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SEO (SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION) ARTICLES
SEO Mercilessly Murdered by Copywriters!
by Mike Banks Valentine
As someone that reads voraciously and devours search
engine industry news and information on a daily
basis, I also enjoy writing on the subject. My articles
are often begun when I see a particularly strong
post in a discussion list and immediately leap to
my keyboard to adamantly respond (albeit more with
passion than great writing skill ;-).
This week I read a comment from Nick Usborne, the
moderator of the I-Copywriting
discussion list and author of "Net Words,
Creating High-Impact Online Copy" I've read,
enjoyed and reviewed his book here, http://www.website101.com/arch/archive138.html
The gist of what he said in that post was that professional
writers were being segmented into categories based
on whether
they offer additional skills to their clients. One
particular
comment swerved too close to my specialty of search
engine
optimization (SEO), when he said,
"In addition, there is a whole
new skillset required for writers who choose to
specialize in search engine writing. SEO is a
complex skill and an area in which writers are
finding a profitable niche. My only concern there
is not that writers acquire SEO skills, but that
some SEO experts tout themselves as professional
writers, when they are not."
My response to that post follows:
Your comments in "One Day We'll Just Be Writers"
could be shared by any professional doing business
in any capacity. One day we'll just be attorneys.
One day we'll just be doctors. One day we'll just
be auto mechanics. Each profession requires skillsets
from other specialties, each without complete mastery
of a career built upon those separate skills, but
with contributions, drawn of necessity, from that
specialization.
You, as a skilled professional writer, are lamenting
that even lowly SEO's (Search Engine Optimizers)
are claiming to be writers when we're not. I don't
claim to be a writer, but I end up doing writing
for clients because Search Engine Optimization necessarily
involves words, text and arrangement of keyword
phrases on a page within a requisite web page structure.
Today I saw an article by an investment advisor
(!) discussing high search engine rankings and was
ready to be incensed by his words treading on my
expertise. Then I went to read Ulli Niemann's article
and found that he "gets it" in a way that
most people don't. He's ranked number one for important
finance industry keyword phrases and was sought
out by CNN as an expert because he was top ranked
in a Google search done by CNN staff seeking an
expert for an interview.
Remember that writing isn't the issue here, SEO
is the topic. Take a moment and review his words
at the following link. Notice his comments regarding
writing skills, or lack of them. He's an investment
advisor writing articles about investments, not
a professional writer penning masterpieces on investments.
http://www.sitepronews.com/archives/2003/oct/27prt.html
Most often, SEO's are RE-writing - not writing.
Our work is NOT concerned with grammar, punctuation,
sentence structure, reading level of the audience,
sales letter length or any other "writer centric"
issues.
SEO's take existing web copy and massage it to make
the text and page structure "crawler friendly"
so that search engine spiders will recognize what
a given page is "about". The goal is to
gain top rankings in the search engines for competitive
keyword phrases targeted by our clients.
Those clients could often benefit from a seasoned
professional writer RE-writing their web pages as
well, but only if they were willing to FOREGO high
search engine rankings. That's correct, you heard
me well! Although it is possible to craft a well
written and polished web page with skillful writing,
those pages will score far lower in the search engines
than will a page properly placing keyword phrases
in randomly generated text. As a matter of fact,
there is software available to do just that. While
I'm opposed to the use of that software, which is
used in conjunction with cloaking software by unethical
webmasters, it does prove my point.
I've been called by clients after a web site re-write
due to drastic drops in search engine ranking following
the work of skilled copywriters on that client web
site. It's not due to the pristine clarity or sizzling
sales copy, it's because the writers don't understand
search engines!
What would a writer do that hurts search engine
ranking? Here are three writers' Search Engine Optimization
killers. Professional writers would not want to
see a keyword phrase repeated the optimal six or
seven times on a page of just 600 words. They most
often recommend reducing that 600 word page to 250
words or less to gain clarity and focus, they'd
vary words to avoid repetition, re-write headlines
to emphasize the sizzle rather than the steak, and
opt for simple metaphor rather than industry buzzword.
BUT every one of those moves would destroy search
engine position for that client, who now has a beautifully
written page that nobody will ever find by doing
a search at Google. Congratulations on your stellar
written work - which is now invisible to the search
engines!
I don't know that there is a happy solution to our
conflict until search engines appreciate the skill
of great writers above the skill of search engine
geeks. We manipulate words toward different ends.
SEO's will eventually adapt to the search algorithms
as the search engineers adjust those algorithms
to recognize great writing, but not until then.
-------------------------------------------------------
Mike Banks Valentine is a Search Engine Optimization
Specialist practicing ethical SEO for Online businesses
http://SEOptimism.com
Take our Search Engine Quiz to test your Skills
Level
http://SearchEngineOptimism.com/search_engine_quiz.html
email link: http://privacynotes.com/cgi-bin/M/msb.cgi?2
-------------------------------------------------------
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