SEO for human consumption
We previously examined “The ABC’s of SEO”. As stated in that article, we considered only the most basic of the building blocks on which articles can be built for effective Search Engine Optimization.
When you write for SEO, you must – of necessity – give primary attention to the process of having your article “found” by Google and other search engines. Even though Google has done a fantastic job of teaching computers to mimic the thought processes of human beings, the computers are not yet fully human. For example, they can scan this article in a millisecond, and they won’t get bored if they have to view several thousand words of ordinary looking text. The same is not true of the human audience!
Identify your target audience
The reality is that you must first please the search engines. Failure to do so will land your article somewhere deep in the middle of the pack – and it may as well be at the bottom of the Mariana Trench (the deepest part of the ocean). An article which is hidden somewhere in the midst of thousands of others is essentially invisible to your desired audience.
To prevent your article landing “in the depths”, you need the assistance of a good keyword tracking tool, such as Wordtracker. This will enable you to select the primary and secondary keywords which actually work. (It’s not enough just to have keywords – you need the keywords which will assist you in achieving top rankings.)
Who is it that you want to reach? Most SEO articles are intended to accomplish some form of marketing – and the last time I checked, search engines weren’t buying much! You must first write for the search engines, but once they have directed the searchers to your site, it’s your job to hold their interest. If human beings are your intended audience, then you need to understand a little bit of human nature.
It is an accepted fact that “white space” is an important factor in successful writing. When the eye falls on a page full of nothing but text, the tendency is to back out and seek something less overwhelming / more attractive. Text may not intimidate search engines, but too much of it does intimidate the average reader!
Break the page up with meaningful captions
If you break the page into subject categories, with captions which lead the reader to items of interest, they are much more likely to stay with you. Remember: no matter how well you write the SEO text, unless the reader stays with you and actually buys your product, your fantastic mastery of search engine optimization won’t put a penny in your bank account!
Divide your article up into reasonably short paragraphs – no more than 5 or 6 lines – and keep the paragraphs which relate to a single aspect of the topic together. Then devise a short, compelling caption which draws the reader’s eye to their chosen topic. Even if they don’t read the entire article, they will pick up on the part which is of particular interest to them, and they are likely to follow through with the balance of the article.
Include a call to action!
Be sure that you know what your goal is – and don’t hesitate to urge the reader toward that goal. If you are hoping that most of your readers will order a case of widgets, tell them so! Impress them with the quality of your widgets, and the wonderful price which you are offering. Be sure to actually urge them to order, and make it easy to follow through. Maybe you don’t care about sales – perhaps you are just a nice guy who wants to entertain – but if you actually want sales, remember the goal, and urge the reader to buy your widgets!
In short, write a quality article which will appeal to real people. Then come back and edit it to make sure that the search engines will “like” it. The desired audience is “the folks”, but the path to the audience is SEO. In order to succeed in this game, you must write for both.
