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How To Write For Search Engines
By Matt Tuens (c) 2009
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) writing, as a distinct style,
was born in the Internet era and has matured before our very
eyes in a relatively short span of time. Although it is evolving
and maturing still, and will continuously do so, we can define
some of the tried and tested steps of content optimization to
help unique pages place at or near the top of search engine
rankings.
Some experts go on to say that the goal of SEO is two-fold, with
the first objective to put out the appropriate "bait" for search
engine spiders and the second to serve up useful information to
people who want and need it. Debates about priorities continue
among SEO professionals, but it is never a good idea to devalue
the human factors in any success formula. The singular goal,
then, would be to develop, position and refine content in such a
way as to satisfy all visitors to the page and/or site, both
human and bot alike.
Rethinking Search Engine Content Terms
"Content is king," goes the old saying - and not only is good
content king, it is becoming more important with every passing
day. But the term content is best taken in its broadest sense.
Content is not simply the written copy placed in a document,
assembled on a page, or aggregated at a site. It includes all
this, of course, but content actually comprises titles,
headings, tags, intra-site links and external links, as well.
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All of these components need to work together and form an
interconnected whole so that both search engines and humans find
the right things, come to the right conclusions and, most
importantly, make the right decisions. Good writing is always
targeted to the audience, and you are writing for an audience of
two readers, human and software. Remember these two components
of the audience and find creative ways to reach both of them at
the same time.
First Things First
Titles are critically important - they are usually the first
thing read by both real and virtual visitors. A title is the
"primary topical identifier" and, as such, has an invaluable
function - again, a dual-purpose one. It must contain keyword
targets at the individual word level while stoking interest in
potential readers at the phrase level.
When a person performs a search, the title is both their first
indication of your relevance to their needs and your first
opportunity to compel them to click through. Search engines,
more clinical and objective, give the title importance because
they see it as an indicator of the page's main idea.
Yet many pages on the Internet have no title at all, or share
"Home" and "Untitled" with several million others. There is no
excuse for this oversight. The ignorant cousin of these
mistakes, making the company name by itself the title of every
page, is just as bad. Keywords relevant to the page should be
part of every page's title.
Heading tags carry some importance too. Simply put, heading tags
define the headings and subheadings of your article to both
readers and spiders. By default they appear larger than normal
text and are bolded. While not a magic ranking bullet, they are
looked at with more importance than average text and are an
opportunity to show spiders the themes of your content and what
keywords you wish to rank for.
The H1 tag is the main heading of your article and carries the
most importance, like a headline in a newspaper article. It
should clearly convey the article's topic to the reader and main
keywords to the search engines. H2 tags are one level down in
importance and structure. Use them to define subtopics under
your main topic, and again use keywords where descriptive and
useful. If you needed to break down your article to
sub-sub-headings, you would use the H3 tags, and so forth.
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For both human and robotic readers, it is vital to keep page
content focused. The "one topic per page" rule is an unwritten
one, certainly, and it's followed by most professional content
developers. This has less to do with the intelligence of the
readers (either kind) than it does with several other
considerations. For one thing, search engine "crawlers" have
algorithms that tend to work best on one concept at a time, and
most humans work best this way, too.
In addition, limiting the focus eases the task of placing
keywords in the meta descriptions, page title, body copy, tags
and links. Finally, dealing with more than one topic necessarily
means using more verbiage, which dilutes the potency of a
site-wide SEO program and may negatively impact ranking. Better
to give these other topics their own content, strengthening your
site's overall informational authority.
SEO Copywriting Balance
Much ink has been spilled and many pixels propagated in
discussing SEO techniques, analyzing strategies, teaching "web
content" writing, and chasing changing algorithms. Mentioned
less but encompassing everything is that SEO copywriting, like
all SEO, is about balance.
While articles such as this one can be helpful, it is important
to understand that SEO will always evolve, change, adapt and
improve. Study and implement tested techniques, but remain
flexible and nimble. Writing for search engines and people at
the same time is tricky and challenging at best, and can be
frustrating and time-consuming, too. Approach the challenges in
a businesslike fashion.
SEO content writing at its best balances art with science,
blending the craft of engaging the reader with the dispassionate
analysis of keywords on a page. Follow best practices, but fill
each article to the brim with information useful to your
demographic.
In simultaneously targeting a subject, an audience, and an
algorithm, a great deal of creativity must take place to get
effective SEO results. And, of course, it all has to happen in
an environment that encourages short attention spans and
constantly tries to lure people elsewhere. It is a major
challenge to craft article titles and copy so compelling as to
make people stop and read - or, better yet, stop and then click
where you want them to.
Basics, Opportunities, and Consistency
The basic approach to writing for such a dynamic, ever-changing
environment is to get to the point quickly. The "USA Today" news
style - which relies on short headlines, descriptive
sub-headlines and a few concise paragraphs - is perhaps the best
analogy for good SEO writing. The important points (keywords)
should appear early and often, and within a short period of time
the human readers should know what they are supposed to do,
while the search engines should be able to tell what the page is
about from a consistency between your page structure and your
body copy.
In the eyes of the search engines, everything that it can
possibly see counts. That is, using image alt-text not only
helps blind readers and people using phone- or text-based
browsers, it also gives you another opportunity to add more
descriptive strength to the overall page for the search engines.
Do not miss any opportunity to further empower and refine your
content.
And always remember when writing for search engines - keep
writing. Write write write. Search engine bots gorge on new
information, and if you consistently update your site with fresh
content they will come around more often. While this gives you
more opportunities to display your value, more importantly it
builds the foundation of information that obviates it.
There's a lot to do, and it all needs to be done well. Use your
numbers, metrics and analytics to point you in the right
direction for creating more content. That's some science. Your
creativity and amount of useful information, on the other hand,
will point site visitors and search engines in the right
direction. That's a touch of art. When both aspects of your SEO
program are firing on all cylinders, you should soon be marching
up the search engine rankings.
Next Week
Next week we'll be releasing Part Three of the series - Writing
For Conversions.
About The Author
Matt Tuens is a copywriter for Beanstalk Search Engine Optimization, Inc. Beanstalk offers
expert SEO services, consulting, link building and
SEO copywriting services.
Visit online for more information.
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