This is a guest post by Ben Jackson from SEO Discovery.
Once upon a time is a terribly cliché way to begin an article.
Having a keyword density of 5% is a good way to let your readers know you care more about search engines.
Talking with boring technical terms is a good way to say “click the back button”.
There is no substitute for content that gets read and shared online, and there’s no other content like it. Not your run of the mill “quality” content, I mean stuff that creates a BUZZ.
How To Write People Optimized Content
People read and specifically share content because they connect with it on some level. They likely share things THEY like on Twitter and their followers likely follow them because they like a lot of the same things.
So make content that has the ability to connect with someone and get shared. It can be tough when discussing technical topics like SEO for instance, but there’s no reason you can’t slip in an analogy or joke to catch someone’s attention:
Keyword density doesn’t matter, it’s like the Dolphins upcoming season 😛
No you don’t have to be some comical mastermind. I seriously doubt anyone actually laughed at that weak quip I shared above, but it will capture the reader’s attention.
People love sports, and even if you hate on their team they usually take it in stride and jab back at you – interaction!
Even quirky references to odd yet relatable observations or collective memories can turn an average piece of content into something very memorable. Have you ever read a post by an experienced blogger about how they got started, doing this or that for the first time?
Everyone’s all nostalgia, HARD, like they’re obligated to comment and share their own first experiences even if they just started and their first post was last week.
People only come online in the first place for one of two things: entertainment or information.
Guess what?
Most people don’t read for entertainment. There are tons of videos and
free games all over the internet and they’re fantastically entertaining! You’re reading this because you’re looking for information, so it must be delivered. That being said, informational content with an entertaining edge is truly a piece of blogging gold.
Providing information that people are looking for is a great start and is all you really need to make it, but if you want to stand out you need to stimulate your readers. Put on the clown nose and make them laugh, add “BONUS Tips” in side-boxes, embed video examples, or at least write in a provocative or thought-provoking way.
The fact is, just writing the content is not enough anymore. Forget about keyword density and bolding your keyword phrase. No one is going to tweet your post because they liked how optimized it was. You should still have it optimized, but write for people not the search engines.
In other words, optimize your content for getting shared by writing compelling posts (how many ‘Top 5’ lists can you have??).
Here are two BONUS SEO TIPS from me:
- You only need your keyword in the Title tag and have it in the content. Keyword density really does not matter – localized ratios ignore global keyword density values and normalization.
- Putting your keyword at the beginning and end of the article is not the same as putting it in the beginning or end of the page. Look at Google’s text-only cache to see where your keyword is actually showing up on your page and get creative putting it near the beginning and end – try widgets 🙂
Winding Up
There is a huge difference between crappy, spun, illegible content and what seems to be the average piece of “quality content” these days. However, there is just as much a difference between average content that gets deemed as “quality” and content that really shines.
While hard to initially measure, the difference between “quality” content and exceptional content is profound. Exceptional content is hard to come by but very influential – it’s shareable and memorable. You read it and share it now, you think about it later, and you come back to share it again.
That is the new “quality” content.
This post is a part of SmartBloggerz’s guest blogging contest where you can win cash prizes for earning the most points. Help this guest author win this contest by commenting and sharing this post using the buttons below.
Top 10 Search Terms:
• funny clown faces • funny clowns • funny clown face • funny clown • clown faces • funny clowns faces • clown face • clown faces examples
I agree with you. It’s better to focus on the content, not website promotion. Too much promotion makes blog and website get lower traffic because of google panda. it’s better to avoid about promotion but focus on the content.
Thanks for sharing
ery
Getting someone to read your content is more important than having the spiders of Google crawl it. I love this article! Great points to ponder!
I believe bloggers should first write for their readers. That doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t worry about your SEO. The best bloggers make SEO and PO work together and not one against the other. Just my honest 2 cents.
Hi Ben,
I commend those who write for the sake of sharing optimized content for the readers. However, I do agree with Adam. How can we find those types of blogs that write for the enjoyment of the readers and not only for the search engines? I sure hope they have some ways how to solve that.
I am doing a decent SEO work and it is a rewarding kind of job. I have been crawling like a worm learning what is to be done with my keywords and then after I am hearing another thing. Yet reading your post seems to a very natural way of connecting to your readers. It is not full of unknown things but is very basic and understandable.
I tend to write the article and then go back over it and add keywords being careful not to overdo it. I do it this way as it makes the article stronger when you are not worrying about placing keywords.
SEO is a hard job..specialy google keeps on changing the algorithem…anyway I do belive in unique content after all, if people will stay and recommand your site.. then it’s worth a hundred time then this cra*y comment link 🙂
I have had many pages performing well without the keyword optimization and just trying to create the content which will be helpful to the users. At the end SEO also recognize that.
Thanks for this interesting post! I made the mistake of concentrating to much on SEO focused writing instead of reader focused content for quite some time. But what is it worth having a top ranked site that does´nt convert? Nothing!
Nice tips Ben,
It’s true that the new developments from Google call for a new approach to SEO. More than ever, social interaction is becoming a key (as you noted and other commentators too).
Undoubtedly, stimulating discussion and sharing is far more effective than the old, simplistic on-page optimization.
That said – once you have your quality content, with enough keyword presence (including variable similar terms – Google’s getting cleverer!), there’s no harm in tweaking it to optimize.
Thanks mate, it great that there are bloggers like yourself bouncing these ideas around as we all adapt to ‘post panda’ blogging!