The Merriam site offers this , regarding seminal (bold, mine): Function: adjective Etymology: Middle English, from Latin seminalis, from semin-, semen seed

This is a post where I just want to hype something wonderful I read recently. A seed.

Rae Hoffman, an outspoken SEO/Affiliate/Marketing expert has once again released what will be considered one of the more pertinent documents on current linking strategies. Her company sites are found at http://www.sugarrae.com/ and http://outspokenmedia.com/. If you have never read Rae’s work, start with the Sugarrae site – it is inspiring, funny, helpful, and establishes clearly why this is a professional you should listen to.

Here is the post on link building techniques in 2010.  You might want to bring a snack – it’s a truly meaty post, and reading it will take a while for sure.

This is the third post of this type that Rae has put together, and each of them are pretty fabulous. Here’s a link to her post on linking strategies from 2007, and here’s a link to 2008’s feature on linking. I am always a fan of Rae’s “bare knuckle” style, but her writing takes a back seat in these efforts, as she allows a diverse set of ideas to do all the talking.

How does she do it? By connecting some of the best minds on the subject, having everyone answer the same questions without seeing others’ responses, and compiling the answers for comparison. The result is a collection of original and thought-provoking observations from some of the brightest minds in this industry: a must read.

This year’s cast of characters includes some of the best-known, trustworthy names on the web, if you are into marketing and SEO:

I have already read this twice, and bookmarked it for more detailed repeat viewings as I need them. But I wanted to share this with anyone who hasn’t yet seen it, as it is a seminal post, and a fine example of creating value and meaning in web content.

Three cheers, Rae – I feel I owe you a beer, should our paths ever cross.

And thanks to all these folks for again sharing their knowledge and experience, helping us all do a little better online.

Here again, is a link to the post on link building techniques in 2010. Pay attention – you’ll learn something!

Shhhhh.

I am going to tell you the secret. This is the secret successful copywriters don’t want you to know.

But first, let me tell you a little about my story.

I used to be just like you – struggling to find the answers that would unlock SEO goodness. I wanted the best search engine rankings, and I was ready to spend all afternoon to get there.

I saw other people in the search positions I wanted, so I knew that since I too, had a website, I could be up there, too – if I only knew their secret.

I bought a big calculator to figure out what Google was doing, and was discouraged to learn that it was really hard. I just knew, if I had the secret that I could stop trying and start earning.

And I WAS RIGHT!!!

Once I learned the secret, I started to gain all those positions in the search engine that I had only dreamed about. My traffic shot through the roof, and more money came in than ever before.

Better still, I threw away the calculator, and knew that I would never have to worry about it again – Google would love me most of all.

So what’s the secret?

Write something good.

Quit recycling pap and chasing links. Quit trying to unroll the magic formula. Quit taking shortcuts.

Write something good.

Answer to your users’ needs. Answer to your higher power. Choose a path. Choose to make a difference.

Write something good.

Stand-out. Stick-up. Push-out. Flare-up. Break stuff.

Write something good.

The best possible SEO copywriting tip I can offer you, is to write like no other. It works, every time…so don’t tell. Luckily, most people will never learn our little secret. They are too busy believing that search results are delivered by leprechauns riding on unicorns.

Shhhhh. Don’t wake them.

In SEO copywriting, the way things change is pretty astounding. So here’s an SEO tip: dial it back a little.

The way I have been seeing the SERPs behave lately, they are not favoring the heavy-handed keyword slam. The opposite seems to be true.

In the past, it may have helped you to have your keyword in the meta title, alt attributes in images, and sprinkled naturally throughout your text. That hasn’t changed – all of those things are good.

What is not good, is aligning them too literally. You pound one keyword to death – at the expense of it working well anymore. Variety. It is not simply the spice of life, it is also good for your handling of keywords.

Simple Example Using Business Turtles

You have a page about business turtle resort getaways in the islands somewhere. Pretty all the time (business turtles deserve only the best). So you want to rank well for “Business Turtle Spas” and “Business Turtle Resorts” is a secondary keyphrase you target. 

In the title, try: “Exotic Business Turtle Spas | Resorts for Business Turtles.” 

• I have an exact match of the targeted keyword placed one word into the title.
• The preceding word is what I call a relative modifier. I think “exotic” might not have too much interference, given it is referencing a spa. In this case, one word is sufficient. A relative modifier adds just a little padding before the optimizing begins. It is worth noting if you ask me.  
• I pick up the secondary keyphrase as well due to L-R word order, and scoop a few related combinations.

In the H1 tag, I don’t want to hammer the keyword to death. Try: ” A Spa and Resort Every Business Turtle Will Adore“

• I am not concerned as much with the keywords: I am aware of them. I imply them. I am after the reader here. And the bots. There’s that balance thing you need to achieve again, kids - discuss.
• You may have to come back and rework this later, to make it effective. Sweating a title is not a crime – it is what carries the power of the message many times. Think of the turtles.
• Aim it at the reader. This is on-page, so the bot becomes the passenger, behind the users and turtles. Or even I suppose is more accurate…but when in doubt, readability for the win.
• Don’t think this is not effective toward the larger keyword just because you don’t use the keyword exactly.

In the body then, it is a light, relevant sprinkling of variations and synonyms we are seeking. The title and H1 will connect with one or two mentions sprinkled naturally within a few hundred words. The rest should not be direct.

The more competitive the term, the more information the surrounding text should carry. Repetition or (shudder) density might play a SMALL part here, but it is usually small. I think, the more competitive your niche, the more unique and valuable your content must be.

Everyone with a tent on the beach will be clamoring to get a piece of the hot Business Turtle spa action. So they will repeat that term as many times as possible on a page to try to dominate. If you, instead, blend your keyword only a few times (maybe 2, maybe 3, maybe one) and keep the paragraphs on-topic, you can substitute variations of the keyword (singular for plural, synonyms) and do very well.

Worth noting, to me.

How much is too much then? You tell me.

I have been fortunate of late to be working with some great clients. And I am really happy with the work we have been able to get moving – it is very invigorating.

Clients are not cupcakes – they’re not always awesome. But great clients can help you find new things in your writing, new passions and energies that make it all worthwhile.

The result is often the best writing you’ve done so far.

How to Find Good Clients

1. Trade awesomeness everywhere. Be the cupcake.

2. Respect and research, reach out. Engage where you belong. Give, more than take.

3. Don’t be in their face, just be available.

4. Deliver.

Here’s an SEO copywriting tip that is a little weird – if you want to improve ranking for a specific keyphrase, one good way to build on-page strength for it is through using synonyms.

“What?” your collective gasp asks breathlessly, “But what about increasing our keyword density?” (sounds of panic, anvils falling into pianos, people hurling themselves into walls and lots of self-flagellation. Sirens, mayhem, bludgeoning, chaos. Keywords, writhing on the floor, covered in blood.)

In case you have been living under a rock, keyword density is a silly way to measure your on-page strength in 2010. Heck, it was silly even when it worked, but we’ve covered that.

No, the search engines (the big G in particular) are much more shrewd these days. The algorithms are refined, and hand reviews are probably more commonplace. SPAM is much thicker, so filters and hurdles have been erected to make it at least a little challenging to rank a page.

Adding your keyphrase to a page more often is not usually going to help as much as you might want it to. Nope.

Instead, the use of synonyms, context and related terms allows you to remain on-topic and adding value without pushing the potential over-saturation of your main keyword. This can improve your pull, increase retention and can actually build page strength for the main keyphrase, believe it or not.

Let’s get a little more specific.

Ah Yes, the Prerequisite Simple Illustration

You are targeting “small business turtles” as your main keyword. Some naturally connected terms might be: turtle, corporate turtle, business reptiles, business turtle, and so on. List them, and see what you can make of them as far as search volume and competitiveness if appropriate.

Since “small business turtles” as the plural is your targeted phrase, this is the one you will have prominently in your meta title, like: Sexy Small Business Turtles | Greater Atlanta Business Turtles

I usually will include it in the meta description tag as well. Though it does not improve the ranking here, it will align in a SERP result. This makes a better connection for the user to your main point of this page: small business turtles.

The synonyms and relative terms really come into play in the body text, starting with the first header (H1, for those playing the home version).

Since we used the targeted keyphrase verbatim and partially in the title, I like to modify it in some way again in the first headline – so I might use some variation of “A business turtle”  in the header to change the plural to singular, and to remove one of the targeted modifiers, maybe: “This Business Turtle Brings Atlanta New Sexiness“. Note how it stays close to the title without duplicating it – this is the key.

I believe this adds some (very little, but a plus nonetheless) value to the main phrase (the keywords are still in it, just pared down a little) while not oversaturating it and making it look spammy with yet anotherexact match.

Over-optimizing your page can result in you not achieving the results you want, and it is often hard to detect for many people. Too many exact match keyphrases is VERY easy to see: as an optimizing strategy, to penalize, or even for your competitors to duplicate.

As you roll on through the page text then, you blend in your synonyms and related words. This allows you to also more naturally get your targeted keyword in there a couple more times (still usually needed to rank), but the flow and natural feel of the content will likely be better from using the synonyms.

Since a hand reviewer is going to see the relative terms as you staying on subject and perhaps offering a bit of depth, you win. If the algorithms become smarter (and they do) and start including more semantic connections in their valuations (which they seem to be doing), you win again.

Best of all, as a user, the intent of the page (to rank for “small business turtles”) is  masked behind a shroud of usefulness.

And the inherent sexiness of small business turtles, of course.

This also holds true for your anchor text of incoming links (when you can control it) - mixing it up with synonyms and variations makes them work better for most people in most situations. We’ll cover this aspect more in a later post.

Enjoy, all you turtle-lovers!

Please.

Collectively – just shut up, and think about what you want to say. Just take a second.

{        }

Thanks. This greatly improves our chances of connecting in a meaningful way.

I recently saw a writer jump into a very tech-savvy crowd and pitch a very low-level eBook. Worse, the writer used an inanely simplistic marketing method. “Buy this color-by-numbers book,  because I say I am a writer.”

This crowd and their normal discussions of online marketing were light years beyond this pitch. If it had not received the wall of indifference it ran into, this pitch may have easily been seen as a little insulting.

But the pros there did not say a thing about it.

Like a tiny fart on the breeze, this pitch was unwanted, ignored, and quickly forgotten.

Oops

The young writer unknowingly torched their own cornfield here. An inabilty to shut up about the obvious became the lasting impression only because this writer did not take the time to accurately understand the landscape.

Not only were no eBooks sold, but this connection was burned to the ground for this unknowing young writer because these tech-savvy folks remember bad pitches as much or more than they remember good ones. No contracts, no contacts, no progress.

Wasted spend all around, mainly because this rookie was too green to realize the useles e-book they were (re)selling was more-or-less the repackaged ideas of the very people being sold to here.   

Ooops.

If you are new to the trade, chances are good you should probably shut up for a while. Same goes when you are brand new to a forum, group or association. 

Read more, do some homework, and develop an understanding before you pose question one. Before you freak on that one, let me clarify.

Don’t be afraid to ask questions, even if they are unorthodox - logical questions quickly rise to the top of conversations, and for good reason. Good questions can literally build good communities.

But these are always good questions, asked after diving into the deep end once or twice to find your own pearls.

Break a few of your own eggs before you start demanding omlettes from others.

Don’t go into a new place, and just start yelling, or pitching, or spewing. Go in, feel it out, and take time to understand the natural flow. In this way, when you ask a question or offer a pitch, you are adding to what is happening, not impeding it.

Shutting-up for a minute helps.   

And don’t underestimate the true reach of your online neighborhood. Anonymous nicknames can hide lots.

Just saying. This poor young writer has no idea how much potential was pooped on here.

Shutting up for just a minute first may have meant the difference – turning this lesson into a different one entirely.

Yes.

With the clear understanding that engines are useless without someone running them.

Get back to work.

So you’re raring to go, ready to fire away and land that next freelance SEO copywriting gig.

But are you really ready to get in there and pitch?

This freelancing tip is going to look at some simple do’s and don’ts of pitching your SEO copywriting. I am basing this on my own experiences, and those I have seen, especially of late.

Take cover if you must.

Don’t: Don’t close your eyes before you release

Closing your eyes is no way to accurately hit a target. In baseball, you wouldn’t simply close your eyes and throw everything you have as hard as you can in the general direction of the batter. You would choose a pitch – not try to  throw all of them at once blindly in the general direction of the batter.

Don’t throw the kitchen sink of your experience into every conversation.

Do: Do Consider Which Pitch is Best for Each Situation

Is it a curve ball, a slider, or a fastball that will keep you in control? The main thing is selecting the best tool from your arsenal so you retain control of the momentum. Every pitch is not hurled at every situation. The game changes, and you adapt. You know your own strengths, you know their strengths, you know what is on the line. Selection is key.

Do know the contents of your toolbox. Select, tailor and offer only the best pitch for the specific situation.

Don’t: Don’t Start Pitching Too Soon

In baseball, it would not make any sense at all for the pitcher to start pitching before the batter is ready. Before the umpire is ready. Before the catcher is ready. Some very simple things come together to make it appropriate for the pitcher to take the mound. 

Don’t jump into a pitch before you know all the players are in place.  

Do: Do Understand the Marketplaces In Which You Wish to Trade

In baseball, a good pitcher is going to study a team before he faces them. He is going to understand the strengths and history of each batter, and know what to expect when facing the team. No one comes in front of him that he is not prepared to meet – and should it happen that he is surprised by someone new in the line-up, he is well prepared and experienced enough to handle it.

Do learn about the people you are pitching to. Know what they are about, figure out why they need you, and start throwing.

Don’t: Don’t Get Lost in Metaphors – There’s Work to Do

Hurling freelance SEO copywriting pitches is like baseball. It’s like your Aunt Edna’s bread recipe, it’s like penguins mating, it’s like spandex pants in the summer, it’s like cookie dough and it’s like Hollywood drug casualties.

Don’t spend too much time thinking about what SEO copwriting is. You will gain considerably more insight by simply doing it.  The mistakes you make and the victories you earn are what this is all about. Experience makes more work.

It’s how you play the game, and win.

In business, as in your personal life, who you deal with is of crucial importance. It might even make you end a title in a preposition if you’re not careful.

Knowing who you are dealing with on the web is a little unlike anything else - the methods to mask identity are not complex. If you want to sneak in and out of the Internet, you can. People do.

I don’t.

I work in a pretty transparent way – I am who you see. My comments, when signed by me somewhere out there, are my thoughts. Still, I feel you should know more about who I am and why you should trust me.  

So what better way, than to introduce you to my finest hair moment. Meet 17 year-old Marty Lamers, and his freelance mohawk.

Freelance SEO Copywriter and Passionate Thin Cotton Tie Endorser, Marty Lamers

My glasses are now a lot smaller (as if larger ones are possible), and my bald spot negates the possibility of this work-retardant hairstyle ever working the same way for me again. Though trying it today would be interesting, for sure.

Ahhhh, setting gel and cheap hairspray: the clumsy magic that was 1983.

I am sure I would still have that tie too, if my wife didn’t have the good sense to intervene when she did.

There you have it – now you know. I make no apologies.

OK, let’s start this with my personal thoughts on keyword density. That’s what we all came here for, right? 

Keyword density is typically represented as a percentage. It a measure of the occurrences of a keyphrase relative to a body of text, typically a complete webpage. If a keyword happens 7 times in 350 words, its density is 2% (7/350).  

Keyword density is a measure of SEO that has seen its ups and downs. There was a time years and years ago, where you could cram a ton of meaningless keywords into any page and get it to rank. These days the search engines are much better at what they do, so this is not such an effective tactic. In fact, it simply won’t work like that anymore.

When this keyword free-for-all was happening, the on-page keyword density definitely carried a little more weight. However, because it was easy for anyone to cram keywords all over the place, the search engines quickly learned to spot and filter over-stuffed pages.

And while many SEOs were saying “OK, the party’s over” and looked for other tactics, there were MANY who still believed in the power of keyword density. Personally, I have worked on projects for very well-known brands where the highly paid agency insisted on a specific (really high, actually) density per-page as the primary measure of success. Readability, tone, and even conversion were afterthoughts. Sigh.

Get On With It

…which brings us crashing into today.

Keyword density is still an SEO  measure. Yep, sure is. And some people still believe it is a necessary part of a good plan in optimizing your site. I would not agree. But just like that agency I worked for, I know that everyone has their reasons and motivations…experiences vary. If you think (or know) it is important, go ahead and triple-check it.

If you ask me (as you should), it remains a very low level concern if you are trying to improve the pull of your page. There are usually MANY things you should be doing to improve your SEO before you start worrying about tweaking your keyword density. Many things.

I have made pages rank without having the keyword in the visible text once. Density, on its own, is just a silly measure of page strength in SEO. Don’t be silly – there is work to do.

But Wait…

Let me suggest another use for measuring keyword density, one that is much more valuable to today’s search engine algorithms, IMHO: Using density checkers in determining over-optimization.

Another by-product of the keyword-frenzied days of yesteryear, is that there seems to be a filter in Google for over-optimizing your pages. I am not referring to a site that gets completely whacked because they have crossed the line, but rather, an otherwise solid site that seems to hit a ceiling for ranking for targeted keywords. 

What you might find, is that you may have inadvertently been a bit too focused on improving your keywords, and now you have gone a bit overboard  and entered a gray area. Google likes most of your site, but thinks you are trying a little too hard so they put a “soft” filter on you – like your site will never get beyond #6 or something like that. (that is my own observation and not supported by a focused, data-enriched case study or anything).

Call it the SEO filter. Google doesn’t like SEOs, so if a page looks to be manhandled by one, it could get this SEO filter applied. What it would do, is force an SEO to spin his or her tires in the sand trying different techniques to improve. But if this filter is real, they won’t see improvements until they start un-optimizing their site a little.

In this case, you can use a keyword density checker (per page) and start, very carefully, dialing it back a little. You can look at the density on each page, and work out variations that tone down the optimization efforts.

So which density is the right one? Sorry, it’s just not that easy. Good SEO does not offer simple “Do it X number of times, and you’ll win,” kind of strategies. Too many variables.

Disclaimer aside, it is more often a range you are looking for, like between 3-7%, or something like that. I will say around 7% usually reads pretty spammy no matter what you do, and 2-3% might be a little on the softer side.

If you have a reading that is climbing over 7, 10, 12% or more, it may be very likely over-optimization might be an issue for you. Maybe not. Keep testing to figure out what works best for your site – it is not the same for everybody.

Links to Free Keyword Density Tools

Allright – with all that fanfare, it’s time to see what you can do.

First, you have online options. There are literally hundreds of sites offering web-based keyword density checkers. In these tools, you just enter in a URL, enter in your keywords, and get a report in seconds. The depth, accuracy and filters available will depend on the tool you use.

Here’s a Google Search that will show you tons of free keyword density checkers. Go have fun. The math is simple and consistent, so it is the interface, speed and features that will make a difference to you in finding the best one. The numbers should be the same between them all.

Here is another tool that is a personal favorite of mine – it has been there for years.  http://www.live-keyword-analysis.com/ The big difference you’ll see in this tool, is it is not based on URLs – it is based on text you input into the text field. This gives you an ability to enter your text and tweak it – seeing the density effects on-the-fly. With three possible keyphrases, it has been a great little tool when I need it.

Bottom line is don’t think too hard on keyword density…it is simply not worth the effort as a page-strength building tactic. In today’s websites, you are much more likely to have an over-optimizing issue that a keyword density tool can help you find than you will a weak page that is bettered through a density analysis.