Does Your Copy Look "Fake" To the Search Engines?

Does Your Copy Look "Fake" To the Search Engines?
By Karon
Thackston

From the early days of search engine optimization, keywords and
content have always been vital to achieving your goals.
Starting back in the days when we used to shove every slightly
relevant keyword into our Meta tags, it has been obvious that
search engines love text. The more advanced the engines have
gotten over the years, the more complex and sophisticated many
writers have gotten with their search engine copywriting.

Supposed formulas, saturation levels, and other mysterious
concoctions have been developed to help us outsmart the
engines. However, what we should have been doing all along was
writing for the visitor first and the engines second. Why?
Because creating a site that`s loved by visitors is a prime
factor in linking, ranking, and marketing as a whole. As the
engines make great strides with more personalized and
efficient searches (such as semantic search) natural search
engine optimization writing is even more important.

Rather than just indexing the copy on your site, engines are
learning to "understand" what a page is about. The ironic
thing is, as the search engines get more complex the "formula"
for SEO copywriting is actually getting more simple.

Write Naturally

In the future, search engines will be looking for Web pages
that reflect a natural tone with the copy. Is it obvious that
keyphrases are being shoved in wherever possible? Does every
headline/sub-head, image tag, and comment tag have a keyphrase
included? Does the copy sound fake, unnatural, and stiff? If
so, then spiders and bots will recognize it and possibly flag
it as something to be wary of.

Take a look at this lovely piece of copy I found while surfing
just the other day. (I`ve replaced the keyphrases used in the
original copy with the word "wherever" so as not to embarrass
the site owner.)

Wherever Holiday Rentals

Holiday rentals in Wherever for holidays in Wherever

Wherever holiday rentals directly from the owners. Rent a
holiday villa in Wherever or perhaps a 2-6 bedroom apartment
in Wherever. Wherever vacation rentals for holidays in
Wherever are easily located by searching the Wherever Holiday
website. Wherever Holiday Rentals offer holiday apartments in
Wherever and holiday villas.

Find accommodation in Wherever by clicking on the Wherever map
or the active links. You will then see holiday rental
apartments, villas and townhouses in stunning Wherever
accommodation.

Let`s suppose someone walked into your travel agency and asked
for help. You would most likely ask what they were looking for.
They would reply, "Holiday rentals in Wherever. What can you
show me?" Would you honestly take off on the spiel above? Can
you see yourself talking to a real client face-to-face and
saying, "We offer Wherever holiday rentals in Wherever and can
find you many apartments, villas, and houses in Wherever"? I
don`t think so.

Tips for Writing In Natural Language

1) Vary your keywords/phrases. For example, if a keyphrase you
particularly want to target is "14k gold jewelry" consider
also using keyphrases like "14k gold watches" or "gold wedding
bands" or others along those lines. This will give you a
variety of phrases within your copy.

2) Read it out loud. When you read your copy out loud you`ll
get a better sense of whether it sounds unnatural. If you
wouldn`t say, "We make 14k gold jewelry and have made 14k gold
jewelry for 10 years. If you need 14k gold jewelry just view
our catalog" out loud, then don`t put it in your copy, either.

3) Break up keyphrases. As searchers get more knowledgeable
about finding what they want in the engines, they use longer
and longer search queries some of which just don`t make any
sense. For instance, I recently had to use the phrase "real
estate Pittsburg downtown" when writing a page of SEO copy.
Since this search string was not easily worked in as that
exact phrase, I broke it up. One sentence I used it in said:
"When looking for commercial real estate in Pittsburg check
the downtown listings first for exceptional locations and
prices." The words are still in the same order with minor
breaks in between. When you can`t use a phrase "as is" this is
a very viable alternative.

Keep in mind the direction search engine optimization is taking.
The closer you can get to writing in natural language, the
better off you`ll be. It only makes sense to create a site now
that will last through the long haul. Especially when that
site will have a better chance of favorably appealing to the
engines and your visitors.

by Karon Thackston © 2004
http://www.copywritingcourse.com/keyword (http://www.
copywritingcourse.com/keyword)

Karon is author of “How To Increase Keyword Saturation (Without
Destroying the Flow of Your Copy).” Discover the secrets to
creating SEO copy with a perfect balance between keywords and
natural language. http://www.copywritingcourse.com/keyword
(http://www.copywritingcourse.com/keyword)

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