Last week, I was asked to give the Content department a couple of tips from my SMO days. Something like a primer for SEO, I guess? These are the slides from that “talk.”
Web Content Writing For Champions
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Hopefully they got something out of the whole presentation — besides the fact that the “talk” earlier was probably the first (or maybe last?) time they’ll hear “testicle pimples” in an office presentation. :p
Notes:
1. “For CHAMPIONS” – denotes that I was talking to champions before the presentation even started!
2. Background - Here’s the part where I discussed a bit about my previous lives as an SMO, part-time content writer etc.
3. Internet Users, ADHD, and Y-O-U – Not to diminish the seriousness of the disorder, (or the people who have it) — but humans were designed to find better and faster ways to do things. Including how they consume information. You have to grab them at the onset. That includes the first 160 characters.
4. On-Page Optimization – a simple definition. Basically, everything that shows up in your content that can be seen by the reader is involved.
5. The 3-5% Rule – Saturating your content with 3-5% of a keyword is a way to make it relevant to that keyword. So, for 250 words, (250 x 0.03 = 7.5) inserting 7.5 occurrences of the keyword might help.
6. HEADLINE – Having a catchy title helps. It helps a lot. Included in this slide are 10 attention-grabbing headline templates.
7. Colorful Language – Different people perceive the world in different ways. A visual person will find content that includes the words “imagine, view, look, picture this,etc” more compelling for him. Approaching content with a V-A-K (Visual-Auditory-Kinaesthetic) mindset sets up the content to potentially reach people of different wiring/representational systems. (ex. “Imagine hearing about great tips for writing your content. Bet that’d feel amazing.”)
8. Bulleting & Bolding – Optimize your content for skimming/scanning. If you’re making a list, it’d help if each item was numbered, or appeared in bold. Applying bold type for keywords sorta helps it stand out too.
9. J-j-jjjargon! – Rule of thumb for broad-audience, mass-consumption online content? Keep things simple. Write it so that someone below 5th grade will understand. If you simply must be technical, explain acronyms or terms briefly.
10. Write What You Know… – What is your passion in life? Think about that as a topic — wouldn’t you have so much to say if you were passionate about it? Write what you know, but be knowledgeable in a lot of things.
11. Off-Page Optimization – Here’s partly where SERPS magic happens. This includes efforts to drive traffic to content by means that are invisible to the reader.
12. Fix Yer Anchors! – When dropping links, insert the hyperlink to anchor text that is relevant to that link. Search algorithms are getting better and better everyday, so trying to fool ‘em by having articles that have ton of non-relevant anchors? Your content might get penalized instead!
13. Tags, Captions, and Whatnot. – Use your keyword as a tag, insert your keyword in the title. Have images? Use the keyword for captions, or the alt=”" value. It helps search engines determine the relevance of that keyword to your content.
14. Social Bookmarks, Twitter, Blogs, Forums, Comments and the like. – Article marketing does NOT equate to spamming your links everywhere all at once. Insert your link where it’s appropriate, and you will get relevant traffic for your content.
15. “There is NO failure, only feedback” – Study! Run tests! Try out new techniques! Like I mentioned above, search engine algorithms get adjusted everyday, so what’s relevant in optimization today probably won’t be in the future. 
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