SEO: Is it really necessary

I've been taking some online courses. The story is that SEO is out thanks to Google and social networking is in. I'm finding that it's true. Since I've stepped up my social networking, I'm starting to make more money on my websites.

Hm. I'll have to read up on that. I do FB, myspace, pinterest, tumblr, sumbleupon, G+, blogger, twitter, linkedin, .....am I missing anything?

The rules for SEO have changes, but it's still important. Social signals are an important part of the "new" SEO. Keywords, as an example, are still important, while a heap of cheap backlinks is dangerous now. Classical SEO marketers don't like it - I do, though  It makes the web less spammy ;-)

No Lana, but I am.

Lana, do Redgage. You'll make some money too. All you have to do is post your articles, art work, Zazzle products and comment on others. It's probably the easiest of all to get paid on.

I've been on RedGage for almost 6 months. Still haven't reached the payout level. Sometimes I have trouble with the site - not being able to logon or upload. I get frustrated with it and forget to go back. I'm due a visit right now! Thanks for reminding me.

Simon, I'm really dumb when it comes to this kind of stuff, so I hope you don't mind me asking but what do you mean by cheap backlinks. Are the some places that we shouldn't use to backlink?

Here's what SEO means (and why it will always be necessary):

Let's say, you want to write an article on the proper care for a pet bunny.

Now, you feel poetic blood rushing through your veins, so you craft this title: "Fluffy Pillows Of Lovely Cuteness In Your Home" 

The search robots find your content and promptly present it to searchers looking for "bedding". Why? Because you haven't applied any basic SEO (Search Engine Optimization) to your article, and the search bots think it's all about fluffy pillows.

Knowing that the search robots look first at URL and title of newly-published content, you should let them know what your content is about by featuring the most relevant, descriptive phrase (your primary keyword) in the title of your piece.

"Everything You Need To Know About Pet Bunny Care" 

Now that's a properly-optimized title!

Your job as a writer is to determine the search phrase (or word), for which you want your article to get found in Google. Ask yourself: in 1 to 3 (or more) words - what am I writing about? (In our example it's pet bunny care). Then work that phrase into an appealing headline for your article.

That's the most basic SEO.

It's nothing bad - it's just a great tool for us online writers.

Thanks Ryan. I get it now.

I shall always subscribe to SEO as it just makes good sense regardless of what's trending.

BUT Ryan, I do agree with you and what a great way to brand yourself achieving a larger sweep of property.

The charm in fully learning the science of SEO is that you don't have to "try" to use it when you write- it just comes out incorporated in the mix already. I don't remember the last time I "tried" to do on page SEO, my only real SEO vice is making sure to use supporting keywords (LSI) but even those just come natural when you're seasoned. SEO offpage is more involved but I just throw all that into the "Promotion" category not SEO (personal pref). Bottom line on page is just writing good content, and formatting it well using old school rules of sub headings and plenty of content and window dressing (images, gallery etc..)... what you should focus your attention on is promotion or article promotion (putting your articles everywhere with links back posted on sites that overall have a high PR (i.e. hubpages, squidoo, someones high PR blog (pr= page ranked)...  I only promote an article that takes off on it's own in a month with no intervention... that's the halmark of a page people are looking for I think... so it's a page that some promo could boost income on (traffic)...

ArleneVPoma: 12/05/2012 - 12:04 PM

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SEO takes the fun out of creative writing, but I've taken a class and read anything that I can understand on subject.

I am really slow at learning all of this, but that goes for everything else.  Improvement is slow, but I'm doing better than when I started.

For the record, I would totally read an article entitled 'Fluffy Pillows Of Lovely Cuteness In Your Home'.

ryank: 12/05/2012 - 07:56 PM

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Today I've actually done my first bit of off-page SEO for Wizzley content, I've created a few backlinks.

Did you write guest posts or post on article directories?

Btw people, Ryan and Jerrico are both right. Only promote the articles that pick up a bit on their own in the first few months  - or even later. I did that for 2 of my hubs and now they each get a lot of traffic, they alone make up 85 - 90% of my traffic.

JoHarrington: 12/05/2012 - 08:08 PM

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For the record, I would totally read an article entitled 'Fluffy Pillows Of Lovely Cuteness In Your Home'.

 

But the point is Jo, that you would never find it in the search engine results pages where you might be looking. This title would be a good case for viral marketing on Redgage, Stumbleupon, Digg etc where people pick up on titles that are not SEO'd and run with them.

Perhaps (and I have just thought of this) create a catchy title (newsprint style, or is it Gangnam style) and get it promoted on viral networks. Then after a week maybe, change the title to one that is SEO'd - the search engines will have a good 'social' history for the article and maybe give it a boost in their SERPs. Who knows?

humagaia: 12/06/2012 - 03:49 AM

But the point is Jo, that you would never find it in the search engine results pages where you might be looking. This title would be a good case for viral marketing on Redgage, Stumbleupon, Digg etc where people pick up on titles that are not SEO'd and run with them.

Perhaps (and I have just thought of this) create a catchy title (newsprint style, or is it Gangnam style) and get it promoted on viral networks. Then after a week maybe, change the title to one that is SEO'd - the search engines will have a good 'social' history for the article and maybe give it a boost in their SERPs. Who knows?

Well, now that's a good idea...

I'm not so sure you would get a 'good social history' out of such actions. Yes, you might get a few hundred hits, but those would be random folks who jump on your title, not your target group who's interested in your actual topic. And those people would quickly click away and not even think about sharing your article. After all, they'd just been somewhat deceived, no?

Also, the increased bounce rate could be sought of bad for the article

I still have a lot of success with those long tail keywords.

They may not get hundreds of hits a day in traffic, but they COUNT and are TARGETED visitors. If I trick them into landing on my page, they aren't going to buy my products and probably won't stay around (like chefkeem said).

So if my niche was Norwegian Forest Cats, I'm not going to have a title that says About Norwegian Forest Cats because adwords would show high competition. But I am going to browse through all types of things people are looking for on the topic and write about THAT.

Maybe I'll have articles like:

pet clothing for norwegian forest cats

cute pics of norwegian forest cats

how much food should a norwegian forest cat eat

(yes, I am making these keywords up).

Many many times I use a longtail where I don't get tons of visitors, but only 3 sites are trying to rank for it. Instant page one in search engine, instant traffic from google and, when appropriate topic, instant amazon sales for topics that are sales oriented.

Again, it is what works for me. I know social stuff is in but honestly most people I would shout out to have zero need for rv products. I'll never be "big" and "viral" and "popular" but the nice consistent stream to my blogs are very targeted and I'm giving them what they are looking for.

Kinda like being a little clothing store in a small town...I'll never be Macy's, but the locals keep the bills paid.

Does Fluffy Pillows Of Lovely Cuteness In Your Home come in black????????

Oh, never thought of that. Well, then when I search for anything the bounce rate will always be 0% as I never go back. I just open pages in new tabs. Thanks for the info