3 Secrets to Writing for the Search Engines
Back in February I put out the call for guest bloggers so I could get some much needed work completed. John Clifton from AskDeb was the first to respond, give him a warm welcome if you please…
Writing for the search engines requires a writer to speak the language of the search engines. When writing a page of content, consider that you’re writing to two audiences: the reader sitting at home on the computer and the search engine robots. You have to keep the attention of both of these audiences if you want to see the largest possible number of visitors to your web page. Since you probably know how to write to keep a person’s attention better than a search engine’s attention, I’m going to focus in this article on three secrets to writing for search engines.
1. Choose 2 or 3 Keyword Phrases - Keep in mind two or three keyword phrases whenever you write an article. If you don’t know what your article is about, then how is the search engine supposed to know?
Keep in mind what it is you’re trying to market and think about the keyword phrases that people are likely to be using as they type words into Google or Yahoo. Focus on those phrases you consider important and write your article accordingly. Make your article informative about those phrases, but keep in mind that you are targeting specific combinations of words while you write.
If you have trouble coming up with what your keyword phrases should be, take a look at other websites in your industry and see which phrases they’re targeting. You’re not ripping them off, because different webmasters are going to naturally target some of the same specific phrases. The more likely a phrase is to be typed into a search engine, the harder it will be to rank for that phrase. Look at the example I give on “#3 Emphasis” and consider how much harder it is to rank for “internet marketing” than it is to rank for “aspects of internet marketing”.
One way to choose keyword phrases are to see how many times that phrase comes up in a Google search. For instance, “aspects internet marketing” comes up about 102,000 times in Google, while “internet marketing” comes up about 8,890,000 times. You can see the kind of competition you’re going to have when focusing on a phrase this way. Finding phrases that are easier to rank for, but might have value, is a good way to optimize for whatever affiliate program you are in.
2. Repetition Is Important - Repetition of your keyword phrases is important to search engines, and they will look at the phrases you repeat to determine relevance. Repeat the same phrases multiple times as you write your article. Have a handful of phrases you consider important and make certain those are repeated as you cover your topic.
You don’t want to look unnatural while you’re doing this, though. In fact, the more times you repeat a keyword phrase, the longer your article should be. Typically, I would suggest that the content on a page should be at least 500 words, though 250 words will work sometimes. The more words on a page, the better, though. That’s because you’ll probably end up ranking for obscure phrases you never thought about ranking for, and ranking for phrases in your industry is always a good thing. Also, longer articles allow you to repeat your keyword phrases more times and still look natural doing this.
3. Emphasis Is Important - Not only is repetition important, but emphasis of your keyword phrases is also important. When I write “emphasis”, I mean that you need to emphasize the few phrases you’re targeting by sometimes bolding the words, sometimes italicizing the words, maybe using those keywords in bullet points or inside “quotation marks”, and definitely using your keyword phrases in the anchor text for your pages.
Look at the home page of this website, for example. The text at the top of the page is “Direct Sales Web Marketing - Covering All Aspects of Internet Marketing Techniques and Principals For the Direct Sales Consultant”. The page is emphasizing phrases like “direct sales web marketing”, “aspects of internet marketing” and “direct sales consultant”. If you put the phrase “direct sales web marketing” into a Google search, notice that this site ranks #1. If you put the phrase “aspects of internet marketing” into Google, this site’s main page comes up #7. And if you put in the phrase “direct sales consultant” to Google, the home page comes up #22. So emphasis is important.
Of course, there are all kinds of reasons that this website ranks well in Google for key phrases. The purpose of the Google search engine algorithm is to find the best content on the subject people are searching for, and since this website provides good information on the subjects in question, it’s going to have a leg up on its competition. Keep that in mind when trying to optimize your website. If you have good information about your subject, you’re naturally going to end up repeating keyword phrases that are important to the readers you’re targeting. In the end, if you build good content, it’s going to help you rank in the search engines. Just remember to start with a keyword plan on each page you publish and target the keyword phrases you hope will rank while you’re building that good content.
Excellent article John!
John Clifton is one of several writers at “Ask Deb”, which covers a wide range of subjects. Readers of this article might also be interested in general internet-related questions or what is internet advertising and how to advertise on the Internet .
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March 23rd, 2009 at 9:09 am
Nice article, you also want to try and get your keyword in the title of the article/post as it carries quite a lot of weight being in the h1 tag which is to say the main title tag that you will see at the top of each page.
Ben Pei Reply:
March 24th, 2009 at 4:05 am
@khaled, Totally true! Rich keywords in title and using header tag works wonder..
Ben Pei´s last blog post..Ben Pei’s No Brainer Blog Contest
March 23rd, 2009 at 11:12 am
This is a well put together and concise article. Writing for search engines is important for driving traffic to your site. If you let this practice go undone, your site will not be a success. Good luck and regards!
Dennis Edell Reply:
March 26th, 2009 at 11:54 am
@Susan-Background investigation,
Very true, just don’t over do it. Google themselves will tell you to write with the reader in mind first.
March 23rd, 2009 at 11:50 am
Also keywords that are highlighted in some way in the body of the text (bold, italic, colour, etc.) help.
Just read recently that humans at Google actually do check out the pages that make the frontpage of the SERPs. Sounds like Yahoo from the 1990s. It might be the only way to beat the SEO Blackhatters.
JR @ Internet Marketing Strate Reply:
March 23rd, 2009 at 1:22 pm
@Nolan the Derren Brown of Coldreading,
You are totally right, bolding the keywords a couple of times throughout the post is very good on for in-site SEO
JR @ Internet Marketing Strate´s last blog post..Google Adsense Privacy Policy Update Deadline
Matty Byloos Reply:
March 26th, 2009 at 10:39 am
@JR @ Internet Marketing Strate, Does anybody else think that this can go too far sometimes? Knowing enough about SEO, if I read a post that is totally throwing the keywords in my face, I know I’m definitely distracted enough from the substance of the article at times.
Matty Byloos´s last blog post..Brendan Contantine Live Poetry Video
Dennis Edell Reply:
March 26th, 2009 at 11:58 am
@Matty Byloos,
Oh yea. I know I started out bolding, italics, and interlinking way too many words/phrases within each post.
Matty Byloos Reply:
March 26th, 2009 at 12:22 pm
@Dennis Edell, Yeah — it just gets annoying because it still stands out even after the “blindness” factor happens. I think if the keywords are in the content, not over-done, in the subtitles, the URL, the title of the article, that’s enough.
Matty Byloos´s last blog post..Brendan Contantine Live Poetry Video
JR @ Internet Marketing Strate Reply:
March 26th, 2009 at 3:02 pm
@ Matty Byloos
It can definitely be taken too far of course, a 3-5% density is plenty, and sometimes when you are writing about a topic the kw naturally occurs a lot of times because there are not a lot of synonims for it.
JR @ Internet Marketing Strate´s last blog post..No Follow vs. Do Follow Links - And Why You Need Both
Matty Byloos Reply:
March 26th, 2009 at 3:21 pm
@JR @ Internet Marketing Strate, I think you hit it right on the head in your response — if a person is writing an article primarily to be informative, and they stay on topic, and approach the formal elements from an SEO-vantage point, the keyword NATURALLY comes up the right amount without having it appear too forced.
Matty Byloos´s last blog post..Brendan Contantine Live Poetry Video
JR @ Internet Marketing Strate Reply:
March 26th, 2009 at 4:44 pm
@Matty Byloos,
For sure
JR @ Internet Marketing Strate´s last blog post..No Follow vs. Do Follow Links - And Why You Need Both
Dennis Edell Reply:
March 26th, 2009 at 11:56 am
@Nolan the Derren Brown of Coldreading,
I hadn’t read that before, thanks for the tip! Do you recll where you read it?
I thank you for the comment and welcome you to the community! I hope to see you ’round more often.
Matty Byloos Reply:
March 27th, 2009 at 9:12 pm
@Dennis Edell, You know how it goes. You get a job or you get the online marketing bug, and next thing you know, you’re trying things out and reading everything you can get your hands on. Not sure where I picked it up, but it definitely works. I’ll keep my eyes out and if I see the original source around, I’ll post a link here…
Matty Byloos´s last blog post..Brendan Contantine Live Poetry Video
Dennis Edell Reply:
March 29th, 2009 at 4:00 pm
@Matty Byloos, I’d appreciate that, thanks man.
March 23rd, 2009 at 1:21 pm
And the image alt tags are important keyword relevancy tools, in posts and especially in a header image for the site wide keywords
JR @ Internet Marketing Strate´s last blog post..Google Adsense Privacy Policy Update Deadline
Dennis Edell Reply:
March 26th, 2009 at 11:59 am
@JR @ Internet Marketing Strate,
The header itself?
JR @ Internet Marketing Strate Reply:
March 28th, 2009 at 3:26 am
@Dennis Edell,
Yes, if you are using an image source code for your header, and not just the one that comes with the theme.
JR @ Internet Marketing Strate´s last blog post..No Follow vs. Do Follow Links - And Why You Need Both
Dennis Edell Reply:
March 29th, 2009 at 3:57 pm
@JR @ Internet Marketing Strate, Excellent to know, thanks.
JR @ Internet Marketing Strate Reply:
March 29th, 2009 at 5:47 pm
@Dennis Edell,
In fact, several tests have shown that those alt tags for the header are more powerful for SEO than the just having the blog name in the header with the keywords!
JR @ Internet Marketing Strate´s last blog post..No Follow vs. Do Follow Links - And Why You Need Both
Dennis Edell Reply:
March 29th, 2009 at 7:06 pm
@JR @ Internet Marketing Strate, Now I just need to see how. lol
JR @ Internet Marketing Strate Reply:
March 30th, 2009 at 3:08 am
@Dennis Edell,
It’s very easy actually, it is code play, but not the very sick kind
JR @ Internet Marketing Strate´s last blog post..No Follow vs. Do Follow Links - And Why You Need Both
Dennis Edell Reply:
March 30th, 2009 at 9:07 pm
@JR @ Internet Marketing Strate,
Good! Then you won’t mind expecting the email when I get to it.
JR @ Internet Marketing Strate Reply:
March 30th, 2009 at 9:08 pm
@Dennis Edell,
with the homeboy discount of course!
LOL, no problem, I will bill you separately for my tech services
JR @ Internet Marketing Strate´s last blog post..No Follow vs. Do Follow Links - And Why You Need Both
Dennis Edell Reply:
March 30th, 2009 at 9:12 pm
@JR @ Internet Marketing Strate, Holy crap that was fast!
Amazing how that happens when discussing money, ain’t it? lmao!
JR @ Internet Marketing Strate Reply:
March 30th, 2009 at 9:16 pm
@Dennis Edell,
LOL, actually I spent 2 hours yesterday clearing my inbox and unsubscribing to the dozens of crap email lists that I was on and now I am able to get to the emails I want a lot easier and it’s all clear!
JR @ Internet Marketing Strate´s last blog post..No Follow vs. Do Follow Links - And Why You Need Both
Dennis Edell Reply:
March 30th, 2009 at 9:21 pm
@JR @ Internet Marketing Strate,
Woohoo, she wants me! Y’all heard that right?
JR @ Internet Marketing Strate Reply:
March 30th, 2009 at 9:29 pm
@Dennis Edell,
Of course, did you ever think otherwise
JR @ Internet Marketing Strate´s last blog post..No Follow vs. Do Follow Links - And Why You Need Both
March 23rd, 2009 at 4:30 pm
Excellent piece. ALWAYS good to be reminded of the fundamentals - especially when concerning one’s audience.
Matty Byloos´s last blog post..The Man With Two Brains: Carl Reiner at the Aero Theater
March 23rd, 2009 at 7:25 pm
Cool article. I think emphasis is often one of the most over looked parts of seo, especially for those new to blogging. I have seen some people go a little overboard on it too though
tiger´s last blog post..Powerful Anti-Inflammatory Medicine Grown from Tobacco Plants
Dennis Edell Reply:
March 26th, 2009 at 12:00 pm
@tiger, Good to see you again!
I totally agree. As I replied to one above, i went wy overboard in the beginning. lol
tiger Reply:
March 28th, 2009 at 7:49 am
@Dennis Edell,
Thanks, it feels good to be blogging again. I took a very long sabbatical, well long in the internet world I guess.
Hope you have been doing well
tiger´s last blog post..Scientists Able to Repair Insulin Producing Cells in Pancreas
Dennis Edell Reply:
March 29th, 2009 at 3:55 pm
@tiger, I have and thanks. Yea it can be tough around here taking time like that.
March 23rd, 2009 at 7:44 pm
Nice post. Solid advice here. I typically enjoy these types of posts because it can give you a nice refresher course on the basics of getting your content to be well-read and successful.
Salwa´s last blog post..Why “Nofollow” Tags Won’t Work!
Dennis Edell Reply:
March 26th, 2009 at 12:02 pm
@Salwa, Indeed my friend. Noob to Pro, it’s always good to touch back on the basics.
March 23rd, 2009 at 8:38 pm
Dennis & John - Very good info! Bloggers and internet marketers MUST realize the use of keywords and keyword phrases.
SeoQuake for FireFox is a GREAT tool to use to help find what other sites are using as keywords…
Jake´s last blog post..March Madness Contest - FREE Stuff!
Dennis Edell Reply:
March 26th, 2009 at 12:04 pm
@Jake, Indeed! Keeping an eye on “competition” in many aspects is a MUST; I don’t do it nearly as often as I should.
I thank you for the comment and welcome you to the community! I hope to see you ’round more often.
March 23rd, 2009 at 9:53 pm
While this is a good article I must state, yet again, that I prefer to write for my audience rather than some mindless robot. Sure I understand that this may mean I may not get as many search related visits but that’s fine as anything else would cramp my style.
I do use keywords and such but my post does not revolve around them, I just chuck them in as an afterthought.
Sire´s last blog post..Thesis Theme Is Just Not Flexible Enough
Dennis Edell Reply:
March 26th, 2009 at 12:05 pm
@Sire, This is me in a nutshell as well. I always write for the reader, then before publishing I go back and tidy it up a bit for the engines.
March 24th, 2009 at 3:38 am
John Clifton. New friend there! Lol Dennis why do you always keep your guest post for so long?
Ben Pei´s last blog post..Ben Pei’s No Brainer Blog Contest
Dennis Edell Reply:
March 26th, 2009 at 12:08 pm
@Ben Pei, I started asking in February, I didn’t say that’s when I started receiving them.
I do have a post coming out describing how/when i post guest posts.
March 24th, 2009 at 4:33 am
Great post, very good tips. Carry on!
Dennis Edell Reply:
March 26th, 2009 at 12:09 pm
@Best CSS Gallery,
Good to see you here, I love your work! I thank you for the comment and welcome you to the community! I hope to see you ’round more often.
In the future to ensure proper linking of your URL, I ask that you follow simple comment guidelines (linked above the comment box at the bottom).
Thanks!
March 24th, 2009 at 7:57 am
Great piece.. If you are writing for the search engines - you are also writing for the users. You can’t leave anyone out.
Dennis Edell Reply:
March 26th, 2009 at 12:11 pm
@rasmusgi,
I thank you for the comment and welcome you to the community! I hope to see you ’round more often.
Thanks!
March 24th, 2009 at 10:35 am
It is always important that the content is unique and that makes sense. A flowery article would be kinda boring to the readers, it must be concise with thought and straightforward so that the readers will be able to find what they are looking for.
Dennis Edell Reply:
March 26th, 2009 at 12:11 pm
@First $100, Very good points!
I thank you for the comment and welcome you to the community! I hope to see you ’round more often.
In the future to ensure proper linking of your URL, I ask that you follow simple comment guidelines (linked above the comment box at the bottom).
Thanks!
JR @ Internet Marketing Strate Reply:
March 28th, 2009 at 3:01 am
@First $100,
That’s for sure! Keyword stuffed content that makes no sense is lame.
JR @ Internet Marketing Strate´s last blog post..No Follow vs. Do Follow Links - And Why You Need Both
March 24th, 2009 at 4:49 pm
keywords in the title, keywords in the content is important. emphasis and repition is key as well. just dont start spamming =]
awesome article Dennis!
Dennis Edell Reply:
March 26th, 2009 at 12:12 pm
@Pheak Tol, Thanks buddy, I’ll be sure to invite him back again!
March 24th, 2009 at 6:19 pm
You can also get images that pertain to the keywords, and if it’s relevant — name the image file with the keywords, name the alt text with the keywords and put a caption with the keywords. Ranking for images can bring in more traffic…
Matty Byloos´s last blog post..Brendan Contantine Live Poetry Video
Dennis Edell Reply:
March 26th, 2009 at 12:13 pm
@Matty Byloos, Excellent; this is one aspect many still don’t get.
Matty Byloos Reply:
March 26th, 2009 at 12:24 pm
@Dennis Edell, It was funny to check analytics reports at first, and see that there was a bunch of traffic for me that i hadn’t anticipated — and it was all from foreign search engines mostly, image searches — because i’d just addressed fundamentals and properly labeled image files. a great surprise…
Matty Byloos´s last blog post..Brendan Contantine Live Poetry Video
Dennis Edell Reply:
March 26th, 2009 at 8:49 pm
@Matty Byloos, Stats do have a way of showing cool and often times, weird areas that you wouldn’t normally see or think of.
March 24th, 2009 at 7:06 pm
Keywords have to be in the title tag. Phrase two in an H1 Tag. For example if you check your pages source code in a browser and your post title is in an H2 tag your losing a good SEO signal. You have to edit your css if this happens. You can bold your main keywords for some additional benefits and if possible link to you post from older ones that are related to the topic.
Dennis Edell Reply:
March 26th, 2009 at 12:14 pm
@Archie Pennies, I love the power of inter-linking. It needs to be emphasized more.
Matty Byloos Reply:
March 27th, 2009 at 9:13 pm
@Archie Pennies, Like Dennis, I think one has to clean up their own house first and foremost. That means, in this case, making sure that wherever relevant and link-worthy, your own posts and pages have to lead a user from one related and information driven post to another.
Matty Byloos´s last blog post..Brendan Contantine Live Poetry Video
Peter@passive income ideas Reply:
April 4th, 2009 at 8:04 am
@Archie Pennies, that’s true. It’s also important for people who just changed blog themes. The title default tag may have been used by the developer as h2 so it’s good to do a check if you have a new blog or theme.
Peter Lee
Peter@passive income ideas´s last blog post..Work At Home Blog Income Report-March 2009
March 25th, 2009 at 6:32 am
Informative and instructive articles! Those secrets are very useful!
I agree with you that giving more than two keyword phrases, Repetition and emphasizing are very important.
Thanks for sharing
Dennis Edell Reply:
March 26th, 2009 at 12:15 pm
@SEO company,
I thank you for the comment and welcome you to the community! I hope to see you ’round more often.
In the future to ensure proper linking of your URL, I ask that you follow simple comment guidelines (linked above the comment box at the bottom).
Thanks!
March 25th, 2009 at 7:09 am
wow 500 or 250 words, that is a lot.
Sherry´s last blog post..No sports today!
Nicolas Prudhon Reply:
April 25th, 2009 at 10:53 am
@Sherry, The length of the content you should write is absolutely relative to what additional elements you have filling up your pages.
When crawling your page, the bot can’t differentiate between what is your main content, and what is your site header, sidebar content and stuff like that. Unless the length and relevancy of your main content can over power in presence your other page elements, it’s going to be very hard for the bot to determine what you page is about.
Nicolas Prudhon´s last blog post..Can We Survive the “NoFollow” Black hole?
almir Reply:
April 25th, 2009 at 11:13 am
@Nicolas Prudhon, wow that’s nice to know I have knew that. I thought that’s why bots were used because they have the ability to do so.
almir´s last blog post..Vital Tips That Can Aid Any Blogger
Nicolas Prudhon Reply:
April 25th, 2009 at 11:36 am
@almir, That’s wishful thinking Almir… a bot is just a bot in the end. It reads content and parse it, based on what it finds the most, and the way it links those words, it then defines what your page is all about. The more evolved the algorithms the more refine is this process.
Just consider if you write a short 150 words article on SEO, and got 300 words worth of ads content to sell dog food in your side bar, what do you think the bot is going to think your page is about, SEO or Dog Food?
Nicolas Prudhon´s last blog post..Can We Survive the “NoFollow” Black hole?
March 25th, 2009 at 9:26 am
I am using just 1 or 2 words for my keyword.
Paul U´s last blog post..4 link cloaking plug-in for Wordpress 2.7
March 25th, 2009 at 2:20 pm
Nice Article, well using keywords that are highlighted in the body of the text helps but do care that excess of keywords is also wrong, u could be penalized by google.
Dennis Edell Reply:
March 26th, 2009 at 12:16 pm
@Printing Supplies, Yes indeed, keyword stuffing is a definite no-no.
I thank you for the comment and welcome you to the community! I hope to see you ’round more often.
In the future to ensure proper linking of your URL, I ask that you follow simple comment guidelines (linked above the comment box at the bottom).
Thanks!
March 26th, 2009 at 7:15 pm
It’s a little work but well worth it. The posts I put effort into with regards to keywords are ranking on page one nearly every time. The extra work does pay off.
Michael@TheBloggerSource´s last blog post..Why Writing Unique Content Is So Important
Dennis Edell Reply:
March 26th, 2009 at 8:43 pm
@Michael@TheBloggerSource, Nice! Got any howto’s over on the source?
Matty Byloos Reply:
March 27th, 2009 at 9:10 pm
@Michael@TheBloggerSource, I completely second this sentiment. And when I didn’t think about keyword ranking, but approached the writing of an article with the intention of being THE primary information source for a question answered on the web, it also happened that shortly after publishing, the article ranking top 3 for that search
Matty Byloos´s last blog post..Brendan Contantine Live Poetry Video
March 27th, 2009 at 8:06 am
I think to have good content the keywords are important!
Sherry´s last blog post..Contest Fanastic
March 28th, 2009 at 8:58 am
Great article and maybe a little more emphasis on keyword density i.e. ideally 5% in order to be acceptable to the search engines, especially Google.
Nicolas Prudhon Reply:
April 25th, 2009 at 10:59 am
@Gerry, Keyword density is almost only applicable for MSN and a bit by Yahoo. There’s absolutely no such thing as keyword density number for Google. More important than keyword density in Google is the use of related terms and similar expressions as the Google algorithm is not based on Word Identification like MSN but Concept Identification. Therefore the association of different terms is expected to be find in your content and not solely a repetition of a keyword.
Nicolas Prudhon´s last blog post..Can We Survive the “NoFollow” Black hole?
March 28th, 2009 at 6:54 pm
Nice post! The keyword research is very important. You should also submit to Yahoo, and BOTW for the extra push in PR. Excellent tips!
Mike´s last blog post..Donate Car to Charity
March 30th, 2009 at 4:08 pm
Very helpful article, but I do want to point out something important; just because you rank well for certain phrases doesn’t mean that any one is actually searching for those phrases.
John uses the example “aspects internet marketing.” If you take a look at Google’s Keyword Tool, no one is searching for that particular keyword phrase.
I’m sure he was choosing these keywords purely as examples to illustrate his point, but solid keyword research also starts with finding word combinations that your users are actually typing into their browsers.
Regarding image searches, they certainly can be a great way to get additional traffic to your site. Keep in mind, though, that this may not be targeted traffic so may not convert well. I think it really depends on your niche.
I had a dog site for years that always ranked well with image search but I suspect now the majority of my visitors were tween girls looking for cute puppy pictures. Sadly, without mommy’s credit card in hand.
Jen´s last blog post..Working for a Living
Dennis Edell Reply:
March 30th, 2009 at 9:24 pm
@Jen,
“solid keyword research also starts with finding word combinations that your users are actually typing into their browsers. ”
I hope everyone caught that, it is rule #1 ain’t it?
March 31st, 2009 at 8:41 am
intersting article. I always vary my keyword density based on where I’ll publish my content.
At ezinearticles for example, the max keyword density allowed is 1%.
If I publish content on my own site I check the keyword density of my competitors who are ranked on the first SERP.
Mark´s last blog post..Is it Possible to Earn Money from Blogging?
Dennis Edell Reply:
March 31st, 2009 at 8:57 am
@Mark,
An excellent distinction to make Mark, thank you. Welcome to the community as well!
April 6th, 2009 at 6:25 am
One thing about repetition to avoid keyword stuffing is to check the density using different free tools online.
Dennis Edell Reply:
April 10th, 2009 at 8:18 am
@John, Sorry for the delayed response, but I wish to welcome you to our little community!
April 21st, 2009 at 9:58 am
I think it’s good to use long tail keywords but there is one thing that bugs me. For say a 4 or 5 keyword phrase l can never find out the search volume (it’s either few or no volume) so how do I know how many people have searched for. Anyone can enlighten me?
Peter Lee
Peter@passive income ideas´s last blog post..Blog Traffic- Top Tips To Increase Blog Traffic
Dennis Edell Reply:
April 22nd, 2009 at 7:18 am
@Peter@passive income ideas,
It seems the author is not returning to comments, my apologies for that.
I don’t have a substantial answer for you, but I will try to get someone who might to come by here.
Nicolas Prudhon Reply:
April 25th, 2009 at 11:10 am
@Peter@passive income ideas, Hi Peter, the main reason is indeed that the search volume for long tail keyword is very low 5-100 per month in average.
Despite the apparent low volume, the quality of this traffic is extremely high. By multiplying the number of those search terms, the numbers will add up quickly.
One very simple way to select long tail keywords that have a decent amount of search volume is simply by going to Google homepage.
When you type in the search box, it’ll suggest you more related terms.
The latest modification to the engine now includes more extensive suggestions including long tail keywords.
As you type your search term, it will offer more and more refined suggestions (4-5 keywords search terms).
This is also an additional reason to now target long tail keywords over short keywords.
If a person is looking to learn how to make money online from a blog, and Google suggest them:
1) “make money”
2) “make money online”
3) “make money online from blogging”
Which search term listing do you think they’ll be clicking on? the #3 of course, so if you have been optimizing for #1 you just wasted your time and got overpowered by the noobs that went for the long tail keyword that few people are looking for.
Nicolas Prudhon´s last blog post..Can We Survive the “NoFollow” Black hole?
Peter@passive income ideas Reply:
April 25th, 2009 at 11:24 am
@Nicolas Prudhon, Thanks for your explanation. So the key is to optimize on long tail keywords as well too. But I was referring to my difficulty of trying to optimize for long tail keywords when the Google KW Tools shows me “no volume or not enough data”.
Peter Lee
Peter@passive income ideas´s last blog post..Blog Traffic- Top Tips To Increase Blog Traffic
Nicolas Prudhon Reply:
April 25th, 2009 at 11:41 am
@Peter@passive income ideas, Peter, this is why I recommend you to use the normal suggestion feature of Google instead of the KW tool. If it’s in the suggestions, it means that it has volume (how much I don’t know, but for long tail I don’t really care either)
Once you have it, just use it and optimize for it as you would for any other term and you’ll do just fine!
Nicolas Prudhon´s last blog post..Can We Survive the “NoFollow” Black hole?
almir Reply:
April 25th, 2009 at 1:39 pm
@Peter@passive income ideas, I hate when I use Google’s Adwords keyword tool and there’s no volume for the keyword I’m trying to implement in my seo ranking efforts for a particular keyword. Thanks for clarifying this Nicolas I myself didn’t know why the Adwords keyword tool would say that. You have been a real help thanks for the tips.
almir´s last blog post..Vital Tips That Can Aid Any Blogger
April 23rd, 2009 at 1:46 am
but i have also noticed that many people are overdoing it in their article and when you read the content it sounds like a 5th grader wrote it because all of the keywords they used took away from the blogs meaning or emphasis
this is a great article it s was definitely well planned out congrats to you my friend
almir´s last blog post..Vital Tips That Can Aid Any Blogger
Nicolas Prudhon Reply:
April 25th, 2009 at 11:16 am
@almir, Almir, onsite optimization is important, but even more so is offsite optimization.
If you look on the long term, which is more beneficial to you:
1) Content full of keywords that some search engines are going to be able to identify better, but having your readers thinking that you somehow have a mental deficiency based on how you write your article.
2) An article that your readers love and want to link to and refer to their friends.
Nicolas Prudhon´s last blog post..Can We Survive the “NoFollow” Black hole?
almir Reply:
April 25th, 2009 at 1:46 pm
@Nicolas Prudhon, wow you make a good point there i would certainly like option 2 over option 1 any day. I would like people to understand my reasons of why i wrote my article the way I did and have them learn something of use that can benefit them in some way than not. I would never want to write just for the search engines because than nothing positive happens out of it.
almir´s last blog post..Vital Tips That Can Aid Any Blogger
April 29th, 2009 at 5:30 am
Nice article Dennis. Its very important that you choose the right keywords for your post. I think they are the key to get rankings in search engines. I myself has written a post on “How To Choose Right Keywords For Your Blog”. Please do read sometime and let me know your comment.
Cheers
Krish
Krish´s last blog post..How To Choose Right Keywords For Your Blog
Dennis Edell Reply:
April 29th, 2009 at 10:10 am
@Krish, Thanks buddy, I’ll definitely drop by and check it out.
Feel free to come back and link to it in your comment.
April 29th, 2009 at 9:53 pm
The Web is becoming more gridlocked daily. If you want your site to be found, it has to appear in the only place people are looking … near the top of search engine query results.
Did You Know That …
More than 75% of all Web sites fail because people never know they exist?
Less than 10% of all search engines are responsible for 90% of total traffic on Web?
You’ve probably dedicated a significant financial investment and time commitment toward promoting your business on the Internet, hoping to make your web site profitable. Most businesses are still waiting for the payoff.
Nicolas Prudhon Reply:
April 30th, 2009 at 9:56 am
@charlotte-office space makati, Seems that I’m a lucky one then!
My financial investment so far has only been:
_ $13.90 for 2 years domain registration.
_ $29.80 in total for my hosting until today.
In the past 2 months (my first two months)
_ 20,000 pages viewed from the search engines
_ 90,000 pages viewed from other sources
That’s seems to be only a small percentage of my global traffic.
Search engine traffic is great, but it certainly is not the only source of traffic or ways for one to be found on internet. Likewise, getting traffic doesn’t require heavy financial investments, but rather dedication and focus.
Nicolas Prudhon´s last blog post..Isn’t the SEO on my site very bad!
June 10th, 2009 at 3:05 am
whats the tool to search for the best keyword?
Nicolas Prudhon Reply:
June 10th, 2009 at 3:26 am
@Michael, Hi Michael, honestly the best tool is your brain
If you want to talk about software/tools, if paid one, I would go with Keyword Elite, if free ones, I would go with Google AdWords Keyword Tool, Google Wonder Wheel, and Wordtracker.
Those are all the tools I use personally to do the work.
Nicolas Prudhon´s last blog post..21 Days SEO Mastery Course
August 9th, 2009 at 4:39 am
[...] 3 Secrets to Writing for the Search Engines [...]
September 5th, 2009 at 5:19 pm
awesome post, I also enjoy all the comments..the trick for me is the right keywords in the URL…it makes a big difference where you rank.
Nicolas Prudhon Reply:
September 6th, 2009 at 7:57 pm
@Mike, KID do have some impact in the search engines if used properly, but the focus here is more on the content of the post you write itself.
It’s important not to forget that you are or should be writing for your readers first, while having your overall page search engine friendly rather than the opposite.