Google? If your site gets penalized, any of the following factors could be the cause:

Your Site Links to Bad Neighborhoods

Linking to bad neighborhoods, such as link farms and doorway pages, could get your site penalized, so check all of your site’s outbound links to make sure you’re not linking to any “problem” sites.

Your Site Contains Hidden Content

This black hat technique involves using hidden content to rank higher for target search terms. For example, if you use white text on a white background so the search bots can read the text and humans can’t, you’re utilizing hidden content.

You Bought Links

Buying links from known link suppliers could hurt your search engine rankings. Furthermore, Google devalues links offered by companies selling links, so paying for links will do absolutely nothing to improve your site’s rankings.

There Is No Diversity in Your Anchor Text

It’s not natural for a website to have several links with the exact same anchor text, so when you’re building links, be sure to vary your anchor text.

You Accumulated Backlinks Too Quickly

Google likes it when websites accumulate backlinks naturally. Natural link-building is a gradual process, so resist the urge to build several hundred links in a short span of time; it could get your site banned.

You Stuffed Your Site’s Content with Target Keywords

Don’t over-optimize your web content by stuffing it with keywords. Keyword stuffing is a form of spamming that is frowned upon by Google. If your content is helpful, informative, and well-written, Google will eventually recognize it and reward it accordingly.

Your Site Contains Duplicate Content

Make sure the same content isn’t duplicated on several pages of your site. Google likes unique content and may drop your site from its index if they catch you duplicating content.

Your Site’s Title, Meta, and Image Tags Are Stuffed with Keywords

Your site can also get penalized if you spam its title, meta, and image tags by over-stuffing them with keywords, so keep that in mind when you’re optimizing your site’s tag attributes.

Conclusion

The above tactics may bring results, but only temporarily. Utilizing unscrupulous SEO techniques will eventually get your site penalized. If you find out that your site has been penalized and then you fix the problem, it could take about two to three months for your rankings to recover. If your website has been de-indexed completely, you’ll need to fix the problems and then submit a re-inclusion request to Google. To avoid this headache altogether, steer clear of the above tactics, review Google’s Webmaster Guidelines carefully, and make sure that your site isn’t breaking any rules!

If you’re trying to improve your website’s search engine ranking, you’ve undoubtedly spent a significant amount of time building backlinks to your website. Although having high quality backlinks is crucial to ranking well in the search engines, diversifying your link portfolio is also important. Think about it this way: a site with 20 links from 20 different websites will rank better on the search engines than a site with 40 links from 2 websites.

Also, if the search engines discover that most of the backlinks to your website are coming from the same site(s), they may penalize your site. Sites that have a high quantity of links from the same sources appear over-optimized, as if they’re trying to manipulate search engine rankings.

To make your link building portfolio look as natural as possible, try to get links from a variety of websites. Research shows that search engines prefer sites that have a diverse link portfolio. Furthermore, not only will getting links from a myriad of sources improve your site’s search engine rankings, it will also help you attract more traffic, boost your site’s authority, and expose your website to a wider audience.

However, diversifying your link building portfolio doesn’t stop at acquiring links from a variety of domains; there are many other factors that come into play. Here are some tips that will help you diversify your link building portfolio:

• Get links from both high authority and low authority sites in your niche.
• Get links from high authority and low authority sites outside of your niche that are still relevant to your industry.
• Get links from social bookmarking sites.
• Get links from web 2.0 sites.
• Get links from directories.
• Don’t just link to the home page. Link to deep pages within your site.
• Get active on various social networks, so different people link to your content.
• Add backlinks to your forum signatures.
• Ask your peers to link to your site/blog in their blog rolls.
• Get links not only from different domains, but also from different IP addresses.
• Build links with varied anchor text.

Most importantly, keep in mind that link building is a steady process. Search bots will be suspicious if you get tons of new links overnight, and your site’s rankings could suffer as a result. For optimal results, take it slow. Like anything else worth doing, diversifying your link portfolio takes time, patience, and perseverance. Rome wasn’t built a day, and you can’t build a natural, diverse link portfolio that quickly, either! Check your website reports on a regular basis to see where you can improve your site’s link diversity.

It’s also important to keep in mind that acquiring and managing a diversity of links from various sources can be time-consuming and difficult. To streamline the process, keep a detailed log of link sources, targets, and anchor text. Doing so will enable you to keep everything organized and prevent redundancy.