Global Link Technologies

It cannot be overstated how important writing helpful content for getting found and ranked well in Google, MSN and Yahoo.

But simply saying that you should write great content is not enough. How do you know if Google will find your content great or not? How will search engines rank your text? And what about keywords, key phrases and keyword density? What about links? and the list goes on.

As you have probably experienced, the field of search engine optimization can get confusing and overwhelming quickly. So as a starting point, I would like to lay out a practical how-to approach to get you started in writing great content that should be foundation of any effective search engine campaign.

First, you should answer the following questions:

1. What is your industry? For the sake of this example, let’s say you have a store that sells outdoor products and accessories. You also have an e-commerce website that sells outdoor products online.

2. What is your website’s target audience? You should be able to define what kinds of visitors are coming to your website and why the are visiting it. In our example here, it would be outdoor shoppers and enthusiasts.

3. What information would your target audience find helpful and valuable? What content would keep them coming back? Make a list here of  topics that your customers and readers would find valuable. It could be reviews on products, weather conditions for certain destinations, reviews about certain destinations, safety and / or travel advisories about certain areas, real life experiences etc. The list could grow as you brainstorm. But remember to stay focused within your industry and don’t wander into unrelated areas.

4. What are you already knowledgeable about? Look at item #3 and list out what things you already know and can write about. Now prioritize these items by determining what you think your customers would find most valuable. You now have your “to do” writing list. You can begin by taking a topic and writing a blog post or a page about it; Keep the page to no less than 250 words and no more than a 1000 max. Next, make a list of the areas from #3 you find interesting but don’t know enough about. You can research each topic and as you learn, write and publish your work.

Notice I haven’t said anything yet about writing for search engines. The reason is you want to write primarily for your target audience and customers. If you have a website that your readers find valuable, then Google’s search will also find your site and reward your hard work by ranking you well in search engine results.

Once you get some pages posted and are feeling more comfortable about writing what is valuable to your readers and customers, the next step is to consider keywords.  While we haven’t focused specifically on keywords in this post, the reality is that Google will find and rank keywords in your text.

Of course, there is a lot more to Search Engine Optimization than what we’ve covered here. However, the important point to remember is that writing to real people should always be the primary focus of any winning search engine optimization strategy.

—–

Global Link is a search engine optimization and web design firm located in Portland, Oregon.