Same as it Ever Was - but Different

Same as it ever was.
Google is changing everything.
Panic. Chaos. Turtles flying everywhere.
And still, you are expected to know best, right? Someone is going to come to you, as an SEO copywriter, and expect you to know the answers that no one else is providing.
OK - make a choice. Tell them what they want to hear, or learn what is best. Either way, people just like you have made bundles of money at it.
I choose to learn more about what is happening, rather than just fanning expectations. Lip service is easy to find most anywhere, and I would prefer people who need that kind of coddle find it from people who are better at its delivery. I am too blunt.
I am better at digging through some data, looking at some numbers worth crunching and extrapolating inferences from it. Sometimes the numbers aren't worth crunching, for sure - but without numbers, most of it is conjecture anyway, so you can say anything you want. I'd rather wait for the data to roll in.
And now Google changes the algo in a huge way, and it is once again time to run for the hills. It is time once again, to change absolutely everything about how you create and promote something on the web. Google has spoken - and so I, like you, am ready to kneel.
Or not.
You decide - I have.
It's a big bad Internet out there.

Online Reputation Management - Local Style!

I have a client right now who is suffering from some bad reviews appearing online. The problem is that when you search on his company, the bad reviews are forefront - and this is not good for his board of directors to see.

Unfortunately, I am not sure how much I can really do to help.

The problem is, if there are no legal issues, having a bad review removed from a site is pretty difficult. Google believes that this gives a clear picture of the business and helps the consumer make an informed decision. Conceptually they are right, while in practice it is usually much more messy. Why? Because angry people take vengeance, and can do so with their power to review.

So how do you manage your online reputation?

Get Listed
Local search listings tend to pull their information from data centers. If you cover the major data centers, your listings are often well represented on many different sites.

I by no means am a local search expert, but I know enough to submit to the following data centers when needed: Yelp, Superpages.com, insiderpages and infoUSA. These are 4 of the most trusted data centers (as far as I know anyway), and they distribute their data to many other, smaller players. The result can be lots of listings for less effort.

In addition to getting in the data centers, you want to get mentioned on other sites where your business is named in conjunction with uniquely identifiable information about your company.

These listings are often referred to as "citations." While conceptually, they are easy to understand, I found this definition by Bill Slawski that does a good job of explaining what you aim for:
"A local document - one associated with particular geographic area, which can be associated with a location, by one of the following means:
* A document may mention a business at the location,
* The address of the business, and/or;
* A telephone number associated with a business."
So this means, in local listings, you don't really have to have a link back to your site...the mention, with the included specific information about your business helps strengthen your power.

Optimize It!
Before you go to the data centers, you want to make sure that you are taking advantage of what you can do with the listings. Most won't let you do much with the name of the company (don't try to spam it), but in your descriptions, you can use keywords that give power to your site. Make sure that you provide all of the information you can...it depends on the specific listing, but some allow you fatten up the profile pretty nicely.

Back to Our Story
So how does this get back to my client with the bad reviews? Because like I said, you really can't do much about bad reviews...but you can make them harder to find. My plan to help my client is to go thru the basics first (noted above: I will make sure he is represented and optimized as much as possible). Then I will get more positive press out there for him to try to force the bad crap beyond anyone's searching patience. Will it work? Hope so - this business deserves it.

It underscores that managing your online reputation is not necessarily difficult, but it does warrant some serious focus and attention. You might not be able to stop bad press, but you can make it a smaller part of what people find about you online.

Freelance SEO Copywriter Tip: Blend Your Sources

Had a couple things recently on the gig that made me remember that blending the sources of information can be a crucial safeguard to freaking-out.

The first was a client with a SERP fluctuation for one keyword. I reported the slip for this keyword the day I saw it, and we have been watching it do some weird things (mostly bad). It basically fell from page one to page three for no apparent reason, and was a keyword this client had been actively building on for more than a year.

The owner was a little bit freaked, seeing his most targeted keyword getting dinged in Google. This is a relatively new client - I have only been helping them for a couple weeks so far. But in that time, I have not known them to freak out unnecessarily.

But experience told me not to join in the panic, and to look deeper into what could be happening.

I looked at some recent changes we had done, and nothing leapt out as unusual. I looked at the analytics of the web traffic and saw some interesting things, the most important one being, that visits were not down, and nor were conversions. Read that part again - it was the meaty bit.

Referrals were actually continuing to rise, and so though there was definitely less traffic coming in on this keyword, it only seemed to affect a direct match to this keyword...the long tail stuff was all intact. And more importantly, it was only visible in Google. Yahoo was holding steady, and Bing was cruising on fire.

The point is, I blended the information from a couple different sources, and did not let the one bad indicator make me believe it was all in trouble. Now this is not to say that I won't try to fix it. I actually believe it could be improperly weighted anchor text, and am taking some steps and continuing to watch it.

But the tip here, is once I was able to see, and make the point that the business was not suffering - just changing - the client was calmed down, and we can continue to try to find the issue with a coooler head and therefore a more detailed and methodical approach.

Story Two: A Slanted Source
The other illustration I had recently was a client who was tracking his site's ranking using a pretty outdated methodology. The source he was using was understandable, as it is pretty visible, and some people seem to value it (or did a few years back). But once you know how it collects its information, you know that this is a very limited option.

So in this case, it was not that the information he was reviewing was incorrect - it was simply one still frame of a larger moving picture. Nonetheless, it was making him a little sad to see a competitor overtake him. I don't like it when good clients are sad, so I asked him how he came to understand this competitor was doing better than him. The answer was this outdated technology told him so.

The thing I did, was show the client the small print in the software he was using to show where some of the shortcomings were later identified by other sources I trust. I showed my client some newer versions of the one he was using, as well as additional ones he could strategically employ in his SEO evaluations - many were free, and others had fees equal to or less than what he was used to paying.

What it did, was show him that one source of information is not a holy edict. None of the tools I showed him would necessarily be the single answer he needs either - but by blending a bunch of the information from a variety of sources, he'll get a much more clear picture of what is happening out there.

And that seemed like a perfect thing to offer you here as an seo freelancer tip...find multiple sources of data that you can trust, and learn the value of using the information together.

Many Paths Might Bring You There

This week, I was again reminded how many different ways you can do something.

I was building a new site for a client. So I was trying a couple different ways to get it done. But there were trade-offs for each decision made. When I went for options that allowed the client more long-term editing control, I lost some degree of visual control.

I am sure in time, I could manipulate the CMS-type options to work as I want them to but time does not allow me to do trial and error...we have a launch date to hit.

So I went back to the client, suggesting we concentrate on establishing a solid web presence to build the business. In time, we can look at rebuilding the site using more technological toys (like a good CMS tool), but it makes more sense to the business plan to get a site out there more quickly.

But even then, once I decided to code it from the ground up, I had to decide what language to use. I want to condense some of the repeating elements, so using server side include files made sense to think about. So I narrowed it down to either asp or php, for these are 2 languages I work with, and both can handle the scripts I wanted to write.

Point of all this is, there were many different ways I could do this project, and all of them might have been right. But my client is entrusting me to look at the options, narrow it down based on her criteria, and then help her make a decision.

And what makes it possible for me to offer this sound, sage advice?

Experience. Years of it. Hundreds of sites under my belt.

So get on it. Every site you work on matters. Every writing assignment should have something to be gained. Every meeting should teach you something. The lessons are there if you let them.
Pile it up, dive right in. Nothing gets work faster than experience, and experience tells you to never be afraid to seek out more experiences. Pretty cool the way that works out.

A Typical SEO Evaluation

This week, I did an SEO evaluation on a potential new client's site. The things I found were pretty common mistakes, so I thought I would genericize the situation and offer them here. The purpose is to give you some things to look at if your own website (or a client's) is struggling in the search engines.

This evaluation took about 2 hours, and focused only on the site's ability to enable indexing. I'll break it down into the 4 main issues I found, and some simple, cost-effective solutions I offered.

Issue 1: Page titles and meta data were all the same across the board. What it looks like to me, was the site builder created the html header for one page. He then simply copied it into all of the other pages as he built out the site. This can be a good way to build sites from scratch, but the specific information in the head tags needs to be changed prior to launch.

• SEO Solution: Use unique description, keyword, and title tags. Focus on a pre-researched list of primary, secondary and tertiary keywords. Lay out a spread sheet with all of the pages and their specific content for each tag. Each page should have a unique, hand created and strategically focused set of meta data.

Issue 2: No alt attributes used in image files. Across the whole site, not a single image I found had an "alt name" attribute assigned.

• SEO Solution: Add alt attributes to the html tags for every image. This markup is to enable users who are visually challenged to still "read" the non-textual parts of your website. It is referred to as "Section 508 Compliance." The use of keywords here is not as important as describing the image accurately.

Issue 3: No Site Maps.

• SEO Solution: Add site maps. Generate an XML site map as well as an html site map that is accessible to the user. If applicable, create an RSS feed. Site maps are not guarantees that every page within them will be indexed. But site maps do tell the search engines what you want them to look at, and they do often help a site get more thoroughly indexed.

Issue 4: No Method of Measurement Being Used. The site owner really has no idea what is happening on the site--who visits, what they are looking for, what they are doing. There are some potential e-commerce opportunities being missed, and the call-to-action is muddled and soft across the whole site.

• SEO Solution: Add tracking and increase visibility and accountabilty of all calls to action. Set a baseline so there is an achievable, measurable goal.

There were other issues in the execution of the site that offered chances for optimizing, but these simple steps above were enough to get them started in the right direction.

From my end, it is pretty easy to optimize these things and make sure the site is getting properly indexed. As an SEO writer, it is important to always do this before doing anything else. It is truly eye-opening to see how many times these relatively simple things can improve a site's ability to gain organic SEO power.

And then the fun can really begin!

Another Simple SEO Copywriting Tip

About the Death of Keyword Density
Since the last SEO tip was so fun, I thought we'd try another. This one is more directly about SEO copywriting, and the changes that are happening in searching and in the search engines.

See, up until a couple years ago, keywords were the main (almost the only) thing to understand in SEO writing. Keyword density and meta tags were simple things that even horribly untalented people could manipulate pretty easily and see some great results. Stuff a bunch of keywords into a page, and bingo, you could start to rank for them. But, in most cases those days are all but gone, and as an SEO writer it makes me very happy. Why? Because it is going to be tougher and tougher to rank for crap...and this means job security for you-know-who.

So is Keyword Density Gone Completely?
Short answer: no. But as with everything in search, it is only one element, so manipulating it and it alone won't work for you anymore...at least not like it used to. It is now measured and balanced with other all other aspects of organic search, and is much less important than most things, things like backlinks or good page titles. Like everything about organic development, the value of keyword density varies by search engine--some of the "short bus" search engines still value density pretty highly, but I don't typically care too much about them as they simply don't drive the traffic I need to call something a success. Call me a search snob, but the numbers don't lie.

Personally, I used to measure my keyword density as part of creating every page. I had targeted levels to reach and if my finished page did not meet the targeted keyword density, I figured out a way to include more instances. I was pretty smooth at it so it wasn't always obvious...but it still always felt kind of slimy to do things like that. But that was then, my friends--and times are better now. I have not had to sweat density since about mid-2004, and the last time I did, it was only because the client very specifically wanted me to do so. I tried to explain it might not really be the best plan, but as the freelancer for a major client, I pretty quickly shut up, and did what I was told. They were happy, I got paid, and their pages did fine. But this was not only because of the density levels I met on every page--there were many aspects to this site that made it a big one.

But in the past 2 years, more than once I have also made pages rank for a targeted keyphrase without having a single instance of the keyphrase appearing in the body copy. Let me repeat that: NOT A SINGLE OCCURENCE of the keyphrase in the body copy, and I still got a #1 ranking in Google for my keyphrases (and held them easily for over a year, BTW). How? By refining the keyphrase, manipulating the page title, metadata and backlinks properly, and having generally solid content on a trusted domain. I did it all very intentionally, and it was really quite an eye-opener for me. I saw it as a huge leap forward, because it reduced the amount of time I would have to spend cramming in a few more instances of the keyphrase to reach some arbitrary number that seemed to make the algorithm click my way.

Make It Good, and Make It Stick
Now don't think that this means you can ignore keywords--nothing could be farther from the truth. But in my experience, from the user's side of search, keywords are slowly being replaced by much more specific keyphrases. Instead of typing in 1-2 keywords and sifting through the results, people are more comfortable typing in longer strings to get what they want. I saw some stats on this recently, which I will try to dig up to share, but it basically stated that the average search was edging closer to 4-5 words, where it was still 1-2 only a couple years ago.

So the engines are going to look for these longer tail searches in the content, which makes density manipulation pretty difficult. They are also starting to connect contextual content more and more often--which is partly why I was able to rank for a keyphrase without actually using it. I was talking about the same subject matter but used synonyms and the like and still had great success.

The key is to make a page of content good, solid writing first. Actually, just stop there. Make it good, and it is much easier to make it stick.

Spend Your SEO Writing Time Wisely
The same amount of time I used to spend manipulating density is now applied to better understanding search nuance. The end result is better pages--both for me as the writer, and for the users. The users reward me with more links to my pages, more time spent reading them, and more completed calls-to-action.

So if you are intent on becoming a better SEO copywriter, you should know it is more about being a good writer than being a keyword magician (or worse, a spamming stuffer). Spend more time doing keyword research, understanding your audience's needs and search habits, and creating good content. If you have a good page, people will spend more time with it. They will be more inclined to link to it, or take a specific action. Keyword density in itself is pretty darn easy to manipulate...good writing is more of an art. Bully for us!

SEO Copywriting Tip

I know I promised some SEO copywriting tips, and have not yet delivered...so here's a really simple one for you to chew on.

Crosslinking Your Content
So you have a nice site, you have it built well, and everything is ready to go. You have plenty of good content, the navigation is clear and works well, and you have both an html and an XML sitemap in place. How else can you help to increase the assumed relevance of your content? One simple answer is crosslinking your content.

Why do It?
The engines might clearly see the pages you have out there, but what do they think of them? If each page only has a navigation link, and a link from the sitemaps to it, it is what I call a "dangler," which means it is kind of floating out there. Think of a tree branch with a single leaf on it.

Danglers might be important pages to you and your site, but the spiders only see it dangling...so they don't understand that these are so important to you. Cross linking your pages from within the body content gets rid of this situation--and instead of a site filled with danglers, the spiders start to see it as a nice little compact web of information.

It's Easy.
All you need to do to crosslink your pages is to link important words to pages that help illustrate what those words are. They don't have to be exact matches to work well either. For example, let's say you have a site about getting small business money containing a page giving loan details, and you want this page to really stand out among the rest.

Look through the other pages, and find out where you are talking about loans, financing, money, or other similar ideas. Hyperlink these references to the loans page. They might be single words (like loan, loans, financing, money, etc.) or might be short phrases like "getting business loans" "small business financing options" and so on.

I have found that a contextual reference is increasingly important--meaning simply that you don't want to only look at linking the word "loans" to make the page for loans work. If it is a related idea/term, it will help you to associate it with your loans page...the engines (especially Google) are doing this more and more as time rolls on. Think of it like anchor text..because that is, after all, exactly what it is. And just like you don't want every anchored link on someone else's site to say the same thing about your site, the same holds true within your own architecture. Show the engines that your loans page is about all things related to loans, and you will find the juice you need.

How Many Links are Enough?
There is no single answer to how many links are enough...but don't go completely crazy with this idea. Ultimately, you are linking these terms and phrases to help the user learn more. If you overdo it, it becomes kind of a hassle to look through your site, and it starts looking like you are simply trying to manipulate the system which is never a good thing.

As a general starting point, if I have about 300 words on a page, I might look to hyperlink about 10 of them to other pages. It may be more, but not too often less. This gives some depth to the contextual content without going nutsy with it...and it has never had an adverse effect on me doing it this way. I am reasonable with what I am trying to accomplish, not spammy. If I have one page I am trying to really boost, it will get linked from a bunch of pages, but I try to mix it up and "spread the wealth" across all the pages as best I can.

When your page is linked from a couple or more places in your site, it takes on a little different stature in the eyes of the spiders (do search bots have eyes?). It will diminish the dangling, and overall, make the search engines happier with what they find on your site. Will it boost rankings? Probably not...but it will make each page stronger, which will increase the assumed strength of the domain--which definitely will end up helping you in organic search.

Just do it.
Internally cross linking pages is one of the easiest, and cheapest ways to help you get more mileage out of your SEO efforts. I am surprised at how many people don't employ this simple strategy...but look at the sites doing well in your niche, and I'd be willing to bet that they are doing it. Just jump on in--as long as the links all work (very important--don't allow broken links in your site!), it will have a positive effect. Hard to measure perhaps, but positive nonetheless.

Get linking!