Website content is more than simply words. Persuasive sales pitches, informative articles and moving essays are just a few of the different types of content typically found on websites. SEO companies understand that the true power of the content included on a website lies not only in what it is saying, but the actual words used to say it. The best content attracts not just the human reader, but the search engine bot as well. In this way, a single piece of content can help you meet your goals with your client base and increase the visibility of your website. Content may very well be the single most important ingredient on a website over which an SEO company, content writer or website owner has control.

The content needs to be more than simply words strung together. Because content is viewed by both human readers and search engine spiders, it must be written to meet both of these goals.

Attract the Human Reader

• Use clear, concise language
• Use proper grammar and spelling
• Create content that is relevant to the reader
• Provide the reader with information they need
• Include a clear ‘Call to Action’ such as ‘sign up now’ or ‘purchase the eBook here.’
• Update content on a regular basis
• Be accurate when representing facts
• Develop a tone or style that is suitable to your needs. For example, if you are seeking to engender trust, use a friendly tone, while those who are attempting to establish themselves as an authority should use a persuasive tone.

Attract the Search Engine ‘Reader’

• Use appropriate and relevant keywords
• Use keywords in the proper density, typically 3 – 5%
• Use bulleted lists or subheadings
• Use keywords in titles, headings and subheadings
• Include frequently updated content

By combining these two lists of content rules, you can begin to develop content that will serve you well. Many SEO companies provide content services themselves or have a third party contractor that provides content, articles and even blogs.

Understanding how to artfully blend the two different types of content writing together will allow you to take advantage of both types of website traffic. SEO companies understand why content is so important. It attracts search engine spiders and bots, which in turn increase the websites rankings and visibility. This increased visibility leads to more visitors. The content will then serve its second purpose of educating, convincing or informing your visitors.

The best content always keeps in mind both audiences. Working with an SEO company that can provide you with this type of content will allow you and your business to succeed.

Website content is more than simply words. Persuasive sales pitches, informative articles and moving essays are just a few of the different types of content typically found on websites. SEO companies understand that the true power of the content included on a website lies not only in what it is saying, but the actual words used to say it. The best content attracts not just the human reader, but the search engine bot as well. In this way, a single piece of content can help you meet your goals with your client base and increase the visibility of your website. Content may very well be the single most important ingredient on a website over which an SEO company, content writer or website owner has control.

The content needs to be more than simply words strung together. Because content is viewed by both human readers and search engine spiders, it must be written to meet both of these goals.

Attract the Human Reader

• Use clear, concise language
• Use proper grammar and spelling
• Create content that is relevant to the reader
• Provide the reader with information they need
• Include a clear ‘Call to Action’ such as ‘sign up now’ or ‘purchase the eBook here.’
• Update content on a regular basis
• Be accurate when representing facts
• Develop a tone or style that is suitable to your needs. For example, if you are seeking to engender trust, use a friendly tone, while those who are attempting to establish themselves as an authority should use a persuasive tone.

Attract the Search Engine ‘Reader’

• Use appropriate and relevant keywords
• Use keywords in the proper density, typically 3 – 5%
• Use bulleted lists or subheadings
• Use keywords in titles, headings and subheadings
• Include frequently updated content

By combining these two lists of content rules, you can begin to develop content that will serve you well. Many SEO companies provide content services themselves or have a third party contractor that provides content, articles and even blogs.

Understanding how to artfully blend the two different types of content writing together will allow you to take advantage of both types of website traffic. SEO companies understand why content is so important. It attracts search engine spiders and bots, which in turn increase the websites rankings and visibility. This increased visibility leads to more visitors. The content will then serve its second purpose of educating, convincing or informing your visitors.

The best content always keeps in mind both audiences. Working with an SEO company that can provide you with this type of content will allow you and your business to succeed.

There is one fundamental difference between SEO copywriters, and freelance writers who are not familiar with SEO. Skilled SEO writers are not writing for one audience, but two. Everything written for the web should be written for both readers and search engines. Most freelance copywriters are writing only for the client as an audience.

Keywords in Web Content

This distinction becomes most evident in the use of keywords. There is both an art and a science to the use of keywords for web copy. They must be grammatically correct, yet represent search terms visitors will actually use. Keywords should be unique to the website, and not overly competitive. Keywords that fit this criteria are hard to find, however. In addition, keywords cannot be over or underused in web copy, and should be placed in particular areas of the content for maximum affect. Writers who are new to SEO often have a hard time utilizing keywords with finesse. When used properly, readers should not notice them at all.

How Relevant is Your Web Content?

Relevancy plays an important role in page rank. Relevancy is used to describe how well the content of a page matches the search term that points to it. Highly relevant page content will be focused specifically upon the main keywords used. For example, if the search term used for a site is “Women’s wholesale clothing” then the content of that page should focus only on wholesale apparel for women. It should not mention men’s clothing, or anything that is not related to the keyword. By making relevancy a factor in ranking a page, search engines ensure that when users click on a result, they will actually find the information they are looking for.

Writing For Readers and Search Spiders

Writing content for spiders is not fundamentally any different than writing for readers. Copy should be written in full sentences, and should be grammatically correct. In addition, certain aspects of good SEO copywriting are beneficial to both audiences. Subheadings, bulleted lists, and other methods of breaking up blocks of text make reading easier. This kind of formatting helps leads visitors through the content, and the use of bold or italicized text indicates to spiders which areas of the content are the most important.

SEO writing is both a science and an art, and no good web content writer can function without knowing the basics of optimization, or knowing the client’s audience inside and out. It’s always best to work with a dedicated team of writers who take the time and effort to get to know the goals of the website, and the people who will use it.

Checking the competition is one of the best ways to find out what’s going on in the industry you’re involved with. What kinds of things are your competitors doing? What are they talking about? What are their worries and fears? If you know these things, you can use them to your advantage by telling your clients why your company is not worried about the fears of your competitors or why you can offer more than your competition can. Don’t just rely on your competition, though. Check unexpected places for sources, like the library. The internet is an incestuous place for information, because so many people borrow easy data from other sources. That’s why you can really bring something to the table by injecting new statistics and new lines of thought than what’s currently available.

You never know what you might find until you look. You might locate something that your competition didn’t bother to look for or locate. That could really make a difference in your SEO content research, what keywords you use, and how you present your company to potential clients. Be sure to use your newfound information to tell your clients and potential clients why what you offer is better than what others offer. It can be very difficult for some people to tell what’s different about one company’s product or service versus the product or service of another company. Don’t wait for them to figure it out. Tell them, instead.

Remember, if you don’t tell them why your company’s offerings are better than those that the competition has, your competitors will step in and explain why theirs are better. You don’t want to give them a chance to do that, and you want to be sure to counter anything that they’ve already said about their products with your own information about your products. If you’re offering a service, you can do the same thing – tell why yours is better, more reliable, less expensive, etc. Be creative with it. Consumers don’t want to read the same old boring things about company A, B, and C. They want to be entertained and enlightened at the same time, and you can give them that with good SEO writing and proper research.

Don’t slam another company if you find research that says it has done something wrong. Attacking your competitors isn’t the way to go. Instead, just show how your product or service is higher quality and/or better in some other way. You can’t always do that without solid research, but if you look around and make sure that you’ve gotten a great grasp of your competition’s offerings and the state of your industry, you can impress your clients and potential clients with a lot of interesting knowledge and get sales in the process.

The first thing you need to do is make sure you know what you’re talking about. If you aren’t knowledgeable on the subject, do your research. It’s not a good idea to pick a topic you know nothing about and just write ‘on the fly.’ If you get your facts all wrong, you could end up looking silly, being discredited, and having to work twice as hard to get any kind of reputation back. You could also lose a lot of respect among your customers and potential customers, as well as among other people in your field. Don’t let that happen to you! Make sure you do research and get your facts from reputable sources.

Once you’re armed with the knowledge that you need, discipline your time. Know when you’re going to write the article and how long it’s going to take you. Don’t spend all day on it, but take the time to make sure you say what you mean and that you’ve included everything that’s important for the readers to know. Give them a reason to keep reading and offer them a call to action so they can take the information you gave them through your SEO and do something with it – preferably something that helps you to make money.

When you’re writing the SEO article, think about visual interest. In other words, don’t just write one big block of text. That’s hard for customers to read, and it can look unprofessional. Instead of doing that, break it up. Use shorter paragraphs than you might use for something that would be in print. Give your customers subheadings and bullet points, or a numbered list of things that are important to know. If your customers and potential customers find reading your article easy and fun, you’ve got a higher chance of making sales.

Last, before you publish that article on your blog or website, make sure you check your keyword density and placement. You should write the article naturally, but if you find you’re short on keywords you can always adjust something you said to include your keyword a couple more times. Proofread it, and have someone else look at it for further proofreading and editing. That person may catch something that you missed. When they send it back to you, make any needed changes and then publish. That will keep you looking professional and help you make an impact where SEO content is concerned, allowing you to be more successful.

Many online business owners get stuck on the first step of content creation:  what type of content to include. The truth is that all content is good – as long as it is properly written, keyword rich and relevant. Topics should be closely related to your product or service. It should be fresh, professionally written and include keywords that are both relevant and unique.

You may choose from several different types of content, each equally valid. Blogs are a popular addition. Easy to write, personal and a favorite hunting ground for spiders, blogs can be an excellent addition to almost any website. Another option is SEO articles. Unlike article marketing, an SEO tactic in which articles are posted to various directories for increased visibility, placing articles directly on your website gives you a chance to educate your client base, present yourself as an authority and increase your rankings.

If we have learned that the type of content we include on our website really doesn’t matter, we should also know that the form of the written content does. In order to obtain maximum benefits, you must tailor your content to appeal to both human readers and spiders. When writing or proofreading content for your site keep in mind the differences.

Content for Spiders

This content must be keyword rich. Focus on 2 – 3 keywords per page and mind your density. Keyword density, or the number of times a keyword is used compared to the total amount of text, should be between 3 and 5%.  Spiders also like fresh content, so be sure to plan on updating your website regularly.

Content for Humans

Humans don’t read articles like spiders – we look at more than how many times a given word or phrase is included in a piece of text. For this reason, your content should be easy to read. Here is how:

• Use bullets or numbering to make important facts stand out
• Write short paragraphs of less than 10 sentences
• Use shorter sentences
• Use flawless grammar and spelling

Always remember it is less about the type of content that you include and more about how you create it. Be sure to keep your content clear and concise. If writing isn’t your strong suit, you may want to find a qualified SEO copywriter to work with. There are many professionally trained companies dedicated to providing businesses with the best possible content.

This does make the concept of spam a bit tricky, as it becomes subjective at this point. You can’t please everyone 100% of the time. So how do content developers make sure that what you’re putting out there in terms of content is both relevant, and useful to a majority of your audience? Here are some basic guidelines for keeping your content interesting, fresh, and totally Spam Free!

Have a plan – Don’t ever start developing content without a clear plan in mind of what you want to say, and who you want to say it to. Don’t waste a lot of time with intro copy or filler text. Make everything you write absolutely on-topic. If it helps, create an outline for everything you intend to write.

Know your audience – If you haven’t got a very targeted audience on your site already, then that’s something that should be addressed right away. The narrower your niche, the more easily you will be able to appeal to people in it. Once you have your audience narrowed down, make sure that what you give them will be new information that any of them can use.

Know your readers’ tolerance for updates – Different industries will have different readers. If your demographic is retirement planning, a newsletter once a month is probably appropriate. If you run a gadget blog with hundreds of tuned-in readers, it would not be unreasonable to update five times a day or more. The important thing is to gauge how much they want, and how much is too much. Even great content becomes Spam if it feels like a nuisance. Make sure your pace matches theirs.

Keep Text visually interesting, but not overwhelming – Visually compelling copy will be formatted in a manner that’s easy to read. Bullet points, headlines, and bold text are all great ways to direct a reader through a page. Images and links are also great. Copy becomes spam, however, when visual elements overtake the message. If you’re relying on tons of links, and a lot of crowded images to get traffic, then chances are that no one is really getting your message. Don’t intimidate readers with too many elements, or huge blocks of text. Make an easy path through the work so that they can experience each element of copy comfortably.

It may take some testing before SEO writers really know how much content the audience wants, and what causes them to tune out. Don’t be afraid to experiment, but try to keep a handle on your metrics. Watch your site’s analytics to see how each type of content affects the audience, then use the best results to build your marketing plan on.

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.

Google likes Content, and when you consistently publish articles on particular subjects and keywords, you look like an expert in that field, and your site is ranked accordingly. Google also recognizes that your site is frequently updated, and therefore, more valuable to search engine users.

There are many ways to utilize content on your site. How you set up your blog, and the types of content you use should reflect your company goals. Here are some important questions to ask yourself:

• What is your end goal for your blog?
• Do you want to increase Traffic to your site?
• Do you want to showcase special products or services?
• Do you want your URL to show up in more results on web searches?
• Do you want to set yourself up as an expert /celebrity in your industry?

Of course, you want all of these things, but to get the result you need, you will first need to prioritize your goals. Decide which is most important to you, and then use that as a framework for building your blog.

for example, if you own a company that sells swimwear, and your goal is to become known as the top knowledge base for swimmers, then you will need to approach your blog as a place to showcase ideas, information, and helpful advice. You won’t want to make a hard sell – you’ll rely on links anchored with your keywords to lead people to your products. If you have good content, you’ll get a dedicated following of readers, and they will be directed to your site through means like hyperlinks and your blogroll.

If, on the other hand, you want to be known as the top resource for buying swimwear, then your approach may be quite different. Instead of focusing on the sport of swimming, you may focus on how certain products can give swimmers a competitive advantage. You may showcase great deals on your blog, or lead customers who are searching for a particular product from your blog, right to the purchase point on your site.

Both of these approaches can be extremely effective, but you should know your goals beforehand, or else you risk a blog without purpose that jumps from one style to another, and doesn’t really meet anyone’s needs. It’s possible to use your blog both as an arena for showcasing your expertise, and as a direct sales tool, but in order to properly balance the two, you will need to plan this from the beginning.

There are some things you can do while you’re deciding on a strategy for your blog. Here’s a list of some things that you will want to set up first:

Keywords – your keywords are the main factor on which your blog’s success will be determined. Don’t start out with more than you can handle. Use a narrow focus to choose about 5 main keywords that you will use to direct people to your site through SEO. These should be long-term keywords that won’t change.

Anchor text – For the purposes of search engines, it’s a good idea to use your five keywords as the anchor text of your hyperlinks. This will tell search engines that the words that are linked are the most important words on your site. When people search for these words, the goal is for them to find you. When choosing keywords, try to choose a few that are unique to your particular product or service. “Goggles” will not serve you quite as well as “swim goggles” will.

Links – All links on your blog should reflect your purpose. If you’re using the blog as either a direct, or indirect sales tool, you’ll want your blogroll links to go to your site, or categories on your site. If you are using your blog to cement your authority as an industry leader, you may use some of your links to point to pages of articles on your website, or other valuable information for readers.

Tags - Tags still carry weight. Be sure you’re tagging all your articles, site pages, links, and images appropriately. Your tags should be consistent with your keyword selection.

A few years ago, syndicating content was a big deal. You could write an article, and then post it to numerous article directories. Each article could be unique enough to qualify as a new inbound link to a site. All that has changed recently, however, as search engines are placing less weight on sites like article directories, and more on social media and bookmarking sites like LinkedIn, and Facebook. Not to mention, in order to post to enough article directories to make an impact, articles need to be endlessly re-written and re-coded, or put through software designed to re-write articles for you. If you’ve ever seen a computer translation on BabelFiish, you can imagine the results of that tactic.

So if article directories are no longer as useful as they once were, how can one piece of content be used in multiple ways? It’s easy – just aim your content a bit more carefully. By targeting the sites where content can be shared virally, and passed from reader to reader through personal networks, you can ensure the same wide broadcast without worrying about mangled articles, or low readership. You don’t need any software to spin your work for you, either. You can do it all yourself, and track the results!

In creating an article, your first step toward broadcasting should be to keep the main article somewhere associated with your company. This may be a blog, or a web page. Your next step will be distributing this content to many channels that won’t force you to re-write it for originality. Social networking sites are ideal for this. Without ever re-arranging your article, you can post it to Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn.

Next, you can explore the world of social bookmarking. Try placing your article on Digg, Delicious, and Stumbleupon. These will allow you to place the article on their directories without ever having to re-write it or change the coding in the article.

Now it’s time to put the article to use as new media. You can easily turn this content into a slide show presentation in PowerPoint or KeyNote. From there, you can use it as a slideshow in Slideshare, or as a video on Youtube or Google video. This repurposing of the content will not only widen your broadcast, but it will not register in search engines as duplicate content. You can also branch out into
Podcasting, and use your new article as a script for your Podcast. Another option for new media would be to discuss your article as a free webinar. The possibilities really are endless.

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.

Here’s the long answer:

The Do It Yourself option is kind of obsolete in terms of SEO. Because search engines have gotten more sophisticated, there are a lot more facets of the process that you need to be familiar with in order to compete with the people who have good campaigns going already. There are definitely some things you can do yourself, but by and large, you should prepare yourself to get some help in dealing with all the various aspects of building organic and paid traffic. Here are some things you need to look into:

Content: This is something you can do yourself, but most people get tired of it after a while. It’s the most important aspect of your site. You need to make sure your site information is well written, and interesting to read. This is so much more than just putting in the right keywords. Even if something is stellar from an SEO standpoint, it won’t do much good if users aren’t really reading it. There are some good copywriting companies out there that can fill your site affordably. You also need to make sure that your content is going all over the web, and building good links back to you.

PPC : You’ll need pay per click ads with something like Google AdWords to get traffic to your site while organic traffic builds. This is something you need help with. It’s tempting to run a PPC campaign yourself to save money, but it’s really inefficient that way. You need someone who really knows how to find good keywords, manage bids, and change up the strategy constantly.

Links: Links are really big for getting you traffic, but they have to be in the right places. Google knows where all the spam is, so links that come from places like article directories won’t be as strong as a link that comes from someplace like YouTube. Try to get links posted on sites with a high page rank. That’ll help you out. Build links like crazy. You can do this yourself, too, but it does get really tedious.

Local Search: Make sure you’re doing some local SEO, too. Associate your site with your town, and put yourself in Google maps if you have a business. You can do this one yourself.

Long story short, if you really know SEO, then you probably didn’t learn anything new here, but if you’re kind of new to it, you might as well resign yourself to investing some money in marketing, probably with more than one company.

For more information contact the writer @ melinda@iwebcontent.com