What is Search Engine optimization (SEO) Article Writing?

May 16th, 2012

Many freelancers have questions about what is SEO; what is SEO copywriting; what is SEO writing. This article explains – in detail – what this is and also how to make money from it as a freelance writer.

What is SEO?

SEO is an acronym for the phrase “search engine optimization“. Search engine optimization is all about doing specific things to your website to drive more traffic to it so that you can increase online sales – and traffic.

What are some of these “things?”

There are many, but here we will discuss what it is as it applies to freelance writers. And, this means writing text in a certain way so that web surfers (i.e., internet users) can land on a particular site.

What is SEO as it Relates to Freelance Writers?

What freelance writers need to be concerned with is keywords. What are keywords? Keywords are the words and phrases that web surfers’ type in when they search for things online.

For example, let’s say you were interested in starting a foreclosure cleanup business. You may not know anything about it other than foreclosures are hot in the news right now and you are interested in starting this kind of company.

So, you log onto your favourite search engine, (e.g., Google, Yahoo! MSN, etc.) and type in the keywords “foreclosure cleaning business” or “foreclosure cleaning” or “foreclosure cleanup” or some other relevant keyword phrase.

Note: When you type words into a search engine to find something on the internet, the words you type in are called a keyword (one word) or a keyword phrase (two or more words with commas in between).

How Businesses Get to the Top of Search Engine Results

When you type in these words and hit “ENTER”, a bunch of sites pop up and you start to surf (ie, click on the results) and start investigating the sites to see if they have the information you need.

The sites that pop up are the results that search engines like Google, Yahoo, MSN, et al think are the most relevant to the keyword phrase (aka search phrase) you typed in. Companies pay a lot of money to be among the first two or three pages in the results that search engines return.

Why SEO Copywriters are So In Demand and How They Make Their Money

One of the ways they get to pop up in the first two or three pages of results is to have relevant text that contains the proper keyword phrases. And, this is where you as an SEO copywriter can make a lot of money. You write the text that their site needs to pop up high in search engine results.

Many times, companies will simply give you a bunch of keyword phrases and let you write what you want — as long as it’s a certain length (usually 300-500 words).

There are many freelance writers – hundreds of thousands, if not a few million. BUT, only a tiny minority know what SEO is and how to write this type of copy. And, this is why they’re so in demand.

SEO copywriters have an in-demand skill. And, as more and more companies move larger portions of their advertising budgets to internet marketing, there is an even greater demand for their skills.

In the Search Engine Watch article, The SEO Copywriter: Wordsmithing the Web, William Flaiz, underscores the importance of an SEO copywriter. He writes:

“The role of the agency SEO copywriter is unique because…. Suddenly, the writer must optimize press releases, craft articles for social news, monitor social network communications, and develop wiki content…. a strong SEO copywriter is adaptable and capable of internalizing a lot of new information extremely quickly. These unique individuals have fast become the backbone of many SEO engagements. If content is king, then they [SEO copywriters] are the kingmakers.”

And this is why SEO copywriters can charge a premium for their services. If you’re looking for a way to start or maximize your income as an online freelance writer, then SEO copywriting is they way to go.

Things to Consider when Selecting an ecommerce Web Design Company

May 10th, 2012

In ecommerce, a good website enables maximum sales. A good website can only be assured if the web design is attractive and appealing. But in an abundant supply of Ecommerce Web design companies, it is extremely difficult to select the best one. However, with the help of the following points, one can surely select the best web designing firm.

A decade back, the online media had not fully exploited its potential. There were a few big players and that was about it. Thus choosing an ecommerce Web design company was not a task requiring paramount efforts. However, 10 years is a long time. Times changed and so have markets. A query on any search engine will throw up millions of companies offering web designing services with various attractive additional services. So how does one streamline his choices and narrow down on the best one? How does one choose the best of all?

Experience

Experience tops the list of requirements for selecting a web design company for e-commerce. If a company has stayed in the market scene for long, it has the abilities to gauge market conditions and consumer demands and accordingly design the website. It is more competent to understand customer’s specific needs and thereby render better web solutions. Brand Building, Search Engine Optimization and outstanding organization of products are certain factors that need to be focused upon.

Services

Services analyses are extremely important while choosing a company. Technology is something that rampantly turns obsolete so you need to make sure that the Website Design Company is adaptable to change and is capable of serving you in the long run, whether it has enough resources to help you with a transformation form old to new and improved technology. You may conduct a little survey and indulge in a little fact finding to ascertain whether the company suits your requirements.

Checking Portfolio

Checking the company’s portfolio can give a great deal of insight into its working structure and creativity. Based upon that then the firm can decide whether it must hire its services or no.

Design

Along with a firm’s experience, its creativity is of prima importance. It is believed that a user decides in less than six seconds whether he wishes to stay on the website. Thus the site needs to be unique and attractively innovative. So choose a firm that packages and presents your products in a manner that seem appealing to the users. Thus the design companies along with suiting your business requirements must help create an appealing online store.

CRM

Customer Relationship Management holds great importance in the world of ecommerce. Ecommerce is all about. The customer’s demands need to be fulfilled to accredit the website as successful. Thus before choosing a company, make sure they are customer friendly. CRM optimization is very important to keep your online business going.

Cost Effectiveness

Many companies live under the illusion that higher the price charged by the company, the better its services are. However this doesn’t always hold true. Check the services offered and compare the prices with other companies. A compromise in price doesn’t necessarily mean a compromise on quality!

In ecommerce, it is extremely essential that the website is user friendly and appealing to the customers. After all, it is they who ensure the success of the company. Great deal of care needs to be taken regarding the choice of your web design company if you are engaged in ecommerce.

Online Advertising

May 8th, 2012

The 21st century has been an era of technological advancement, and this is most evident in the exponential growth of the Internet. As such, nearly every kind of service or activity can now be transacted over the web including advertising – which is quickly shifting focus from more traditional means like print, TV and radio to its contemporary version – online advertising.

Online advertising in a nutshell

The term itself is pretty self explanatory, if you think about it. It’s advertising done online – the kind that doesn’t involve TV, radio or print media to promote products and services, but taps into the power of the Internet to get their message to the right recipients.

Advertising via the web takes full advantage of the Internet’s boundless scope and immeasurable potential to reach not just the target market but also anyone and everyone who is electronically connected, making it an advertising medium that many companies are exploring and developing at an incredibly rapid pace.

It’s the trend

Though research data has yet to clearly illustrate the true effects of online advertising, it has already grown in scope and influence continuing to eat up a greater portion of the advertising dollar.

Recent trends point to more and more people shifting focus from popular media such as TV, radio and newspaper to the fast-paced world of the Internet, where information-gathering, communication and socialization zips by at a rate of gazillions of megabytes of data per second.

Advantages

Advertising over the Internet has become a major draw for companies looking to push their products and services into consumer consciousness. First, marketing over the Internet reaches a greater number of young adult males – a prime demographic that advertisers need to target.

Second, ads over the Internet have the functionality of hypertext linking, which allows advertisers to transport consumers directly to the company’s site – especially useful for sites that sell products.

Finally, companies have the option to go for pay-per-click ads. This means that the company does not have to pay any advertising fees if users do not click on the ad, making this kind of advertisement a truly cost-effective method.

What a good SEO Company Can Do for You

May 1st, 2012

Online businesses are becoming the latest trend in the money-making industry these days. Since there are now so many people who get into this kind of business, business people are in constant need for techniques which can help in doing better business in the online industry. As the competition gets tougher, the business owners are searching for better ways to stay ahead of the competition. And one of the better ways to stay ahead is by applying good SEO techniques and methods so that the business website will stay visible and ranks high in the search engines.

Some business owners would opt to hire the services of a search engine optimization company. There are so many services that these companies can provide not only to people who are operating a business online but also to those individuals who would like to be known in their professions. One of the most important services that these companies can provide is their consultancy. A company does not only provide SEO methods to their clients. But they also have to give good advices on how to further improve one’s online business. This is the best thing that they can give to their clients. They may even suggest strategies that one may use to get more sales and clients for their business.

Another service is the maintenance of search engine rankings. If your business website is already enjoying good rankings in the search engines, then you just need to maintain this status. You should never let any other websites take over your place. This is how you will be able to get more visitors and possibly more clients. The company that you have hired for the SEO services will also be able to help you in maintaining your place in the search engines. They have different methods that will help you stay in your place despite the competition.

This type of company will also help you in auditing the overall performance of your website. They can detect if there are any problems that have occurred during your operations. Back link problems can easily be detected by SEO companies. They are making use of systems that can determine the real problem of a website when it is not getting enough traffic. This will help every website obtain full operations.

There are still so many services that these companies can provide aside from the SEO methods that they can perform on a particular website. Some would even offer packages especially for big businesses. New online entrepreneurs should consult these companies so that they would know what better ways to do in order to achieve what they want to have from their business.

Why Use a Search Engine Optimisation Company?

April 26th, 2012

Search engine optimisation has become more and more important in today’s world. As the internet becomes more and more competitive and everyone fights for the top spot on Google and other search engines, more and more criteria have had to be taken into account when setting up a website or online business.

Google and other big search engines take into account plenty of different data when ranking your site. When ranking a website they will look at a multitude of different factors which can include everything from the name of your domain right through to the relevance of the information on your site. There is no one single factor that will get you highly ranked. You will need to take into account the number of back links you have, the relevance of those links, the anchor text used on those links, how many page views your site gets every day, what your bounce rate is, the keywords used within your content and plenty, plenty more. There is more than enough for anyone to think about!

It wasn’t so long ago when everyone with a website simply put some decent content on their site and spread the word on forums and blogs to build up some back links and traffic. Nowadays though the competition is so fierce to rank for particular keywords that it is a full time job to keep on top of it and many would argue that you would need a degree in search engine optimisation to know where to even start. This is why a growing number of individuals and companies are turning to SEO companies. An SEO company does it all for you. They effectively will conduct the research on your keywords and competition. They will come up with an SEO strategy for you. This plan will often include offsite optimisation. This includes the likes of writing and publishing articles on your behalf. It is likely to include back linking through blogs and article websites. They will also often offer onsite optimisation which will include changing things on your actual website. This will involve optimising your META tags.

Search engine optimisation, more commonly known as SEO, can take a lot of time an expertise. This can all be done for you by a SEO company. This allows you to have the time and focus to concentrate on your actual website and online business rather than worrying about building another back link. It is often more cost effective as they will know the cheapest routes to take. They will also have the knowledge to avoid certain pitfalls that can become very costly. Ranking at the top of Google can see huge rewards. Ranking at the top of Google can instantly triple your traffic or even more. This extra traffic is likely to result in much bigger incomes for your website, whether it be through online purchases, ordering your services or clicking your adverts. In short, a search engine optimisation company is the perfect way to get a short cut to success. It allows you to concentrate on what you are good at, e.g. running your website, while making sure that your ranking doesn’t suffer.

Articles for SEO

April 24th, 2012

Writing articles for SEO is what professional article marketers do best. Well, what if you’re not a professional writer? Well, become one! With millions of people searching for information online, you can be sure to find people willing to do business with you. But first, you must master the SEO tactics that will lead you to attract your prospects.

Here’s what you can do to make that happen for you:

1. Choose your topic. When writing articles for SEO, it is important that you choose a topic that has an audience. What kind of people are you trying to write for? In order to construct a well written article, you’ll have to meet the demands of your target audience. Research those topics that are profitable and in demand. An SEO article will meet these requirements.

2. Create some titles. Writing SEO articles that have high quality titles is a must. Your article titles should be compelling and target the exact keyword phrases that your audience would use to do a search online. Make sure that you have your target keyword at the beginning of your title. This will ensure proper optimization takes place.

3. Research some keywords. This is the step that makes it or breaks it. You need to have a list of the top searched keywords in your niche. When writing an article, it’s important that you target these words effectively. Keep in mind that the search engines are changing every day and it’s up to you to stay on top of things. So, place your target keyword at the beginning of your article, in the middle, and in the conclusion. It would also be a good idea to use synonymous keywords. These are keywords directly related to your target keyword. For example, a synonymous word for “writing an article” would be “write an article.”

4. Showcase your expertise. Writing articles for SEO will not do you any good if people don’t trust you. Make sure that you offer some tips and advice that goes above and beyond what they would expect. If you want these people to visit your website, you need to provide them with good information. SEO article writing will work best once you can prove to people that you are an expert in your niche.

5. Keep it simple. Don’t over complicate things. Keep your articles simple and to the point. People will appreciate a well written article that gets right to the information they want to know. So, make it your number one priority to satisfy your readers with easy to read SEO articles.

SEO Copywriting

April 3rd, 2012

Internet has revolutionized the online industry. People from all around the world can communicate with each other via e-mails and live chats and can also research on different search engines as per their requirements. Internet today is a very important tool for the online business industry. There are so many things to do on Internet. One such thing is SEO copywriting. The website copywriting entered the online industry with a big bang.

There are many businesses which are online today. People try to find ways by which they can promote their business online. Making the business online is the best way to advertise your products in front of the whole world. You can generate awareness among the individuals about your product and services.

Now how to start your website?? What things to be included in it?? The best way is to hire an SEO copywriter who can write content for your website. The SEO copywriters first understand about the products and services that you are offering identify the market size, competitors and then after researching everything they plan about the content to be written.

It is wise if you hire some experienced SEO copywriter for this work. The website should be appealing so that is captures the attention of the readers. Interesting websites with good information always attract the readers. SEO copywriting is the main essence of the website. The content of the website makes it to succeed or fail. Internet marketing today is the best way to generate money while sitting at home. The website you design should also have a logo, some important features related to customer visibility and data interface.

SEO copywriting also includes promotion of the website by advertising it online. The content which is present on your website should be appealing in nature. It should be able to make a two-way communication between and the business and the readers. It should also be kept in mind that the content is enriched with all the important keywords that a reader will usually type for their searches.

It is always advisable to keep the content of your website simple and to the point. It is of no use if the readers don’t understand what you want to say. So it is always good to have a copy of content which will appeal to the customers.

There are many websites on net which are of no use. The owners don’t know what to do with their website. So it will be good if you first take some time and decide what you want from your website. What is its purpose?? And then design it.

Audiences play a very important role in the success of the website. The owner should know which age group to target for the website. And they should design the website according to that age group. It is your duty to design the website and its content in such a way that you get benefitted by it and the readers enjoy reading it.

Web Design AND SEO

March 27th, 2012

There are so many websites out there that have not been optimised for search engines at all, the question is should web designers optimise websites for search engines as part of the overall solution?

Well it’s perhaps a little unfair to criticise web designers for not doing SEO as standard since it is an entirely different skill set, however my opinion is that to be in the web design market these days in order to add value to clients some basic knowledge of SEO is essential.

Of course having the skill sets is one thing, but doing SEO properly is a time consuming process so arguably it should be an optional service in addition to website, and really if a client want their website to produce results for them, then they should be seriously considering this.

However I do believe that every site should have basic SEO included, this means that HTML title tags can be made relevant to the website itself, and the website should be search engine friendly making it easy for either a customer to complete the SEO themselves or an SEO consultant to manage should the design firm not offer SEO services themselves.

Unfortunately this does not seem to be the case most of the time and customers are often left with what might be a great site from a design or technical point of view, but just does not produce results for them.

My advice would be to find a web design company that actually offer design, development and SEO in-house, like we do at Onit solutions, this way you should be confident in the knowledge that your website will look great, be technically good and actually produces results for you. After all, you could have the best looking, most expensive website online, but if no one can find it in the search engines…what’s the point?

What is Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)?

March 20th, 2012

After talking to others within your field or searching the Internet, you’ve probably come across the term: SEO. This is short, of course, for search engine optimization. You’ve probably asked yourself, “What is SEO?”

SEO, or search engine optimization, is simply the process of getting your website ranked higher in the search engines through the natural, or unpaid, search results. In other words, not the paid (Pay-Per-Click) results on the outside columns. This is important because the face of the Internet is changing. With over 75% of large and small companies now online, there’s an increase in competition and ‘market share’ for the top search engine positions. Your goal should be having your website placed within the top ten positions in the major search engines, like Google, Yahoo, and Bing. Google, of course, currently holds over 60% of all online searches. So, this should be a primary target for your SEO work. Studies show that most consumers will rarely look beyond these top placements when conducting an online search.

Keep in mind, however, SEO is not done by simply creating a website and hosting it online. Many large companies pay large sums of money to make sure their site stays at the top. Although smaller budgets may not allow for this type of dedicated SEO service, it doesn’t mean smaller sites can’t still earn their rank. Either on your own, or through an SEO professional, make sure your site has quality SEO services-aimed at getting your site placed higher in the search engines. This is essential to the growth of your website and your business.

Most SEO experts will use two methods to get your site placed high in the search engines: on-page and off-page SEO. Typically, on-page SEO involves editing the content of a site to ensure it is properly optimized for the search engines. Another common tactic is link-building. Although off-page methods may vary, link-building is one common element. How your SEO professional decides to build those links will differ. Common white-hat SEO methods will include forum postings, blog commenting, and article marketing.

First introduced in the mid-1990′s, the nature of SEO has changed and continues to evolve with the World Wide Web. As SEO improves so will the user’s search experience on the Internet. So, what is the true answer to the “What is SEO” question? Quite simply, it’s essential.

SEO Articles

March 13th, 2012

The term SEO has got more than its share of publicity, and most people know and understand what Search engine optimisation is all about. Many people wonder why they should look at SEO and what use their SEO articles really have. Here is what it does for you. When you write articles which are rich in keywords, they help you rate more favourably on most search engines. This gives you a better chance of being clicked and viewed. Here are some facts that will help put all your efforts in perspective.

Google is the most preferred search engine, which is used by over ninety percent of people looking for information. When you place higher or even preferably within the first page of a Google search, the chances of your being visited are much higher. Having an SEO article will help you get to the top of the search engines.

When you have an article which is heavily optimised, it is almost your own marketing resource which works for you across boundaries and also through the clock. This material will be made available throughout and can have a lasting impact for several months as long as it is on the web.

Some people still believe that there are online advertisements which do the job for them. However, trends have strongly shown that people still tend to have more faith in material which is available free of cost on the internet rather than on material which subscribes to the pay per click method. This is where your SEO article will fare much better, using its own credibility to do the trick.

There is a steady trend that shows that there is a clear shift that is moving from print and media to the internet. For its far reaching impact and growing popularity, the demand and scope for online advertising and SEO is only set to grow. If this is heartening news to you, you should now have a clear idea on where you want to invest your time and energy.

The great thing about SEO articles is that they are simple to use and highly effective. This is not a blessing which is easy to find today. With an impact that is clear and measurable, this is a tool which can be modified and reworked on continually with little inconvenience and virtually no expense. The world of SEO is here to stay.