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 are many factors to SEO writing that skilled writers are not aware of, while a SEO copywriter would have knowledge of how to develop better content. But just how does video and games affect SEO copywriting?

A World without Flash

Right now 70% of games and 75% of video on the web is Flash based. Adobe Flash is a multimedia platform that’s used to add video and animation to websites. But if you’re using an iPhone or iPad then you are missing out on a large percentage of the internet. As of press time, Apple and Adobe had not come to an agreement about installing Flash based platforms to their line of iPhones and iPads. Other smart phones still support Flash as part of their browser capabilities. But, Flash takes a long time to load and cannot be read by search engines. All info that is embedded in a Flash file cannot be indexed, and the whole point of SEO is to make your content visible and understandable to the search engines.

No where to go but Up?

How does this affect SEO writers if Flash goes away? Well, many people have thought about this and the answer is on the way. Right now HTML 5 is being developed to alleviate the shortcomings associated with Adobe Flash. HTML 5 in the proposed new standard for HTML, HTML is the markup language for web sites, it is said to reduce the need for plug-ins such as Adobe Flash and Microsoft’s Silverlight. Also, font and center tags are eliminated with the new format. The effect that HTML 5 will have on mobile devices is profound. SEO copywriters will be able to develop video and game content that the top search engines will actually be able to index.

How will this change SEO Copywriting

Right now, no one knows just how the change from Flash to HTML 5 will affect SEO writing. We know that video will be indexed and searchable, but how will this change the way writers go about creating content for websites? With new tags and improved page segmentation it should make writing for websites much more accessible. The important thing to do is make sure that you find a SEO copywriter who has the changes figured out.

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.

Take a moment to check out some of the content that is currently on the internet. There are several excellent article resources like Ezine that online business owners use in their article marketing.  After reading just a few, you are likely to begin to notice the difference between quality copy, and downright horrible copy. This difference occurs for several reasons:  the author of a poor article is either not trained in SEO copywriting or does not speak English as a native language. The good copy is easy to read and conversational in tone. In fact, you are unlikely to even realize just what keywords the article is based on. This is the type of content you should include on your site. It takes a talented SEO copywriter, skilled in the art of content writing to create this sort of content.

While there are literally thousands of copywriters available on the internet, many of them are not qualified to write SEO copy.  When searching for a copywriter, consider a few important facts:

1. English must be their native language. Unfortunately, in most cases, English written by those who have learned it as a second language is often stilted and difficult to read. Even native level English may not be enough, however. If, for example, your audience is chiefly in the United States, British English and punctuation may be distracting to readers.
2. A complete understanding of keywords and keyword density is a must. It isn’t enough to simply sprinkle an article with keywords. Your SEO copywriter will be able to research relevant keywords and select unique words and phrases that will help drive traffic to you.
3. Engaging style and tone will make for better copy. Read several pieces written by a potential copywriter. The more engaging their style, the better.
4. Proper grammar and spelling is a must.

Many online business owners are hesitant to hire a ‘lay’ person to write their copy.  It is a mistake to think that only an expert in your particular field can write your copy. SEO copywriters will research a subject and break it down into common language that anyone can understand. You will find that it actually works to your benefit to hire an SEO consultant. Their ability to write for the masses can make even the most complex subject easily understood.

At its heart, SEO copywriting is based on science. Understanding how spiders crawl content and how people will search for you is all information that can be researched and proven. Truly great copy is more than just research. It is creative, thoughtful, engaging and easy to read. Finding a copywriter that can write copy that meets these criteria will make you and your company stand out from the crowd.

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.

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.

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.

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.