Creating Great Content for Both Search Engines and Humans

Writing for Users and Search Engines

Jessica LeeFounder + Chief Content CreativebizbuzzcontentMarch 2013

Agenda Why you should optimize and what matters. The user engagement funnel and being visible at

every point. Quality guidelines for content from search

engines and for users. The nuts and bolts of Web page optimization.

WHYCONTENT?

WHY CONTENT?

WHYOPTIMIZE?

WHY OPTIMIZE?

WHY OPTIMIZE?

WHY OPTIMIZE?

http://bit.ly/OptifyStudyFor more on the search rankings study, go to:

WHY OPTIMIZE?

WHATHUMANS SEEVS.WHATBOTS SEE

SO WHO AND WHATMATTERS?

WHAT MATTERS?

I Matter I Matter, Too

CONTENTMATTERS

CONTENT MATTERS

CONTENT MATTERS The Panda algorithm updated 25 times since

inception in 2011 (as of March 2013)

You can follow its history at SEOmoz here:http://bit.ly/AlgoChange

See a list of Panda iterations and their impact at Search Engine Land here: http://bit.ly/PandaSEL

CONTENT MATTERS Human “quality raters” at Google are a feedback

loop into the impact of algorithm updates and quality of content on the Web:

http://bit.ly/HumanRater

Google has since released a public version: http://bit.ly/PublicVersion

CONTENT MATTERS1. Define a purpose for your site and each

individual page and deliver on it.

2. Create authoritative, original, expert content.

3. Focus on the user.

GREAT WEB CONTENT OFFERS AN AWESOMEUSER EXPERIENCE THROUGHQUALITY +RELEVANCY

QUALITYFIRST

Crap Content

QUALITY CONTENT

… is user focused.

QUALITY CONTENT

… is original and unique in some way.

QUALITY CONTENT

… delivers on and fulfills its purpose.

ACHIEVINGRELEVANCY

ACHIEVING RELEVANCY

Research

•Keywords/topics related to research

Buy

• Keywords/topics related to buying/conversion

ACHIEVING RELEVANCY

I’D LIKE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT “SLOTHS”…

I’D LIKE TO “VOLUNTEER FOR A SLOTH SANCTUARY”…

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

WEB CONTENT STRATEGY Context Competition Intent Audience Brand

WEB CONTENT: COMPETITION Do a search, see what’s out there, find what’s

missing – this is your opportunity.

WEB CONTENT: INTENT Apply what you do know about your target

audience to interpret what they might be looking for in this stage of their search.

WEB CONTENT: AUDIENCE

Target Audien

ce

What’s important to them?

What’s the demograp

hic?Why do they use

your products/services?

WEB CONTENT: BRAND

Your Brand

How you want to be perceived.

What your audience believes

about your brand today.

How you’re different than

the competition.

NOW YOU’RE READY TOSTART WRITING

CONTENT DEVELOPMENT Voice Length Imagery Formatting

VOICE

LENGTH Pretend everyone has an attention deficit

disorder.

Deliver on the purpose of the page through content.

Say as much as you need to say to be useful.

IMAGERY

FORMATTING

Boring Engaging

HOW DO I KNOW IF MY USER LOVES ME?

CHECKING REPORTSGoogle Analytics > Content > Overview and Multi-Channel Funnels > Overview

OPTIMIZING YOUR WEB CONTENT

META DATA

META DATAControlled Meta Data

Auto Generated Snippet

META DATA Title: 55 characters including spaces.

Description: 156 characters including spaces.

META DATA Include keywords for the page, with most

important towards the front of the Title tag.

Don’t “stuff” your tags with keywords, make it natural and relevant to the page.

You will enjoy more click-throughs when your result in the search engine matches a user’s search

META DATA You will enjoy more click-throughs when your

result in the search engine contains the keywords that match a user’s search.

BODY CONTENT Keyword density Keyword distribution First 200 words on a page Header and subheads:

<h1>Main Header/Title of the Page with Keywords</h1>

<h2>Subhead or Subsection Title of the Page< with Keywords</h2>

BODY CONTENT: TIPS! Include related terms

Deal with tricky keyword phrases by using punctuation or stop words.

Example keyword phrase: “sloths volunteer costa rica”

In a sentence: If you love sloths, volunteer in Costa Rica.

TO RECAP Content is the fabric of the Web. It’s every

business’s responsibility to elevate the quality of what they put out there.

Optimizing your content helps it be found by the search engines; writing quality, useful content helps it to be appreciated by your audience.

Treat every page as a blank canvas, and put a lot of thought, planning and creativity into it. Your Web pages serve as your branding, marketing and sales team in one.

About Your PresenterThank you for joining me!

Connect with me on Twitter @BzzContent. Website: www.bizbuzzcontent.com

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That’s me.

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