One of the raging debates among web site publishers and SEO
types is the tug-of-war between writing web site content
for actual human visitors vs. the search engine spiders.
Basically, it boils down to a question of impressing readers
or making search engines happy so they’ll send you
more traffic.
Well, here’s a novel concept: DO BOTH!
It’s really not difficult to walk the tightrope if
you do some research first. We all want to write compelling
content that will grab a reader’s attention and hold
it. But, to get any readers in the first place, you need
to provide content that people actually search to find. Hate
to be the one to break it to you, but if you’re an
expert on a rare bird that maybe 100 people in the world
have ever heard of, all the writing you do online about it
will go virtually unseen.
That’s the conundrum, in a nutshell. Fortunately,
there’s a pretty simple solution. It’s called
keyword research. Sounds boring, doesn’t it? Well,
does it perk you up a bit to learn that spending a couple
of hours doing it can be the difference between having a
web site that collects dust and one that collects bucks?
Thought it might.
What you want to do is build a list of keywords (single
words and phrases) that are closely related to the theme
of your site, then write a page of content full of information
about each keyword. One keyword per page.
Now, here’s the key to it all. Don’t just pull
a list out of the air (or, in this case, your own brain).
Why not? Because the keywords you come up with may or may
NOT be words that are actually searched for at the major
search engines. You need to know for sure. In fact, knowing
for sure is what separates a lot of successful niche web
site owners from the masses of others who scratch their heads
in puzzlement when their sites get very little free traffic.
Wordtracker is a Godsend
So, how can you find out which keywords that are related
to your site’s theme are searched for and which are
not? Suffice to say, there are several options, but the best
is a service found at wordtracker.com. These fine folks compile
massive amounts of data about the words searchers at the
major engines type in when they search. Then they present
this data in a straightforward, easy-to-read format that
you can check quickly as you build your keyword lists.
You simply go there, armed with a basic idea of which keywords
to check out, and wordtracker will give you a thumbs up or
thumbs down on each one by telling you how many times each
keyword has been searched. It can be very eye-opening. You’ll
likely discover that some of your most cherished keywords
are virtually worthless from a search engine traffic standpoint.
You’ll quickly learn to check your assumptions at the
door when you enter wordtracker’s site!
OK, once you’ve built a working list of keywords that
you now know get used a lot by searchers at the major search
engines, you’ll be way ahead of most of your competitors.
The only remaining step is to write some high quality, informative,
useful content about each keyword in your list and post it
on your site. Remember: one keyword (which can be a single
word or a phrase) per page!
The Key: Great Web Site Content Built Around Keywords
People Search For
If you make your content easy to read and chock full of
interesting information, you’ll satisfy both elements
mentioned at the beginning of this article. Your visitors
will get great content, which will bring them back and convince
some of them to link to your site. And, you’ll have
built that content around keywords that are actually being
searched for at the big engines. More searches = more traffic.
It’s that simple.
You’ll have a web site that pulls in more and more
free search engine traffic as you continue to add content
built around your keyword list. Once on your site, your visitors
will find information that interests them and, hopefully,
compels them to bookmark your site, tell their friends and
co-workers, and maybe even give you a link on their own sites!
That, my friends, is how you win at the web site game. As
logical as this all sounds, very few of your competitors
understand it, let alone actually do it. So, get to it! They’ll
be eating your site’s dust while you collect all the
bucks!
© John Schwartz (all rights reserved)
John Schwartz is the owner of
Web-Article-Writer.com -
specializing in providing original, high quality
web
site content and articles. Our goal is to help clients
increase
web site traffic and achieve higher search engine rankings.
