Creating SEO-Friendly Content
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Creating SEO-friendly content is by no means an easy task. Today’s Internet is chock-full of spectacular visuals, offering everything from streaming video to big, glossy-looking pictures. But take away all those special fonts and brightly-colored links and do away with the embedded noises and flashing banner ads, and you’re left with just the backbone of the Internet, the one thing which holds it all together: plain, simple content. Creating SEO-friendly content is a hassle, an ongoing process, a chore…and the only way to make your pages popular.
The Search Engines, The Rulers of the Online World
Search engine optimization is the buzz phrase of the online world and the preoccupation of every site owner out there. Search engines, with that miraculous ability to dredge up pages based upon quickly-typed (and sometimes even inaccurately typed) words, are the only reason the Internet works at all. And search engines know how to exercise this power. Directing users here and there, controlling the flow of Web traffic by displaying links to sites, search engines are the true rulers of the World Wide Web. Your job, when you have a site, is to cater to them with SEO-friendly content.
Search engines aren’t impressed with streaming video, vibrant music in the background or all those hard-to-find fonts. Within a single heartbeat, search engines ever-so-quickly scan Web pages not for the best features and pictures, but for words. Tiny, black and white or full color, words.
When a casual Internet user types “Paris Hilton” into the search bar, the engine scans sites for that exact phrase. Sites which feature the phrase “Paris Hilton” the most get the highest rankings for that search -- well, truthfully, that's an oversimplification, as I'll explain shortly, or else it would not be so difficult to get to the top of the search engine results page.
Obtaining a high search engine ranking is the goal, the desire and sometimes the thing that keeps site operators awake at night. No site could exist without content to hold it all together…but how can you create content that’s SEO-friendly, and therefore highly compelling to the all-important search engines?
What is SEO-Friendly Content?
It’s a given that no site can get lots of traffic (and therefore, earn money) without content. All content, no matter how poorly presented, will contain certain keywords and phrases which appear throughout. It is these repeating words and phrases that draw the attention of search engines.
Suppose a Web savvy entrepreneur wants to create a highly popular site about Miss Hilton, a topic which offers a lot of competition. Why not pull one over on the search engines, and fill the site with content that features her name over and over? “Paris Hilton scarves Paris Hilton watch Paris Hilton gossip Paris Hilton Paris Hilton!” This sort of content may be decidedly rich in the important keywords, but there is very little meat for users to wrap their interest around. Not only will this sort of content disappoint readers; it won’t trick the search engines. Those savvy little sites actually know how to scan for readable, sensible content -- meaning that content which only offers barely strung-together words won’t make the cut.
True SEO-friendly content is rich in not only keywords and phrases, but offers an easy read for the average Internet user. There’s a fine line to walk with search engines, and it’s important to make sure words appear frequently - but naturally - within text. For every 400 words, it’s a good idea to include keywords and keyword phrases at least twice throughout. SEO-friendly content will also have bold headings and subheadings which feature those same keywords and phrases.
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