by Marty | Apr 17, 2010 | Freelance SEO Copywriting Tips
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!
by Marty | Apr 10, 2010 | General Pearls of Wisdom
Please.
Collectively – just shut up, and think about what you want to say. Just take a second.
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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 inability 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 useless 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.
by Marty | Mar 16, 2010 | Freelance SEO Copywriting Tips
Yes.
With the clear understanding that engines are useless without someone running them.
Get back to work.
by Marty | Feb 27, 2010 | Finding Freelance SEO Copywriting 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 experienced enough to handle it strategically.
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.
by Marty | Feb 26, 2010 | General Pearls of Wisdom
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.
