Disclaimer. The author in no case shall be responsible for any personal or commercial damage that results due to misinterpretation of information.

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2 Disclaimer 2013 Solutions From Paradise, LLC No part of this ebook can be reproduced, stored, or transmitted by any means including recording, scanning, photocopying, electronic or print without written permission from the author. While the author has taken utmost care to ensure the accuracy of the written content, all readers are advised to follow the guidelines, tips and ideas mentioned herein at their own risk. The author in no case shall be responsible for any personal or commercial damage that results due to misinterpretation of information. All information, ideas and guidelines mentioned herein are solely for educational purposes. This ebook is not a substitute for professional advice and does not take personal situations into consideration, therefore may not be fit for every purpose. All readers are encouraged to seek professional advice when needed. 2

3 What Will You Find in this ebook? There is a great and inspiring saying that relays, Build it, and they will come. This is one of the biggest myths people tend to believe about their websites. Why? In the world of websites, having an awe-inspiring design does not guarantee that people are going to find you online. Search Engines do not look at your spectacular thousand dollar design and think Oh, this site looks great- let s rank it at the top! There are many, many wonderfully designed sites located on page 50 of Google-and they re not getting much in the way of organic traffic. Is your website one of them? Welcome to Writing Search Engine-Friendly Content and get ready to demystify the world of writing search engine optimized content. If you have been looking for a resource that will help you learn what you need to do to give your website the best possible chance to rank at the top of search engine results, you ve come to the right place. As you continue reading this ebook, you will learn how you should select and place the right keywords as well as write good content for your website. Moreover, you will also get familiar with things that can get your website to the top and help you gain greater visibility in search engines. You can also learn to keep track of your web traffic and see how well you are performing. 3

4 Disclaimer... 2 What Will You Find in this ebook?... 3 Introduction: What is SEO?... 5 Some Basic info about traffic... 7 Pick the Right Keywords... 8 Create Content Your Customers Love Webpage Factors that Influence Your Search Ranking Deciding Webpage Title, Description and Navigation Getting Your Webpage Content into the Top Search Engine Results The Final Word

5 Introduction: What is SEO? Do you know what the SEO craze is all about? Whenever you enter a search term in a search engine, you see a long list of websites that contain the same term you used in your query. Being an enthusiastic web visitor, you tend to click on website links that appear right at the top of your search results. Simply put, you consider results at the top to be better and more relevant to your search term. The question you need to answer at this point is why some websites rank at the top, while others are never displayed on the first page? This is due to a powerful online marketing tool called Search Engine Optimization or (SEO). Basically, SEO helps you get lots of internet traffic if your website ranks higher than a number of other similar websites. This powerful tool helps search engines find your website and display it at the top in response to a search query entered by your potential customer. Interestingly, search engines don t search websites as you do, instead they crawl over your website and have a look at particular website items such as text to get an idea of what your website is about. How Do Search Engines Work? Every search engine likes different things, and if you want to rank at the top of every search engine, you need to optimize your website carefully. For example, Yahoo and Bing pay more attention to on-page keyword factor, whereas Google ranks websites based on links. Also, older websites rank higher on Google, but Yahoo has no such preferences. You might need to spend some time working with your website before it gets mature enough to rank on top in Google! A large part of web traffic is driven by search engine giants such as Google, Bing and Yahoo (with Google getting the biggest share). Search engines, without doubt, are the most commonly used method of investigation by customers regardless of the nature of your business, products, or services. 5

6 Why is Search Engine Optimization So Important? Some of you are wondering why businesses spend a great deal of time and money to find out the words that customers type into the search box on their preferred search engine. The simple reason is that recent trends show that search engine traffic is one of the most powerful factors that can make or break a business. If you invest your time in SEO, you can get more targeted visitors in less amount of time and this is comparable to the overwhelming return by other traditional methods of marketing and online promotion. However, this is only one side of the picture. Do you know why search engines can t find your website if you don t use SEO? The answer to this question is really simple. Even though search engines are quite smart, they still need some help to pick out the right websites and drive targeted internet traffic. The right SEO techniques can give you thousands of visitors and lots of search engine attention, whereas no SEO or wrong moves will only leave your website hidden deep inside the online world - where visibility is minimal at best. In addition to making your website rank at the top of search results, the right amount of SEO also helps boost your website rankings. Your content will be placed where your customers are more likely to find you, and this is especially important if you want to want to survive the increasingly competitive online environment. Is SEO too Complex? This is a tough question to answer, but for now, you only have to remember a simple rule. The more your website is updated with quality content, the greater the chances that search engines pick you - which I turn will boost your search engine ranking. 6

7 Simply put, search engines (especially Google) are putting a great amount of focus on the amount of relevant, unique content you have on your website. Some Basic info about traffic Before we get into the details of writing search engine friendly content, let s see where your website traffic comes from. Basically, there are five main types of internet traffic - namely direct traffic, Organic Search Results, Paid Search Results, referral, and paid referrals or ads. You should look to have a healthy mix of all five different types of traffic. This is same as maintaining a diversified portfolio to gain more profits on investment. Direct Traffic, as the name suggests, has no referrer or the referrer remains unknown. Your customer finds you by typing in your website URL in the web browser or access your website from the link mentioned in s, documents or newsletters. Direct traffic is also achieved with the help of server or client redirects or when a customer clicks your website from a browser s bookmark menu. We will focus our discussion on the second type of traffic, Organic Search Engine Traffic. Organic Search Engine Traffic is traffic that is directed from a search engine result display. Here s how organic search engine traffic works: when you enter your search term in the search engine (let s say Google), you ll find a highlighted area at the top of the page and this is paid search engine traffic (ads.) The content or website listed below the highlighted area is organic, or free search engine traffic. Paid Search Engine Traffic basically is the traffic you get after placing small ads on a search engine. You only have to pay for the ads when a customer clicks on it and this is also known as PPC or Pay Per Click Advertising. Referral Traffic, as the name suggests, is the traffic directed to your website with the help of link building. The quickest way to build referral traffic is to register your 7

8 website with business directories. You can also get lots of referrals when you provide website information in blogs and newsletters related to your business. Paid Referral Traffic is the traffic that comes to your website as a result of your paid advertising campaigns. On-Page SEO and Off-Page SEO Elements There are two important things you need to keep in mind while optimizing your website. On-page SEO includes optimization of your website content, keywords, meta tags, and text. Off-Page SEO includes everything that can improve your website ranking but is not located on your website itself. (The most common examples include using social media and blogs that contain backlinks to your website). Pick the Right Keywords It all starts with someone typing words into a search box. No matter how long you ve been in the industry, you need to know the right words or search terms your customers use on the search engine. If you cannot figure out the right keywords, you can start with a simple word or phrase that is most appropriate for your business. A little bit of homework can tell you a lot about what your customers are really looking for. Once you know what your customers want, you can provide related content, thus improving your website rankings. Remember, you don t have to hit a bull s-eye on the first attempt. Just start simple. At the center of all great SEO campaigns there is a selection of highly relevant keywords. 8

9 Here are some criteria and tips for beginning your research: Relevance: Is the keyword relevant to the content on your website? Will the searcher find what they are really looking for if they land on your site after using those keywords? Look Around: Search the keywords you are considering, and see what your competition is doing. Knowing which websites already rank high for your keywords will help you understand what you are up against competition wise, as well as give you some valuable ideas for your own site. Check out the Search Volume: Something important to consider when selecting keywords is to find out how often these keywords are actually searched for. (Resource: Google keyword tool) Return on Investment: Depending upon the keywords you ve chosen, you may realize that the competition for your selected keyword is highly competitive and could potentially take months or even years before you rank on the first page. If this is the case, you need to consider the actual business and revenue you will receive for those keyword phrases, and if it will be worth it. If not, you may want to focus on the easier keyword phrases that have a lower competition level. If you cannot figure out a single keyword or related phrase, you can use the free keyword tool offered by Google AdWords. ( Here is an image to help you get a better idea. Simply enter your search terms and click Keyword ideas to see the results. 9

10 How Can You Be Successful? Your work does not end when you know the right keywords. You also have to understand the demand for a given keyword or phrase and its competition as well. If big brands use the same powerful keywords as you do and your business is just starting out, it is going to be an uphill battle to get to the top of rankings. It is essential that you understand keyword difficulty. Google AdWords provides a fairly good idea about keyword competition when you choose your key terms and phrases. Needless to say, high competition is not good as lots of other websites will be competing with your business. Another thing you need to look at closely is the keyword tail. Basically, every keyword or phrase has three core components head, modifier and tail. If you own a restaurant, your head component will be restaurant. People searching for lunch options would search for online restaurants so this term can work as your modifier. 10

11 Similarly, a lot of customers would be interested in discounts for online order so a good starting point for your keyword tail can be anything such as discount or delivery. Remember, keywords with longer tail are always better, as you have greater chances of finding your customer and encouraging them to buy. Make sure you include every possible keyword your searcher is interested in. Here are some more keyword tips to generate lots of traffic for your website. 1. Always use a popular keyword/phrase on each page. 2. Make sure your title tag uses a keyword/phrase. 3. Choosing URL with the keyword/phrase is also a good way to generate more internet traffic. 4. Your keyword/phrase density ideally should be somewhere between 5-6%. Never attempt to fool search engines by overstuffing keywords 5. Try to use keywords/phrases in header tags of your page and anchor text of links. Create Content Your Customers Love If you feel you are the only one who is struggling for content ideas, just relax, because you re not alone. Lots of people don t have a clue about what they should write on their website. Think about it this way. Your customers have lots of questions, and this is why they use a search engine to find the answers. When they use their web browser to find an answer, they enter a search term (keyword/phrase in your case) and hope to find a relevant answer (search results.) Simply put, your website should have well written content for three important reasons. 1. To keep your reader engaged. 2. To improve search engine rankings and increase web traffic. 11

12 3. To increase the chances of quality links from other websites. Interestingly, the point where most people go wrong is writing truly engaging content for their website. While Search Engine Optimization involves keyword research and placement, you simply cannot ignore the fact that your website has to engage, entertain, and entice your visitor. Remember, even the best keyword research and placement cannot make someone read your page or continue visiting the site in the future. Moreover, attractive pictures and graphics alone cannot hook your visitors for a long time. What you really need to do is post content that makes your reader the center of your business. You will be surprised to know that Google selects websites with good content and gives them high rankings as well. The content you post on your website should have the following features if you want to improve your website ranking. 1. Frequent updates. For best results, update your web content once every few weeks. It would be great if you update your content more often, i.e. every week. 2. No spelling and grammar errors. There is nothing more damaging to your reputation than having a website with misspelled words or grammatical errors. Make sure your website is error free if you want to gain better credibility. 3. No large blocks or chunks of solid text. Make sure your paragraphs are 1-4 sentences, not longer. If you are writing content for your website, your sentences should be brief, preferably 10 words or less. You can sprinkle longer sentences throughout the text rather than stuffing them together in one place. 4. Needless to say, your text should have contextual relevance. The content you write should have the keywords and numerous variations of the keywords/phrases. It is a good idea to include appropriate keywords you might not 12

13 think of immediately. If you use related keywords, a lot of potential web visitors may stumble on your website as a part of their search. 5. You can use bullets or lists if your text is running too long. 6. Keyword research never stops. Most people do their keyword research only once (when they are building their website) and forget about it. If you want to get great results in the future and maintain your rankings, you must do your research regularly. Moreover, you can also monitor how well your keywords perform and modify your web content accordingly. 7. Understand your customers and offer exclusive content that no other website offers. Customers who know a lot about the topic use different keywords or search queries compared to customers who are very new to the topic. Your website should have content that is useful for the newbie, as well as content that is equally relevant to a veteran. 13

14 Webpage Factors that Influence Your Search Ranking Page Title: Deciding Webpage Title, Description and Navigation Continuing with our discussion on keywords and search engine optimization, let s see how you can create a highly ranked website. When you are deciding your webpage title, you need to pay close attention to your keywords. Let s say you are a pastry chef and love making dark chocolate recipes, your webpage title could be Exciting Dark Chocolate Cake Recipes. Have a closer look at the webpage title; not only does it tell you that the website is about dark chocolate, but your customers also know that there are exciting recipes which they can try. Remember, your website should have keywords and relevant phrases woven evenly to capture the reader s attention, as well as the attention of the search engines. H1 Heading Tags Basically, heading tags are used to present the website structure to your visitors. There are six different sizes of heading tags with <h1> being the most important and <h6> being the least important. Multiple heading sizes in hierarchical order help visitors navigate your website. Page Description Once you have an interesting name for your webpage, it is time to decide the description that can be found below the page title in the search engine results. The page description you get on the search engine is mostly taken from the meta-tags you place within the page. 14

15 Meta tags are descriptions added to the <head> section of your HTML page. These are one of the most effective ways to provide search engines with information about your website. Remember, your webpage description should be such that your visitors gain a quick impression of what they are going to find when they click your website from the search results. When writing a description for your page, the core elements you need to remember are length of the description, summary, and the call to action. You can include a description of about 160 characters. Search engines such as Google highlight the search relevant keywords within your description, but this has no impact on your website ranking. Most importantly, your page needs to have an impressive call to action to increase the chances of a click from the search results. When more people click on your website, a positive signal is sent to the search engine, which directly improves your rankings. Navigation As far as site navigation is concerned, make it as easy as possible for your visitors to find the most relevant content. Excessive navigation links will only annoy your visitors and make it hard for them to find what they are looking for. Anchor Text Anchor text is the text that your users can see and click as a result of a link. It is mostly placed within the anchor tag <a href="..."></a>.the anchor text you use on your website should tell something about the page it is linked to. Don t use vague text like click here or more pages, instead use a short phrase to describe your linked page. 15

16 Getting Your Webpage Content into the Top Search Engine Results If you want your website to be displayed at the top of search engine results, consider adding keywords that are popular but have low competition. You can use the keyword analysis tool provided by Google AdWords for the purpose. Moreover, you can include a range of related keywords in the content you write to attract the largest number of visitors. As mentioned earlier, your website ranking is improved with every successful click from the search results. Make sure the landing page (page where visitors land when they click your link) is designed to leave a long lasting impression and has a clear call to action. 16

17 The Final Word At the end of this ebook, you know the basic tools that can help you kick-start your website content and improve your rankings. We hope that you ve enjoyed reading this ebook, and that it will help you succeed in writing SEO-friendly content for your website. 17