Density Goes the Way of the Dodo

When using keywords in an article it is important to consider how your writing will look from Google’s perspective. If it looks “spammy” or poorly written, Google’s Panda algorithm (released back in 2011) will penalize it. And now that Panda has been incorporated into the Google’s core algorithm, the emphasis must definitely be quality over keyword.

On-Page SEO and the ‘Natural Keyword’

On-page SEO deals with the material you want the search engine to rank. It includes both the content and the HTML source code. When writing an article that uses keywords you have likely already chosen a few phrases or words to focus on. Now it is time to infuse these keywords and phrases throughout the page naturally. This means thinking of the reader and his experience instead of the Google algorithm. Avoid keyword stuffing (repeating the same phrase at the expense of flow) and random placement of keywords (like at the end of a paragraph or at the bottom of an article just to increase the keyword count).

Ideal Use of Keywords in Today’s SEO

The Keyword-optimized article is still a powerhouse for online content writers, as long as you utilize the keyword or phrase in a way that emphasizes user-experience over analytics. Having said that, however, you can make your article more appealing to Google by considering the following advice:

1. Use the keywords in your content at five crucial points: the MetaData (Title and Description), Headings, Image Titles, Article Title and then once per section if possible. This will give your article the needed keyword inclusion without over-doing it.
2. Be specific. Since Panda’s release, Google has had a thing for specialized websites, giving them a higher rank. It only makes sense that if you’re using a keyword, the more specific the better, particularly if you’re writing for a company that is in its own niche.
3. Be creative. Writing an article around a keyword doesn’t mean it needs to be dry or monotonous. Any subject can be made interesting by using your imagination. Write the article from a different perspective or add a little of your individual style.
4. Be honest. In reality, not all keyword phrases can be turned into a masterpiece. If a client asks you to write a quality keyword article around the phrase “mechanics Los Angeles” you’re in for a difficult task. In this case you can try to talk the client into tweaking the keyword phrase to one that sounds more natural. Many business owner’s don’t know a lot about Google analytics or its new preference for quality over keyword density.

The best advice for the website content writer is to put your energy into writing a genuine article with relevant and interesting information. Infuse keywords naturally and be smart about your choice of keyword. Google will take care of everything else.

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In today’s globally accessible blogging community, readers are inundated with content marketing from all angles; blogs occupy one part of that content. Many of them are deeply personal, expressing what the writer did that day or venting about work. To attract readers, you have to give the readers something worthwhile. That means thinking with a user-design strategy.

UX Design

In 2014 Google updated its algorithm to weed out sites using spam to increase their page rankings, banning many of the worst offenders from being indexed. They did this as a means to raise the quality of material available to searchers. Raising the quality of what is posted online is just one way that mega-companies are using user-experience design to encourage marketing professionals to think of the user when posting. If you really want your blog to attract a wide audience, then you should also be aware of what your users–your readers–might want the most.

Founder and President of Semantic Studios Peter Morville created a user experience honeycomb, a diagram of traits your content must have to fully realize the benefits of your online presence.If you incorporate each of those into your blog, you will ensure that your message gets the attention it deserves. See how you can implement each of the seven traits into your blog:

Desirable: Is what you’re writing about interesting to people in general? Not too many people want to read a blog that leaves them feeling unpleasant. If you can keep your topic on the brighter side and refrain from using it as an outlet for a vent, people will want to read.

Accessible: Everyone should be able to access your blog, whether they are on a desktop computer, tablet, or mobile phone. This means using responsive design on your page that is easily viewable in different configurations.

Usable/Useful: I have combined two of the traits into one important component. A good blog is equally both. Readers should be able to use information they get from your blog in their everyday life. This doesn’t mean you have to do a self-help blog or that the usefulness has to be tangible. Providing information that they can use down the road is just as valid.

Valuable: Readers should get something out of your blog. Whether this is information on a subject or a new technique for coloring their hair, or they simply got a good feeling from reading, readers need to feel that they didn’t waste their time.

Findable: This is where SEO comes into play, and is the reason keywords are so important. If you do some simple research before you start writing to see what the main keywords are within the topic you are blogging about, you can then cater your writing to include those keywords and gather a higher ranking on Google, which is ultimately how your blog will be found above the thousands of others posted on a daily basis.

Credible: This is often overlooked when writing a blog. Many people think that since a blog is a more intimate piece of writing, the reader comes into it with a certain amount of trust in you up front. But this should make it more important for you to use credible information to back up your blog. If you are talking about your daughter’s elementary school play and offhandly mention that PIlgrims settled in Virginia, for example, you’re going to lose some credibility when readers find out you provided faulty information and didn’t bother to double-check it.

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It is not uncommon for a small business to spend much of their budget on advertising. Even with a good product, it can be difficult to sell if the client base isn’t there. Writers and other freelance professionals deal with the same issue, except that instead of marketing a product, they are selling a service.

In 2014, advertisers spent $15.3 billion in social advertising. Interestingly, this amount is less than what many marketing executives spend on print or broadcast advertising and accesses an even larger market. It’s no wonder sites like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn have become so popular among small business owners and freelance professionals.

Social Management Sites for More Efficient Marketing

With the creation of more and more social networking sites, it becomes important for you as a small business owner or freelancer to either choose a couple of platforms to use or find one place where you can manage all of your different social media platforms. Using only one platform minimizes your marketing efforts; as a freelancer, you need to expose your service to as many potential clients as possible.

Hootsuite is one of the more popular choices for managing your social media posts to best maximize your advertising efforts. In fact, it recently surpassed 15 million users globally and is being utilized by 800 of the Fortune 1000 companies. Hootsuite allow you to write messages and post them to your different accounts simultaneously or schedule them for some time in the future. It also provides data that can help you determine the viability of your marketing efforts.

Hootsuite is only one of the social management platforms available for marketing purposes. Others include

• Sprout Social
• Market Me Suite
• Sendible
• Socialbankers
• Crowdbooster

Which you choose to utilize will depend on your personal branding strategy and an intuitive idea of what kind of platform you are comfortable using. You should investigate them all thoroughly to see which would be a best fit for you.

Hiring an Outside Social Media Management Firm

While the above-mentioned management sites allow you to do the work of managing your social media on your own, there are a number of reasons you may want to consider paying these companies to manage your online presence:

You don’t have the time: The importance of social media management cannot be stressed enough. It is, however, time-consuming work to respond to online posts, monitor reviews on Yelp, and moderate discussion boards. You simply don’t have the time to focus on maintaining an online presence without giving up valuable work hours.

Cost: Inevitably you will consider hiring an employee or student to do the work for you. This is costly and comes with the risk of hiring someone who is not qualified for the position. In addition, you don’t have access to the advanced software that management companies have and would have to purchase the software out-of-pocket.

Expertise: Social media management companies know the marketing trends that are “in” right now and have the know-how to tailor your posts to focus on branding your product or service. They also have a more direct knowledge of optimization techniques to put your posts above the competition.

Managing your social media presence gives you the advantage of incorporating a variety of platforms and strategies into marketing your product or service.

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