Strunk & White, authors of Elements of Style wrote one of the best chapters ever anywhere (about composition). It reads: “omit needless words.” that’s it. And really, what more do you need to know? OK. a little bit more. But the idea still stands. Write less… get more. Write less… and get better copy.
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These days though, people are doing the opposite. In an all-out SEO onslaught, they’re stuffing their copy with as many (key) words as possible. I wrote a paragraph for a travel agent the other day that read: “My name is John Fortson. I’m a travel consultant - I help travelers get good deals, and have good vacations. It’s what I do, and what I like to do.” Pretty good, right? Well, now it reads: “My name is John Fortson. I’m a leisure travel consultant - I help leisure travelers get good deals, and have good vacations. It’s what I do, and what I like to do.” It’s still alright, but it has two too-many words in it now. The timing is gone, and with it, so is some of its’ effectiveness.
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Now, I’ve come a little way from my why new tech doesn’t need SEO post… I get why you should use SEO, and really, I think it’s a good idea. I even think a good SEO writer (which admittedly, I’m not) can find a decent balance between what appeals to spiders and what appeals to people. But the reality is that it’s always a tradeoff. You can’t ‘omit needless words’ while at the same time ‘adding important words.’ It’s just not possible.
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So, though I’d like to tell you to screw SEO, I won’t. I’ll tell you to consider it. But, I’ll tell you that if you’re in the position to trade SEO for readabililty (and I think a lot of people are), then you should. You should omit needless words, and you shoud write better stuff.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
The real power of SEO is inbound links and the anchor text of those links. Given there are over 200 or so things that Google looks at as it determines relevance, (Page Title, URL, Header Tags in order of importance) it makes a ton more sense to write 1 blog post with unique maybe even viral content then spend all day writing crap copy filled with a bunch of keywords. Build buzz, reach out to other, and start a dialog with potential customers. That’s how you will start ranking higher.
Just my 2 cents,
Danny
I agree that the consideration of balancing content structure between readers and SE’s is becoming more and more essential. If the major search engines are not already including grammar and English syntax in their algorithm, I have to think that they will begin to do so in the near future, or provide a higher weight in their algorithm in response to the ill-effect it’s causing online. This will raise the bar on content and separate the schmaltzy keyword-packers from the skilled writers, providing you a better market opportunity.
This has all the makings of one of those sob-stories we’ve all heard that go something like: “I used to be ranked #4 until one day…” Intelligent marketers surely will be proactive in preparing the this type of business-crushing algorithm change.
Until then, let’s continue to keyword pack our content, because as a professional keyword packer I can say that I’m quite possibly the best keyword packer on the internet and provide excellent and cheap keyword packing services.
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