One of the questions I get asked is how to optimize a page of content. “What SEO should I do to get this page listed on Google?” Business are so focused on getting a certain page or certain key phrase listed on Google, that they don’t see the bigger picture.
You can do your keyword research and find phrases that have high volume of searches and low competition. This will give you a high “KEI” score (keyword effectiveness index” in WordTracker’s parlance). The idea is that if lots of people are searching for a specific phrase, but few businesses have “optimized” for that phrase, then by definition, you get a high KEI.
But the truth is that most Web sites have very little useful content, and it tends to be more corporate-speak than provide real value to people. I call this “anemic” content. It sounds good, but does it really provide an answer to the questions that your readers ask? After all, people are your target audience, not the search engines. Give your reading audience what they want, and they will come back for more.
Similarly, by providing useful content, the search engines will index this and display your pages in the search engine results pages (SERPs) when people are looking for more specific answers to their problems. These displayed results will be despite the efforts you or others have put into applying “SEO” to your pages.
More Really Is Better
Someone asked me today if it’s better to have a site with a few pages or with more pages. The answer really lies in having more useful content, not just more pages for the sake of having more pages. Each of your pages should answer a specific question that someone might ask. These niche phrases that people are asking will get rewarded with rich content that you write.
It’s impossible to apply SEO rules to the typical corporate-speak Web pages and get any meaningful traffic from them. You know what types of pages these are. You really try to read them to see if it’s something that will help you answer your questions, and you just can’t get it.
Write Lots of Short Articles
These days, blogs are getting lots of attention, because the typical blog post is short (a few hundred words at most), it’s fresh content, and it’s useful content. They usually aren’t written from a corporate perspective, and aren’t meant to sell anything. It’s just useful information on any topic you can possibly imagine, and probably many you can’t.
By writing a short article, interview, opinion, how-to, or any of a variety of forms of content, and doing this on a regular basis, you can stop having anemic, boring content that no one wants to read. Speak with your audience in mind, and they will thank you.
All these short articles add up to a large library of information that will be rewarded by the search engines without overt “SEO” applied to the content.
Anemic content is an epidemic. No wonder heat maps show a decrease in the number of search results that searchers look at now compared to 5 yers ago. Some suggest it’s because people are finding what they want in the top 3. I think we’ve trained them to scan and read less because of so much content that is not only completely irrelevant, but landing pages that don’t match the search results.
Question: where should web teams send their copywriters to learn to write for the customer? There must be some good training out there…
John and Peter, thank you both for your great comments. Regarding your question about where Web teams can send their copywriters, it seems to me that there a whole lot of people from the magazines and papers that have imploded that can help the rest of us learn how to write. My copywriter is an ex-newpaper editor, and he’s now a full time professional blogger and Web copywriter.
Since 1996, I have successfully operated websites. When I started my first site, I wasn’t just happy selling my product because I felt the public really needed to be informed about the field associated with my product. Consequently, I weeks researching the subject and posting the information I would find on my site. Within months, my site was over 200 pages in length. My competitors would actually call me crazy. But, unlike them, I was rewarded with a top position on google month in and month out and continuously generated a significant six figure income as my reward.
Today, almost 14 years later, I occupy number one google positions in a wide variety of fields. And though I acknowledge the value of good page design, keyword research and on and on, my focus remains on content that is valuable.
One important point, I find that there is a proliferation of articles, many offered as PLR products, which provide content for a site. This stuff is poorly written, poorly researched, and does little to really inform. The goal is to attract google and get a higher page rank by having “content” but falls far short in providing quality, in-depth information. I have little respect for those web operators who are simply trying to fool the system by putting this crap on their sites. And they are not building a loyal following, they are simply trying to work the system to increase traffic. It is simply another version of the “throw enough stuff on the wall and hope some sticks” thinking. Sadly, the value a good writer brings to the table is being sabotaged by the crap writers who are willing to sell their junk for pennies on the dollar.
Good article, good read, many thanks! John Mauldin