The Internet has literally been ablaze lately with domain owners in a sheer panic over the announcement that Google Panda will be rolling out with a new update in the days to come. Some of the changes mentioned in the blogosphere are updates to how backlinks are counted (and rated), the deletion of all duplicate content web-wide, and a number of other rumors about how the search engine giant will dish out punishments aimed at black hat SEO techniques. While the exact patch details won’t be available until after the launch, this is going to be a brutal upgrade for hundreds of thousands of websites.
Then again, does it really matter if Google raises the bar on what constitutes as a quality website? Here’s what these changes will mean to writers-
Quality Definitely Trumps Quantity
The largest impact that a lot of writers will feel from the latest Google Panda update is a changing trend from quantity to quality. Instead of domain owners focusing on posting hundreds (or thousands) of smaller, generic articles, Google is trying to force websites to deliver higher quality information that is actually useful to consumers. For url’s that have always focused on superior content, absolutely nothing will change after the upcoming patch.
For the rest of cyberspace, however, a lot of changes will have to be made to avoid some fairly harsh penalties in the search engines. Not only will poor content no longer rank under the latest Panda update, but it will actually invoke a penalty until those pages are upgraded or deleted. In other words, it will be harder than ever to obtain artificial rankings off keyword-stuffed pages, generic backlinks, and other questionable tactics.
Multimedia More Important than Ever
While only a few of the “SEO experts” have talked about multimedia and Google Panda, it only makes sense that if spam content and boring pages will be penalized, then well written, consumer-engaging pages are the way of the future. That means all of those alt-tag on photos, embedded videos, games, infographs, and more will all be big boosts for web pages and companies will be forced to deliver a higher standard than ever before.
As writers this section may not seem to apply to us, but it really does in numerous ways. In previous articles, I’ve said time and time again to tie these aspects into your article submissions in the first place. If you’ve adopted that policy and given 110% to employers, then your job security just got a whole lot sweeter. Either way though; it won’t be long before this is a standard practice on all websites so it’s time to adopt finding multimedia to accompany your articles now.
Content Will Always Be King
One thing I find particularly amusing is how so many authoritive sites are dreading this update, because if they are delivering great quality then they have absolutely nothing to worry about. Search engines have been abused for far too long by questionable SEO tactics so if anything, Google is doing both you and I a massive favor. The website with the best content or most information should rank first every time; that’s how it was designed in the 1980’s and that’s how it should be today.
Even though a lot will change after the Google Panda update rolls out later this week, very little of that will affect writers who focus on bringing relevant, engaging content to their audiences. If anything, it will place us in higher demand because every update eliminates a few more loopholes in the system.
Over the past few years, I have worked with hundreds of online writers at various stages of their career since I’ve always prided myself in helping others succeed. While the one thing in common all of these writers shared was a passion to write and make money online, their skill sets varied dramatically in terms of understanding how the Internet really works and what clients expect in terms of content. If you really want to be a writer online, then here are some traits that you have to master well before reaching out to your first client-
Understanding Search Engine Optimization
It’s kind of funny; every single time I place an ad online for help on a writing project, nearly 100% of the applicants reply by saying, “Hello. My name is <xxx> and I’m an SEO expert.” In most of those cases, I will reply to that writer by saying, “Okay, great! Please forward me all the keywords that you have ranked #1 on Google for your personal website and I’ll hire you immediately.”
There is a huge difference having basic knowledge of search engine optimization and claiming to be an actual authority, so expect for clients to call your bluff often when you say something like, “I’m an SEO expert.” Believe it or not, I’ve learned more from clients over the years than I ever picked up on my own or in college…so be humble when stating your talents and let the writing do the talking for you. Instead of making overstated claims, just send the client a custom sample to prove you know what you’re talking about.
Writing for Short Attention Spans
If you’re writing for a newspaper, magazine, or sending a business letter, then you should stick just with the facts and avoid embellishments. Audiences online are a completely different type of reader, however, and your writing style has to be a lot more relaxed in order to hold their attention. That’s why you see so many online articles that are formatted with subtitles, page breaks, bullet points, and photographs…it’s a way to keep readers engaged.
Likewise, the Internet is not a place to show off your vocabulary so keep those five-dollar words off the screen. Your readers will range from 8-90 in age and a good percentage of them will not even count English as their first language, so remember that online articles are written for a very broad audience. While you should absolutely have a unique voice and show off your writing styles as much as possible, just be sure that your wording is appropriate for your client’s entire reader-base.
Quotes from Reputable Sources
This topic pretty much speaks for itself but it’s still worth bringing up since so few writers bother to quote their sources within their online articles. This is important for a number of reasons-
It gives the client outbound links to quality sites
It shows that you’re competent with research
It shows the client that you know what you’re talking about
It gives your readers faith that your advice is genuine
It makes Google happy…which makes your client happy
Using Professionalism to Make Impressions
If you want to be a writer with a long career ahead of you, then understanding a client’s needs is only half of the battle. I can’t tell you how many times a writer has sounded great in the interview and then proved that they were a complete amateur by missing deadlines, sending poor quality work, making excuses, asking for payment advances, or complaining that I did not provide them sufficient details to complete the assignment. This is not how a professional operates.
It really doesn’t matter if you’re a blogger, a copy writer, or a freelance writer, dealing with clients is the most important aspect of your profession because it decides your eventual income. There is absolutely no substitute for great customer service so as a writer; you have to exceed your client’s expectations from the original proposal letter to after receiving your final payment.
Just the other day, I was called to a local used car dealership to help them understand why their site wasn’t receiving nearly as much natural traffic as it did a few years ago. And before I even arrived there, the problem was evident…the website was being completely neglected.
Now, don’t think I’m speaking poorly of this client because it really wasn’t his fault. He did what most Upstate businesses do when it comes to maintaining their websites- absolutely nothing. He simply assumed that everything would run on autopilot and customers would continue to show up at his doorstep. Only that’s not how it works.
For example, let’s talk about web design in Spartanburg. For as long as I can remember, a company called Upstate Web help the top ranking because the owner was actively updating his site, guiding customers there and making his domain more visible. Just a few years ago, however, that business closed due to the owner’s health and his website has been in a steady free fall in popularity ever since.
Websites are Just Like Businesses
Why?
Because Google and the other search engines look at your website exactly that same way that you and I look at brick and mortar businesses. If we see a store with lots of people coming and going, for example, then we assume that they must have great prices or awesome service. When we see an empty parking lot in front of a business, however, then we assume that times are not good for that company.
To make your website more popular, it is 100% essential to-
Add new content frequently
Providing great information about your business
Have a steady stream of new and returning visitors
Create reasons for other websites to talk about you
Have visitors leaving comments and clicking on links
Offering a good blend of writing, photos and videos
And if you think about it, you ask your employees to do the exact same kinds of things inside your business. They learn about your products, explain things to customers and happily show people around if they need help. If you’re reputable, then other businesses are likely sending you foot traffic as well…and the search engines work exactly the same way.
How to Boost Your Web Traffic
If you want a natural boost in the search engines, then the easiest way to accomplish that goal is to update your website. Anything from blogs to product pages to a good old FAQ will help potential customers better understand how you conduct business, and it also signals to the search engines that you’re serious about achieving success online.
So every time you post something new that consumers seem to enjoy, it gives a little boost in the rankings for the topic that is discussed. Over time, this has a big cumulative effect that launches you straight to the top of the search engines. And once ideal customers begin to find you and appreciate your efforts, it separates you from the competition and everything changes.
If you need help making your web content stand out or you’d simply like an explanation about why you’re not receiving as much web traffic as in the past, please feel free to contact me for a site evaluation. In the meantime, just start thinking about what kinds of content that your customers would appreciate knowing before they contact you in person…and that will grant you a big head-start towards fixing the problem.
While blogging is immensely popular in larger cities around the nation, there doesn’t seem to be too many professional bloggers here in Spartanburg or throughout the Upstate. I have a feeling that once the word gets out on how ridiculously awesome blogging can be, it will become a commonplace for professional copywriters and freelancers alike.
What the Heck is a Blogger?
A blogger is nothing more than a writer that talks about a specialty on the Internet- like online marketing, professional football or collecting classic cars. This person usually starts out as an amateur writer with no formal training, but they have a passion for what they write about and eventually other people take notice. Before long, their website starts to get some traffic and a hobby suddenly becomes a business opportunity.
How the Heck Can Bloggers Make Money?
Here’s the sweet thing about blogging- you can write about absolutely anything on God’s green Earth and produce some income by doing it. That’s because no matter what you decide to talk about, there are businesses that have products and services that your audience would be extremely interested in. If our blogger is a Carolina Panthers football fan, for example, then he could create an affiliate account with the NFL or any sporting goods store to sell jerseys, ball caps and numerous other items through his website.
Why Do Businesses Hire Bloggers?
Like the example above points out, bloggers build a very personal bond with their readers and they usually have a very strong influence over their purchasing decisions. Let’s say our Spartanburg-based blogger told his followers, “I just had a Chili Cheese a Plenty at the Beacon and it was awesome!” Something like that makes others say, “Darn, I could go for a burger at the Beacon too!” It may be the most powerful targeted advertising there is in the world today.
Should Businesses Have their Own Blog?
Absolutely! If they live here in the Upstate and they want to bring the Spartanburg culture into their businesses, a blog gives multiple ways to do that. I tell businesses to talk about everything from local gossip to upcoming promotions to humor and seasonal activities. Tutorials on things related to your business are also great ways to gain exposure. Because what it does is make “XYZ Corporation” a living, breathing entity that’s associated with dozens of fun things around the Upstate. It is a very powerful marketing tool.
Do Blogs Help Businesses in Other Ways?
It just so happens that blogging is also the most powerful way to increase your exposure in the search engines and rake in new customers. Blogs are social by nature, so they are great to share on social media like Facebook and Google+ to build up plenty of likes and shares. Since people in the Upstate are friends with hundreds of other locals, it gives massive visibility while making your brand look good. It’s a huge win/win scenario.
Can I Use Other Upstate Bloggers to Advertise?
Believe it or not, Upstate blog writers make a good portion of their income talking about local Spartanburg businesses. They usually work in one of two formats- either by accepting guest posts (which you would write) or having them write a review of your business. It is extremely cheap advertising too; there are several Spartanburg bloggers who have 10,000+ local followers and they’d charge less than $50-100 to brag about your products and/or services.
How Do I Start a Blog for My Company?
Contact your local web developer (or me…preferably me) and ask them to add a blog to your website. In most cases, they will be able to install WordPress or a similar platform right on top of your existing site, and then all that’s left for you to do is to start typing away. Even better, the formatting will be very similar to Microsoft Word so there are very few learning curves involved.
How do I Find Inspiration to Write a Daily Blog?
My small team usually gets together one a month and says, “What would our customers like to read about?” Then we throw around a bunch of bad ideas, and then a few good ones, and eventually something that sounds like pure gold. Once we have 4 or 5 themes we want to run with, then we get behind our keyboards and go to work. Just make sure that you find a way to work some of your business’s main keywords into each article so it serves the dual purpose that we talked about earlier.
Can Web Synergy Teach Us to Write a Great Blog?
Definitely. Just give me a call or reach out through the “Contact Us” page and we will help you do a little brainstorming. My staff and I can also teach you all the search optimization basics to keep Google happy, plus show you about how to incorporate contests and giveaways to boost your readership quickly. If you’re not feeling inspired, then you can also have your web content written by a world-class blogger and copywriter (that’s me)…since that’s sort of my specialty. Just let us know what we can do to help.
From the Better Business Bureau to almost every Spartanburg website developer around, people claim to be legitimate SEO professionals that can drastically improve your site’s overall rankings.
As they say in boxing, however, “Talk is cheap”, and any search optimization specialist worth his salt should have a steady stream of results to prove their self-worth…starting with their own website. After all, if they can’t get their own business to rank in Google’s top slot for a term like “upstate search optimization,” then they definitely won’t be much use to you either.
As we’ve pointed out in on other pages, search engine optimization is an extensive subject that a lot of businesses misrepresent…and that’s putting it politely. So before you hire an expert, there are five all-important questions that you have to ask.
1) Show Me 25 Keyphrases you Have Ranked on the First Page of Major Search Engines.
This one question alone will separate the pretenders from the SEO professionals that actually have some skills, because there are fewer and fewer ways to bluff Google nowadays. So just flat out ask for proven results on domains that are owned by the Upstate web developer or another local business, because getting their Facebook or any 3rd party website profile ranking high doesn’t count. For non-competitive key phrases, people literally do that by accident all of the time.
2) Tell me exactly how you will get my website to rank well on Google.
The response you get to this question is equally important because you want to make sure that the SEO professional is using strictly “White Hat” tactics. The only legitimate answer to this question is –
Great page optimization (meta data, titles, etc.)
A thorough keyword analysis
Site-wide content optimization
Building quality backlinks
Posting blogs and fresh content
Guest posting on other sites
Lots of new, legitimate traffic
Also, avoid any SEO professional that mentions automation software, buying backlinks, posting comments on forums or other methods that sound shady. Getting a site to rank well is hard work and there are not any shortcuts that will provide long-term results.
3) What was the last Google Panda/Penguin update about?
The search engines constantly change their algorhythms to better spot sites that are breaking the rules, so every Upstate SEO expert should be able to tell you about all the changes that have taken place over the past few years. If they can’t, then they are not keeping up with the latest trends and there is absolutely no way that they will be able to help you.
4) What software do you use to track SEO campaigns?
This one is sort of a trick question because there are at least a half-dozen acceptable answers. A real search optimization professional will almost always start by saying, “Google Analytics” though and then add in a software suite like Moz, SEO Powersuite or Web CEO. Even though you probably won’t know what these programs are, be sure to ask what each of them does and how it helps the SEO professional make sound decisions. If they struggle to answer, then they’re not the one for you.
5) Show me a few writing samples so I can know what to expect.
If you take away one thing from this SEO tutorial, then understand that well-written content is Google’s primary concern. Because at the end of the day, that’s what will make your customers return to your site, visit additional pages and eventually visit you in the real world. So even if the Upstate SEO specialist aces every other question on this list, he can’t do a thing for you if he’s not a great writer that understands how to connect to your consumers.
At Upstate Synergy, our staff has over 25 combined years of writing search optimized copy for local Spartanburg, SC websites. We also have the long-term results to prove our expertise as well, and we will be happy to educate you and your staff about anything SEO-related. So if you have any questions, then feel free to call or email us, because we definitely have the answers.
Whenever we mention the idea of starting a blog to one of our clients here in the Upstate, their first reaction is never very positive. Well, that may be putting it a little bit too nicely. Most people hate the idea- they despise it. After all, who has time to sit back and write a bunch of meaningless stuff about their business, right?
Me personally, I was born to be a writer, and I absolutely love to write. Most people do not share my enthusiasm, however, because it feels far too much like a chore. It’s tedious for them, and I can certainly understand that. We all have our passions in life and few people strive to become a copywriter, a journalist or an email marketing expert. I completely get that.
Here’s something to think about though; what if I told you that 88% of your customer base wants to hear what you have to say? In a 2014 survey by Bright Local, they found that almost 9 out of 10 consumers will research a local Upstate retailer online before visiting their actual store. The same study showed that of the 2,000+ participants, 72% said that they would not shop at a store if they can’t find good information online.
Let’s put customers aside for a moment though. In fact, let’s pretend that you write one blog post per week for the next five years, and not a single person ever bothers to read it. Nobody. Then writing blogs would be a waste of time, right? Not by a longshot.
Let me tell you a little secret about how the Internet works, and every Upstate web developer that knows anything about SEO will tell you the exact same thing. The search engines do not understand a single syllable of the English language, and they have no idea what your website is designed to represent. They figure this out by playing a word-association game, and a virtual spider crawls through your website often to analyze every word.
Here’s what it does- let’s say that the three main words that the spider finds on your homepage is clothing, boutique and designer. It will look at every other site across the web that uses those very same words, and it eventually comes to the conclusion that you’re a designer clothing boutique. And that’s great, because it can properly place your site in the search engines for that category.
This also presents a problem though; because what if our imaginary boutique also sells luxury handbags, designer footwear and…let’s throw in a wild card here…pastrami sandwiches. While it may see those words now and then on your site, it doesn’t deem them very important because they’re not mentioned very often. So you never rank for these equally important phrases, and there’s a decent chance that potential customers go to another retailer for their needs instead.
If there was only a way to talk about just pastrami sandwiches without messing up your main content pages- oh wait, there is. We write blogs and talk about our businesses.
Take this very article, for example, and what I am trying to do here. If you scan the page for some of my biggest keywords like Upstate web development or search optimization, they’ve been sprinkled in a few times to let Google know what I’m all about. Now, I don’t have to use those words as frequently as on my core pages, because this article is merely letting the web-crawlers know that there are other things that they should rank me for besides building websites. In fact, the more blog pages a website has, the more visible they are for all of their main key-phrases, because each page is judged individually and as a part of the overall site.
Don’t think that the actual web content is not important though, because the search providers also look at things like time on site, the number of pages visited, and the amount of comments left on each page. For example, did you watch all the funny movie clips that had absolutely nothing to do with blogs and copy writing? If you did, then Google thinks this page is absolutely amazing, all because I kept you here a little bit longer.
So hopefully you laughed a little bit and learned something at the same time, because providing fresh content is the life-blood of any good website. It helps your customers learn about your brand, it appeases the search engines, and it is the only way to give your domain long-term, lasting results in the Upstate and worldwide. There are thousands of things that you can talk about as well, such as-
– Local events and gatherings
– Company promotions and discounts
– Community outreach projects
– Major business accomplishments
– “How-to” articles to inspire your readers
– Seasonal messaging, gift ideas and more
If you need any help getting a blog on your website started, then please contact us and our team will be happy to get you started. We also have the Upstate’s best bloggers and copy writers on staff to assist with any of your business writing needs as well.
The Internet has literally been ablaze lately with domain owners in a sheer panic over the announcement that Google Panda will be rolling out with a new update in the days to come. Some of the changes mentioned in the blogosphere are updates to how backlinks are counted (and rated), the deletion of all duplicate content web-wide, and a number of other rumors about how the search engine giant will dish out punishments aimed at black hat SEO techniques. While the exact patch details won’t be available until after the launch, this is going to be a brutal upgrade for hundreds of thousands of websites.
The largest impact that a lot of writers will feel from the latest Google Panda update is a changing trend from quantity to quality. Instead of domain owners focusing on posting hundreds (or thousands) of smaller, generic articles, Google is trying to force websites to deliver higher quality information that is actually useful to consumers. For url’s that have always focused on superior content, absolutely nothing will change after the upcoming patch.
While only a few of the “SEO experts” have talked about multimedia and Google Panda, it only makes sense that if spam content and boring pages will be penalized, then well written, consumer-engaging pages are the way of the future. That means all of those alt-tag on photos, embedded videos, games, infographs, and more will all be big boosts for web pages and companies will be forced to deliver a higher standard than ever before.
One thing I find particularly amusing is how so many authoritive sites are dreading this update, because if they are delivering great quality then they have absolutely nothing to worry about. Search engines have been abused for far too long by questionable SEO tactics so if anything, Google is doing both you and I a massive favor. The website with the best content or most information should rank first every time; that’s how it was designed in the 1980’s and that’s how it should be today.
