Writing Tutorial: Writing Internet Content for SEO and Your Leads
As we mentioned in the summary of this article, it is more important than ever to write and publish quality content. While the ability to write good copy on behalf of your business has always been and always will be vital, the Internet has expanded the scope of what can and should be done.
Let’s face it, there are a lot more places to write copy now. For any business to be successful in today’s rapidly changing business environment, you need to be involved in writing content online. Where and how often will likely be determined by the type of business you’re in, but regardless, it’s a good idea.
Before we dive into the how and why, here’s a short list of some places you can post content online. We’ll stick to the free examples for now.
Your Blog – There are many free blogging sites that allow you to post content anytime you want. You can create an interactive community around your blogs and also embed them on your website. Blogs not only allow you to communicate with other people online, but they also make great backlinks and can also provide a constant stream of new content for your website.
Articles – Yes, articles are free to post and even free to syndicate. For example, you can write an article and publish it on a site like EzineArticles, upublish.info, GoArticles, Buzzle, Amazones, and Articlebase, to name a few. These are linked to you. Also, someone else can embed your article on their site, or you can do the same. Articles are permanent and great ways to inform your audience.
Ezines – There are many website owners who crave fresh content. It’s the reason they syndicate other people’s blogs and articles. But there is another way to publish your content, and that is by going directly to the source. If you have something informative, entertaining, or educational to say, you may want to find an ezine that is looking for column writers.
Your Own Website – Yes, that’s right, the number one place to post content is your own internet property. This is very important because obviously this is where you want a potential customer or existing customer to end up and spend most of their time.
There are more examples, but for the sake of time and your sight, let’s now delve into somehow and why. We’ll start with why you should publish quality web content related to your business:
Why #1 – The more you post, the more your presence will be noticed
This is pretty obvious, right? The more stuff there is floating around in the cyber sea, the more likely someone will read it and think he knows what he’s talking about and wants to learn more. Think of it as casting an ever-widening net.
Why #2 – Linking
What’s really nice about writing content online is that, in almost all cases, you’re allowed to put a link at the end of your content that points to where you want it to go. This helps create a funnel of traffic and interest. Also, it helps your search engine rankings by providing you with quality backlinks. And if your content is syndicated, it will grow geometrically.
Why #3 – You become an expert
People like to buy from those they feel are well informed. And they also appreciate that you took the time to create a truly informative and helpful article, blog, or website. It is simply a very effective modern sales and marketing tool.
Why #4 – Everyone is doing it!
Don’t you want to be one of the cool kids? Of course you do, especially if the other kids happen to be your competition. You can bet dollars on white beans that some of the companies you are competing with are actively marketing online. So why let them have an advantage over you? You are the best option anyway.
Now, to the final and best part. It is important to know the whole story. Not just why you write good content or where to post it. You must know how to do it. As we often say, it’s not always knowing what to write, but how to write it. Because when it comes to writing content online, you really have to know what you’re doing.
To begin with, let’s focus on a simple fact. When you write something that is published on the Internet, it is not only going to be read by people. Google, yahoo, Bing and all other search engines will also check it. This is one of the main reasons why you post it in the first place. So what this means is that your content should be designed to make everyone happy.
This is the hard part. And that’s where many writers, marketers, and website owners go wrong. The key to writing effective content for the web is that it must first appeal to and have the greatest effect on the human reader. Then worry about keywords and search engines. Believe it or not, that’s exactly what Google wants you to do.
You will be rewarded when you put up a bit of content like an article, blog post, discussion forum thread, ezine column, or new web page that is truly made for the benefit of a web surfer. Of course, it must also be optimized for search engines and contain relevant keywords.
No problem, right? Yes, sure. It’s not easy, but the rewards are worth it.
Another point to take into account when writing or having something written for you, are the search engines again. Does this sound repetitive? It isn’t, exactly. It’s just that if something is searchable, it will be searched. And every piece of content online will be searched, either from a major search engine or from searches performed on the site where the content is published.
So the real point here is SEO. You want optimized components in all your published writing. That means relevant, keyword-rich titles, abstracts, descriptions, links, and content. This also applies to video. Doing SEO on your text will help drive traffic to those texts and also wherever they are linked to.
Finally, as always, you want your writing, especially your website content, to do a good job of selling it for you. After all, this is the point, right? If you’re doing all of this content posting to drive visitors to your website, you want to draw them in when they arrive, keep their attention, and hopefully convert them into a paying customer.
That last thought is an article in itself. A book, really. This is where you must be a very good writer. Or you must hire a very good writer. Your text-based content will last a long time and represent you and your business to billions of web surfers and thousands of search engines, so make sure it’s the best content you can create. If you do it with care and consideration, you will get an ever-increasing stream of visitors and profit.