There’s a new sheriff in cyberspace, promising to rid our search results of low-quality content designed with one thing in mind: gaming the SEO ranking system. That’s right, y’all. Google’s coming for the SEO content mills of the internet and soon. Google’s been known to change its algorithm more than most of us change our underwear. It can be frustrating for SEO content pros to keep up with all the requirements for getting their clients’ content found online. One thing I’ve always hated about Google’s algorithm was its partiality to SEO keywords. You’re probably thinking about how weird that declaration is coming from an SEO content expert. Let me explain. When you write content for search engines like Google instead of for readers, you end up with a bunch of keyword-stuffed gobbledygook. I’ve fought it kicking and screaming for the last 25 years because I know it’s a recipe for inferior content. What’s the Google helpful content update?Google has finally realized the error of its ways with the forthcoming launch of what it’s dubbed the helpful content update. I nearly spit out my tea when I saw Google’s official press release on the update, using the description “focus on people-first content.” I’ve always put people first and search engines second in my content. Heck, my business motto is “People First. SEO Second” for good reason. It’s my mission in life to help your target audience do more than just find your brand online. I want them to discover value-added content that’s engaging and solves problems. That’s how you build brand loyalists. For those who don't live and breathe all things SEO, Google’s update finds websites with high volumes of content that were specifically written for Search Engines and not people. When it finds them, it's not going to treat them favorably. If you paid a content mill to produce mass quantities of SEO keyword-stuff content that otherwise is of poor quality, Google is about to ruin your day. Enjoy your page ranking now because it’s going to drop in a hurry when the changes become effective. What the heck is a content mill?A content mill is a service that produces subpar content. Sadly, there are quite a few of them operating globally. You’ve probably come across their ads that make bold claims like “Content that ranks for just $25!” Business owners trying to stick to a budget easily are swayed by those kinds of promises but soon come to regret falling for them. Content mills never add value to your brand. They may get you on the first page of search results, but they aren’t going to help you achieve sustainable growth because their content creators often use bad SEO practices. Keyword stuffing is one of the go-to strategies content mills use. Google used to reward websites that engaged in this Black Hat SEO technique. Not anymore. Choosing to rank sites with content that keyword-stuffed SEO terms for the sole purpose of driving traffic to a page caused a much greater problem than even Google probably anticipated. It led to an internet full of poorly-written content that didn’t provide any value to readers. Content mills thrived under that system, promising SEO content that ranked by drafting 600-word articles that contained plenty of SEO keywords but no real insights. How do you write for people first?Writing for people first isn’t as difficult as you might imagine. It comes down to basic storytelling 101. Depending on the content you’re creating, you can use one of four storytelling formulas.
Focus on user intentStorytelling builds a firm foundation for your content, ensuring it’s serving your readers first. Examining user intent perfects it for search engines during the second stage of creation. There are three types of user intent: informational, navigational, and transactions.
How do you find people-first content creators?People-first content creators are rare (at least right now). Those of us who understand the value of storytelling and connecting with your target audience are unicorns for sure. But we do exist, and you must ask the right questions to pick us out in the crowded field of content creators. Here are two important questions you can drop to make sure you’re not about to hire a pimped-out content mill. 1. How much do you charge for content? If you get an answer of $15 to $25 for 800 words, you’re talking to a content mill agency or provider. When writers are paid so little to create content, they tend to cut corners. You’ll end up with poorly-written content that doesn’t engage or connect your readers with your brand. 2. Do you interview subject experts? Content that doesn’t include extensive research or subject matter expert interviews is typical of a content mill. They instruct their writers to find similar pieces of content online and spin them into a new piece. Writers that aren’t great at this tactic often end up plagiarizing someone else’s content, which can spell bad news for your brand.When in doubt, ask to see samples of their previous work. If it looks and sounds just like everything else you’ve seen online about the topic, it’s content mill work. A final warning about content creationIf you're resisting a content strategy that provides value-added content for your readers, you need to rethink your plans and fast. Panicking because you're not sure what to do? Contact me today and we can have a chat about the best approach for your brand.
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Dishonest. Sneaky. Unethical. Call it whatever you want, but the strategy remains the same. When businesses manipulate SEO practices to deceive consumers, they risk harming their reputations and customer base. Unethical SEO practices extend far beyond Black Hat SEO techniques like keyword stuffing and paid backlinks. They are more duplicitous, often deliberately misdirecting consumers to websites or other digital content that have nothing to do with their user intent. These tactics blatantly violate search engine rules and best practices. What is SEO?SEO is short for Search Engine Optimization. Great, so what does that even mean? To make it simple for those outside the industry, SEO just means you’re engaging in certain strategies to make your digital content more visible to your target audience. SEO keywords are one component of an overall solid SEO strategy. Using specialized software can help identify which SEO keywords you should be using for your brand. Long-tail keywords often correlate with questions consumers type into search engines when they’re looking to solve a problem. For instance, if you wanted to know if it was safe to take Tylenol and Advil together, you might ask Google, “How much Tylenol and Advil can I take together?” Why do businesses use bad SEO practices?Bad SEO practice cuts corners and cheats the accepted code of conduct with one goal in mind: to achieve immediate ranking results. Sometimes the purpose of bad SEO is even more nefarious. Some businesses use SEO keywords that have nothing to do with their industries to deceive consumers into thinking they’ve gone to a site that has what they need. What are popular bad SEO strategies?Like every industry, there are bad apples in SEO. They don’t want to take the time to organically rank well in search results. To do so requires content development, keyword research, and on-site optimization. There are many bad SEO strategies companies can use to cheat the system. Here are two of the most deployed tactics. Blackhat Google AdsGoogle Ads is a marketing service that allows businesses to pay to boost their rankings in search results. When you pay to boost an ad about your business, it can appear in Google search, Google Maps and across all partner sites. Google Ads clearly are marked as such; however, some consumers don’t notice or don’t understand the designation when they see it. They trust they’ve been directed to a reputable site with information relating to their search. The problem is that Blackhat SEO practitioners use a technique called cloaking. It tricks crawling bots on search engines into promoting sites containing specific keywords. Users can find themselves on a website that has nothing to do with their original search query because the website used cloaking to trick Google into sending them there. Clickbait titles are a perfect example of cloaking. A website may create an attractive headline about a specific topic to attract visitors. However, the content below the headline has nothing to do with the title. Negative SEO campaignsNegative SEO campaigns target competitors to tarnish their reputation and steal search engine rankings for important keywords. Sometimes this Blackhat SEO technique involves hijacking a website with questionable banner ads. Other times, it can be more complex and sophisticated. Here are a few other ways negative SEO campaigns work.
How do search engines spot bad SEO?Search engines like Bing and Google have ways to spot when a web page is deceiving an end user. We already discussed cloaking, which is one of the most common forms of deception. If search engines catch you cloaking your site, they can penalize you. In Google’s case, its PageRank algorithm can downgrade or delist your site from its search engine. Another way search engines discover bad SEO practices is through reports from end users. If you suspect clicking fraud, you can file a webspam report. Suspected negative SEO campaigns can be reported using the Disavow Links Tool. Sometimes businesses unintentionally cloak their websites. For instance, they may be using alt text for images on pages that do not accurately describe the content on the page. Check your alt tags to make sure you’re not an accidental offender. How can you spot deceptive SEO companies?Deceptive SEO companies exist, and they entice businesses with promises of quick results. When asked about their methods, they may mention some of the following bad SEO practices. Bolded textBolded text signifies to a search engine that the words are important for your readers. Maybe they answer a direct question. Maybe they are a critical SEO keyword. Using this technique isn’t bad unless you overuse it. If your SEO provider is bolding entire paragraphs or multiple sentences throughout the copy, it can ruin the user experience. Write for people first and search engines second. It’s our mantra here at The Write Reflection® for good reason. Complicated link schemesLinking schemes come in many variations. Any SEO company that guarantees they can get you thousands of links back to your site in a few days is using deceptive SEO practices. Some companies have networks of blogs that exist for the sole purpose of supporting these complex plots. Hidden linksAnother devious SEO technique is hiding links in the code or footer of a website. They’re hidden because coders make them the same color as the website background so they’re not visible to the naked eye. They often are unrelated to the website on which they appear and can get you banned by Google in a hurry. Keyword stuffingYes, my friends, there is such a thing as too many keywords on your site. How do you know if an SEO company you’ve hired (or are thinking of hiring) engages in keyword stuffing? Well, the practice seriously downgrades the quality of your copy. There are only so many times you can use the same long-tail keyword in a 600-word piece of copy before it becomes unnatural sounding. Keyword stuffing also makes it difficult to provide value to your end user. What’s the best way to use SEO?If you’ve found yourself involved with a company that does any of these things, run – don’t walk – away from them as quickly as you can. White Hat SEO may take longer to achieve results, but it’s worth the wait. Here are just a few of the ways The Write Reflection® uses SEO best practices to grow your audience and boost your search engine ranking. Claim and maintain a Google My Business listingIf local search is important for your brand, a great way to achieve results is by claiming your Google My Business (GMB) listing. Make sure all the information in the listing is accurate. It should include hours of operation, your website and contact information. GMB listings also can support customer reviews. That’s another White Hat SEO way to attract more visitors to your website. If you or someone from your business takes the time to respond to customer reviews, it can boost engagement and your brand reputation. Focus on mobile firstRoughly 90 percent of Americans access the internet from mobile devices. If your business hasn’t updated its website to prioritize mobile quality, you’re hurting your SEO ranking. Google has emphasized mobile-first websites in search results since 2016. Most website development platforms automatically optimize your website to provide a smooth experience for mobile users. If you’re not sure how yours is performing, access it from your own mobile device. If there are too many display ads or email opt-in pop-ups, you could be annoying the crap out of your website visitors. Prioritize people, not search enginesGoogle and other search engines have finally come around to the notion that it’s best to reward quality content over keyword-bloated drivel. Consumers don’t want to be directed to a website that is full of a keyword but doesn’t answer their query. At The Write Reflection®, we strike a delicate balance between using the appropriate number of keywords and crafting high-quality content that adds value. We satisfy user intent and leave your visitors eager to return to your site. Need help figuring all this SEO stuff out? You’ve come to the right place. Drop us a line. We’d be happy to schedule a hassle-free consultation to discuss your SEO needs. AuthorShari Berg has known she wanted to be a writer since she was old enough to hold a pencil in her hand. She believes everyone has a story to tell, and it’s her job to discover it. Shari owns The Write Reflection, a Pittsburgh-based copywriting and content writing company that empowers small business owners to wield the power of words. Conducting a content review should be at the top of every brand’s list of goals for 2022. Whether you launched your website within the previous year or a decade ago, content reviews can ensure your brand voice is relevant and engaging and all material updated. Your website is the first glance a prospective customer gets of your brand. There is no such thing as a second chance at a first impression. A brand’s content is its secret weapon. It doesn’t matter if you have a fast-loading website with a user-friendly design if it lacks quality subject matter. Yes, your website must be optimized for search engines so it can be found online. SEO is critical for directing prospective clients to your brand. What will they find once there? Answers to their questions and a quality product or service that solves a problem should be the priority. Otherwise, they will leave your site without ever engaging with your brand. Using a content-first approach can make websites more useful for visitors, which in turn, leads to higher conversion rates. Here are five reasons it pays to work with a content review service to get your website content up to snuff in 2022. #1 - Attract search enginesSEO copywriting is crucial for attracting search engines to your online content. Do you know what else search engines like Bing and Google like? Fresh content. One of the quickest and easiest ways to incorporate new information is with a blog. Customers have questions about your products and services. One of the easiest ways to provide answers to their questions is with regular blogs. Each post can address a specific topic. Posing blog titles as questions, then providing a basic answer as your opening paragraph is a surefire formula for attracting web crawlers to your site. The leading SEO factor for search rankings worldwide is on-page elements, according to research conducted by Statista, a leading provider of market and consumer data. On-page SEO components include:
#2 - Focus on clientsA website is your most powerful marketing tool. An overwhelming majority of consumers – 81 percent – conduct online research about a brand before making a purchase. Businesses without websites need to correct that costly error in 2022. The team at The Write Reflection™ can recommend reputable website developers to help launch your new site. Once you have a website, where many brands go wrong is focusing on themselves instead of their target audience. There is only so much tooting of your own horn you can do before you turn off a prospective lead. Converting visitors into customers depends on whether your brand positions itself as the authority for solving problems and meeting needs. Conducting market research and creating customer profiles and market segments identifies the current and future needs of your customer base. Keep in mind that customers’ needs may change over time, so periodic surveys and other assessments are necessary to ensure your brand is providing the most relevant content. #3 - Provide new informationOnce you develop brand loyalists, they will crave new and exciting information about your products and services. They may return to your website frequently to find the latest news. Clients who continually find old and stagnant content on your website have no reason to keep returning to it. Eventually, they may forget all about you and move to other brands with more effective engagement techniques. Adding high-quality content at least once a week to your websites can keep current clients loyal while attracting new leads. Committing to a weekly blog posting from a top-notch SEO copywriter is one of the best investments your brand can make in 2022. Your brand also can focus on case studies, project portfolios, service-related content, and testimonials from clients to keep things fresh and informative. #4 - Remove outdated contentOne of the quickest ways for a prospective customer to lose trust in your brand is to find incorrect or outdated information on your website. An example is one of the oldest websites for a business called Interrupt Technology Corporation. According to hover.com, the site was registered on September 18, 1986. It exists solely for one purpose. According to the scant information found on the page: “We do not actively seek outside business. This Web page exists primarily to satisfy the needs of those who expect every domain to have a Web presence.” They get kudos for originality and snark, but not much else. Obviously, this is an extreme example of outdated website information from a company that clearly doesn’t need new clients. If one of your business goals for 2022 is to increase sales and build your customer base, having an outdated website is detrimental to meeting that objective. Businesses that fail to fact-check and keep updated websites leave visitors wondering if they can believe anything else they claim about their products or services. If they don’t trust you, they won’t buy from you. #5 - Stand out from the competitionYour website uniquely positions your brand to stand out from the competition. From the minute a visitor lands on your site, there should be little question about what makes you different. Prominently and proudly display your mission, values, and vision in every piece of content you produce. Adding client-centric content like FAQs, instructional videos, and webinars increase your brand’s value among your target audience. Depending on your industry, covering critical news, events, and innovations can help establish your brand as a subject matter authority. A content review expert can examine your competitors’ websites to see what they are missing, then make recommendations for how your brand can fill the gap. Schedule your content review for 2022Start 2022 off right by scheduling a content review with the SEO copywriting experts at The Write Reflection™. With more than 25 years of experience in the industry, Shari Berg can help spot weaknesses in your content and make actionable recommendations for improvement. Contact us to schedule your complimentary consultation.
As a professional copywriter, one of the questions I get frequently from prospective clients is, “How long will it take you to write a blog post?” That query usually is followed up by, “How much will it cost to write a blog post?” Reputable copywriters have a process and always are happy to explain it to their clients. Where we tend to get into a conundrum is when clients come into the process with a preconceived notion of how long a project should take and what is involved in producing the work. One of my favorite assumptions as of late is the idea that any copywriter worth their salt can write the perfect blog post in an hour. Apparently, there is a so-called expert out there claiming this, complete with instructional videos on how to create the perfect 1,500-word blog post in one hour. That sure does sound appealing. I can understand why clients would be enticed by such a claim. The problem is it is not realistic. Can you write a blog post in an hour? Sure. Is it going to be top quality? Probably not. Let’s break down the rationale behind this “perfect blog post in an hour” promise and explore why it is not the best method for producing the kind of content search engines will adore. Claim #1: Hit lists Keeping a “hit list” of articles reduces writing time. The theory is that if you have a go-to list of topics that already includes relevant keywords and some subheadings for inclusion, it will save you time later. This is not an entirely bad idea. Many copywriters who have clients in specific niches find creating such a list helpful. The downside to this is if you have several clients within the same niche, you risk repeating copy for clients. Then you get into spun content territory, which never ranks well on search engines. What is spun content? It is taking the exact same copy and reworking it just enough that it appears slightly different to search engines. It contains all the same keywords and basic ideas, just rearranged a bit. Sometimes search engines can be slow to catch on to spun content, but Google’s bots are getting better at detecting it. Google dislikes this practice, and if it catches a website egregiously using spun content, it will penalize it by ranking it poorly. Claim #2: The guy next door Some of these self-proclaimed writing experts suggest you can cut your research time in half by taking the “guy next door” approach in your response. Rather than do proper research, the notion is to admit you are not an expert in the subject and that you had to do some quick Googling yourself to get the answers. Then just state the information without citing your sources. While the “I’m not an expert, I just play one on TV” approach might work sometimes, it is not appropriate for every blog post. Some clients may be experts in their fields and require content that establishes them as an authority. In fact, 95 percent of the content I write for clients falls into this category. Conducting proper research and citing sources takes time (most definitely more than an hour). Claim #3: Earning rich snippets Anyone can earn a rich snippet if you just follow this guide to writing the perfect blog in an hour. At least, that is the claim from some self-appointed writing gurus. Before we explain why it is harder than it looks, you are probably wondering what the heck a rich snippet is and why you need to earn one. Amiright? A normal snippet displays the page title, the URL where it is located, and a short description of what the page is about. A rich snippet includes extra information above and beyond the norm. It can include photos and reviews or ratings from customers if it is a product or business page. Rich snippets are important because they tend to produce a higher click-through rate on websites. Consumers love search results that give them a lot of information upfront. Here is an example of what a rich snippet looks like: The claim says to earn the coveted rich snippet, you should write your opening sentence and paragraph before you do anything else. You must write it in a question-answer format known as a response-style blog. A response-style blog poses a question (ideally in the headline or opening sentence) and then answers it within the first paragraph of the blog post. To help boost your chances of earning a rich snippet, these experts suggest bolding the answer part of your response. The thinking is bolding text will help Google’s bots know you mean business and to reward you for your efforts. While bolding text is an old SEO copywriting trick to attract Google’s attention, it is not a surefire technique. Why can it go wrong? Well, we can think of a few reasons. The most obvious is that your content is not original. We are going to circle back to that whole idea of spun content again. If you did the “guy next door” approach to your research, chances are, there is not much new or unique about your bolded content. So, even if the bolded text initially attracts Google’s web crawlers, they still may refuse your content a rich snippet if it is just like 20 other posts on the same topic. Claim #4: Subheads can hurt your ranking Long-form content ranks better with search engines. Why? Thorough content has a greater chance of earning quality backlinks that can boost your rating with search engines. One of the final aspects of these so-called perfect blogs in an hour is a warning that Google can sometimes treat long-form content like puny, thin content. Why? Their rationale is the subheadings lack substance and are irrelevant to the original topic. On this, we can agree – to a point. Copywriters who shove subheadings into a blog just to reach word count are doing their clients a disservice. If the content does not add value, Google’s web crawlers will completely discount it. The best way to keep long-form content relevant and exciting to Google and other search engines is to turn long-tail SEO keywords into subheadings. It is a sneaky way to ensure your extra words stay on target while giving them some extra oomph. Quality trumps quantity every time Cranking out the perfect 1,500-word blog post in an hour is simply unrealistic. The methods that some of these writing gurus tout will not earn your blogs the ratings they promise. Like any other “get rich quick” scheme, it really is too good to be true. It will just end up causing you frustration when these methods do not produce the promised results. Quality trumps quantity every time. Any good copywriter understands this and will never agree to methods that do not promote thorough research that produces engaging and relevant content. Ready to learn more about the right way to produce unique content that adds value to your brand? Contact us today to schedule a no-obligation consultation. AuthorShari Berg has known she wanted to be a writer since she was old enough to hold a pencil in her hand. She believes everyone has a story to tell, and it’s her job to discover it. Shari owns The Write Reflection, a Pittsburgh-based copywriting and content writing company that empowers small business owners to wield the power of words. |
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