Hey guys, I had a tech section on my blog but I'm going to remove it becuase it's not really relevant.. so thought I'd post some of the posts here incase they might help someone... So here's one of them: ----- Anyone who has been into SEO (Search Engine Optimization) for a while has heard the phrase "Content is King." What this means is that creating good and original content for your website is what will keep visitors coming back and will help your site receive the Search Engine Results that you are looking for. There are two main reasons why I believe this is very true: The first is that the major search engines are very smart, and they know when content has been duplicated with a simple "copy and paste" and they scan almost all websites. If you have copied information word for word from someone else's website onto yours, it will pick that up and in the end, it is the page with the more authority (Higher Pagerank, visitor density and link popularity) that will get the place in the search results. The other copied pages will likely be confined to the back of the line for that particular search query, as the major search engines would not want to be returning pages and pages of the same material, which would be a frustrating experience for the end user who is searching for something. The other very important reason why creating original content for your website is the best way to help it grow in Search Engine Optimization is that good, original content draws readers in. People are smart, and they recognize good information on the topic they love and have taken time out of their day to search for. If you are writing good, experienced, well though out or even cutting edge information on your topic, you can bet that those who find it will read it, come back looking for more, show their friends who are also interested in that topic, and remember your page as a good reference for that topic. This means you will be organically creating a website environment that retains users, and THAT is the key to making your site popular, successful and ultimately a high placing website in the search engine rankings. It's not meant to be an overnight process... and in a world where everyone seems to be wanting the "magic bullet" that will make their site successful, the truth is actually that making a successful website is not unlike becoming successful at any other endeavor at life: it is about learning and working hard (very hard) for a long time to slowly grind out the results you want. That's not to say you can't have great results early, but if you want to have a truly successful site it takes a lot of time and a lot of hard work.. This will be the topic of an upcoming article.
Yes, creating original content is key to good SEO, but original content in a highly competitive ranked keyword isn't going to get you far. If you're a newbie, you must go for long-tail keywords to rank for and then write your original content. Long-tail keywords convert better in the first place, as it is much more targeted.
I'm not sure what you mean? Is it because of googles new search feature? I have 3 sites that get their traffic ONLY from long tail key words, and their traffic has only gone up in the past weeks. I wouldn't say their days are numbered.