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Does Your Copy Look "Fake" to the Search Engines?
by Karon Thackston © 2004
http://www.copywritingcourse.com/keyword
From
the early days of search engine optimization, keywords
and content have always been vital to achieving your
goals. Starting back in the days when we used to shove
every slightly relevant keyword into our META tags,
it has been obvious that search engines love text. The
more complex and sophisticated the engines have gotten
over the years, the more complex and sophisticated many
writers have gotten with their search engine copywriting.
Supposed
formulas, saturation levels, and other mysterious concoctions
have been developed to help us outsmart the engines.
What we should have been doing all along was writing
for the visitor first and the engines second. Why? Because
creating a site that's loved by visitors has become
a prime factor in linking, ranking, and marketing as
a whole. And now, it has become vital to search engine
copywriting—especially since the engines are making
great strides with more personalized and efficient searches
(such as semantic search).
Rather
than just reading the copy on your site, engines are
heading in the direction of being able to determine
and "understand" what a page is about. Working
semantic *intranets* have been in place at various types
of organizations for years, and research continues to
implement this type of search capability for the Internet
overall.
The
ironic thing is, as the search engines get more complex,
the "formula" for SEO copywriting is getting
simpler and simpler.
Write
Naturally
Rather
than working yourself into a tizzy about how many keyphrases
go where, and what percentage of your net words are
keyphrases, and so on… just relax. As SEO gets
more advanced, your copy plan needs to get more elementary.
In
the future, search engines will be looking for Web pages
that reflect a natural tone with the copy. Is it obvious
that keyphrases are being shoved in wherever possible?
Does every headline/sub-head, image tag, and comment
tag have a keyphrase included? Does the copy sound fake,
unnatural, and stiff? Then spiders and bots will recognize
it, and (in theory) flag it as something to be wary
of.
Want
an example? Take a look at this lovely piece of copy
I found while surfing just the other day. (I've replaced
the keyphrases used in the original copy with the word
"wherever" so as not to embarrass the site
owner.)
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Just
Say "No" To Fake Copy
Incorporate Keyphrases the Natural Way
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Read
your website copy out loud. Does it
sound silly to you with all those
keyphrases stuffed everywhere? Then
it sounds silly to your site visitors
and the engines.
In order to make more sales
and get higher rankings you
need copy that flows... naturally. |
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Discover
"How To Increase Keyword Saturation
Without Destroying the Flow of Your Copy"
today.
Order Now
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Wherever
Holiday Rentals
Holiday
rentals in Wherever for holidays in Wherever
Wherever
holiday rentals directly from the owners. Rent a holiday
villa in Wherever or perhaps a 2-6 bedroom apartment
in Wherever. Wherever vacation rentals for holidays
in Wherever are easily located by searching the Wherever
Holiday website. Wherever Holiday Rentals offer holiday
apartments in Wherever and holiday villas.
Find
accommodation in Wherever by clicking on the Wherever
map or the active links. You will then see holiday
rental apartments, villas and townhouses in stunning
Wherever accommodation.
Let's
suppose someone walked into your brick-and-mortar travel
agency and asked for help. You would most likely ask
the person what he was seeking. He would reply, "Holiday
rentals in Wherever. What can you show me?" Would
you honestly take off on the spiel above? Can you see
yourself talking to a real client face-to-face and saying,
"We offer Wherever holiday rentals in Wherever
and can find you many apartments, villas, and houses
in Wherever"? I don't think so.
Who
Cares?
Writing
using natural language has always been important to
your visitors. If your site sounds silly due to overuse
of keyphrases, you lower yourself in the view of your
prospective clients. You want to make sure your visitors
are smiling and not rolling their eyes after they read
your copy. Otherwise you greatly reduce the chance of
making sales.
Now
that the engines are becoming more and more sensitive
to natural language when dealing with copywriting, this
element is going to become very important for another
reason… rankings.
Tips
for Writing In Natural Language
1)
Vary your keywords/phrases. For example, if
a keyphrase you particularly want to target is "14k
gold jewelry" also consider researching keyphrases
like "14k gold watches" or "gold wedding
bands" or others along those lines. This will give
you a variety of phrases within your copy.
2)
Read it out loud. When you read your copy out
loud, you'll get a better sense of whether it sounds
unnatural. If you wouldn't say, "We make 14k gold
jewelry and have made 14k gold jewelry for 10 years.
If you need 14k gold jewelry, just view our catalog"
out loud then don't put it in your copy, either.
3)
Break up keyphrases. As searchers get more
knowledgeable about finding what they want in the engines,
they use longer and longer search queries—some
of which just don't make any sense. For instance, I
recently had to use the phrase "real estate Pittsburg
downtown." Since this search string was not easily
worked in as that exact phrase, I broke it up. One sentence
I used it in read, "When looking for commercial
real estate in Pittsburg,
check the downtown listings first for
exceptional locations and prices." The words are
still in the same order with minor breaks in between.
When you can't use a phrase "as is," this
is a very viable alternative.
Keep
in mind the direction search engine optimization is
taking. The closer you can get to writing in natural
language, the better off you'll be. It only makes sense
to create a site now that will last through the long
haul, especially when that site will have a better chance
of favorably appealing to the engines and your visitors.
Karon
Thackston is author of “How To Increase Keyword
Saturation (Without Destroying the Flow of Your Copy).”
Discover the secrets to creating SEO copy with a perfect
balance between keywords and natural language. http://www.copywritingcourse.com/keyword |
