~~~Writing for the Search Engines~~~
From: Andrew Bernero
I have been researching and researching and I believe now that I have
a very good working knowledge of SEO and I have found that rankwrite
offers the most helpful information available. (Thanks, Andrew! -
Heather)
If placed carefully, I understand that variations of keywords can be
used up to 3 times in the meta keywords code. Is there a limit as to
the number of times the keyword can be used within the text of the
page before it is considered spam? (they would be used in legitimate
sentences of course)
Any advice would be Greatly Appreciated!!
Thank you,
Andrew
~~~Heather's Response~~~
Hey, Andrew-
This is a very popular topic (and a good question, at that!). The
*last* thing you want is to create spammy copy. Remember (and I'm
sure our long-time readers could say it with me) SEO writing satisfies
two masters - the search engines and your prospect. Why waste time on
an expensive SEO campaign, drive people to your site, and then lose
them because your copy is unintelligible? Legitimate sentences or
not, doing that is just dumb.
You can get some more information about writing for keyphrase here:
http://www.rankwrite.com/archives/issue035.htm
http://www.rankwrite.com/archives/issue034.htm
http://www.rankwrite.com/archives/issue015.htm
(See, I told you it was a popular topic!)
But wait! There's more! :: standing on soapbox now ::
Your question reminded me of the Rank Write emails we've been
receiving lately. The bad thing is, these folks are believing "bad"
SEO tips and not realizing they're working with incorrect information
(and thank goodness they asked our opinion first!). If they
*wouldn't* have checked first, it would have been a nightmare. When
their site got rejected, or their ranking was #157,214, they'd wonder
"Hey, I did everything right. What the heck happened?" They put in a
good effort, but they were working with bad information. No wonder
SEO is confusing!
The search engines, and the folks who run them, are not stupid. If
you spam the engines within either the coding or the body text, you
will most likely get caught. Sure, we all know people who get away
with some questionable methods. But ask the question: "Do they
enjoy long-standing results? Or are they constantly tweaking and
resubmitting pages, looking for the latest algorithm secret?" I
don't know about you, but I would rather do it right the first time,
and just wait for the rankings to pour in.
So, here's a friendly reminder of things that ARE body-text spamming.
You may be severely penalized or banned from a search engine if you
try these techniques (and your rankings will be in the toilet), so
beware!
1. Putting keyphrases against a background of the same color, which
basically makes the keyphrases invisible to your readers - but not the
search engines. I'm sure there are people screaming, "Hey, I did
that before, and it worked" (as well as others grumbling that they
were banned from the engines). To the "success stories" I'd ask - how
are your rankings now? What are you doing to keep your rankings high
for the long-term? Spam is spam - no matter how well you can "hide"
your technique. Why not get over the time-wasting tricks and get it
right the first time?
2. Repeating the same keyphrases ad nauseam. If one of your
keyphrases is "warm gloves" (which I'm wearing right now because my
office is freezing), don't shove that phrase in there over and over.
And DON'T repeat "warm gloves" three times a sentence, or repeat the
phrases next to each other like, "Warm gloves, warm gloves." Make
your marketing flow work and integrate the keyphrases accordingly.
3. Don't figure (as we discussed last week) that adding "popular"
keyphrases like "sex" will increase your ranking. The rule of thumb
is simple - if a keyphrase is NOT relevant to your content, don't use
it. It's that easy.
Remember, if you *ever* read any SEO information that confuses you,
write us! That's why we're here! There are many so-called experts
out there that think they know the secret to successful SEO, but their
advice is horrible. They probably mean well, but their lack of
knowledge will mess up your long-term rankings. Why take that chance?
Thanks for your question, Andrew! We've received quite a few online
writing questions this week, but we want MORE! (Nah, I'm not
demanding, am I?) Zip us an email with your thoughts!
Heather
~~~Jill's unsolicited 2 cents~~~
In his question, Andrew mentioned being able to use keywords up to
three times in the Meta keywords tag. I just wanted to add that
three is a great number to shoot for in this tag, but four should not
hurt you either if the same words are not next to each other. There
really are no *magical* numbers for this sort of thing. Check out my
Meta keyword article at: http://www.rankwrite.com/metakeyword.htm for
more info.
Jill
~~~Send Us Your Questions~~~
If you have questions about online copywriting or search engine optimization (or both!), just zip us an email to questions@rankwrite.com. We've had some folks ask if their question
was "too basic" to be printed - and you don't have to worry about
that! There are no "stupid" search engine optimization or copywriting
questions, so ask away!
