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Search Engine Optimised Content

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Sharpening your content to be keyword-focused will help it to rank well for those keywords. Don´t overlook the potential of ranking every page in your website for competitive keywords. Search Engine Optimised content is the most important part of your website. This is the secret to success.

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Goal of a Search Engine

The goal of a search engine is to return web pages that it thinks are best suited to satisfying what the searcher is looking for. If the search engine gets it right and the searcher is happy, then they will keep using this search engine. That is why Google is so popular. It is good at returning the right results. So how do you convince Google your web page is the best one for the job. Well, it starts with the content.

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Body Content

Keep the body content as close to the top of the HTML page as you can. Most modern websites are now built using DIV tags rather than TABLE tags which means it is possible to float the code so that the content appears high up on the HTML page. This is important as a search engine will look at the web page starting from the top and working its way down. You want it to find the content as soon as possible. To help with this, move all your CSS and any JavaScript code to external files too. The Introduction to SEO article explains more.

SEO Content

Search Engine Optimised content is about trying to make each page of you website as specific as possible. If you have Researched your Articles properly, and I know you will have, then you should have a sizeable list of keyword combinations. Try to focus your content around one primary keyword phrase that you would like to rank well for. If your page is a combination of many topics, then break up the topics and make a page from each one. This not only makes the page much more specific but also adds content to your website. The more specific the keywords used to find your page are, the more likely that visitor is going to like the content and Convert into a Customer.

Create Great Content

The golden egg of SEO is to get people to link to you without you asking them to. Why will they want to link to you? Is it because you have a great logo, or funky images, or a great navigation. No, it is because you have High Quality Content. The visitor is on that page for a reason so make that a reason to stay. Update your web pages often with new content which is relevant and accurate to that page. Keep it readable and straight to the point. Each page is there for a purpose. If the reader has read down to the last line, you have done a great job.

SEO Expert Tip

The Theme of a web page should be reflected by everything that makes up that page: The Content, URL, Meta Tags, Headers, Navigation, Links, Images, etc. They should all work together.

Four Tips for Writing Persuasive Content

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Crafting good content for websites can take a lot of practice. Follow these four tips to improve your content quickly. Doing so could help improve your website’s popularity and authority.

1. Find a Creative Concept

Creativity should play a role in every piece of content. Even posts about technical subjects should include some level of creativity, whether that means finding a way to re-conceptualize common points or slipping in a few jokes. No one wants to read boring content, so do anything you can to keep readers interested.

2. Check Your Facts

Man with Magnifying Glass

Image via Flickr by paurian

Even one inaccurate fact could make your website look untrustworthy, so double-check every sentence to make sure your content makes you look like an authority. This can get difficult when you need to write posts about subjects you don’t know much about. That difficulty makes it even more important for you to check everything.

If you know an expert, have him or her read your content to find common mistakes. You may also want to compare your writing to the information on sites like:

  • Wikipedia
  • WhoWhatWhen
  • Snopes

When in doubt, use Google to find similar content on trustworthy sites.

3. Avoid Logical Fallacies

People often use logical fallacies without realizing their mistakes. Many people will not notice. They may even agree with your content despite its flaws. Discerning readers, however, will find these fallacies troubling enough that they never return to your site. Some of the most common fallacies include:

  • Straw Man—Attacking a seemingly related argument instead of the statement at hand (example: Mr. Smith says that global warming is real, but he doesn’t have an explanation for why we got so much snow last winter.)
  • Appeal to Authority—Relying on a person’s authority to make statements seem true regardless of their merits (example: Sarah says to eat 15 tacos a day. She’s a popular fitness trainer, so she must be right.)
  • Bandwagon—Saying something is true just because a lot of people believe it (example: Nine out of 10 people believe George Washington had wooden teeth, so it must be true.)

It’s important to learn more about fallacies, so you can avoid statements that weaken your content.

4. Get Help When Proofreading

Typos, misspellings, and convoluted sentence structures can make your writing look amateurish. When careful readers see numerous mistakes, they may wonder why they should take your writing seriously. This makes proofreading an important part of content creation. Always proofread your writing at least twice. Reading it out loud will help you find confusing sentences and improve flow.

Don’t rely on your word processing software to find all of your mistakes. If possible, have another person read your content before you publish. If you don’t have someone to read your content, consider using an online service like Grammarly.

What common mistakes do you find while browsing web pages? Do these mistakes make sites seem unreliable to you? Follow the four tips mentioned above so your site doesn’t push away potential readers and customers.

Start a New Blog to Promote Your Business

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These days, it seems like everybody has a blog where they write about something. Whatever your hobby, interest or favourite sports team, you can find countless people investing time in writing about it to share with the world. Of course, writing a blog isn’t just about having a forum to discuss things you like, it is also a powerful medium for getting people’s attention. If you run a business and would like to harness the power of blogging to get more traffic, publicise what you are doing, engage with potential new customers and create shareable content that can be used in your social media marketing, it is probably easier than you think. Here, we take a look at the basics of how to start a new blog for your business.

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The Technical Stuff

While what makes a blog a success or a failure mostly comes down to the content it has on it, you do need a good basic website to put that content on. One of the first things to do is choose a web host. This will be the company you use to host the site and deal with all the server side management. You can get free hosting from sites like WordPress, but this is not really a good choice for business or commercial sites. Instead, choose a reputable host that gives you good options for managing your site, such as Umbeehosting.net or an equivalent – this will give you a professional look and take all of the hassle out of keeping your site up and running.

Content

Planning your blog makes coming up with good content much easier. If you keep a rolling list of ideas for posts, some of which should be easy things like lists you could write that would be relevant to your field, then you won’t feel as much under pressure when the time comes to write something. There are lots of apps and services to help making your blogging easier, and to help you share your content when it is live. It is a good idea to have a business Twitter account and Facebook page too, to help you do this. Other social networks like LinkedIn can also be an asset.

Your content needs to be of a very high standard, because it helps reinforce your brand. You need very good written English (or the language you are working in), and you need to have well thought out topics, and accurate facts. If you don’t have the time to do this or don’t have the writing skills, it is usually better to hire a freelance writer to create content for you. This is not that expensive, and can make all the difference because it takes the stress out of creating content and ensures everything you post is of a high enough standard to properly represent your brand.

Starting a blog can take very little time, and can have great rewards in terms of the visibility of your company. It is fast becoming something that no small business should do without!