Lots of Content to Share? Don’t “OES”

Lots of content to share? SEO matters for copy, but flipped backwards–OES–I call it “opportunity for excessive stuffing.” Writing for a keyword density is so last decade. It’s like overindulging in fatty foods. And the process of writing becomes that of watching the needle on a weight scale as you force-feed content, grow rotund, and [...]

Writing Web Headlines for Maximum Effect

Web headlines have the potential to affect every other word of content on a web page. Given those magical powers, doesn’t it make sense to know how to write a powerful web headline? Web headlines are non-negotiable components of webpages, articles, press releases, reports, white papers, blog posts, landing pages, sales pages, and ads. An [...]

Great Blog Content = Value

I love it when I find clear opportunities to continue to hammer home a point that many businesses still don’t get–that a blog loaded with great content is a big value add. For anyone who follows StomperNet, I just snagged this screenshot from their blog sidebar, proof that some of the more well-known SEOs know [...]

Zombie Web Copy

It walks at night. It never sleeps. It’s infested by black magic. (sorry, I’ve enjoyed a happy hour). A colleague of mine the other day mentioned that the web copy never “dies.” Which brought another to name it “zombie.”   He was referring to the fact that even if you pay no attention to your [...]

Engineering or Writing?

The action of writing web copy can sometimes feel too much like engineering as opposed to writing– a natural language flow…. Any discussion of SEO can quickly sound as if there is less writing going on and much more “building” and “integrating” and “stuffing” and  attachment to measurables like keyword density. Let me grab my [...]

Are You Listening to THIS Web Content Advice? DON’T

The Google Panda/Farmer algorithm update that was installed in late February, did have an effect on web content. That’s a fact that cannot be disputed. How much of an affect will only be measured over time and once we shut up about it or stop obsessing over it. (one of the biggest effects has been [...]

Deep On-Page SEO-for-Content Analysis

For the keywords: “home energy evaluation” Google presents this on the first page of organic listings. Read the SERP snippet for the second listing: Now compare that text to the actual page description tag: <meta name=”description” content=”Home energy savings from Dr. Energy Saver experts. Sign up for a Home Energy Audit Learn about insulation, water [...]

Got Content? Now What?

Got web content? Once we have  content what do we do with it? Creation Curation Implementation Evaluation Renovation Now that I have many pages of content, my job becomes a kind of constant caretaking, a lot of my responsibilities falling into the above categories. I can also start asking myself the following: Is any of [...]

Strategic Anchor Links in Long Copy

Google sometimes displays sitelinks in among search results… and occasionally those sitelinks are the page anchor links: On this particular page the anchor links have played a dual role: better user experience (this page of copy is really long) plus they provide a structure that easily enables Google to turn them into sitelinks within the [...]

Clever Link Trick

Official Google Blog editors make clever use of a crop of text links when they make a link farm of a complete sentence. Instead of one long hyperlink, which is the common text link convention, each word is a separate url to a different blog post. It’s a provocative alternative and certainly flies in the [...]

Content Check-Up: Interior Site Pages

Since it’s a given that Google will continue to switch up its algorithm at any moment in time, it makes sense to evaluate site content and copy from top to bottom. How are your interior site pages? Keyword optimized? Clean and uncluttered? Navigable? Have a blog that’s regularly updated? Offer visitors valuable information, and/or a [...]

Nice way to handle jump links

Have a long page of informational web copy broken into subtopics that might benefit from using some jump links in the content? If you have some extra sidebar space, here’s a refreshing departure from the  typical. On the PowerToChoose.org website (screenshot below) you’ll see no ugly lists of bulleted hyperlinks clogging up prime real estate [...]

Why text links in page content are a good idea.

It’s never too outdated a topic…SEO basics like on-page text links. And, no, everyone doesn’t know their import or that on-page links are a pretty major component on a comprehensive SEO checklist. See, I believe there are a lot of business folks and other professionals who are creating websites and don’t just know this stuff…unless [...]

Using Web Copy to Filter Your Audience

When you can identify your audience, reader or prospective customer and client you hold the keys to the virtual castle. But this is often one of the forgotten components in the process. So how exactly does this “identifying the audience” thing start? #1. Narrow down the “who” you’re speaking to, selling to or serving The [...]

Site Speed Affects Page Rank, Says Google

If you offer web copywriting or are a site builder or publisher, Google has officially said site speed helps determine your page rank, one of the over 200 “signals” it uses to calculate PR. Chalk up another consideration when building a website or creating content. Site performance is determined by a laundry list of factors– [...]

Engaging the 90% That Do Online Research Before Buying

Customers do their homework before pulling out their wallets to purchase online, reports MarketingVox. The data comes from Compete.com and the numbers look like this: 90% of customers conduct online research before they buy. 61% use search engines. For online businesses and marketers with a love for content, this is good news. You always have [...]