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Keyword and SEO marketing

Keywords and SEO (yet again), and how to rank on search engines

By Dan Furman

Let's visit SEO and keywords again, shall we?

I just got done hearing another sales pitch from some SEO firm that promises me all kinds of off-the-chart numbers in traffic. You probably know the type - the ones that show you pages that they've optimized that rank high on Google. And, since Google is in the news so much, it indeed sounds like a sexy deal.

But, before you bite, please read what these sites say, and ask yourself if you would buy anything from them. More often than not, it's nothing but keywords repeated over and over in sentences that sound like my four year old nephew wrote them.

"Buy Tire Company Automobile Tires in New York. Your best choice for New York car tires for your automobile in New York. New York tires are right here, so buy your New York auto tires for your New York car here at Tire Company of New York, where we have auto tires for your New York car.

Gee, you think they sell car tires in New York?? I'm not sure...

As a writer who specializes in people actually reading what I write, I'm against this complete worship of keywords and SEO. I have turned down jobs because my client insisted on letting his or her SEO person dictate how the site would work.

The problem I have with writing solely for keywords (and not for sales) is that the writing is going to be lousy. Plain and simple. And people won't pay any attention to you if your writing is lousy.

I've tried it, and it needs a million rewrites because the client isn't happy with what it says. Well, of course they're not going to be happy with it - they insisted I include fifteen different keywords and keyphrases over and over, including some that simply sound silly.

"New York car tires"??

I mean, c'mon... who talks like that?

However, this isn't to say I don't optimize for keywords - I do. Happily, in fact. Give me some of your most important keywords, and I'll work them in quite nicely. But give me ten per page and insist they be repeated over and over, and it may not work.

There's a sure-fire way to get ranked. Here it is:

  • Have good, relevant content that people will read. Yes, it should include your best keywords.

  • Have a website that logically flows and will get clicked through. Make it a place people want to visit.

  • Write lots of articles and press releases (or hire me to do it), and frequently update your site. Your articles can certainly focus on keywords. You should also post articles and messages on relevant online message forums.

  • Do some minor SEO stuff, like make sure your H1 tags and picture alt tags have the relevant keywords.

  • Wait. It takes time. Like up to a year. If you cannot wait, pay per click is a nice alternative (I use it a lot).
I said it once before, and I will say it again - give my writing 500 visitors, and give SEO gibberish 50,000, and I'll outsell them every time. Visitors are pointless if you can't close the deal.

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