Writing for People and Search Engines
by Jennifer Ryan
Published on this site: August 6th, 2005 - See
more articles from this month
The Marketing Shop
Writing for the search engines is much different than writing
in any other medium. Search engines are finicky, but they
love text, so you're talking their language. When writing
your web content, it's important to keep the following three
things in mind.
- What You Want the Reader to Do: While writing
your content, keep the overall objective of the page in
view. Think about what you want the reader to do. Do you
want them to sign up for something? Click to another page?
Buy something? Visit your store? Download an e-book? Whatever
it is you want them to do, keep that in mind as you write.
- Search Engine Optimization: Remember the search
engines as you write too. Usually it's better to do a quick
draft without thinking of the search engines first, then
later, come back and optimize the writing of the page. We
will get into the details of how to make your web content
friendly to search engines later. For now, just remember
that it's one of those things you have to keep in mind as
you write your web content.
- How people use the web. Know that people do not
use the web like we sometimes think they do. People are
more likely to briefly scan your writing rather than to
dig-in and read it. Keep your content should be relevant
and informational and conversational. People don't want
to read a book, they want to be informed. Give them the
information they crave and they'll keep coming back for
more.
Now that you know what to keep in mind as you write your
classic web content, we are going to discuss the different
elements of search engine optimization. The good thing about
SEO is that your page will show up at the top of search engines
so that people-lots of people-will actually be able to read
what you've written. What a concept!
The SEO Lowdown
Keywords
Keywords are what drives search engines optimization.
Here's how it works:
- People type words into the search boxes at Google.
- Google goes through all the pages it already knows about
these pages are in its database because they've been crawled
and indexed beforehand.
- Google delivers webpages that match the keywords the
searcher uses to find what they're looking for. When Google comes to your
page, the only way they know it's good for the search is
by keywords-period.
More About Keywords
We've already established that you need keywords woven throughout
the content of the page, right? You also need keywords in
your title. Here's a few other things to know about keyword
placement in your webpage.
- Do not overdo it. Don't gross people out by sticking
keywords everywhere. That's not good business. Be discreet
when inserting keywords in your website content (hint, hint).
- If you are optimizing for a certain keyphrase, you must
keep the entire phrase in tact throughout the page content
for the keyword phrase to have any affect on SEO.
- The keywords you should use should be carefully picked
out and are always industry and subject specific.
- Optimize for one to two keywords or phrases per page,
with the exception of the homepage. Your homepage contains
everything but the kitchen sink, but that's another article.
- Putting your keywords in bold gives your site a boost.
Headers
There are up to six levels of headers in an html document.
Usually as a web content writer you won't be going beyond
the third or fourth header. Headers are very important to
search engines. They use them to decipher page relevancy for
searches. When you include keywords about your subject your
article's headers, you are scoring points with the search
engine crawlers.
There is a really good explanation for why headers exist,
but I don't have time to tell you. For your purposes of writing
for the search engines, just know they are mega important
for optimization.
H1 - This is the title of your article.
H2 - This is the sub-title of your article.
Keyword Proximity in Headers
As if it couldn't get any worse, would you believe that where
you place the keywords in your title is bigtime important?
It is true. To score more points with search engines, place
keywords and phrases at the beginning of your titles and paragraphs.
Keep unnecessary words out of the titles. This is a very delicate
issue, especially when you consider that keywords aren't always
good for the human palate. Therein lies our dilemma. Who do
we write the title for? People or search engines?
Well, the answer my friend is BOTH. Yes. If you don't write
for both, you're defeating your purpose. Why would you write
something that repulses people, but that search engines love?
Some SEO people do this. Gross. First, write a title that
search engines love. Then, use your noggin to write enticing
words drawing the reader into your copy.
Here's how I do it.
SEO Tips | Search Engine Optimization Techniques 10 Ways
to Make a Lot of Money with Your Website
See? Don't give up having a compelling title for the sake
of the search engines. (God help us all.) What good is having
alot of traffic to your site if no one can stand to read your
copy. To see an example of this on a live site, look here:
http://www.internationalbcs.com/ibcs-payment-performance-
guarantees.htm.
Compelling Titles and Headlines
According to John Caples, there are five rules for writing
headlines:
- Self Interest. Your titles need to speak to the
self-interest of the reader. People just want to know what's
in it for them.
- News. If you have news, get it in your headline.
- Curiosity. Don't let curiosity drive alone. Pair
it up with other headline writing techniques.
- No bad news. Avoid the urge to paint the negative
picture in the headline. Be positive.
- Quick and easy. Show the reader how there is a
quick and easy way to get something that they want.
Links on the Page
The whole web is made up of links. Links help humans get
around the web, but search engines use links too. Since both
search engines and people use the web differently, you need
different types of links for both.
- General Search Engine Links: Search engines only
index those pages on your site that are linked together.
They use your internal links, such as your navigation bars
to find their way around your site and make record of your
pages. That's why it's important that your navigation be
100% text.
- Anchor Text Links: The anchor text link is a different
animal. Anchor text effects the page that it is linking
to, not necessarily the page that it is on. Your anchor
text should consist of keywords. So, instead of making "click
here" a link, you would make, get keyword here a link.
Now, be careful here. Remember when a search engine zooms
on your page, it follows the links. So, if you want it to
read all your content, don't stick links arbitrarily in the
page. Be strategic. If you want it to read the whole page,
put your anchor text and any other links at the end. Usually,
you can put anchor text links anywhere because it is the page
you're optimizing for in the first place, so you don't care
if the search engine goes for a visit there.
Jennifer Ryan is a Search Engine Optimization Expert
with The Marketing Shop. Visit our website at http://www.themarketingshop.com/.
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