The world of search engine
optimization (SEO) can seem like a mystery to some people. Whilst there are
many guidelines out there that can teach you the basics of SEO, a balance will
always need to be struck between writing engaging and authoritative content and
following the rules of SEO in order to ensure that your texts are optimized for
search engines. With the release of Google Panda last year, the lines between
once holy SEO ground rules such as keyword density against the need to
create high-quality, fluid text have
become blurred. However, being aware of the biggest pitfalls of SEO with
regards to web writing remains absolutely vital for your writing career.
Google Panda:
The codeword “Panda” was
used to describe the wide-ranging update that Google rolled out across its
entire search engine last February. Panda concentrated itself on delivering the
best search results possible to web users and Google took great care to
actively demote those websites from search results that featured poor-quality
or duplicated content. Since Panda, Google has emphasized the aspects of
quality, authoritativeness, user intention and freshness in its search results
and thus the effect on web writing was clear; texts created for web pages would
need to move away from traditional, quick and unoriginal copy.
The
effect of Panda:
Websites that relied on freelance writers to
create a large array of texts that lacked in originality and creativity were
the big losers of the Google Panda update. Ecommerce websites in particular
were hard hit by Panda because they would typically consist of hundreds of
nearly identical product pages that differed minimally from each other in terms
of content. These sites saw their keyword rankings drop dramatically and this
should be a lesson to all web writers out there that the old tactic of creating
quick and simple text that simply met the basic requirements of a keyword
density check would do nothing to rankings.
The solution for
your web writing:
To ensure that your web
writing passes the Google Panda test there are a number of SEO writing factors that you
have to abide to;
. Web user intention: The first rule of writing in a post-Panda world
is to create texts online that would fit what the user had in mind when they
searched for a particular keyword and landed on your particular webpage. Your
text should aim to either answer the questions that the visitor may have, or
should otherwise provide relevant, unique and helpful information to the reader
that they would not find on other websites.
. Freshness: Whilst Google trusts content found on websites that have
existed for years instead of days, this does not mean that your website should
feature the same written texts that it featured three years ago. The Panda
update now focuses on finding fresh content for the web user as it knows that
the user is more likely to be interested in up-to-date information and news
about a topic. Thus, keep your web writings topical and be sure to create
content on a regular basis. For a blog a new and original article once or twice
a week is ideal.
. Length: The length of the text on a webpage is a dead giveaway that
your content is written for search engines and not for actual people. Writing
at least 600 words in your texts will ensure that your web pages are not
flagged up as spammy content by the Google search bots.
. Authority: The “authoritativeness” of a text may seem a little
vague to judge at first; however Google judges the quality and authority of a
web text on the number of links that are created to it – or more broadly the
level of web user interaction with that text. If your goal is to rank with blog
articles, then in order to increase the likelihood that people will link to
your writings, you have to put a level of dedication and research into your
texts. Bring something new to the scene and try to make your article original.
If, over time, people are impressed by your writings and frequently interact
with your content or create backlinks to your website, then Google will
recognize this and consider your writings to have a certain level of quality
and authoritativeness about them and will increase their ranking positions in
search results.
For us web writers, Google
Panda only increased the importance of bringing some originality, freshness and
individuality to our writings. The large majority of web writers should have no
problem bringing these aspects of writing to the forefront of their work, as
these are the main reasons that we entered the industry in the first place!
Your solutions very useful for me as I am a new in blogging things. Can Panda be cheated in any way?
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