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Mentioning the term SEO Web Content in a LinkedIn group, member John asked what the term SEO Web Content meant, I doubt I can repeat my reply here.
My definition of SEO Web Content is Web copy writing utilizing keywords, long tail keywords, and keyword phrases to enhance webpage SEO for greater search engine ranking as part of an overall SEO strategy.
Some inherent problems with SEO Web content
First, the main concern when creating keyword content is doing the proper keyword research.
What keywords do you want your site to rank for in search engines?
What keywords are people searching that are relevant to your site?
How to properly use the keywords in your Web content for search engine ranking.
Calculating keyword density, too high or too low can have adverse effects.
Second, Web writing.
Writing for the Web is different from other forms of writing, like academic, creative, or even e-mails for business opposed to e-mail to friends.
It takes time and experience in creating 100-percent original copy that is search engine friendly.
Any copy that is less than 70 to 75 percent different from the copy found online via plagiarism checking software will not rank high in search engines, and search engines might even downgrade the site for this reason.
All copy needs plagiarism checking via programs such as Copyscape, Grammarly, or perform a search for the many sites offering plagiarism checking for your copy.
Plagiarism reflects poorly on website, and the writer. It can also get sites banned from search engine ranking.
Sites should only use 100-percent original quality content.
Would you wish to work with someone who steals copy or uses some software that can create multiple copies just by changing some adverbs, or someone creative that can create 100-percent original work?
About the author:
Robert Medak Freelance Writer, Blogger, Editor, Proofreader, Reviewer, and Marketer
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Many people offer PLR (Private Label Right) eBooks, reports, and more for rebranding to build lists and build a business.
As a writer, in my opinion, this is plagiarism and I never use it. I also don’t rewrite articles or use article spinning or submitting software of any kind.
I do use the program WordWeb Pro on occasion when writing. It’s a dictionary program where you can highlight any word on a page and get the definition and more. If the word isn’t in WordWeb Pro, the program allows Web search to find it. Not being the world’s best speller, when in doubt I check a dictionary. WordWeb Pro is handy since it’s on my computer.
Book cover (Dust jacket) for the 15th edition of the The Chicago Manual of Style (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Close by is a copy of The Chicago Manual of Style 15th Edition, Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary 11th Edition, and The Associated Press Stylebook and Briefing on Media Law 2011.
For further reference are copies of Writing for the Web, Managing Content Marketing, and various article writing guides. Being a writer means there is always homework required.
Writers have their own way of working; my philosophy is and shall remain 100 percent original quality over quantity. Each piece of copy must be better than previous copy. It is a contest against my other copy. All writers should strive to improve their writing with each new piece.
Although each writer is free to use any material they choose, ethically using PLR or rewriting articles is ultimately their choice. Personally doing this type of work isn’t work that follows ethical standards for a business offering 100 percent original copy to all clients.
This may be a limited view, as a freelance writer who signed a Business Ethics Pledge, quality over quantity, prohibits the use of PLR.
All businesses, which include writing, should operate based on honesty, integrity, and quality.
Robert Medak
Published Freelance Writer, Blogger, Editor, Proofreader, and Reviewer learning Marketing
When beginning writers ask for advice about what to write about, the stock answer is to write what you know.
I look at it differently; writing about what you know may be comfortable for beginners, but how many readers are there that want to read a book about what you know, what about fantasy, thrillers, mainstream romance, and science fiction?
Writers should write about their passion. If a writer likes mysteries, than they should read many of them, and then write one.
Good writers need to be avid readers. If a writer doesn’t like to read, they probably won’t be a good writer. The reason for this is simple; writers must have a passion for words and language to be a good writer.
Many writers worry about something called voice, a writer’s voice will develop over time as the writer writes. Voice can also change over time as the writer hones their writing by writing.
Only ghostwriters worry about the ability of writing in someone else’s voice. This takes special skill and is not something that beginners should attempt. Ghostwriting is for seasoned writers, and those who specialize in it.
Back to the subject
First, writing is a business not a hobby. Writers whose dream is to write and publish are entrepreneurs and must have this mindset. Think about this, what are you willing to do for your book?
Unless you self-publish, it could cost a minimum of $1,500 to $2,000 for you to work through an agent, or to work with various publishers you can find by searching the Internet to get your book published. Bear in mind that publishing houses are reluctant to work with unknown and unpublished writers.
Second, writers must have a passion for what they write, because if they don’t, the story will not engage the reader properly. The reader may become bored, set the book down, and not pick it up again. Now the writer has possibly lost a reader forever.
Who is your audience?
This is another point that is continually brought up; don’t try to jump on the latest bandwagon. By the time your book comes out, the bandwagon could have changed. Trying to write the latest fad is never a good idea.
Think about movies for a moment, how many times have you seen a movie with a big box office, and then everyone makes a similar movie. Are those movies as good? Usually not, and neither are many sequels.
Writing is the loneliest and time-consuming vocation one can chose. Writers sit for hours in solitary with only their thoughts and blank pages to fill with words that create something new for readers.
Robert Medak
Freelance Writer/Blogger/Editor/Proofreader/Reviewer/Marketer
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Screenshot of “Garys Social Media Count” (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
I wrote a post, Do You Use Social Media, for authors on the blog 4RV Reading, Writing, & Art News to which I contribute articles. I posted a definition of social media and mentioned network media.
That definition is Social Media is any online form of communicating, which individuals employ; including blogs, and microblogs like Twitter. Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google+ are social networking sites, of which there are many, and are a demarcation to “industrial media,” refering to radio, Television, and film produced by professionals in these areas of media.
With many large corporations adopting social media, many small businesses wonder how they can compete on social media sites. Social media is an equal opportunity site; anyone from entrepreneur to small business can have the same presence as anyone else.
The problem with some accounts is that they spend time selling, and not building relationships. It’s called Social Media because it’s about being social, not a sales pitch site.
Who are you on social media? This is where your bio comes into play. Without a complete bio, or posts you’re not likely to get many followers, including me.
Social media is about engagement. People must get to know and trust any brand or individual before they are willing to purchase any product or service from you.
Social media sites are a place to share information your followers can use and share with their followers if it’s relevant to them.
When using micro-blogs where characters and spaces are limited, it doesn’t mean you should use internet language rather than using proper language. If you post on Twitter, you can use a program such as Twitlonger, which allows you to post more than 140 characters when using Twitter.
Using the Web is not a place to be lazy when writing. It can be a place to work on improving your writing. Your written communication skills are in front of the world and speak about the author.
Social Media and Networking sites are one way of many for people to learn about what you have to offer by being engaging and personable by sharing information. The main idea is to be available to help people and create relationships because word-of-mouth is still the best form of marketing, which every business, entrepreneur, and author needs to succeed.
Robert Medak
Freelance Writer, Blogger, Editor, Proofreader, Reviewer, Marketer
Find me at http://xeeme.com/RobertMedak
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You can optimize with keywords, use various plugins, and many types of software to attract traffic, but this is where content becomes the king of engagement with potential clients for your business.
SEO& SEM may help with incoming traffic, but once people find a website or blog, is it informational and relevant to the person’s search? How likely are they to tell others about the website because of the content and how engaged they were?
What about the tone of the content on the website?
Is the content academic or conversational? Does the website reflect the tone? You can offer information about a product or service in a conversational tone, information doesn’t need to be like a research report from a scientist.
I’m not saying that you should write down, but to write in plain English. Forget the jargon, and tech terms unless it is necessary, and there are no other way to express what you are saying. Not everyone is an engineer.
You are communicating with people searching quick concise and relevant to their search. A website is responsible for providing that information in an easy to read format without having to visit a specialized dictionary for terminology.
When someone visits a website, how user friendly is the site, is it easy to find contact information? Does the site have an FAQ page, an about page, easy to reach the business if they have additional questions? Is here a catalog, pricelist, or sales list that available for customers?
There should be the name or names that someone with any questions; or to schedule a meeting with knowledgeable people that have the authority to handle customer needs.
You’ve seen that all of the SEO, SEM, and marketing are much more than just old style marketing.
Today’s marketing is about engaging in a relationship with customers.
This is marketing in the modern age.
Robert Medak
Freelance Writer, Blogger, Editor, Proofreader, Reviewer, Marketer
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English: The figure summarizes the main methods used in systems for computer-assisted plagiarism detection. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Many people talk about using public domain works, private label rights (PLR), and master resale rights (MRR) branding it as your own and selling it to become an authority.
Personally, using any of the above or spinning software is plagiarism, plain and simple.
I call myself a writer. That means I am creative. Using a program WordWeb Pro™ the definition of creative is: “Someone who generates new ideas and sales materials for marketing a product”, that does not mean using other people’s work changing a few adverbs or nouns to pronouns and calling it your work.
When I write something, it is 100 percent original, will pass Copyscape™, or any other plagiarism checker. When writing reviews, they are honest and unbiased written about the content of the book. If the book reviewed is in need of editing, it will not receive a five star rating because I believe reads deserve an error free well-written book. It’s the author’s responsibility for creating an error free book.
Spelling, typos, grammar, and punctuation to name a few items that should be resolved before any book reaches the hands or e-reader of readers who’ve spent money for a book. In my opinion, errors such of these are one-reason self-published books have a less than stellar reputation.
Readers of this post are welcome to their opinion. I will listen with an open mind. I wish readers would do the same.
I’ve mentioned in other post about my signing of the Business Ethics Pledge. I recommend all businesses read the Business Ethics Pledge and agree to adopt it as part of general business activity. Your customers would appreciate it and might just remain loyal.
Follow me.
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Customers are Ignoring You (Photo credit: ronploof)
Why entrepreneurs need more than one platform, the simple answer is the more places potential customers for your products and services, the better.
Now comes the con. It takes time and someone to watch over the various platforms for any type of feedback from customers. Feedback could come in the form of questions, experiencing a problem, clarification about an order or product. Someone needs to be available to answer customer’s concerns.
This is what platforms are about, while also building relationships with current and potential customers. A relationship is what retains customers. It costs less to retain current customers than to acquire new ones.
Satisfied customers are entrepreneur’s best forms of marketing, word of mouth. This only works with platforms where customers can interact with entrepreneurs quickly to resolve any issue and to tell about their experience in the form of notes or letters they can submit on a form, or post something to a platform.
Many buzzwords tossed around, but what do they mean.
People hear the term social media, network marketing, SEO, optimization, platform, and more.
What this boils down to is some way to get in front of your customers using websites, and other interactive sites like Facebook, Foursquare, Google +, LinkedIn, Twitter and others interacting real time with current customers and potential customers to purchase products or services from entrepreneurs.
Entrepreneurs have to remember not to choose just one platform and to keep platforms such as blogs and websites dynamic not static, because search engines like dynamic websites and blogs. Dynamic content will enhance search engine ratings making these sites easier for searchers to find.
The content is something else that needs addressing. The content must be relevant to the site and the content must be quality content not something found copied and pasted just for the sake of content.
Content must be original, well written, with correct spelling, grammar, punctuation, and clear of typos. Search engines don’t like duplicate content. There are many software programs and online sites to check for plagiarism of content before posting to a blog or landing page.
Note: Always post only original content to score high with search engines and not get band from search engines.
Creation and maintenance of a platform will require time and dedication from an entrepreneur, but will help with business growth.
Robert Medak
Freelance Writer/Blogger/Editor/Reviewer/Marketer
http://www.authorsden.com/robertmedak
http://twitter.com/freelancewrtr
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Commercial freelance writers have a set of ethics they should follow, and journalists have a code of ethics they must follow. Why should other writers who blog or write fiction not held to some standard code of ethics or conduct, even if it’s a personal code of conduct? Check out this article: The Ethics of Fiction Writing
To have someone create a set of standards is not what I’m talking about, I am talking about a personal code of ethics to check facts, not discuss what a freelancer may learn about a product or company, to remain unbiased used they are writing and op-ed piece where a stand is the usual.
A person writing about politics shouldn’t allow their personal point of view get in the way of a discussion, just as someone writing a product review should list both pro and con equally.
When doing a book review of a self-published book, I could tear it to shreds for poor formatting, typos, grammar, and more if I chose to, I will never give a book a five star rating for blatant error is editing because this is a point of my personal integrity.
I will not give five stars to a book that needs editing or been proofread by the author. The author’s ethics should be to give the reader the best book possible, and a reader spending money for a book should demand nothing less.
There should be no use of plagiarism, or spinning software used, my personal ethics only allow me to write 100 percent original plagiarism tested, fact checked, well researched copy for my clients as all freelance writers should you in my opinion. A writer’s best friend should be their local librarian.
Writer’s ethics should dictate never using PLR or MRR work no matter what they’re told otherwise, in my opinion. I am only a freelance writer, blogger, editor, and reviewer, who’s been at this for over six years, and consider myself still and always will as someone learning what I am doing.
I am a believer that the only time I will ever quit learning is the day I begin pushing up Daisies. In this vain, I will continue to work at improving my skill set for writing and marketing. I does this from a point of personal ethics and integrity, because I feel I owe it to my clients and myself.
Robert Medak
Freelance Writer/Blogger/Editor/Reviewer/Marketer
A ghostwriter is someone that writes for another without credit for their work, only paid for the project with no royalties.
It’s the ghostwriters work, but they can’t tell anyone they wrote it because there is no place, listing the ghostwriter. This made me wonder if this is truly ethical as one writer commented on a blog.
If credit taken is the work of another, shouldn’t the one who actually wrote it get the credit and the royalties? A person should receive both credit and royalties for their work to be completely ethical in my opinion.
It is up to the individual writer, as to whether or not they would ghostwrite.
As a published writer of over 300 web content articles, and having a short story published, I have to think long and hard about ghostwriting. Is the money for a ghostwriting project the only reason for writing? I have turned down many writing assignments because they didn’t seem quite ethical as I see it. I have also turned down or skipped assignments because of low pay for what the person wanted.
Someone in a post coined the term “writing whore” as a person writing only for money. I know that I am not one. I write, edit, and review because I like what I do, and I like reading. I think I am a good writer and am improving as I write. People ask me to guest post about writing and editing. I have four blogs, Hub Pages, and contribute on two blogs about writing.
I receive compliments about the writing information on my main blog. In many ways, appreciation is worth more than money. I do wish payment for my writing and editing. Finding quality clients isn’t when working ethically. I signed a business ethics pledge that I live by.
Ghostwrite if you choose to, I am still on the fence about it, and need to think more about it.
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Has quality writing become outdated?
Recently I’ve read posts about the subject of quality writing in today’s publishing environment.
Another point mentioned is the greed of publishers for the lower quality writing published today.
Is self-publishing, vanity publishing, or POD (Print on Demand) the problem?
The ones I blame are writers and readers. I will tell you why.
I’ve reviewed over 100 books from various publishers, mostly Outskirts, Lulu, Xlibris, and personal publishing by authors. This is because publishing houses can’t handle the amount of books submitted, including manuscripts that are not what publishing house print.
No on to the books I’ve read, many of them break some fundamental rules of grammar, punctuation, spelling, and word choice. There are two quotes by Mark Twain that bring this home to e for everything I write, they are, “The time to begin writing an article is when you have finished it to your satisfaction. By that time you begin to clearly and logically perceive what it is that you really want to say.” and “The difference between the almost right word & the right word is really a large matter–it’s the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning.” These two quotes speak volumes to me as a writer, as they should every writer.
It’s my position, no matter what, writers should always write their best to get the words down, then edit the work or have someone they trust edit it for them, be they professional or not. Only with honest feedback can writers improve. Writes need to write to improve their art as Mary Heaton Vorse said, “The art of writing is the art of applying the seat of the pants to the seat of the chair.”
Readers should never accept less than excellent writing from authors. There might be a problem created in the printing or formatting of the book or eBook.
It is up to the author to look at a finished copy of their book and ask for any errors corrected before it is ready for public consumption.
Who am I to say this?
Robert Medak
Freelance Writer/Editor/Reviewer learning marketing, and working on my first book.
The opinions expressed are my own and you are free to disagree.
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