How the Bad: Just like several other link building tool, using No Hands seo manchester excessivly would possibly definitely not profit your world broad site and you will be normally a spammer, that create certain the person employ it constantly, consistently but fairly to realize perfect results.

We make sure these Google guy’s include all extremely learned individuals; the ailment seems to be you could fail to instruct cleverness possibly good sense this you are blessed with!

Promoting of a Internet based site happens if you want to be a time-consuming procedure. A suitable Reputable Indian vendor of SEO ability is not always going to make answers which appear to assist you to be too reasonable to be accurate. A few companies might assure foremost ten standings, but then inform you honestly that these outcomes is able to assist you take a volume of months and / or maybe even one year to accomplish centered on the competitiveness of your phrases and the rate with which the customer renew your site.

That it will be extremely wonderful to generate a perfect framework to learn Search engine online that just too free of cost’.Wouldn’t that turn out to be nice? In addition moreover learning those particular hidden secrets with regard to get the rankings you deserve and how exactly that would optimize your rrnternet site will never be so easy.

Some other tags such as compared to the footer, header, nav, and sections, can also provide to contain variety of of keywords which will likely rise the success along with websites in motors.

Henry brings a awesome vision, intensity, additionally team approach toward every project he is associated by. Not content to sit on this sidelines; George’s adjustments style has constantly been extremely hands-on. He needs a unique contenance for motivating regular people to be at the top of the company’s game 100% from the time. The mans goal is to create success not likely only for himself, but also about those around justin. In his absolutely free time he is effected by playing ice hockey, dirt biking, snowboarding, and wakeboarding.

To have a successful presence on the web, a website is essential. When it comes down to SEO business employers in USA, a person find numerous possible choices to choose in. If you’re not moving the right search engine optimization services and higher rankings, visit to the best SEO companies but select the ok SEO service support. It should provide completely finish range of Seo services to meet the requirements of petite as well as large companies.

Through sectioning, such as compared to what was through with the article tag, search engines bumblebees could easily investigate a website and check for keywords connected with a specific lookup query.

Plenty of Backlinks: With your website harvester you may also always be rrn a position to search out new blogs to put up backlinks on in which means you are doing not need to stress regarding “how long” this software system will be of usage because it might still come back through handy.

Originally produced by the people at Brafton

Enjoy!

This is the first result in Google Images for “Northerner”

Google thinks I am in Leeds, which is reasonable as I am only 10 miles away from there.  This means that when I’m browsing job sites for freelance writing opportunities I often come across those dodgy “home working” sites that try to look less dodgy by offering a testimonial from a “real person” in my area.

These sites with the testimonials pick up my location and tell me that “Ernie Schwarzenfogger, Leeds” has had a great experience with them.  This is not entirely convincing, especially Ernie goes on to relate how many $$$ he earned in a calendar month, that it was enough to “buy a new station wagon” and it “revitalized his interest in real estate”.

I am very pleased for Ernie, but I don’t think really lives he in Leeds.

Clearly this clumsy use of localisation technology doesn’t work and no respectable company should be using these tactics, or at least making it so obvious that they are doing so.  But as localisation grows ever more important, especially with mobile search already accounting for 15-30% of traffic for many commercial websites, it’s important to look at how we as individuals are defined by our locality.

If you get it wrong, you can alienate potential customers, or simply waste effort/money on chasing the wrong people. And if you neglect to localise your business, you run the very big risk of missing out completely on new business.

What am I on about? As an example, if I tell you that I live in the WF1 postcode certain assumptions will be made about my location.  You may conclude that I am -

1. Within Wakefield city centre.
2. Within the Leeds radius
3. In Yorkshire
4. In the North-East
5. In the North of England
6. In England
7. In the UK

All of this is broadly correct…ish.  If you used these broad brush assumptions to sell me a service, or try to relate to me on a personal level, things could go a little wrong…

1) Within Wakefield city centre:

So my postcode suggests I’m an urbanite, but I actually live in a rural area three miles from the city centre.  There’s no way I could be offended by your assumption, but living in the country is different to being the city, in terms of experiences and practicalities and my purchasing habits have changed since moving here.

So, if you are trying to sell me goods, it’s worth bearing in mind that I have no need for noise-cancelling headphones to block out the rumble of traffic.  More importantly ordering goods online is a risky business as postal firms routinely get lost here and have been known to just bin goods meant for the houses they can’t find…

2) Within the Leeds radius:

This is technically correct and in my old role I was commuting into Leeds on a daily basis, so Leeds was a very relevant city for me.  It’s still relevant-ish as the biggest commercial centre in the area, so in terms of looking for employment opportunities being fed Leeds results is fine, but shopping, restaurants, entertainment etc.?  Nope.

I probably visit Leeds once a quarter, so you’re wasting your time trying to flog things in the city for me.

3) In Yorkshire: Exactly right, but Yorkshire (taking the three counties as a whole) is a huge county.  Beware if you’re making generalisations about this county; Rotherham is a world away from Ingleborough.

4) In the North-East: Fellow Yorkshire people, have you been frustrated by online forms that force you to choose your region as the North-East?  Culturally and historically Yorkshire has always been a distinct region, different to the North-East in a subtle way that is best illustrated in the clear variance in the accents we have.

It just doesn’t feel right describing Yorkshire as part of the North-East.

5) In the North of England: Some metropolitan types have the fond idea that the North is one homogenous unit, assuming that we’re all suffering from economic hardship, walking our whippets and saying “eeh bah gum”.  The north is as varied as the south of the country, so just watch it with your prejudices!

6) In England:I can’t argue with my postcode telling you that I am in England.  However – tonight (now!) England play France in their first match in the Euro 2012 football championships and up and down the country, marketers have been working on tailored copy, ads and incentives to capitalise on the patriotic (and often drunken) frenzy that tends to be associated with these games.  (Specifically the first matches in  tournament which take place before everyone remembers what a damp squib these things often turn out to be).

There’s absolutely no way that my postcode (or indeed, my accent) could warn you that addressing me by telling me “To get behind the lads tonight”, or boldly stating that “England Expects” is going to get right up my nose and turn me right off your message.  You see, thanks to the genetic quirk of my dad being Scottish and my English mother being completely disinterested in football, I am a proud member of the Tartan Army.

Even if this wasn’t the case, I’m not the only person in the country who feels uncomfortable at St George’s Crosses waving and reminders that John Terry exists.

7) In the UK: I’m an Anglo-Scot with fond memories of Archie Gemmill and a love of Irn Bru, but not a rabid Scottish Nationalist, so don’t worry, I’m not going to deny that I am sitting here in the United Kingdom.

This broadest categorisation of location is actually one that I wish was used more often, but in our quests to geo-target and fine tune the audiences we speak to, we sometimes overlook the obvious.  Even choosing to get UK search results, or to view only local Twitter trends I am regularly served with American content, products and services which have little relevance to me.

***

These examples of how localisation can go wrong for me are fairly innocuous, it’s not as though marketing to an individual in West Yorkshire presents a level cultural sensitivity required for marketing in the Middle East, for example.

I’m not suggesting for one minute that geo-targeting, or local campaigning is wrong, just consider carefully how you are segmenting and try to understand or account for the individual people, with their quirks and concerns, that make up your audience.

If you localise with subtlety and effort you can minimise costs and *BUZZWORD KLAXON* “reach out” effectively to the right audiences.

And if you don’t think about location in your messages, you run the risk of wasting lots of money and looking like fool, like the Olympics / Transport for London who recently put up billboards in an internal Wakefield street, warning us about congestion during London 2012, prompting the reaction -

• We’re 200 miles away
• This road isn’t even going towards the M1 (which might *just* about have been relevant)
• Yeah, we’d already worked out that it’s going to be busy then anyway, even though we’re thick Northerners

Comment spam

Aw, shucks, this old thing…

A bit of flattery never hurts.

“Your internet site is precious metal for all of us“
*updates banner image to include this recommendation*

“You must continue your writing. I am confident, you have a huge readers’ base already!”
Erm, yeah, when I write about Samantha Brick I get lots of visitors…

“I’ve been browsing online more than three hours nowadays, yet I never discovered any attention-grabbing article like yours”
I know! It’s literally better than everything else on the internet!

“You are actually a good webmaster. The web site loading speed is amazing. It sort of feels that you’re doing any distinctive trick. Moreover, The contents are masterpiece. you have done a excellent activity in this topic!” 
I was seriously tempted to approve this comment, from the bottom of my heart, thank you, you gorgeous pretend person.

Never offer un-solicited advice

Thanks, but no thanks…

“You might also benefit from their muscle and joint formula that can speed up recovery for workout enthusiasts. Try buying the larger cream size so…”
Nope, there is literally nothing on this site to give the impression that I’m  a work-out enthusiast…hey, didn’t you even read this blog?!

” Hello Web Admin, I noticed that your On-Page SEO is is missing a few factors, for one you do not use all three H tags in your post, also I notice that you are not using bold or italics properly in your SEO optimization.”
Blah, blah, goes on for several years. Is reposted by different user names 5 times in 5 days.  I DON’T CARE, OK

WTF?

I’m sorry I haven’t a clue

“I’m gonna watch out for brussels. I will be grateful if you proceed this in future.” 
*Scratches head* Nope, no idea

“A good friend of mine, Jim Stanley, has been a poultry farmer for over twenty five years. Every time the kids and I would visit his farm, they might bug me for weeks to boost our own chickens. A few years ago they finally wore me down and I started wanting into raising chickens in my backyard.”
*Scratches head again* *realises I used the phrase “Kosher Chicken” in the Apprentice Bingo post*

“Gavekort is the Danish word for present certificate”
Well, it’s true, you do learn something new everyday

“Earlier Costumes for halloween were geared toward babies for example, however , when the mid-20th 100 years, while Hallow’s eve progressively was basically known by just grown persons, your Costume was initially employed by just grown persons as much as babies.”
In fairness, this was a comment on an article about The Voice, so I think Jessie J’s wardrobe is to blame.

Fellow bloggers,  have you seen some amusing comment spam recently? Do share!

The basic concept of SEO writing or writing an SEO article is to create meaningful content and have a resource of links so that you are able to boost your search engine ranking further. You should make an effort to include useful resource, when it comes to creating content for SEO.  You can include a resource page and include useful links that point to other useful resources on the web. This aspect of Seo writing is all about encouraging people to bookmark your site and your resource page.

In order to make your SEO article really interesting for your readers, you should research those areas within your industry that have not been written or talked about earlier. If you create innovative and interesting SEO content in your article, then more and more websites will drive their links to your content.

Articles that are based on controversial topics will again help you attract traffic to your website. In fact, you can always include a blog in your website and through blog content writing you can write on controversial topics that will allow you to enhance your website ranking and grab your client’s and other visitor’s attention. 

Remember, when it comes to writing content for SEO article or SEO copywriting, you should make it a point to include short paragraphs in your write up as it will make it easier for your reader to go through your content. When writing for seo, remember to include images as it will only add value to your seo article. Headings are another important part of Seo content writing. Therefore, once you have written your article, include an attractive heading to make your content really interesting from website content writing point of view. Again, before uploading your article you should check it thoroughly and avoid spelling and grammatical mistake at all costs as that would affect your online reputation. If you don’t want people to question your credibility, then be careful while writing seo content and generating useful resource and information.

You can also opt for companies that provide a wide range of Seo writing services. They can provide you with writers who are capable of offering professional web content writing services. They will help you generate exclusive and unique content for your website, which will only help you cater better to your customers. Remember, writing content for seo articles is all about giving it a natural flow and including relevant and unique content. Content writing for seo articles can be fun if you choose interesting topics and write on them.

©2012- Orion Multisystem Inc. – positivelycontent. Copyright protected. No duplicity is allowed without permission.

Write Different SEO Content for different pages

Google is always looking for relevant and original content, which is precisely why when you are writing for the web, you need to make sure that you include different SEO content in different pages of your website. This also means that you should not include content from any of the other website on the internet as that would be equivalent to duplicating content and Google has a policy of ignoring such websites.

Include Relevant Keywords

No matter what content you include in your website, you must ensure that you include relevant keywords in it. Therefore all your SEO articles should include keywords that are related to your business or profession. SEO copy writing is all about including appropriate keywords so that your target customers are able to find your website or the content on your website with ease. Remember, your main aim behind website content writing is to attract web traffic and boost your search engine rankings. Therefore, your SEO article should be unique, relevant and interesting.

Add a Blog to Your Website

When it comes to SEO writing, it is always a good idea to include a blog section in your website as that would give you an opportunity to add new and fresh SEO content on a regular basis. Blogs can help you attract search engine traffic easily and therefore you must focus on blog content writing a lot. In fact, all the interactivities happening on the blog will only add value to your website and a lot of your SEO writing efforts should be directed towards encouraging your blog visitors to leave their comments and share their experiences and queries.

Avoid Repetition of wordings in Website Layout

When it comes to writing seo content for your website layout you should avoid repeating the same text and wording on each and every page. Writing content for seo purpose is all about including unique content so that you do not get penalised by Google for using duplicate content. Creating relevant and attractive heading is another important step of Seo content writing. Since you will be using a number of headings in your website, it is important to add variations to all of them.

Content writing for seo purpose is not as easy as it sounds. Therefore, when it comes to writing for seo, you should seek help from companies that offer professional web content writing services. They have the required expertise to offer a host of Seo writing services, which will only help you boost your search engine ranking.

©2012- Orion Multisystem Inc. – positivelycontent. Copyright protected. No duplicity is allowed without permission.

The writer pauses to wonder if they’ve got the keyword density right

Do you have a tense, nervous headache?  Do you have the uncomfortable sensation that people don’t understand what you do?  Do you feel under-appreciated and ignored? 

If so, then the chances are that you produce content of some kind – and you are not alone in feeling sorry for yourself from time-to-time.

Does the following ring any bells? Being given a one-sentence work brief involving the phrase “anything will do really” or “whatever you think you can write about”.  How about discovering that your work is measured in terms of width not quality.  Have you had that feeling that you are being ignored when you try to explain that crafting something that will be readable (as well as crawl-able) takes a bit longer to do…honestly, it’s like people don’t care!

Or, on the other hand, maybe you’re someone who orders SEO Content and you don’t understand why the writer is being whiny or asking you a load of questions about “style guides” and who the audience is?  After all, you just need somewhere for some keywords to sit and any old monkey can do that can’t they?

Here’s a response to the two main misconceptions about SEO Content.

#1 “We just need to cover off the keywords”

Wrong, well wrong up to a point.  The search engines haven’t managed (yet) to completely eradicate the shoddy, poor content that has blossomed all over the net like Japanese knotweed since the early days of SEO, but each new algorithm update signals the importance of publishing quality content.

Since Panda, Google has incorporated quality signals into the algorithm: Content needs to be properly formatted, really original (rather than spat out of a de-duplication machine) in order to get a pass. Now you actually run the risk of penalties for publishing rubbish, as well as generally missing out on the perks that decent content brings.

Further to that, if you have any real ambitions to be treated as an authority on your subject, the search engines want to see author profiles, reactions from readers, footprints that hint at a “real person” being behind the plain text.

You also get the chance of being thrust to the top of the rankings for trending / seasonal search terms if you put some effort in [3,500 people visited my site in 24 hours when I wrote about Samantha Brick, I was just ahead of other sites and sitting snugly on P1 of Google as the Twit-storm ensued.  I'm not saying that's because I am amazing, but using it as an illustration of how using the right words can get a little minnow like me ranking - so you can definitely do the same].

If you are lacking in ambition, you can keep on spitting out the cheap rubbish (in the short term at least), but if you want to keep up-to-date with the latest needs of “SEO Content” you need to craft copy that is engaging to readers as well as search engine robots: Search isn’t just about rankings, it’s ultimately about conversions, so consider the reactions of your visitors when they read the content on your site.

If your content is badly written, meaningless or just plain poor, your visitors will simply leave immediately with a negative view of your brand.  If, however, your copy is interesting, amusing, informative or thought-provoking, then there’s a good chance they will visit other parts of your site, recommend you as a resource, or at the minimum, go away with a good impression of your brand (maybe to return).

If this is all sounding a bit bleeding obvious, I do apologise, but it’s shocking how many brands are happy to spend peanuts on the words & pictures that represent them.

#2 “We can automate our Social Media accounts using content we’ve already got”

Is there anyone who works in Social Media reading that without sighing, doing a facepalm or banging their head on the table?

First off, some people might well be wondering why I’m even mentioning Social Media content, when the post is supposed to be about SEO content. Well, the two are joined at the hip, because nowadays we should be thinking “online marketing”, not just “SEO”.

Setting up automated feeds is almost always a terrible idea.  Why?  You have different audiences who respond in different ways on different channels.  You’re missing out on genuine chances to “engage”; for the buzzword allergic, I mean, finding out what makes your customers tick, being friendly, opening up conversations and therefore conversion routes.

A Twitter feed of re-hashed, impersonal default headline + first bit of the first par, followed by the same again, and again, and again is not going to encourage people to think well of you.

It does take skill (I would say this though, wouldn’t I?) to craft content that covers SEO considerations, as well as having the right tone of voice, representing the brand’s USPs & character, being sufficiently interesting to read etc. etc.  Oh and there’s all the checking to ensure the content is error-free too.  That’s worth more than $3 isn’t it?

So then fellow freelance writers, what do you reckon?

It takes a leap of faith: You’ve checked the writer’s portfolio, looked at their LinkedIn profile and agreed to pay them for an article that they say will take them two hours.  What do they do next, especially when they are writing for you for the first time?

For the benefit of my lovely new clients and anyone who is thinking of hiring me or outsourcing content, here’s an insight into the freelance writer’s process…

1)

Writer goes on Google, looks through books and visits relevant news sites to back up existing knowledge.  Three or four good reference points found, after being led up a few blind alleys.  This can sometimes take a lot longer, but I’ll call it – 0.5 hours

2)

Writer writes up the majority of first draft using background research – 0.5 hours [NB- the three hours spent developing a sudden interest in snooker, cleaning the kitchen cupboards and making endless cups of tea etc. that always occur when a deadline is imminent have been removed]

3)

Writer takes another look at the style guidelines, changes all “I’s” to “We’s”.  Ends up re-drafting substantially – 0.5 hours

4)

Reasonably happy with first draft, the writer takes a break, goes on Twitter, sees an article that is very similar to the first draft/essentially makes the first draft look like a load of rubbish.  Re-drafts again – 0.5 hours

5)

Happier with 2nd draft, the writer moves to the proof-reading stage.  Writer reads the article out loud (with the accent of their choice, I use a Scottish accent) very, very slowly, makes minor tweaks – 0.2 hours

6)

Repeat as above, tweaking some of the tweaks back to the original version, boggles at previous insanity of using the word “euthanasia” in an article about Spring fashion/making a passing reference to A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich in a hotel review etc.  - 0.2 hours

7)

Repeat as above, writer double-checks spelling of products/dates of Civil War battles/finds out who invented Tippex etc., using Wikipedia/sources that are contradicting what Wikipedia is saying  - 0.2 hours

8)

Writer saves article, re-names article and updates spreadsheet/to-do list marking work as “Done” – 0.1 hours

9)

Writer drafts email to send to client, re-reads email with the original instructions and panics that they’ve not done the exact thing they’ve been asked to do.  Re-opens document and proofs once again – 0.2 hours

10)

Writer proofs draft email by reading the content out loud very slowly (in accent of their choice), attaches proofed document and prepares to send.  Before sending, writer checks twice that the right document is attached, following brief panic that draft document has been attached instead – 0.2 hours

11)

Writer sends email.  Checks Sent Items twice, re-checking the attachment and wishing the content of the email had been better worded.  Marks spreadsheet/to-do list as “Sent” – 0.1 hours

12)

Writer re-reads sent article three more times, seeing hundreds of different ways to have written it, panicking until receiving the reply from the client approving the copy – Infinity

I make that just over 3 hours solid work, with a good proportion of that spent talking out loud and panicking! Are you a writer, does this ring any bells with you?

If your website is over-optimised then you’ve been getting bad advice from your SEOs; search marketing should be just as much about thinking about your human visitors as the search engine robots. Are you at risk of being penalised?

Pinocchio became a real boy - can your website get real too?

Keeping it real

Way back in the day when Google announced the coming of Universal Search (the inclusion of rich media, videos, maps, images etc. into the main search results) they made their intentions clear.

Websites must be relevant, unique and engaging, they said.

Google would be looking for signals that there was something “real” behind the domain and they urged website owners to provide valuable content and links in terms of maps and other resources.  Then Social Media advanced and it became even more important to demonstrate a human edge to a website’s personality.

If you own a website that ranks unfairly for a search term (we’ve all come across these sites), or if you’re keen to keep a search position for a highly competitive term, you could find yourself in trouble – whoever is in charge of your SEO needs to broaden out their thinking, if they haven’t done already.

They can still call it SEO if you like, but what you need to do is some “marketing”.

Think humans and the robots will follow

I promise you, employing on “old fashioned” marketing techniques reaps search engine benefits too.

Slacken that grip on your keywords and focus on just being interesting!

Here are some easy things you can try (and if you need someone to help you out with it…well you know where to come).

Competitions

Everyone likes free stuff and if you plan a competition well you can gain so much more than a quick burst of visibility or visits from the freebie hunters.

Create a competition that requires people to do more than answer a quick question:  Encourage creative endeavours, make your competition long-running to build up momentum, look for a human interest angle that might get you press coverage, host it on Facebook to give the competition a social feel.

Images and videos

Google loves YouTube (yes, Google owns YouTube), so if you can remain on brand, but slightly off topic, YouTube has a lot of potential.  Can you make videos of your products and services that give visitors some background information?

Even if you have a horror of the word “quirky”, there must be some twist that will allow your USPs to come alive on video in the way that they can’t in plain text.

If videos are out, images are much cheaper to produce and there are so many different places to host images in interesting ways.

Tumblr isn’t all about animals that resemble celebrities, if offers a way to host a neat stream of images that can tell a story.

Surely you’ve heard about Pinterest now? Can you create themed images to host there?

Whatever you do, try and find an angle that is connected to, but not explicitly about your brand.  Do you sell soup?  Stack it up to make “soup can sculptures”, or hire artists to make Andy Warhol-style graphics.

Don’t just post a load of sales images.

Blogs and feature content

If you get in touch with me, no matter how dry your subject matter, I believe I could devise a set of feature articles or blog posts that would suit your brand and still provide some interest to readers.  Come on, get in touch and challenge me…

This is the easiest way to add some life and colour to your website and send those all-important signals to Google that you’re not just about buying links.

As with images, this isn’t re-writing point-of-sales copy, but thinking around the subject.

Getting Social

There’s not enough space to go into detail about what makes a successful social media strategy here, but remember that 10 years ago there was still a small number of companies asking “should we have a website?” (Answer: yes, of course), now there are some people still asking “should we be social?”

Navigating Social channels can be fraught and I understand (and indeed, occasionally applaud) the caution shown by some businesses.  If you want to show that you are “real” though, you should make your social presence known.

There are ways to avoid potential customer service issues by using your Twitter account as an extra Newsroom, or creating a Facebook account with a focus on one narrow aspect of your business, rather than having them act as the de facto brand representative on these platforms.

Public Relations – Outbound Communications

Get your company being talked out on industry news publications, tell people about your amazing new competitions and sponsorship activity.  Share news of new appointments, comment on your industry. All that “old fashioned” stuff works.

In short: Get real, be interesting…

Here are some tips for overcoming writer’s block.

Power on through

Start writing, anything.

It doesn’t matter what it reads like, don’t worry how bad your typing is, ignore the red and green squiggles, don’t stop and read back – just get something on the darn page.  Before you know it, you will be on a roll and the words will be flowing much more naturally. I promise.

Set yourself a challenge

Look out for competitions and writing challenges, even if you’re not bothered about entering to win, you can unblock your brain by restricting yourself to the remits of the challenge someone else has set.

It’s even better if it you’re working on something you’re not interested in.  Can you write 500 pithy, pertinent words on the pencil trade in Peru? Can you win yourself a year’s supply of pilchards with a poem?  Can you use as many words beginning with ‘P’ as possible in a pointless alliteration practice?

Look around on Facebook, Twitter and competition sites for the latest competitions opening up.

Do something simple

Some lucky people can write purple prose (oh no, there I go again) the second they get up, but most of us need a little warming up.

Be realistic with yourself and devote the first hour of the day to tasks that require less brain power.  This is the time to write lists, do research, proof-read – to do anything practical that gets you away from staring at that blank page

Get a hobby

Having something vaguely creative to occupy your mind (but not distract you too much) is a massive help for those days when the gears are grinding.  I mess about doing some designs for fun, collect pictures of Marilyn Monroe reading and love taking part in quizzes.  These are relaxing hobbies that allow my mind to wander, but not to wander too far.

Get out!

The best advice for insomniacs is to get out of bed rather than lie grimly awake –  and it’s the same principle for dealing with writer’s block.  Don’t sit there suffering, go for a walk, catch up on the cleaning, just do something that gets you away from the desk for a bit.  You’ll feel so much better when you return. I promise.

Change the record

I have to have music on when I work and usually have the radio playing.  Sometimes though I need to hear something a bit different and will stick on some very loud music to change the mood.  It could be Iggy Pop, or Beethoven’s 5th – whatever works.

Get rid of the ‘time stealers’

Ah, Twitter – the God of Distraction.  Twitter is an epic research and communications tool, but it is possible to waste every second of your working day when it sits there in the background.  Close down the window – back off, you’re not missing anything that important.

Similarly with email.  Most of have some kind of useful email alert which pops up in the bottom right of the screen – perfectly placed to break your concentration and mess up that potentially perfect sentence.  Can you restrict yourself to checking your emails a couple of times a day instead of leaving the notifications open?

And the worst time stealers are other people (or in the case of this writer, cats).  Sometimes you have to tell them, politely but firmly, that, no you will help them out in a bit when you have finished what you’re doing. Thank you.

Relax

It’s the worst thing when someone tells you to relax isn’t it?  I apologise, but it will help if you have a good talk to yourself when you’re facing writer’s block, it will help you to regroup.  Think about one sentence at a time, don’t worry about the overall project and the scary deadline.  Stop it now, just relax.  Sorry.

I hope this is a help.  Do you have any tips to share?

After 6 years working for agencies in the search marketing sector, the most likely progression route for my career would have taken me further and further away from the things I think I’m good at and like doing.  There would have been more man management (I’m nice and supportive, rather than bossy and strict, which is what you need to be) with more spreadsheet shuffling than writing.  So, I took the brave (or foolish) decision to step out on my own and try to make it as a freelance writer.

Yosser Hughes 'Boys From The Blackstuff' - NOT the author!

Back at my old desk, looking out at those greener valleys, it seemed like the logical thing to do.  I’ve built up a lot of experience over the years and, if nothing else, have become very professional. I’ve also dipped a few toes into Sales in my last positions and to make it as a freelancer you have to be a Salesperson, right?

There seemed to be a lot of opportunities out there too for professional, reliable, experienced (tick, tick, tick) content producers as the tired old cliché “Content is King” seems to have a ring of truth in this brave new world of social media dominated marketing.

The trick is to have confidence, that’s what I keep telling myself, but I will admit that is difficult as I now face the end of the month, and therefore the start of my first month as a freelancer without the comfort of last month’s salary.  I still get up and sit at my desk each day by 9am (mostly) remaining motivated (mostly) with the aim every day that there will be one new achievement to record.

So how am I getting on?

This is my Day 1 To Do list (lists are a big thing for me…) with a commentary on what I’ve managed to tick off so far.

Complete CV

Done! And I’ve done a Portfolio too!  This was a bigger job than I anticipated and I’ve read so much contradictory advice on how best to draw up a successful CV.  For example, one site that specialises in recruiting creative freelancers said that a designer shouldn’t use Word, as it is an inappropriate medium.

Dear Designers out there, I think that’s bad advice.  Yes, make some glitzy and graphics led CV led to show off your skills, but do bear in mind that your CV is probably going to pass through the hands of an HR Manager at some point and they will want things kept as simple as possible…so make a Word Version too.

Make up a Target List of agencies etc.

Hmmm, done-ish.  I’ve registered on some good sites for freelance writers (such as Journalism.co.uk) and I’ve wasted a lot of time looking at sites which come top in the SERPs for “freelance writers” and offer $10 an article for SEO fodder garbage.  They are on the list under “Contact when I can’t afford cat food“.

My daydream aim was to make a list of target publications and contact them to tell them what a great writer I am.   Note to self:  Do this immediately! 

Re-engage with existing contacts

This brave move into the great unknown wasn’t completely foolish, I do have a few useful contacts who might have need for a freelance writer at some point, but -

a) I’m actually quite shy in real life (yes, really)

b) Contacts are fine, but the mood can change a bit when you’re basically approaching someone asking them for something e.g money

c) I’m contractually obliged not to contact previous clients to tout for work and I’m stupidly honest, so I haven’t done that

Luckily I’ve made a few tentative moves and (fingers crossed) the cat will continue to get fed.

Use Twitter to market myself

I had intended to draw up what I grandly referred to as my “Comms Plan“, managing my “re-brand” as I would do for a client.  I wanted to announce my shiny new freelance status when I already had assets to refer to (website, CV etc.), but that was taken out of my hands as I foolishly brought cakes into work on my last day and a few people Tweeted me to say thanks, letting the cat out of the bag somewhat…oh well!

Anyway, the bigger issue is that my Twitter is a bit of a mess.  I’ve never used it in a ruthlessly professional way, there’s still a lot of work to do to make it more effective.  I need to follow the right people and engage with my key audiences.  And stop talking like I am a Marketing Proposal. Note to self:  Do this!

Learn how to use the Adobe software

Last year, just for fun because this is my strange idea of fun, I bought the full suite of Adobe design and web development software. At WebCertain I did a fair bit of dabbling in this area and, thanks to the lovely design team (Helen and Bryan), I learnt quite a lot, becoming a dab hand at CSS designs especially.

There was no need for these skills in my last position and I forgot a lot of what I learnt.  So, I have been following some tutorials as a refresher and doing some designs for fun.

Can I tick this as “done”? Well, if you think graphic design is “mastering the Pen tool in Fireworks” then bow now before the Greatest Designer in the World.  Otherwise, no, but I am overall quite pleased with some of the graphics I’ve already produced.

Use LinkedIn to market myself

This has probably been my most successful route to date.  My web stats confirm LinkedIn as my main referrer and that’s mostly through updating my profile.

I’ve also joined a few groups, but I’m not sure yet what the value is…

The blog is set up to automatically post new articles on LinkedIn.  What do you think, should I switch this off, or am I being over-sensitive about being a potential annoyance when the majority of my newsfeed is a stream of Tweets and FourSquare updates (I really don’t care where you are all drinking coffee!).

Build website

Done!  Well, it’s not exactly what I planned.  I don’t have the WordPress SEO plug in installed, my domain isn’t pointing, but I’ve decided I don’t care.  I had planned to entirely build the CSS from scratch as a design project, but, hey, life’s too short.

Anyway it will do, won’t it?  And Wordress keeps giving me friendly updates telling me things like I’ve got a new Achievement by posting 10 posts.  It’s like Skyrim or World of Warcraft, but less gothic.

So, all in all, am I happy with progress?  It would be lovely to have a nice juicy regular job confirmed and I am still daydreaming that there’s a conference going on at The Guardian / Independent / Times / Telegraph / Wakefield Express that goes something like this:

“She knows loads about celebrities & films and you can rely on her copy to be optimised too.”

“She’s witty. I think she could be the new Caitlin Moran, let’s pay her a retainer and think about getting her to write a novel as well.”

***WAKES UP***

Keep following my freelance journey and if you need any help with your content, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Steppin' Stone

A successful blog should answer all the following needs in one fell swoop -

• SEO – mid and long-tail search terms especially
• Engagement – use your blog to support other initiatives, especially Social Media campaigns
• Conversion – use your blog to drive traffic directly to point-of-sale & sign-up pages

It’s quick and simple to set up a blog with a basic template, but more legwork needs to be put in to make a blog as effective as possible – as this blog demonstrates, it was pulled together in a matter of days and is “ok”, but there’s a lot more to be done.

Get the right people writing, on a regular basis

Blogging can be time-consuming and you would be wasting your time to set a blog up without making sure you can carry on publishing regular updates.  Get the people who know their subject matter to work to a plan, knowing how many articles they need to contribute on a regular basis.  Appoint one person as the “editor” to chase the other writers and to check that everything is going fine.  If you’re struggling for time, then why not employ a freelancer?  (Hint, hint…)

Adele wasn't best pleased when she was asked to write 100 pieces of online slot machine copy

Work to an editorial plan

Before you publish anything, consider the structure of your content categories.  I usually create a content matrix in a spreadsheet to work from.

The first thing to do is to separate out your priority keywords into two lists. I’ve used the travel sector as an example here -

List 1 – Product/Service keywords: What exactly are people searching for?  Individual destinations, Flights, Accommodation types etc.  This list will probably largely reflect your top level navigation.

List 2 – Need/Emotion searches: What are the personal considerations behind their searches?  Budgets of travellers (cheap holidays, luxury hotels etc.), lifestyle preferences (family holiday, activity-based, ski etc).  A lot of this will be obvious from what you think your customers want and it should tap into what you consider your brand USPs to be.

Use these lists to make up a content matrix to guide you to cover the breadth of content you need across all your keywords.  For example, if “Holidays in America” is on List 1, plan out articles based on the List 2 items; such as “best luxury hotels in New York”, “tips for families on holiday in Florida” etc. etc.

Cover all the keywords in both lists to make up the plan.

Make your content useful & unique

Lists, top tens, personally researched guides are all effective.  Include links out to supporting content where it is needed.

Illustrate wherever possible with images and videos, especially if they belong to you.

Include profiles of authors with little descriptions of each writer’s interests. Let each writer develop their own authorial voice to build up interest from your readers and repeat visits.

Consider readability ahead of SEO

If you work to a content matrix based on your keywords, then you should be naturally covering off a large percentage of your SEO needs.  As long as you stay ‘on brand’, there’s no need to worry about going a bit ‘off piste’ in terms of keywords now and then.

This means, you can go a bit mad with headlines if you want, it’s more important that someone might happen upon a catchy headline, than you pack another keyword into the H1 tag.  In any case, there’s a way around this.  If you’re using WordPress, do install the SEO plugin which allows you to automatically create an alternative (optimised) page title for each post, without having to delve into the back end.

One of the best headlines of all time

This means you can have the headline (using an example from pre-internet times):
“SUPER CALEY GO BALLISTIC, CELTIC ARE ATROCIOUS” and the page title can read:
“Football Scores: Inverness Caledonian Thistle v Celtic Date“.

Did you know that the Daily Mail is the world’s most read newspaper online now?  That is partly due to them using this exact technique, as brilliantly explained by Malcolm Coles, helped by Pippa Middleton’s bum…

Review and refine

Which stories are the best read on your blog?  Are there any seasonal trends to consider?  You might be surprised what cultural crossovers are drawing in your readers, so keep checking the traffic.  Look at Google’s search trends regularly to see what new searches are suddenly reaching peak volume, especially in terms of the TV & celebrity stories you could have an angle on.

Share

Don’t set up auto-share for social networks, but do regularly post out your most social stories across the relevant channels.

It’s worth spending a bit of extra time crafting a bespoke headline, or message for each story as you write it, so build that into the content production and proofing process.

A great thing to do is to invite guest bloggers to contribute, especially if they have a strong online profile and large network.

And last but not least, do as I say, not do as I do…good luck!

I’m going to try and explain my philosophy here, which I’ve hawked around several conferences and many client presentations.

Search in 2012 is very much about Quality Content – not keyword-packed rubbish.

Two things will become obvious to you if you browse through the articles on my blog -

1) I am old

2) I have been working in the search marketing sector for quite some time.

These are both good things (or so I keep telling myself).  I’ve been around long enough to see trends in online content go completely full circle.  Right now, we’re back where we were at the end of the last millennium with the focus back on producing really interesting content that is driven by “editorial” concerns, not just keywords.  I put editorial in speech marks, because it seems such an old-fashioned phrase, but it sums up what I mean – using the skills that a good editor has to quickly grasp what the best stories are and how to attract people to their attention.

The major difference in the last 10+ years is, of course, the proliferation of social networks which offer such a huge variety for publishers. And Social Media has changed the expectation of consumers, who are no longer just passive readers, but expect (indeed, demand) a level of interactivity and for content to be truly pertinent to them, whether words, pictures, videos, whatever.  Even if content is broadcast, it must seem personalised.

Standing out

Also, there’s also a LOT of content out there…and thank goodness the search engines have been altering their algorithms to help the wheat to separate from the chaff.  They’ve not got it quite right yet and cynical SEOs will always find a way through, but content for search has changed forever.

Back in 2006 (when I started out in the sector), it was relatively easy to get some rankings for a keyword.  Write a few paragraphs of garbage just about legitimised by being vaguely on topic and bung in the keywords to the optimum density.  Ranking for search terms seemed to be enough in those darker days too when there was less competition.  Conversion was less of an issue – many marketers simply trusted their luck by getting to #1, confident that the click throughs would follow by virtue of the authority granted by search engine prominence.

Not any more.  SEO now stands for “Social Engagement Optimisation” as well as “Search Engine Optimisation”.  Data published by Google emphasises the complexity of the consumer journey, in the travel sector (for example) there are an average of 18 different online “touchpoints” (places they visit) before a sale is made.  Anecdotal evidence backs that up; we check review sites, maps, blog posts, image libraries, refer back to comments made by the people in our social networks before we take the risk of clicking “book now”.

This means that websites that have profited in the past from cheap and dirty content solutions are at risk.  Which of these would put you off booking a hotel room?

• Poor spelling and grammar
• Obvious signs that the copy has been pushed out through Google Translate
• Badly formatted images with a lack of captions / descriptions
• Tone of voice being wrong for the readership (from bleeding obvious statements like “London is the capital of England”, through to talking to Brits about soccer or more potentially offensive references to cultural characteristics)
• Lack of detailed information from this or other sites (social networks, maps, review sites etc.)
• Booking form showing the wrong currency, or a different currency to the one on the point-of-sale page

All the above would put me off.

All this blether is coming to one simple point: Thinking about what humans want is the basis of SEO, so simply think about that, before you worry about keywords.

I sum this up in my philosophy:

Think humans and the robots will follow.

By that I mean, if you have really considered what a human visitor wants to see then you should be doing things right enough to satisfy the needs of search engine robots…

Before SEO people shout at me, I’m not pretending there aren’t some fundamental SEO techniques to learn, but be “compelling, unique and relevant” as Google urged us all to be as long as 5 years ago and you will be on the right lines.

I will try and practise what I preach here on the blog!

The quality of the story should always come first, but a few simple tweaks can make a huge difference to the online visibility a press release can achieve.

1) The Ronseal test

Marketers can be too close to their subject. They can find it difficult to describe it in a straight-forward manner and PRs are often trained in the traditional way of writing avoid repetition.

The first thing I learnt when I started doing SEO content was ‘repetition is good’ (as long as it’s not too forced).

Check if you are using needless synonyms and don’t be afraid of being straightforward about what you do.  If you are the country’s leading spoon manufacturer – say so! Don’t waste word space by describing your company as “a driving force in the UK’s food implementation sector”.

I would also recommend repeating the company name in full, rather than saying “the business”, or “the company”.  For major brands, brand search terms are hugely valuable, sending the vast majority of (convertible) search traffic over to their sites.”

2) Piggy-backing the news

Do you have a story that relates to a current news event that is being searched for?  Use the terminology that people are using when searching for this news to pick up a wider audience

Use these phrases in quotes or within titles for people being quoted in the press release so they are more likely to be retained when the journalist re-writes the story – quotes may be cut, but they won’t be changed.

If there is a celebrity angle, do use the full name, rather than the nickname of the celebrity you are talking about – otherwise you risk out on missing out on the search traffic driven by their name.

3) Make the boiler-plate work for you

Optimising the boiler plate is the most effective way to increase the number of links, without ruining the flow of the story, or making journalists feel you are forcing unnatural links on them.

Use the full url of the website including the http://

Include links to other useful resources, such as a page that supports the story, the media centre and social media addresses (also including the http:// at all times)

4) Make your news share-able

Headlines with the brand name in provide a lot of visibility, especially when  they are shared through social media

Is there a call-to-action or a social-led angle that can be better explored?  If your social channels are well-developed, do make sure that you refer to them in your press release as a valued resource.  Twitter is an excellent base for a  media centre…

Can comments / follow-ups / notices about a story that has been covered be published in this way?

Are you looking for the power of appropriate words to boost up your page rank on the search engine? Or an appealing content with right words to enhance the impact of your embellished website? Well in either case you need to seek out – “Content Development for SEO”

What exactly is Content Development for SEO and how does it work:

Enter a query on a search engine and hit ‘enter’, a list of websites are in front of you. Ever wondered why some of the websites are placed ahead of the others? Search Engine being a technique involves step by step process i.e. crawling, indexing, processing, calculating relevancy and retrieving.  Content Development for SEO with it’s rich and well managed keywords basically tries to catch up these principle steps of Search Engine in order to enhance the visibility of the website.

In crawling, the search engine basically explores to see what is available on the web. As more then billions of sites are available on the web there are chances that your site might go unnoticed by the crawler or Google bot in case of Google. The SEO articles with it’s optimized quality content and customized quantitative words helps the crawler to easily identify your website

Being stuffed with keywords and phrases that describes the page in the most effective way, content development meant for SEO accelerates the website’s chance to emerge often on the search engine in the next process i.e. Indexing

As mentioned earlier since there are billions of sites to be checked by the search engine, it starts calculating relevancy of the query with each of the data available in it’s index since content for SEO websites are developed with good amount of keyword density the website is sure to pass this step with flying colors. Keyword density is the percentage of the keywords to the total number of words on the page

Finally retrieving is the last step where the search engine displays the result.  For SEO, rich content are developed that are not only highly optimized but also customized to relate to the targeted audience’s activities, interests, and concerns. Thus ensuring better listing and ranking in retrieving where the sites are sorted and displayed from the most relevant to the least relevant. All the search engines keeps on changing the page ranking algorithm from time to time but with perfect developed content that encompasses the latest material you can actually drive the website through these times.

Key components of content development for SEO:

Besides providing effective original and fresh content that comprises of keywords with utmost consideration of keyword density content development for SEO comprises off links, tag, Meta tag, images and audio visual media’s like auto clips, presentations. With link building and social media channels the website is sure to emerge as a winner on the search engine. Thus appealing visitors and eventually generating huge traffic.

With SEO Content Development you can not only give your website the attention you always craved for but also generate tremendous traffic that is bound to convert into leads and sales!