SEO Is Not Like Buying An Ad
You’re not laying X amount of dollars down for a full page phone book ad and calling it a day. Instead, you’re doing all the right things in the hopes of being listed in the places that your customers are looking for you.
It’s more like an investment. If you become the kind of knowledgable, dependable business that you would want to buy from…well then good things happen.
The trick is in understanding the process.
Google And Your Customers Are Often Looking For The Same Things
That’s right. We’ve been trained to believe that the best way to rank for our search terms is to use them 57 times within a 500 word blog post, or to buy a whole bunch of links or find some other way to be faster and stronger than our competition.
There’s a debate about whether to write for search engines or people. The two don’t need to be mutually exclusive.
Just Provide Solid Info In A Compelling Manner
That’s really about it. Inform and entertain.
Give your customers what they’re looking for. Chances are you’re going to have to use your keywords naturally in the flow of your writing just so that they know what the heck you’re talking about. That’s really all Google wants to know, too…what you’re talking about.
The search engine algorithms are complicated. They don’t tell us exactly how to rank sites, because then everyone would follow the formula to the tee.
They’re also continuously tweaking their formulas to value the type of content that people are looking for.
If you’re using less than honest tactics to rank due to your content, chances are it’s something that your customers will see through as they read your material. They want engaging, not spammy.
The businesses who write with people and search engines in mind will win in the long run.
Matt Brennan is a Chicago-area marketing writer and copy editor. He is also the author of Write Right-Sell Now.
