SEO and Web Editors – the Basics IV

Posted on January 1, 2012 by AlanE

SEO: Links Add Value and Authority

by Alan Eggleston

Links like fruits and vegetables come in a variety of shapes and sizes. They are also good for SEO (search engine optimization). To be healthy, wealthy, and wise, you will want to use links on your site both to aid your reader (provide access to information) and benefit you (add authority for ranking). Linking is an area of great weakness for Web Editors, in my view.

Outbound and Inbound Links

There are two main kinds of links: outbound and inbound. Outbound links are those you make to other websites; inbound links are those made from other websites to yours. A “link mesh” is a reciprocal outbound or inbound link, whether intended or not.

You can also look at links as internal (links to within your site) and external (links to outside your site). One more link that doesn’t add much SEO value but may bring in income is the double-lined links for advertising. (To me, the double-lined links are link spam and devalue your brand. It’s totally up to you if you want to use them, but they interrupt the flow of reading and bring little value to your reader. )

Why Links Are Good

Search engines view links as good. They like to see lots of links in your content. If you have a lot of internal links in your content, it means that your site has a lot of depth and readers will find great value in your site. If you have a lot of outbound links, it means you provide readers with resources to additional information and readers will find you a valuable resource to return to for access. If you have lots of inbound links, it shows without a doubt that others find you an important site. A well organized mesh shows you have great authority. All these should result in great overall page ranking, if you haven’t been penalized for something else.

Some sites are automatically viewed as having authority – dictionary sites, news media sites, Wikipedia-type sites, and other information-rich sites. If you link to them, you can tap their authority. If they link back to you, that adds to your authority. If you are a Web Editor for one of these sites, you can create tremendous good will and value with a more liberal outbound linking policy – most authority sites seem to savor their power to withhold links.

Kinds of Links

What kinds of links should you consider? So much depends on what kind of site you have, of course, but keeping your links natural to your content is important to impressing search engines. If you have a choice between simply linking to a home page and linking to an internal page, deep link to the page that has the highest SERP ranking – Google in particular prefers internal site pages, because that’s actual content. Of course, the best page to link to is the page that makes the most sense for your content.

  • Glossary, dictionary, or encyclopedia
  • Additional information (internal or external)
  • Extended content (mostly internal)
  • News articles or commentary
  • Blog articles
  • White papers and Wikipedia-type articles
  • Authoritative sources like for acronyms or statistics or science information
  • Government resources
  • Source material
  • Business or company websites*
  • Organization or association sites
  • University and research sites
  • Author pages (internal or – even better – external with a link back)
  • Advertiser sites* (external – even better, with a link back!)

*Authority sites miss a huge opportunity for goodwill in their communities by not linking to business or organization sites when they mention them in an article or advertiser sites when a business or person buys an ad. Negotiate a “See our mention in such and such an article” reciprocal link on their site.

What to Avoid

You have probably received e-mails offering to trade links with other sites. Many if not most of those are with external “link farms” or “doorway sites,” which search engines view as attempts to circumvent their algorithms and they will penalize you heavily if they catch you. Adding your site to a random list of other sites simply doesn’t make sense. Where is the value to the reader?

But Do Consider…

The other side of the issue is, do add your site to lists of external directories that your business or organization logically fits into. If your website is for a pharmacy, for instance, list your site with a pharmacy directory (and there are probably multiple ones). List with local business directories, such as LocalFirst. Do list your site in the online Yellow Pages. Do register with Google Maps, Yahoo! Maps, and Bing Maps if you have a single or main or even local locations that allow for that, and add your website. Search engines all recognize these as legitimate inbound links to your website. Where possible, do reciprocal links back to pages, such as in a Resources page, perhaps with a notation like “Find us listed in…” or “Proudly listed in…” or “Member of Xxxxx Directory under Xxxxxx…” (preferably listed under a keyword category).

Adding links takes some research and some time, but doing it well adds SEO value and can improve your page ranking. It also requires some occasional backend checking with a link checker to ensure the links remain good over time.

Topics I will introduce you to in the days ahead include:

Alan Eggleston is a freelance Web writer and Web editor for E-Messenger Internet Consulting Inc. Join him on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+.

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SEO and Web Editors – the Basics III

Posted on December 29, 2011 by AlanE

SEO: Content and the Role of Relevancy

by Alan Eggleston

Content relevancy is as important to SEO (search engine optimization) as is meta data. Content relevancy says that what is in your page text is directly related to what is in your meta data, verifying that your Web page deserves a high page rank compared to others. The purer your relevancy, the better your page rank. Theoretically. Search engines use proprietary algorithms, which they constantly tweak, to figure out your relevancy, but follow some basics and you should remain relevant whatever they do to their algorithms.

To build high relevancy, there needs to be a high correlation between your meta data and the content on your page, focused on use of your keywords in both. Four areas provide opportunities to clue in the search engines about your relevancy as they index your site: headlines, body text, anchor text in links, file names.

Headlines

Headlines (or titles, as some editors prefer to call them) at the top of the page are a search engine’s first cue to what the page is about. Your headline should contain the main keyword or keywords for your page, and the main headline should carry the H1 heading tag to add weight. Subheads may also contain keywords but should carry lesser tags, like H2 or H3, which still add weight. Editors will probably have the greatest difficulty writing main headlines for SEO, because headlines that are good for SEO tend to be less clever or creative; for best ranking potential, place the keyword or keywords as close to the beginning of the headline as possible.

Body Text

Body text should run 250 to 500 words to provide enough indexable content for search engines to evaluate. Less or more is all right, but the 250 to 500 words goal is ideal. Again, place keywords closer to the top or beginning of the article and use them once again at the end. Don’t worry about using a certain percentage of keywords, try for more natural usage, but don’t skimp. Avoid keyword stuffing! Use keywords enough that someone won’t doubt that is the topic they are reading about, without going overboard. To add weight to keywords, add “stress” attributes like bold and italics on first use – but use this minimally to avoid messing up the design.

Editing SEO for non-fiction and news will be much easier than for fiction. Not only will it be harder to adjust body text simply for SEO, it probably doesn’t suit your mandate. Authors will likely not be helpful, either. My suggestion for literary sites is to focus on SEO on the higher-level pages like the Home Page, About Us, Contents, Contact Us, and leave the actual literary content alone except perhaps listing tags like author, genre, title, and subject matter and make sure those are higher on the page itself, as they usually are.

Anchor Text in Links

Anchor text is the wording you use for a link. For instance, if you are going to link to the Google website, you might link to www.google.com using the word Google, and Google would be the “anchor text.” The search engines will see topic relevance between your content and the link you’re providing, and presumably you are talking about Google in your article. Thus, in your article, when you are linking to other pages or other sites, try to use suitably relevant anchor text to the sites or pages to which you are linking. Avoid phrases like “click here” or “read more” or other irrelevant words for links, which add no value.

File Names

File names may seem like an odd thing to worry about, but they’re part of a search engine’s evaluation. They consider things like image file names, html page names, and even audio files. So, when you are thinking through nomenclature for your site, give weight to naming things instead of assigning random numbers as is often the case with content management systems. If you are using a picture of a cat on the page, for instance, name the file cat.jpg (or if there is a way to use a keyword for the page in the file name, use it!) Include the keywords in the URL naming scheme.

As far as file names and URL paths are concerned, you may need to have a talk with your IT people. If nomenclature currently doesn’t support using keywords, you may have to wait for a redesign to invoke it. But eventually, you will need to make them change over to this system if you want to improve ranking.

Anything you can do to show search engines that what’s on the page is related to what you’ve labeled in your meta data, you are providing grist for improved page ranking. And remember, you’re competing with other sites, many of whom are doing the same thing. Don’t forget to look at competitor sites to see what they’re doing, then adjust your relevancy to compete for better ranking! Search engines index sites again and again, so you have multiple opportunities to improve your ranking.

Topics I will introduce you to in the days ahead include:

Alan Eggleston is a freelance Web writer and Web editor for E-Messenger Internet Consulting Inc. Join him on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+.

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SEO and Web Editors – the Basics II

Posted on December 27, 2011 by AlanE

SEO: Meta Data Makes the Difference

by Alan Eggleston

Meta data is the content hidden in the source coding (Web page programming). Go to any html, asp, or php page and right click on it, then select “view page source” (Google Chrome) or “View Source” (Internet Explorer or Safari) to find some. A meta tag involves things like title, description, and keywords because to get to it, it’s hidden in the coding or programming. Some of it is preceded by: “meta name.” This is important data and as editor, you should have control over it.

Every Web page, and especially every main or home Web page, should have unique meta data. A main or home page (home being different than the Home Page) would include highest level topic pages and Home, About Us, Services, Products, Locations, Contact Us, and so on. No two pages on your site should have the same meta pages. That is so that the search engines can see how much unique content your site contains and what your pages are about. Search engines will discount value for duplicate content. If possible, have meta data for every page of your site, but if you’re updating a site without meta data, begin with the highest level pages – those are the ones you want people to start with and filter down to the other pages.

Titles

The “title” is the page title you see in the tab at the top of your browser when you go to a Web page. It tells the reader or viewer what the page is about. Often, writing this is left to the designer or developer/programmer and it is done wrong. When you know what you’re doing, take command of this and do it right.

The title is not like the title on a book or catalog page. It isn’t a promotional title. This isn’t a place to be cute or clever or creative. Here’s why: Search engines use this information first to decide what your page is about to match against when someone is looking for a topic. Treat this as a subject or keyword line. Ask yourself what the page is about and what main word or words someone would use to describe it, then use that for the title. Each page must have a unique title.

Descriptions

The “description” is the short paragraph you find on a search that summarizes what is covered on a Web page. If you don’t write one, often a search engine will provide one, sometimes the first or other paragraph from the page. Take control and write one of your own. Each search engine limits the number of characters for this and they all vary, so I average them out to 150 characters, including spaces and punctuation. Include the main keyword or keywords matching what is in your title, favoring the first part of the paragraph. Each page must have a unique description.

Keywords

The “keywords” meta data is the list of a few to several main keywords that represent the content on the Web page. Google insists it doesn’t index for the keywords list, so it isn’t as critical to ranking there. However, other search engines do use it. In my experience, the keywords list was very important for Yahoo!, which some sites use as an internal site search program. Yahoo! and Bing work very closely together. AOL Search uses Yahoo! as well. Even though these and other search engines don’t account for the size of the search market as Google, you can’t afford to miss someone finding your content on another search engine because you were focusing only on Google. There are dozens of search engines, and many have fans who prefer them over Google! Each page must have a unique set of keywords (more on keywords on a later article).

Alt Tags

One more meta data set that most designers, programmers, and by default, editors, miss is the “alt tag.” The alt (alternative) tag is text you can associate with a graphic or image. Graphics and images, even when they have text on them, are not indexable. Some designers want to use a specific font on a page so they will make it a graphic, including – mistakingly – as a headline, which means you lose the power of indexing it as a keyword. Every graphic and image should have an alt tag that includes one or more keyword in it.

For those editors who are Web savvy already, you probably already know that alt tags also help the sight-challenged reader. Their software can read the alt tags back to the reader so they will have the benefit of telling them what the graphic or image says or is about. I will often treat the alt tag for an image like a caption.

Whether your pages are hard wired (build by a developer or programmer in html) or using content management systems (CMS) or WYSIWYG software (such as Dreamweaver or Front Page), there are places to add this information and you should ensure that whoever loads your material loads this information when posting content.

Topics I will introduce you to in the days ahead include:

Alan Eggleston is a freelance Web writer and Web editor for E-Messenger Internet Consulting Inc. Join him on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+.

 

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SEO and Web Editors – the Basics I

Posted on December 25, 2011 by AlanE

SEO: Web editors should know it and use it

by Alan Eggleston

Someone on our Web Editors LinkedIn group started a discussion asking, “How clued up on SEO are editors? What impact on writing style?” In my experience, most websites, let alone most Web editors, are not SEO (search engine optimization) savvy, but in particular, most Web editors aren’t and should be. So as a service to Web editors everywhere, I’ve committed to start a short series on SEO for Web editors to bring them up-to-speed.

I started learning about SEO back in 1998 as a Web editor grappling with the concept of meta data. My manager walked up to me and said, “You need to learn about meta data.” I researched search engines on it and couldn’t find anything meaningful. It took me some time back then to learn that meta data meant the hidden content in the coding, the content that browsers and search engines read but that most readers never see. To some, that also includes the page title, because you find it with the rest of the meta data in the source coding, even though it’s visible at the top of the browser when you access the Web page. Over time, learning through others, I came to realize the meta data was the key to maximizing your position with search engines. That was a long time ago.

Today, if you do a search on SEO, you’ll find much more than you need, most often from companies who want to sell you SEM (search engine marketing) services. They will promise to bump up your SERPs (search engine results pages) – many will guarantee top results, even though promising that is like a meteorologist promising to get the weather forecast right every time. Ignore the promises and guarantees. Even if they can bump up your rankings the bump will be temporary at best and may, in fact, end up hurting you in the long run.

I’m not going to sell you anything. I’m going to tell you the basics that you as a seasoned editorial professional can use to optimize your website for the search engines. That’s what SEO is all about. The basics are what you need. From there you can read intelligently through the rest of what you’ll find to decide how best to tweak your site to improve performance.

Topics I will introduce you to in the days ahead include:

Be sure to comment if you have questions or comments. No spamming allowed.

Alan Eggleston is a freelance Web writer and Web editor for E-Messenger Internet Consulting Inc. Join him on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+.

 

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Writing and Some Tools of the Trade

Posted on December 7, 2011 by AlanE

Do you know the difference between a homonym, a homophone, and a homograph? How about the difference between homonyms, synonyms, antonyms, and acronyms? All are kinds of words that can aid you in writing.

As a writer (or editor), you need all kinds of words to make your point. As a result, to find the right words, some of which are just on the tip of your tongue or which you’ve seen before but it’s been so long that you can remember them, you need the right tools to help you articulate them.

Just so you know, homonyms are words that are pronounced the same but are spelled differently (like here and hear). Homophones are words pronounced alike but are different in meaning or spelling (like bow and beau). And homographs are words spelled alike but are different in meaning or pronunciation (like bass [fish] or bass [low voice].

In addition, synonyms are words that mean the same thing. Antonyms are words that mean the opposite. And acronyms are letter abbreviations that form words (METEOR for MEtering Task Even Organizer). (A letter abbreviation that doesn’t form a word is called an initialism.)

Writers and editors put as many tools within reach as possible. Many have bookshelves full of books. Others have lengthy bookmarks full of online resources. One source that brings all these to your use is OneLook.com, which links to just about every online dictionary, thesaurus, encyclopedia, or other resource you can imagine. It even has a reverse lookup app.

If you’re simply a reader, be happy such tools exist. They make your favorite writers more productive and more expressive.

Alan Eggleston
Writer, editor, lover of words
E-Messenger Internet Consulting Inc.

Find me online:
Twitter: (@a_copywriter), Facebook (E-Messenger), Google+ (E-Messenger)
Blogs: Slay a Cliche; Booksville; AlanEggleston

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Correcting Content While Supporting SEO

Posted on December 5, 2011 by AlanE

The online editor of a trade news website recently posted a question on the LinkedIn Web Editor group page. He needed advice on addressing SEO problems he was having running corrections.

One identified problem is running newspaper-style corrections in addition to correcting the story in the archive. Readers never click the correction items, and the briefs are likely bringing down our rankings in search as they are thin pages. How do you handle corrections?

My answer is that short pages do run the risk of poor rankings because they have so few words. Basically, you want at least 250 – 500 words of content to get meaningful SEO rankings. Shorter will get you rankings, but more words means better information, which is what readers (and, thus, search engines) are looking for. So, short corrections aren’t what readers are looking for – they’re looking for good, meaty stories or articles. On the other hand, you should avoid duplicate content, which may get you penalized by Google.

However, I suggested this instead: Run an update box on your home page that will link to any page on the site where you add information or make a correction. Update the information in the actual article and add an “Update:” paragraph at the bottom of that page (so it doesn’t interfere with the SEO-value content you’ve set up at the top), noting the changes. The update box on the home page should have a sentence or two for each story briefly mentioning the updates.

The update box on the home page gives you a fresh new link on the home page, which will be quickly searchable content and a new source of keywords. It’s a new reference to the story which shouldn’t detract from the value of the actual page. And the update to the page itself is new content and gives you a content-refresh date, which search engines like. Readers should access it often to see what’s been updated, which should add value to it and drive up traffic to the page, giving it added weight.

These are all SEO-friendly and search-engine friendly suggestions. They’re also user- or reader-friendly ideans, because they give readers a place to always go for updated information, in whatever form it takes.

 

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Proofreader: To Hire or Not to Hire Shouldn’t be the Question

Posted on November 17, 2011 by AlanE

Do you employ a proofreader for your communications projects, including websites and blogs? If you don’t, you should. They are members of a dying profession, but they shouldn’t be. No one contributes more to your best possible image. No one.

Ignore for the moment the fact that I do some proofreading on the side. I do so reluctantly, because it’s work and because I am good at it. The problem is, few companies engage proofreaders, so there is little call for them and so there are few of them. When someone finds that you can do it, they snap you up.

Why do you need a proofreader? If you are an editor who is good at your job, shouldn’t that be enough? No one is perfect. No one has the time to do it right every time. Everyone is multitasking, so everyone’s attention is divided. What a proofreader does is focus on detail, the detail that an editor and a writer never have the time or the mindset to handle. And if you are an independent contractor, you are expected to stay on budget, so clients don’t always appreciate the extra time (and, thus, extra cost) it takes to attend to the details of proofreading.

Aside from those issues, look at it from a reader’s perspective. What sets the tone to your credibility as a source better than your accuracy and attention to detail? What questions your sincerity more than producing typos and errors? A proofreader should and will find the typos and errors and will question the lack of detail you may be letting loose on your reader. As a reader yourself, who do you believe more – the writer whose work is full of misspellings, factual errors, transpositions, typos, and misprints, or the writer whose work is pristine and clean and unmangled?

We live and work in an age of cutting corners to cut costs. We shouldn’t accept the cuts in accuracy and effectiveness these invite. Hire a proofreader. Employ someone with a good eye, knowledge of spelling and grammar, and the presence of mind to question what doesn’t look or read right. The minimal cost will be worth it.

Alan Eggleston
Writer, editor, reluctant proofreader
E-Messenger Internet Consulting Inc.

Follow me on Twitter: @a_copywriter

Like my Facebook Page: E-Messenger Consulting Inc.

Join my Google+ Brand page: E-Messenger Consulting Inc.

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Getting to the Point

Posted on October 25, 2011 by AlanE

How long does it take you to get to your point? If you find yourself wallowing in thoughts before you get to your main point or idea, you’re taking too long. Your reader doesn’t have time to dawdle, and he wants you to get to the point as soon as possible so he can benefit from it and move along.

A professional writer can help you whittle your words down to a concise, sensible point that readers can understand and appreciate. Most unskilled writers become too vested in their words and ideas, and they find it too hard to edit out extraneous material. A skilled writer is used to paring down the material to only that which is essential to make the point. A professional writer, even one who is paid by the word, makes his living by writing compact and pointedly. What is different between each level is experience and the motivation to get the material just right.

Look smart and organized by hiring a professional writer to help you edit your communications and get right to the point. Your readers will thank you each time they return for more!

Alan Eggleston
Writer, editor, SEO strategist
E-Messenger Internet Consulting Inc.

Follow me on Twitter: @a_copywriter

Like my Facebook page: E-Messenger Internet Consulting Inc.

(Previously published on my personal blog.)

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Descriptions – Tweak Your Website After You Get the Description Right!

Posted on October 13, 2011 by AlanE

Reading the Description in a website source code, I believe it often receives less attention than the copyright line. Yet aside from the Page Title, no words on a Web page are more important to making the page visible to the outside world.

As I recently wrote in answer to a question on Quora:

  • The two most important meta tags are the Page Title and the Description. They should relate to one another highly, and they should be unique for each page, especially the higher level pages. Note that if Google doesn’t like your Description they will pull one they like better, which may not be in your best interest – so spend some time putting together a good one!
  • Treat your Page Title not like a marketing slogan or name plate but like a library subject index that tells the reader – and the search engine spider – what your page is about. Treat your Description like an explanatory sentence that expands slightly on the page title. Both should be keyword rich.

The Page Title and Description must be highly relevant to the rest of the content on your Web page to give you a high ranking in search engines. The Description is a brief synopsis (150 or fewer characters) of that content. It’s well worth your time to make it accurate and keyword rich yet read naturally for your audience.

There are lots of ways to tweak a Web page to increase its search ranking, but it all begins with a well written Page Title and Description. Time spent on those is time well spent.

Alan Eggleston
Writer, editor, SEO strategist
E-Messenger Internet Consulting Inc.

Follow me on Twitter: @a_copywriter

Like my Facebook page: E-Messenger Internet Consulting Inc.

(Previously published on my personal blog.)

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Happy First of Fall or Autumn

Posted on September 27, 2011 by AlanE

Happy Fall. That term for autumn is chiefly used in the U.S., originating from the 1660s, short for “fall of the leaf.” Other English-speaking countries call the season Autumn, the obscure origins of which come from 14th century Middle English. Various root meanings include “increase” and “dyring-up season.” Interestingly, the English once called this season, which lasts September through November, Harvest until the 16th century when Autumn began to replace it.

Etymology. Dictionary.

Alan Eggleston
Writer, editor, word person
E-Messenger Internet Consulting Inc.

Follow me on Twitter: @a_copywriter

Like me on Facebook: E-Messenger Internet Consulting

 

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