SEO (search engine optimization) is moving on up. Both the BBC News and Huffington Post have recently announced plans to use SE optimization in their online content. It’s one of the latest attempts by the journalism field to compete with user-generated content and maintain a presence. It’s also an example of SEO’s gradual shift into the mainstream. As content optimization becomes more widely adopted, the number of companies (and writers) specializing in SEO copywriting will also be on the rise.

Great writing never calls attention to itself – this statement is frequently repeated in Composition 101 courses. While it is essentially true, it immediately begs this question: what about bad writing makes it so obviously bad? If you’re paying SEO copywriters for services, you need to be able to spot poor work, even if you’re not a writer yourself. Here are some great tips for identifying writers you need to cut out of the payroll.

No one likes spam. Now, while the narrow definition of spam refers to unsolicited marketing content, I think it would be safe to broaden that definition just a bit to include content that people have tacitly agreed to (for example, by signing up for a newsletter) that provides nothing of value to the reader.

The purpose behind a blog is to increase your search engine rankings. Content is by far the best method for attracting search engines, and populating search pages with URLS that lead directly to you.

It may be tempting for some companies to use content as a ballistic attack to get the attention of search engines. After all, if one article is good, then ten versions of the same article must be better, right? Well, maybe not, according to many SEO experts who are studying the shifting rules of search engines like Google and Yahoo!.

Well, there’s a short answer to your question, and a long one. I’ll give you both.

The short answer is that only well written content, plenty of high quality links, and maybe some Pay Per Click advertising will increase your traffic. It’s going to require some investment.

It is a widespread and common practice to use freelance writers to write blogs. It makes a lot of sense for small, to mid-sized companies to do this. Writing an article takes quite a bit of time for those who are not professional writers, and copy writing can become tedious for business owners, whose skills may lie elsewhere. Freelance writers are comparatively cheap, and a good writer can write engaging, thought provoking material. Writers skilled in SEO can even gear copy for search engine optimization.

There’s a big debate among SEO companies about whether it’s cost effective to outsource content creation to third parties, both for company use, and for use in client projects. Because quality content is critical for SEO, it’s not the need for content that’s debated, but whether or not it’s necessary to pay for it.

Certainly, the average web-surfer will run into a few pages that are duplicate content or “scraper” written. But with the use of a search engine, such as Google, sites like this get banned in no time at all. Meanwhile, SEO professionally-written sites move to the top of the search list, making them more accessible and more likely to be read.

With the growing popularity of the Internet it seems that almost everyone has a web page. While that may be a bit of an exaggeration, the number of web pages is staggering. That begs the questions: how do I make my web page stand out? And how do I improve my search engine rankings. While there are many techniques that are commonly used, some of them are considered less than ethical. One of the best ‘white hat’ techniques web site owners can use is that of content. Content is used, in conjunction with search engine optimization (SEO) guidelines, to make a web site more visible and drive more targeted traffic to it.