Writers for SEO companies will, of course, continue to be responsible for creating readable content that is arranged and worded in such a way that it generates traffic, but they may also find themselves expanding their technical skill set. Sear Engine marketing, after all, is much more complicated than simply repeating a phrase throughout an article. Writers who can claim proficiency in XHTML, search engine algorithms, and site design will have an edge in a burgeoning field. Writers with extensive SEM experience may even find themselves becoming consultants and teachers for the new wave of SEM writers this growth is ushering in. In fact, many companies already offer in-house training, presentations, and auditing for companies interested in making the most of search engines.

However, even as the more established places finally come around, the field remains tainted by black hat tactics. Spamdexing, the catchphrase for such tactics, is when illegitimate sites manipulate a search engine’s index and resources to improve their placement in search results. Though most search engines, including Google, have ways to combat and minimize such methods, it’s impossible to cut out completely. As such, any serious web content writer needs to have a code of ethics rivaling that of any journalist.

The poor reputation earned by black hat SEO may be part of the reason why some content-heavy websites have yet to adopt it. FOX News, for example, plans to begin charging users instead for its web content. They claim that people will pay for content if it is original and high quality. Yet part of the problem with such models is the assumption that optimized content isn’t equally capable of generating business and quality traffic. A good SEO article will be succinct and encourage readers to surf around the site the search engine brought them to. In this way, poorly written articles that beat you over the head with keywords might be just as bad for SEO’s reputation as link farms or keyword stuffing, two black hat tactics. It remains vital that writers for SEO companies continue to create engaging content.

Social media, much like SEM, is becoming another fundamental of online marketing. Even better, the two make a great pair since part of SEO is linking and being linked to and social media is an easy way to achieve this. Writers, then, are also likely to increasingly utilize social media sites like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to generate additional traffic for their articles, parent sites, and companies. As an added benefit, social media can be a great way to draw regular readership and develop a niche audience.

The start of this new decade already seems to be about writers for search engine marketing companies embracing the latest in internet media and technology and avoiding the well-established damaging practices like spamdexing. Seeing the top web fields grow and work together should make for a decade that’s worth writing in and about.

Unnecessary wordiness. “A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.” French writer Antoine de Saint-Exupery knew the value of a succinct writing style. If you feel like the writer is still talking, but not telling you anything new, you know that the piece has a problem. See also: using “to be” (or is, are, were, was) too much and general overuse of the passive voice.

No direction to the work. The level of involvement for every client/writer is different. Some clients want to simply be able to pass on a list of keywords, and get back useful articles. Make it clear that you expect your writers to develop the topic further. If you give them the keyword “Bandsaw,” make sure that they know you expect something with the title “How to use a bandsaw to build furniture.” Sometimes communication can make the difference between a good writer, and a bad one. Just make sure your SEO writer is both willing and able to develop your topics fully. If they can’t, it’s time to send them packing.

Failure to understand the purpose of the piece. You can waste a lot of money on copywriters if you’re dealing with ‘artists’ rather than commercial writers who understand your goals and objectives. If you need an article on the benefits of Vitamin B for an affiliate marketing site, and you get an article that says Vitamin B is useless, it won’t matter how well it’s written. If your writers don’t understand what the purpose of the piece is, then they’re not helping you.

Obvious grammar, spelling, and word choice mistakes. The good writer is constantly self-editing and striving to create the perfect sentence that communicates his or her ideas exactly. The bad writer does not reflect on their writing during composition nor does he or she comprehensively edit after writing. This is the sloppiness that creates bad writing. While even the best writers occasionally have a typo, consistent errors are a big red flag.

Figuring out whether what you are reading is “good” is a little more complicated. Bad writing loudly declares itself within a sentence or two, but often a work has to be read for a page or more before the reader can really discern whether it is quality writing.

However, there are a few important elements that are often present in good writing. A great piece of copywriting should not only be to the point, but have a clear point, and it should make that point with well organized, logical ideas. The reader should be able to read the work in the writer’s “voice,” which must be distinct and apparent. A good writer uses correct grammar and a varied vocabulary. Finally, and most importantly, good writing is interesting. The reader wants to read it – reading a well written piece is never work.

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

However, there is a fatal flaw in the lack of a freelance writer’s ability to self-edit. As with any art, it can be exceedingly difficult to appropriately criticize your own work. Typographical and grammatical errors are easy to miss when reading your own writing, and there is no voice to tell a writer when they’re missing the mark.

When companies use several freelance writers at once, the result is an inconsistent mix of personalities, diction levels, quality, and tone. It can be a real mess for a blog owner who needs articles that are ready to be posted immediately.

That’s where companies are missing out – the editing process. The New York Times would never release an article for publication without first checking it. Not only do they look for errors, but they’ll ensure that the facts are accurate. They’ll check to make sure that the writer’s ideas are consistent with the views of the magazine. They’ll remove text that doesn’t engage readers, and order revision after revision. Why should your site be any different? Without a skilled eye to control the work of the writers, you’re only capable of producing raw text that may not accomplish your goals.

Every company needs a dedicated editor who is interested in the long-term goals of the business. Writers are fickle. They’re late with work, or they procrastinate, and turn in rushed work that needs incredible amounts of polish to become presentable. Few companies, however, have the budget for a skilled staff member like this.

That’s where a copywriting company comes in. While most copywriting companies use contract writers, what they offer is copy management. They can perform the editing process to the fullest extent, and they can monitor writers to stay on topic, and on deadline. They will ensure that not only is the content grammatically perfect, but that it elicits the response it was intended to. A freelance writer alone can only do the job of a freelance writer, but a copy writing company can deliver copy that is publication ready.

If you’re worried about the ability of your freelance writers to meet your content goals, you should consider a copywriting company who not only has top-notch talent, but can direct that talent so that it’s always providing the best work possible. The cost of a copywriting company won’t be very different from the cost of a freelance writer, but you will have the peace of mind in knowing that all your copy has been evaluated for you, by a qualified editor who has your goals in mind.

As any SEO expert will tell you, all long-term organic results will rely on text, whether in the form of blogs, articles in directories, syndication through RSS feeds, social media, or even meta tags. For some applications, creating this text is as simple as researching keywords, and writing page descriptions. For the vast majority of web copy, however, the writing will be seen by end users, and as a representative of your client, it needs to be articulate, useful copy.

While some SEO firms have the manpower to employ a full time copywriter, most do not. This leaves the burden of content creation to employees that may or may not be equipped to handle it. Client work can suffer when the appropriate person for the job isn’t used. As any company providing a service to a client, it’s always a good idea to outsource tasks to the experts. Many search engine optimization companies have started to partner with SEO copywriters in order to ensure that clients have both the benefits of perfectly optimized pages, and thought provoking content that provides value to readers.

Of course, it’s important to choose copywriting services carefully. While there are many excellent writers out there, not all of them will understand the intricacies of SEO. They may not be able to juggle both writing toward the proper keyword densities and key phrases, and writing effective content at the same time. You should make sure that you use writers with a firm background in SEO and marketing, so that your text has the most impact possible. Text written by an unskilled writer will have no one to read it, and excellent writing that lacks the punch to sell a product or idea will be ineffective. You will need to invest in writers who understand the mechanics of search engine optimization, and have the ability to persuade your audience.

The cost of skilled writers can vary, so it’s important to choose a company that charges a fair price. The best way to determine your budget is to estimate how much time it would take you to write something. The writer should cost less to pay than it would cost to pay you in that time. Remember that in many cases, you get what you pay for with copywriting. Writers in India and Southeast Asia will write for pennies on the dollar, but the quality will not be suitable for readers, and will probably upset clients as well. The writers that you choose should have a solid background in the industry of copywriting and marketing both.

You will not find many individual freelance writers who have the entire skill set you need. Those that do will charge a premium for their knowledge. Copywriting companies will have qualified writers, and in most cases, will charge a standard rate for services. $18 – $25 per 500 words is a fairly standard rate for top quality content from ghostwriting services.

Even now, the quality of website content is highly variable. However, the users of search engines are shielded from much of the lower quality work that is out there.

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.

Anyone’s who has been using the internet over the past ten years knows how much things have changed in that time span alone. Search engines grew from basic indexes of available sites to the complex rule-based organisms that they are today.

As soon as search engines became popular, people began looking for ways to fool them —to get their website seen— whether its quality website content and message were compatible with the applicable search term or not.

So sneaky tricks like hidden links, hidden text, and cloaking, began to surface. The user ended up with results that had nothing to do with what he sought to learn or find. Clearly, this type of response could have killed the search engine, due to a lack of utility.

As time has passed, the search engines have become better and better filters for the amazing amount of information and entertainment material available on the web. Without them, we’d have data overload.

So with such dishonest methods of catching the public’s attention out of the way, businesses have been guided towards a better way — working with the search engines, instead of against them, to give the public what they want.

This is where SEO copywriters come in. First of all, businesses need to catch the public’s eye, if they’re to do any business. Second, and just as important, they must keep the customer in the online “store,” by engaging their interest in the material presented on the page first encountered.

If that material is well-received, the customer is likely to browse more of the site, further drawing them into the business, and further being exposed to whatever service or product it offers.
With search engines keeping businesses honest, the copywriter selects appropriate search terms to base articles upon — search terms that customers are demonstrably interested in using. Around these search terms, an article is crafted, using strict guidelines that meet search engine optimization requirements.

With well-selected search terms, the website hosting the article can move up in the search engine’s list of sites containing the search item, hopefully bringing the site to the public’s eye. If what is visible of the article in the search engine’s interface engages public interest, and is applicable to their search term, users will click on the link to read the article.
Hence quality articles multiply across the web based upon what the end user wants.

Because of this, a growing niche of article writers have emerged whose specialty is designing and writing SEO rich articles. They rely on a few simple guidelines to improve the rankings of a website.

1. Keywords: Each website in existence has purpose, be it selling organic dog food or sharing relationship advice. By carefully considering how potential users are likely to search for your site, you can develop a short list of keywords to include in the content of your website. For example, the owner of a website specializing in organic dog food may prepare a list that includes: organic dog food, healthy dog treats, and organic food for my pet. By sneaking into the minds of potential customers, you can create content that is most likely to be recognized by search engine spiders. Remember that the more your content is recognized as relevant, the higher the search engine ranking will be.
2. Length: You may be surprised to know that the complicated algorithms used by search engines like Yahoo and Google factor in content length. Practically speaking web sites with content driven articles of 1000 or more words consistently rank higher than those with articles of less than 1000 words. While this is meant to place less relevance on ad driven web pages, it is an important factor in using content to improve search engine rankings.
3. Relevance: All of the content on a particular web page should be relevant to that site. A common misconception is that the bigger the site, the more visible it is. This is patently untrue. By using content that is all relevant to the given site topic you increase the likely hood that your content will receive a ‘hit’ by a search engine. Keep in mind you do not need to be narrow hear. Going back to our organic dog food example including content on healthy sleeping and eating habits of dogs or the dangers of processed dog food will give you excellent opportunities to use your keywords and there by increase the relevance of your content and your search engine rankings.
4. Readability: Many new content writers make the mistake of simply stringing together key words or key phrases. This results in difficult to read content that may very well rank high with search engines but will discredit you to potential readers or customers, so be sure your content is cunningly crafted to include your relevant keywords not just a difficult to read string of words written only to increase rankings.