Fewer things in life stress me out more than a prospective client obsessed with SEO. You might think that sounds strange since The Write Reflection specializes in SEO content. Let me explain why. There’s a right way and a wrong way to include SEO in your content marketing strategy. Unfortunately, some folks are stuck in the past. They cling to SEO tactics that were designed to game the system, not create high-quality content. Staying updated on SEO best practices is the only way to perform better in search results and drive organic traffic. With that in mind, I’ve created a list of the 7 most outdated SEO strategies that can hurt your brand marketing efforts. If you’re still doing any of these things, step away from your electronic device and reach out to me ASAP. I’ll get your SEO strategy in tip-top condition in no time without any underhanded tricks. 1 – Writing for Search Engines, Not PeopleIn case you missed it, The Write Reflection is not a fan of writing for search engines. I’ve made it my mission to write for people, not Google (or Bing, or Yahoo, or any other search engine). Heck, I so firmly believe in it that I’ve made it my business motto: People First. SEO Second. All other SEO strategies take a back seat. Back in the day, when the locals still sported mullets and checked out their pagers for new messages every 3 minutes, some SEO practitioners were busy writing content that appeased the search engine gods. As you can imagine, the content was hardly user-friendly or informative. Readers weren’t impressed. Google may have found your content, but it was doing nothing to build a loyal brand following. Today, most SEO professionals worth their salt know how to create content that ranks well but also engages your target audience. I rely on my journalism skills to craft stories that resonate with your ideal customer and focus on the user experience. Yes, I still use SEO keywords. However, they’re an afterthought, not a priority. 2 – Keyword StuffingWhen I first started providing SEO content for clients, I found myself stuck with a lot of people who subscribed to the theory that the more keywords you used in an article, the better. They bought into the recommendations of SEO plugins like Yoast and Frase that dictated how many keywords you had to use and the exact number of times you must use them to rank well. If you followed that guidance, what you ended up with was unnatural-sounding text that quickly turned people off. In their defense, some SEO providers followed these insane rules because they seemed to work with Google. They gamed the system because the search engine giant encouraged it. Thankfully, Google has seen the error of its ways and no longer prioritizes content stuffed with keywords. With its Helpful Content Update, Google claims it now rewards relevant content focused on providing value to readers. Some days I have my doubts the search giant is following its new rules, as I occasionally see other SEO strategies – some of which are mentioned in this blog post – still performing well in search results on Google. 3 – Spinning ContentHave you ever plugged in a keyword and checked out the 5 top-ranked results? Chances are, you’ll feel like you’re reading the exact same article from 5 different organizations. That’s because back in the day, some SEO professionals (and I use that term loosely) took the best-performing content for a target keyword and basically rewrote it with their client’s name on it. Called article spinning, the practice does very little to create content that adds value to your readers. Sure, it may get the attention of search engines. But it’s not going to engage your target audience or encourage them to become brand devotees. Instead of falling for this cheap SEO trick, examine whatever piece of content Google or Bing currently favors. Find holes you can fill to breathe new life into the topic, then create a better version of it for your website. 4 – Over-Optimizing Anchor TextAnchor text is important to SEO. It serves as a signal for search engines to understand the context and relevance of the linked content. Users who click on anchor text (ideally) are taken to another web page or piece of content associated with the text. Here’s the problem: some SEO pros started over-optimizing anchor text, using the same keyword or keyword phrase repeatedly in anchor text. Falling into this trap of manipulating search engines is detrimental to your SEO efforts. Do it often enough, and Google and Bing may penalize your web pages for keyword stuffing, loss of relevance, and negative user experience. Instead, link an SEO keyword to a relevant internal document or page that adds value or offers further explanation of a topic. Never do it more than twice in the same piece of content for the best results. 5 – Focusing Only on GoogleI realize this may come as a shock to some of you, but there are other search engines out there besides Google. Yes, Google gets roughly 90% of all web traffic each day. No one is arguing it’s not the dominant search engine. However, focusing only on Google could leave you missing out on potential traffic from other search engines. One of Google’s competitors – Bing – is ripe for the picking right now if you know how to create SEO content that it favors. Long before Google promised to reward helpful content, Bing was following that best practice. You rarely found keyword-stuffed drivel in the top search results generated by the search engine. Bing even has a competitor to Google My Business called Bing Places for Business. I recommend to all my clients to create a Bing Places account. If you don’t want to maintain both GMB and Bing Places, Bing has made it easy for you with a feature that automatically imports anything you post to GMB to its platform. You can use other SEO strategies with Bing to get your content noticed as well. Reach out to me today to learn how. 6 – Ignoring Mobile SEONearly 93% of people access the internet from a mobile device. Failing to optimize your digital assets for mobile is a huge mistake. Gone are the days when you could assume everyone was sitting at a desktop or laptop using the internet. Most web designers understand how to optimize for mobile. It’s crucial you work with a website pro who implements the key steps for mobile friendliness:
7 – Targeting Multiple Keywords and Their VariationsThe only thing worse than stuffing the same keyword into a 500-word blog post is seeing 25 variations of the same keyword used repeatedly. Back in the day, some search engines (cough, cough, Google) rewarded content that used as many versions of the same keyword or keyword phrase as possible. As with keyword stuffing, this practice made content unreadable for most humans. You’re better off choosing a high-value keyword and focusing on it throughout your content in a natural way. Mentioning your target keyword 3 to 4 times is sufficient. SEO strategies that boost website performanceRelying on some of these outdated SEO strategies can spell disaster for your brand. Commit to abandoning these 7 tactics and embracing modern SEO best practices that focus on putting people first, not search engines. Stop watching other websites outperform yours by following bad SEO advice. Give me a call today to schedule your hassle-free consultation to whip your SEO strategy into shape. 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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Accessible content shouldn’t be an afterthought. Yet, 90% of all websites are inaccessible to people with disabilities who rely on assistive technology to navigate the internet. Worse yet, 94% of the 33 top-grossing e-commerce sites fail to follow accessibility guidelines. That’s a whole lot of websites excluding a whole lot of potential customers. Forget the fact that businesses that don’t take accessibility more seriously lose sales (although that’s a valid concern). Failing to make your digital content more inclusive can unintentionally give the impression that you don’t care about a large segment of the community. That’s never a good look for a brand. If you want to do better, you’ve come to the right place. Lia Stoll, the creative genius behind Disability Writer, provides some tips and tools that anyone can follow to make their content more inclusive. With her guidance, this blog tackles the tough questions your brand has about accessibility, including:
What is digital content accessibility?Digital content accessibility refers to the practice of designing and developing your digital assets using techniques that allow those with disabilities to navigate, interact with, and understand your content more effectively. All users – regardless of their abilities or impairments – should get the same user experience when visiting your website or social media platforms. Accessibility is crucial because it promotes inclusion and equal access to information. Some disabilities affect how people interact with your digital content, including:
By following digital content accessibility best practices, you make your websites, applications, and other digital resources usable for a broader audience. Types of digital contentDigital content refers to any creative material, information, or media that exists in a digital or electronic format that’s accessed, distributed, or shared through digital platforms and devices. Unlike analog content that’s physical and tangible, digital content is stored in binary code, allowing for easier transmission. Some popular formats for digital content include:
Why does accessibility matter?One in every six people in the world lives with a disability. Digital accessibility matters if you want to ensure they can interact with your digital content and services. Promoting inclusivity breaks down barriers that might overwise prevent people with disabilities from fully engaging with your brand. Another pressing reason to prioritize accessibility is you may be required by law. Legal requirements in some regions mandate digital accessibility for public and private organizations. Failure to comply with these laws can result in financial penalties and other legal consequences. From the standpoint of SEO, search engines penalize inaccessible websites. So, if ranking well in search is important for your content marketing strategy, it’s one more reason to create inclusive content and designs. Lia suggests organizations spend some time thinking about their “why” for accessible content. “Once they find their why – instead of it just being something they have to do – they’ll be more open to it.” What are some common barriers to accessibility?One of the biggest barriers to accessibility is the simple lack that it exists, said Lia. It’s not that most organizations don’t want to be inclusive. They simply don’t know how, she said. “It’s a learning journey for everyone.” She encountered this recently with a friend who was creating a website for her new business. She’d hired someone to help her with it. “I asked her about accessibility and making sure the person she hired was making the site accessible,” said Lia. “She asked me what it meant to be accessible.” Some other barriers to inclusive digital content include:
These are just a few of the barriers some users encounter when trying to access a website or other digital content. Addressing these obstacles improves inclusivity and usability for everyone. What are screen readers and how do they work?A screen reader is an assistive technology that people with blindness or other visual impairments use to interact with digital media on electronic devices. These devices convert on-screen text and other visual elements into synthesized speech or braille output, allowing users to navigate and understand the information. Here’s how they work:
The sole purpose of screen readers is to improve digital accessibility. However, they need your help to function as intended. Following some of the best practices for creating digital content that works well with screen readers ensures you’re doing your part to make your content more inclusive. How do you make text content accessible?One of the biggest issues with inaccessible text is failing to use proper layout formatting, said Lia. All websites provide tools for formatting titles, headers, and body text on websites. Simply bolding text or using a larger font doesn’t make it a header. Make sure the text layout is in order. Screen readers follow the cues for headers and body text. If you mislabel text on the page, it can cause the screen reader to jump around from one section to another in the wrong order. “If you don’t know about it, it’s easy to overlook it,” said Lia. Other things you can do to make text more accessible:
Conduct testing with various assistive technologies such as screen readers, voice recognition software, and keyboard-only navigation tools to ensure compatibility and usability. How do you ensure multimedia accessibility?Most websites and social media platforms today include multimedia components. Graphics, images, and videos help content marketers explain complex topics and make content more interesting. Making sure multimedia doesn’t confuse assistive devices is paramount to making your content more inclusive. Consider using these techniques to help improve multimedia accessibility.
When in doubt, follow web accessibility guidelines to ensure all your multimedia content meets recognized accessibility standards. How do you improve navigational accessibility?Clear and concise headings and text formatting are two ways to improve navigational accessibility. However, there are some other often overlooked strategies you can use to further improve inclusivity. Proper placement of hashtags is one of the most important things you can do to make your content – especially on social media platforms – more accessible. “If you must use hashtags, put them at the end of a sentence,” said Lia. “If you put them in the beginning or middle of a sentence it confuses screen readers. They’ll read it out, but it often breaks the flow, making it harder for the person using the screen reader to understand what they’re hearing.” Another tip for hashtags is to use camel-casing, she said. Capitalize the first letter of each new word in a hashtag so screen readers can distinguish it. Otherwise, they’ll read it as one jumbled word, which may not make sense to the person using the assistive device. The worst thing you can do is string a bunch of hashtags together in the same sentence. “Until screen readers get better, it prevents equal access,” said Lia. Emojis are another source of frustration for visually impaired people. “They’re difficult for screen readers,” said Lia. “They don’t see a smiley face and say, ‘smiley face’ to the person using the device. A screen reader will read out the alt text assigned to the emoji instead. If you use a bunch of them together, a screen reader jumbles all the alt text together.” Lia said she likes using emojis herself but sticks to placing only one of them at the end of a sentence to be mindful of accessibility. How do you educate your content team on accessibility?Educating your content team on the importance of accessibility is crucial for fostering a culture of inclusivity. Every person working on content – social media posts, website content – must understand how to integrate accessibility into the content creation process. You can start the process by raising awareness about the significance of accessibility. Hold team meetings and workshops to explain its importance and who it benefits. Share real examples of how inclusion impacts the people your organization serves so your team can see the tangible results of their efforts. Most importantly, provide accessibility training. Knowing the importance of inclusion isn’t enough. You must give your team the tools and knowledge needed to achieve the task. Don’t be afraid to call on the experts to help, said Lia. She did that very thing when redesigning her Disability Writer website. Lia turned to the expertise of Clive Loseby at Access By Design. His company audits and creates accessible websites for organizations. More than his expertise, Lia said she values the fact that Loseby walks the talk. “The cool thing about them is they have disabled people who audit the websites and help you fix them,” she said. “It’s a way for him to truly change the world, one website at a time.” Partnering with accessibility expertsStrategies for embracing inclusivity at your organization extend beyond improving accessibility to your digital content. Consider creating content that demonstrates your brand’s commitment to equal access for all. That’s where someone like Lia comes in. She creates articles, blogs, e-books, and other guides that empower and promote disability and inclusion. “There are many businesses that have a blog, but they never touch on disability and inclusion or their commitment to accessibility,” Lia said. The Write Reflection is pleased to announce our partnership with Lia to foster and encourage more brands to embrace diversity, equity, and inclusion. She has agreed to lend her expertise to our clients who are interested in improving access to their digital assets. Lia also can craft inclusive-focused content for your website and other digital platforms. Ready to commit to making your digital assets more inclusive? Reach out to us today to schedule your free consultation with Lia to get started. 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. SEO keyword stuffing happens. A lot. I should know because SEO copywriting is my forte. I’ve been doing it for more than 25 years. Every good SEO strategy requires the right combination of keywords to get your digital assets found online. Do you know what doesn’t work? Telling an SEO copywriter to use as many industry-relevant keywords as they can squeeze into every piece of copy written for your brand. It doesn’t help that many SEO keyword tools still push this narrative, forcing you to create copy that can sometimes be downright unreadable in the pursuit of squeezing the predetermined number of SEO keywords in. I’m not going to tell you that there wasn’t a time when keyword density mattered. Once upon a time, the king of all search engines – that would be Google, by the way – decided that if you wanted it to direct searchers to your website, you had to use the same three keywords in every sentence. OK, well maybe not every sentence, but close to it. If you wanted to rank, you had to play the game. There’s only so many times you can use the longtail keyword “car repairs Pittsburgh” before it becomes repetitive and boring. Yet, if your SEO copywriter followed Google’s old requirements, you likely ended up with gibberish that didn’t add much value to your target audience. Thankfully, Google has seen the error of its ways and no longer rewards websites that overuse keywords. Now, they value quality over quantity. The Write Reflection® already was ahead of the game on quality vs. quantity. As a trained journalist, I’ve always been keenly aware of the value of storytelling in any copy. My clients have been getting well-crafted copy that adds value to their target audience since I’ve been in business. Why do we need SEO keywords, anyway?SEO keywords refer to the single words and phrases people use when searching for something online. Maybe they’re looking for a new dining room table or the latest trends in fashion eyeglasses. They type in what they want to know, and Google spits out some possible places to find the information they seek. Single words or complex phrases can be used for SEO purposes depending on your industry. For instance, if you repair automobiles, you might want to include “mechanic,” “automobile repair near me” or “how do I find a mechanic to fix my car” strategically throughout your digital copy. SEO keywords still are a necessary component of any digital content. I’d be lying if I tried to convince you otherwise. The key is to balance SEO keywords with informative copy that converts. SEO keywords might help users find your content, but they won’t help you build a target audience or transform casual visitors into brand loyalists. For that, you need to understand user intent. What is user intent?User intent trumps SEO keyword stuffing every time. Why? Because (you guessed it), Google says so. I’m not shy about disagreeing with Google – which you know if you’ve read my blog or followed me on social media). However, this is one time we’re in agreement. Now that I’ve given you my trademark sarcastic quip, let me explain the real reason user intent matters. SEO obsesses over numbers and metrics. User intent focuses on the reasons behind why someone is searching for a particular product, service, or topic. After all, you can’t sell your brand if you don’t understand why someone might need it. There are three types of user intent you must consider: informational, navigational, and transactional. Informational User IntentInformational searches happen when someone seeks a specific piece of data. For instance, a student researching a paper on the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution would type in a combination of keywords describing their need. Google would direct them to academic studies and other sources of information to answer their search query. Navigational User IntentAny time you’ve used Google Maps or another GPS, you’ve conducted a navigational search based on some location you needed to find. Maybe you’re visiting a new city during a job interview and have an urge to satisfy a caffeine craving. If you asked Google Maps to plot out coffee shops near you it would generate a list based on your location. Transactional User IntentTransactional searches happen when someone is looking for a specific product or service. Let’s say you need to buy a new swimsuit for vacation. You’d likely type “women’s swimsuits” into Google’s search bar and wait to get a list of all the brick-and-mortar and online retailers that sell swimsuits. Does ignoring user intent hurt your ranking?Some SEO experts would argue that it doesn’t, but I’d wholeheartedly disagree with them. Failing to consider user intent when crafting digital copy can weaken your SEO copywriting strategy. You’ll end up with catchall content that speaks to everyone and no one at the same time. Visitors to your webpages might end up confused. I frequently tell my clients that without user intent, I can’t structure a landing page experience that serves their target audience. Keywords are great, but you must understand why someone is typing in a specific keyword if you have any hope of creating content that speaks to them once they arrive on your page. Otherwise, it’s just another missed opportunity. Be realistic about SEO keyword stuffingLet me be very direct. You can’t fool Google’s algorithms. They’re so sophisticated they easily can spot SEO keyword stuffing junk vs quality content at a quick glance. That’s why at The Write Reflection® our motto is, “People first. SEO second.” We specialize in writing content for people, not search engines. Your digital content should never compromise on readability in favor of SEO keywords. It’s a recipe for failure every time. 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. Potty-mouth copy seems to be making a bit of a comeback these days. It used to be taboo, except for the occasional well-placed damn. Writers would not have thought about ever including the gasp-inducing f word in their sales copy at one time. Now? Everybody and their mother are using impolite colloquialisms like they are the only words in the English language. Earlier today, I came across a marketing and public relations agency in New York with the tagline: “We’re Responsive AF.” Uh, OK. Can I just say the AF part didn’t compel me to click on their contact us link to ask for more information? I wish I could tell you this was a one-off but it’s not. I have sadly experienced quite a bit of this kind of boldness in copy lately. From sales ads and email pitches to hero statements on websites. I would be lying if I said this impressed me. It doesn’t. The few times I’ve gotten an email in my inbox with an expletive in the subject line, it’s gone directly to the trash. This is one of them (see below). I’m not even going to block out the name of the person who sent it. If he’s confident enough to send this to my email inbox, then he should be confident enough for the entire world to critique it. Maybe I’m showing my age by objecting to this kind of “edginess” in advertising. Or maybe I simply believe tossing out every cuss word you know is not the best way to be bold in your copy. The psychology of swearingThere’s no doubt about it. Swearing elicits some strong reactions in some people. Whether you applaud it or cringe every time someone uses it, research has some interesting things to say about the psychology behind curse words. Some evidence points to swearing as a sign of intelligence. Some suggest it’s a great way to relieve pain and stress. Why do profane words upset some of us and make others of us giggle out loud? Profanity has a direct line to our emotional sides. If you grew up in a household where swearing got your mouth washed out with soap, that negative connotation likely has stuck with you throughout the years. On the flip side, living with people who swore loud and proud provided a sense of normalcy in using words others consider taboo. As with many other words in the English language, intent plays a large part in whether a swear word is perceived as offensive. Some profanities could be interpreted as discriminatory or sexually harassing. Brands do not want to cross that line in their quest to sound bold or edgy. Bold…. or just plain crass?Before we can determine whether swearing in copy is offensive, we must ask ourselves what communication goals cursing achieves. Are we trying to be funny? To fit in with the crowd (or target audience, as it were)? Display physical aggression or manage stress? According to Routledge and CRC Press – a leading publisher of knowledge-based materials – there are four main reasons why people swear.
One of the most popular arguments for doing so was that it appealed to millennials. Millennials prefer online communications that show emotion. Plenty of marketing research backs this up. They also respond to authentic and honest branding. Does that automatically mean cursing in copy is cool with them? At least one body of research calls that theory into doubt. Including profanity in shockvertising may not achieve the desired effect. In fact, non-swear word versions of the same ads that used expletives led to better recall among millennials. You’re better off using humor in your copy because 38 percent of millennials love a good laugh. Pros vs. cons of potty-mouth copyTo swear (in your copy), or not to swear? That is the question of the hour. Here is a handy guide of the pros and cons of each side of the argument to help you decide. Euphemisms can be a better alternative to outright swearing in your copy. We can all probably think of some examples of this that we’ve seen. One that immediately comes to mind is Fuddruckers. The folks who branded this company knew exactly what they were doing. Other examples of linguistic creativity in names and marketing copy include one of my all-time favorites, “shut the front door.” A final WTF on potty-mouth copyI know how I feel about potty-mouth copy, but I am not going to push my methods on others. What I will do is offer a final word of advice on how to approach cursing in your writing. If you choose to use cussing in your copy, there should always be a purpose behind the shock value. If you use profanity just because you can, it can dash any hopes you have of sounding edgy.
Whatever language you ultimately choose for your copy, make sure it reaches your target market with messaging that appeals to their demographic. Happy wordsmithing! This is probably going to sound a bit bizarre coming from someone who makes her living writing SEO copy for clients. Here goes anyway: Do not rely on SEO keywords to rank well on Google.
You did not misread that. I did, indeed, just suggest that you should not rely on SEO keywords to rank well on Google. I told you it was going to sound insane coming from an SEO copywriter. There is a method to my madness, though. Don’t get me wrong. SEO keywords are a valuable tool for any website. The mistake is in making them your only strategy. For years, SEO experts like myself have worked hard to raise awareness about the importance of SEO keywords in all branded content. The downside to our efforts is that some organizations have gone all-in with SEO, thinking it some miracle cure-all. There is such a thing as keyword stuffing, and the golden hand of Google can and will smack you down if you engage in it. While it’s true that Google likes making things … challenging … for content providers, earning a page one Google ranking organically isn’t some golden chalice from which the average peasant will never drink. It is attainable when you commit to a multi-tiered approach to SEO. Here are 4 ways to kick your game into gear and get your brand noticed.
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