Just Enough SEO — Part 1
Learning Just enough SEO
The highest request for Freelance writing on Guru.com and the other Freelance websites, for the last several years, has been for articles which require SEO skills of one type or another. This can be a confusing area for someone just starting out on a Ghost Writing career, mostly because those asking for SEO qualities to be included in their articles and blog-posts, have no idea what they are talking about and very little understanding as to what the qualities mean, or should be. So, if you only use the Project Descriptions to glean an idea of what SEO is or should be, you will drive yourself mad.
This lack in understanding of SEO qualities, isn’t really the Client’s fault.
The Client is probably learning their SEO information from blog posts, forums and SEO for Dummies books — much like you are doing right now. The difference between those blog posts and these, is very simple. I’m not trying to teach you how SEO works, just how to understand what the client might be asking for — and the two are worlds apart.
After working with Google for several years, and developing web sites for several more, I’ve learned what works and what doesn’t. Does this make me a expert? No, not at all, but it certainly keeps me from spending time on trivial pursuits, and gives me enough understanding on the subject to write eBooks, and Blog posts — which is all you need as well.
All you need, is Just Enough SEO to understand what the client might be talking about and how to satisfy their request, which is the goal of this set of Blog Posts.
The first thing you need to understand, is that the client’s success or failure with his SEO campaign has nothing at all to do with your writing. SEO and SEM (Search Engine Optimization – Search Engine Marketing) are both fields with a large set of variables, skills and a constantly changing environment which requires constant alterations to the web site to continue improving, rather than descending on the SERPs (Search Engine Request Positioning). Your articles are more-or-less written to speck, meaning you are writing them as instructed by the client (or you should be), and again, most clients have no idea what they are doing … and I can tell that simply by reading the Project Descriptions.
The second thing you need to understand is — The Client isn’t going to believe this… he’s not going to believe that since his sales didn’t improve in a week because of your blog posting, that it has nothing to do with your posts. Notice here that I said “sales”, and not “traffic”. If you are writing a blog post a day for a web site, then that web site’s traffic is improving if there is any interest in the subject matter of your blog posts. Since you have no access to, nor skills in, reading the Analytic reports for that web site, you will not be able to judge which topical information is bringing in traffic that Bounces right away, and what traffic is “interested” traffic. So, you have no control over the sales or ROI of the web site you are working for, and no way of gaining any insight.
Again, however, most client’s requesting 50 blog posts, or the re-writing of 200 articles for SEO purposes, will not have a clue as to what is helping or hurting their web site. I know this simply because of the nature of the request.
A client asking for 200 articles between 300 and 500 words, based around a set of keywords is under the impression that 1) the SE’s (Search Engines) care at all about keyword density, 2) that positioning is based on the amount of content rather than the effectiveness of the content, and 3) that the Keyword set they have chosen is static, meaning that what people are searching for today in their market area is going to be just as effective as what people will be searching for tomorrow. None of these are true, but they are entrenched Common Knowledge on the Internet Blogs, Forums and SEO for Dummies books.
Common Knowledge is a dangerous thing, and your skill as a writer is, in no way, to be judged by its dubious wisdom.
Tell you something about Common Knowledge. It is almost always false, and based on the misunderstood surface facts of a subject. SEO is a prime example of this truism. Do you know who said, “Play it again Sam.“, I’ll bet you don’t. Most people will say it was Humphrey Bogart, or someone in the movie Casa Blanca. The real answer is “No one in Casa Blanca says that line.” That line is not from the movie, it was never said. It is a misquotation made by the Marx Brothers, in their film “A Night in Casa Blanca”.
You will also notice something else about a client that is asking for 200 articles between 300 and 500 words, based around a set of keywords — most of the time they are only willing to $2-$5 per article — which says something about the mind-set behind the request.
Never try to teach a pig to sing — it wastes your time and annoys the pig.
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by Yuwanda