SEO Guide For Writers Sample Chapter

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The Complete SEO Guide for Writers:

Everything a writer needs to know about search engines. And how to make them love and promote your website.
James Mulvey
THIS IS A SAMPLE. BUY THE COMPLETE BOOK AT SELLOUTYOURSOUL.COM FOR ONLY $2.99
This book is protected and sold to only you (c2011). If you distribute it, republish it, or abuse your rights, terrible things will happen to you.
Table of Contents
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Module 1:

1. TECHNOLOGY MAKES CREATIVITY PROFITABLE

a) Overview of guide b) Print versus online writing--whats changed? c) Key dierences of writing for search engines d) The F-Shaped reading pattern c) Five immutable rules of online writing d) How to write a proper SEO title e) Practical online writing checklist--print this!
Module 2:
2. TEN DUMB SEO MISTAKES

a) The basic grammar rules of SEO b) H2 and H3 tags c) Title tags d) Themed writing and why SEO favors this e) Web architecture f) Alt text--an easy SEO win e) The SEO myth of keyword trickle-down g) Anchor text and how to use it h) Meta-data and deadly sins
Module 3:
3. THE MAGNETIC SCIENCE OF KEYWORD RESEARCH

a) What is keyword research? b) How to align search queries with content c) How to get more readers by segmentation d) The all-important long-tail keyword e) How to construct a keyword master list f) How to naturally tie in keywords into your writing
Module 4:
4. LINK BUILDING--THE FINAL KEY TO SEO

a) Contextual meaning and articial intelligence b) Content loops c) On-page SEO tactics d) O-site SEO tactics e) Common linking mistakes f) Seven practical ways to get more links
SAMPLE CHAPTER: Ten Dumb SEO Mistakes (and How to Fix Them)
Module 2: In this section you will learn:
The basic grammar rules of SEO Get the search engines to love your content with tags Why chunking matters for attracting new readers Do you miss this easy way to get more trac? (It takes a few seconds) Why some blogs succeed in search engines--and others dont The power of long-tail keywords and the danger of picking vague keywords Dont forget this free essential SEO tool
The Ten Dumb SEO Mistakes

Last chapter we covered some basic search engine theory. For this module, Im going to cover the most common SEO (search engine optimization) mistakes, as well as tell you how to x them. I call them dumb mistakes for one reason. These mistakes are incredibly easy to x, easy to understand, and only take a few minutes of your time. But please dont be hard on yourself if you nd them on your website. They are very common (I even make them myself out of laziness). By xing these small mistakes, you can really make your content much more search engine friendly, resulting in more trac, links, and better recognition in your niche. But a small warning: some of these tips require some basic knowledge of computers such as HTML. They really are simple to do. But if you dont know this stu, dont worry. It comes with just playing around. So do what you can today. It will come. Consider these the basic grammar rules of SEO. Just some simple tips to learn and use to make your online writing more eective.
1. Bad Use of Your Title

Last chapter, I wrote about 4 pages on the importance of titles for SEO. Thats because it is an essential technique. Remember: search engines are hardwired to put emphasis on your title. They assume that what you call your post is an indicator of what your post is really about. So use that to an advantage. Write keyword rich, descriptive titles. While you obviously want to entice readers with an interesting title, you have to include keywords. Start literal. And then get clever, pleasing both search engines and people.
2. Not Using H2 and H3 Tags

H2 and H3 tags (heading tags). Thats just the word online writers call sub-headings. Its a big mistake to just make your subheadings bold. You actually need to use the H2 tag. The H2 tags are accessible in most blogging platforms. Just look for the button among your usual word-processing features such as Bold, Italic, Font Size, Color of Font. In Wordpress (which I use), it is on the second column. I click on format and a bunch of dierent formatting options appear including, paragraph, address, heading 1,
heading 2, heading 3, heading 4. It will say headings. Once you pull down the tabs, there should be the following options: H1, H2, H3, H4. Remember that search engines have been hardwired to look for subheadings. So if you want to put a subheading in, actually use the H2 tag as search engines will more easily recognize it with the <H2> code, rather than just making it a bigger font or bolding it as we do in print writing. As mentioned above, modern blogging platforms will take care of the actual coding. All you need to do is to nd the H2 tag in your word processing options. It is easy. One more thing to remember: your H2 tags are mini-titles. So treat them like titles, using keywords and variations on your main keywords. In Wordpress, click on paragraph and a drop menu appears. There (shown above) you can select the H2 (heading 2) tag, which should be used for every subheading in your post. There are also H3, H4, H5 tags. But only use these for headings inside headings. To nd the heading tags in Wordpress, rst make sure that you have the kitchen sink option activated--this little button just reveals the full set of options. (See image below). Just click on the icon.
Once youve clicked on that your headings will appear under the paragraph tab (see below.)
3. Not Chunking Your Writing

In print, massive paragraphs are the norm. You can write for pages without a subheading. If you arent using a PDF (like I do for this course), you want to break your long paragraphs into shorter paragraphs. This makes it easier to read. By breaking your paragraphs into shorter paragraphs (between 3 and 5 sentences) and by breaking your content into sections, you make it easier for people to read online. It also forces you to use lots of H2 (or sub-headings) tags, increasing your keyword density. You also make your content more readable for internet skimmers. People can look at your page in a few sections, see the keyword rich H2 tags, and then gure out if
your article is of interest to them. Allowing people to skim before they read is a very eective online writing tactic.
4. Not Having a Consistent Theme

Your website or blog is like a tree. It has a central structure (a trunk) from which smaller structures extend (the branches). Every post you write either supports or weakens the entire structure. Search engines dont just view individual pages. They look at the page in the context of your entire site. That means, you should stay on topic. If you write about wine culture, then dont develop 50 posts on car mechanics as a side project. Remember Google is looking to help searchers nd the best resources. Imagine that you are Google. Someone asks you for some information on the best Californian wineries. Do you send them to the site with thousands of posts on wine culture and California wine? Or to the site with a few pages on wine, a few pages of cars, and some other random observations about life? Google (and most readers) want to go to that rst site, focused on a specic topic. If you choose to write about what every interests you, that is ne. Just dont expect thousands of people to be interested in your online diary. Treat your website like a book. Stay on a particular topic. If you have tons of dierent interests, then create tons of dierent websites, each with their own theme.
6. Not Using Your Alternative Text

This one literally takes 2 seconds. Your ALT text (alternative text) is just the description you can add to photos. Anytime you upload a photo on your blog or site, you will see an option to ll in the ALT content. Search engines cannot read images. Thats why they made the ALT text option: it just tells the search engine what the image is about. I usually will just throw in the main keyword of my post. If, for example, Im writing about careers for English majors, I might put a picture of Hamlet in my post. In the ALT section, I will write something like the original English major or even just Careers for English majors. Your ALT text is just one more opportunity to increase the keyword richness of your post, and to also get some trac from image searches. To add ALT text, just look for a box when you add a photo to your blog or site. In most blog platforms, whenever you upload a photo there are a couple of elds you can add, including the title, a caption, and ALT text. (See next page for image).
Just put the keyword most relevant to the photo or post in the alternative text section when you upload a photo. If you run a photo blog (or a photography or art business), your ALT text is incredibly essential! Search engines cannot read images, so dont just call your pictures Untitled or Bridge at night. Get descriptive and think about how people might search for your site, matching your ALT text to their search queries.
5. Not Having 3-5% Keyword Density.

This one is a little disputed. Some SEOs say that keyword density doesnt matter anymore. But the theory is that when it comes to writing search engine friendly content, keyword-rich content is your biggest ally. By including strategic keywords in your content, you are on your way to improve your Google ranking. Google recommends a 3-5 % density of keywords. I still recommend using this tactic--just dont obsess over it. Anything less than 2% keyword density will not be picked up by the Google search algorithms. Anything more than 5% will identied by Google as spam, the terrible sin of keyword stung which is an attempt to load content with keywords to try to trick search engines into ranking your page higher.
As a general rule, try to use your chosen keywords 2 to 3 times in your opening paragraph. And aim for about 7 uses of the keyword in a 500-800 word article. A keyword is simply the main topic of your post. It doesnt have to be just one word, but can be simply the descriptive phrase that best summarizes what your post is about. For example, if you are writing a post about the best places to watch TV for free online, then your keyword is: watch TV online. Your keyword, in other words, reects the language that people use to search for your topic. Thats what SEO is really about: matching the language of your post with the language people use to search for you online. Heres the important part: Search engines dont read wordsthey read values. To explain this, try to analyze the following sentence, pretending you are a machine. The purple turnip of red the black car common car problems toolkit making lovely it wonder outside the garage common car problems why it only does query of it all over the word common mechanic problems. This is really what search engines see: just a bunch of values. Individual things that each have a value of one. They cant really read the connections between words. They can only read values. Every word is just another word for a search engine. So they look for clues, hunting for the more important words that might tell them what the post is about. Links and anchor text also play an important role, but we will cover that later. Search engines look for the most common words and determine that based on the fact that the writer talks about those words the most, that is what the post must be about. Here is how a search engine would interpret that sentence, as it picks out the keywords and common phrases: The purple turnip of red the black car common car problems toolkit making lovely it wonder outside the garage common car problems why it only does query of it all over the word common mechanic problems. Since, in the example above, we have 2 common problems and one variation common mechanic problem, a search engine would most likely guess that this post is about common car problems. So if a searcher was searching for how to x common car problems?, you might (if you have a good site) get some of that search trac sent to you.
Keywords are your friends. They help search engines send you trac. Ignore the importance of keywords at your own risk.
6. Using Vague Keywords That You Dont Have a Chance in Hell of Ranking For
Do you use keywords like this on your site? Culture or Wine or Humanities or College. A common mistake is to assume the trickle-down eect. Yes, there are millions of searches per month on culture, so you think that even if you only get 1% of that trac, it will be thousands of views. This is not how search engines work. There is no trickle down eect. In order to get sent trac from keywords, you need to be on the 1st page of Google. The rst 10 results on Google get 90% of all the trac. The 2nd page and 3rd page will get a bit, and then 99% of people will never read those other pages. Picking vague keywords is a common SEO mistake. Successful websites target smaller keywords. They are highly targeted. Instead of using the keyword culture, follow this simple rule: What is my post really about? If you are really not writing about culture, but are writing about the emergence of graphic novels as literature, then use the longer keyword phrase. While maybe only 30 people are searching for graphic novels literature? per month, you will, in the long term, get more trac from ranking on more specic keywords than chasing keywords like education or art. For example, on my blog I am targeting right now the keyword careers for English majors. This has about 3,000 searches per month. Right now, I hover between the 2nd and 3rd page of Google for this term (give it a search!). With a few more posts, Im condent that I will be able to get on the 1st page of Google. Now, the term PhD has millions of searches every year. But this term is too competitive for me and it really isnt my audience. I want people looking for careers with their English degrees not just people seeking general knowledge about the PhD. This is especially important for online businesses. By targeting longer keywords, you will attract a more specic searcher (and more specic customer). For example, editing services has millions of searchers per year; cheap 24 hour editing services has much less. But people who search for cheap 24 hour editing services are ready to buy, making them a much better customer to bring to your website via search engines. In fact, a key strategy for any online business or service is to target keywords that searchers use when they are ready to buy. You want active searchers. Not passive readers (like I am trying to attract for my site).
Remember the payo. If I rank for careers for English majors, I should get around 1000 hits per month just from that one keyword phrase. Additionally, I will also get hits from similar phrases such as jobs for English majors (Im on page 2 for that phrase) which also has 3,000 hits per month, as well as small doses of trac from other keywords within the post. If you publish 5 articles per month, and can get a consistent 1,0002,000 hits per article just from keywords alone you will see your trac consistently grow, attracting new readers, new links, new fans, and exposure. If you publish like that for a year, you are going to build some serious long-term free trac for your writing or business services.
7. Not Using the Free Keyword Research Tool

Google provides a free keyword research tool, allowing you to see the exact amount of searches for individual keywords. Its called Google Keyword Tool. Just punch that into a search engine and you will nd it. Learn to use this tool. If you spend 5 hours writing an article, it makes sense to spend 20 minutes nding out ways you can optimize your keywords for getting the most search volume trac. For example, lets say Im writing a clients blog and he is a mortgage broker. My title is How to Use a Mortgage Calculator. If you simply enter that phrase into the keyword tool, you would make a wonderful discovery. Some keywords have a ton of trac; others have little to nothing. This tool enables you to make an educated decision on what keywords to target and which low volume ones to avoid.
Googles keyword tool provides insight into search patterns of users. Take some instruction about how to properly use this tool and how to develop a Master List of strategic keywords. Choosing keywords that your website can feasibly rank for is one of the best things you can do to improve the overall trac to your site.
Like any research tool, Googles free keyword tool takes some time to learn. However, you can also, if you dont want to spend a bunch of time with trial or error, take some SEO coaching at your local web development school or hire someone with some SEO experience to craft you a Master Keyword List. This list will have about 15-20 keywords for you to include in your writingsaving you the trouble of researching keywords every time you write. Whatever you choose, I really urge you to take advantage and to learn about this amazing research tool.
Here is a basic overview. First, put a few keywords in the top box (see A on image above). Next, take a look at the search trac levels (see B in image above). Then look at both the global monthly searches and local searches (C). If you have a new blog, aim for keywords with search trac between 200 and 500 searches per month--either global or local. If you have had some success, 3,000-5,000 is a nice healthy number. And if you want to reach for the stars, go for the big numbers. But it will be a lot of work to rank on high volume terms.
8. Writing Crappy, Bland Anchor Text

Warning: Dont read #8 without reading #9 as well (seriously). The internet really is all about links. These essential little markers help search engines sort the billions of pages into meaningful paths, and help to turn random pages into focused and relevant communities of ideas.
One simple SEO tip is to write keyword rich text for your links (called anchor text). For example, lets say I interview you on my site. You are an editor that specializes in overnight editing services for business documents. Now, Im going to be nice and give a link to your services. Yet, then I go and write a crappy link like this: For editing services, click here. Thats just a waste of a good chance to help search engines out. Think of the internet as a giant encyclopedia. Your links are little pathways and, as guides, they should tell the reader (and search engine) where they are leading. So a better link than click here for the above example would be: overnight editing services, keyword rich and descriptive. The same goes for your own website. If you are linking to your various services from your homepage, try to not write like this: For editing services, click here. For writing services, click here. Instead, have keyword-rich links like this. Overnight Editing Services Professional Ghostwriting Services By writing keyword rich anchor text, you are actually help your site rank for your most important terms. Thats because you are using the top-down structure of your home page to link to lesser pages. This means simply you are helping search engines gure out what the real theme of your site is...Im guessing click here isnt what your website is about. Thats why it is important to have keyword rich top-level navigation (e.g. About me is a crappy section title; About My Editing Services is better; Buy My Overnight Editing Services is even better) and to have keyword-rich product sections.
9. Deleting Pages is BAD

STOP! You just learned some powerful information in the last tip. But before you go on deleting your pages and making new product sections. . . BUT DONT JUST GO DELETING PAGES!!!!!!!!! A common myth about websites is that they are these wonderfully exible things that you can change with a ick of a button. They are. But certain changes to your website can dramatically hurt your trac and erase any rankings you previously had with Google.
The main changes to be very careful with are with deleting pages and posts. The problem is this. Google nds your website and then makes a copy of all your posts and pages. It then stores a copy of your site in its vast library. Later, when someone says Do you have a post on car mechanics?, Google says yes, I know of a good site that publishes articles on car mechanicshere is where you can nd it. But Google only makes a copy. The actual post is stored on your server (your website acting as an intermediate). So when you delete a post or page, Google essentially thinks it has a copy and then when someone tries to access it, they get a message saying that the le path is broken. The big point is that Google will demote sites that change or delete their urls (the ID attached to every post or page you make). Thats because sites that delete their pages are a bad experience for users who are looking for that information which Google thinks exists. So as a rule: be very careful changing urls or deleting any posts or pages. Be also very careful doing massive changes to a site. If you do, remember that once you begin deleting and doing a massive reorganization of your site, you are basically starting again. That means all the links you have built, all the trac, and all the trust you have built with Google will be lost. For example, when I started my site I didnt know people would actually read it. I was lazy and just threw together the navigation. Some of my navigation says About me. But as I have been doing well with trac, it is too late to change it. A good SEO rule is: If it aint broke, dont x it. If you are getting thousands of views every week, focus on the future, not the past. SEO is about optimization, making things their optimal best. It isnt a secret body of knowledge that automatically attracts trac. But if you have a low trac website, then you have nothing to lose. And whatever you are doing now, isnt working anyways. Note! Thanks to the innovation of CSS (Cascading Style Sheets), changing the design (graphics, headers, minor post organization) is dierent that making changes or deleting pages. The development of content management systems and their themes has allowed you to make aesthetic changes to the appearance of your website without damaging your sites trac. CSS simply runs on top of HTML, making it easy to manipulate without making any structural changes. In other words, changing the look of your website DOES NOT hurt your trac of Google standings. We are talking about urls and pages which are permanent.
10. Not Using Meta-Content

As the name implies, meta-content is content that only search engines can see. It doesnt appear in your normal website (e.g. viewers dont see it) and is designed to help you make it easier for search engines to classify your site within their search rankings. In recent years, Google has made it clear that meta-content does not count for SEO purposes. But there still is one important function. Your meta-content appears in the search-results page. As a result, it is essentially a sales pitch to get people to click on your site.
On most good blogging platforms, it is easy to access your meta-content. It is often called post description. Otherwise, just click view source and you can insert it manually into your HTML. If you dont know what the hell I am talking about here, just ask a computer-savvy friend. Tell them you want to know how to access and write your meta-content. It is something that is hard to explain in wordsbut very easy to show.
If you are on WordPress, just download this plug-in: All-in-one SEO Pack. It will guide you through the process and take care of the HTML stu automatically. (Plug-ins are only available in WordPress.org--not WordPress.com). The reason why meta-content is important is because if you dont write it, Google will simply automatically select some content from your site for your search results. By writing your meta-content, you are can control how your site is represented, increasing the chance that a searcher will choose your site. There are two important tips for writing good meta-content: (1) Keep it keyword rich. (2) Tell the big point of the post. In other words, think of it as a mini-sales pitch for your website. The user is scanning the search results--and you are shouting pick me! I have what you are looking for! The importance of meta-content is that search engines use this content on the search results page (shown above). The key is to write keyword- rich content that entices readers to choose your site over the other results. If you dont write it, Google will just guess and pull some stu out of your site. Note: Some of the more user friendly blogging platforms like Blogger, Tumblr, and WordPress.com have limited control of things like meta-data. You might have to edit the tags directly in the HTML. (Here is an article explaining how to do that http:// searchenginewatch.com/article/2067564/How-To-Use-HTML-Meta-Tags). My advice is to set up your blog on WordPress.org as it is the best, most intuitive blogging platform out there. If you are on WordPress.org--just download and install the All-in-one SEO pack.
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Hochgeladen von

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THIS IS A SAMPLE. BUY THE COMPLETE BOOK AT SELLOUTYOURSOUL.COM FOR ONLY $2.

The Complete SEO Guide for Writers:

1. TECHNOLOGY MAKES CREATIVITY PROFITABLE

2. TEN DUMB SEO MISTAKES

3. THE MAGNETIC SCIENCE OF KEYWORD RESEARCH

4. LINK BUILDING--THE FINAL KEY TO SEO

The Ten Dumb SEO Mistakes

1. Bad Use of Your Title

2. Not Using H2 and H3 Tags

3. Not Chunking Your Writing

4. Not Having a Consistent Theme

6. Not Using Your Alternative Text

5. Not Having 3-5% Keyword Density.

7. Not Using the Free Keyword Research Tool

8. Writing Crappy, Bland Anchor Text

9. Deleting Pages is BAD

10. Not Using Meta-Content

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