Trying to write naturally ?

When writing for long tail keywords, for example ,exact keyword " foods for cats dogs affordable" is it best to use these words in a sentence or do we use the exact phrase even though it is not proper writing flow? Do we stick to strictly writing for human readers or cheat a bit and use the full keyword? I know common sense would dictate not using the ridiculous term in writing but how far either way to go with this rule?


thank you

 

Consider how many people are actually using the exact phrase when they search. If the number is a good number worth targeting, then use that exact phrase even though it is not proper grammar. It's not something you would submit to a high quality site or use for high quality link trades and the likes. You wouldn't want to use it as an example of your writing, but the text copy still has some value.

 

A client wanted me to do this for him. I turned him down.

 

I don't recommend that you do this for your tier 1 or your tier 2 articles. I wouldn't recommend you do it for your tier 3 articles either, but they're less important.

Consider this; when a person searches "foods for cats dogs affordable" they are also finding results that say "Finally! Foods for cats and dogs that's affordable!"

 

When targeting a key phrase like that it is perfectly acceptable to change it a little like for example: foods for cats dogs can be very affordable if you know what to look for. This way it becomes a correct sentence but Search engines will disregard words like can, be and very so the SEO power of the phrase will remain in tact.

A line like that would be something I'd use for a title.

 

A lot of the time weird phrases can be split between two sentences - half the phrase ends the first sentence and the other half begins the next. Your phrase doesn't really lend itself to that.

I haven't seen one in a long time but there used to be studies of what words, symbols and punctuation Google regularly ignored when picking up keyword phrases. You might want to see if anyone's still doing that sort of thing.

If I'm really stuck, I'll put the phrase in quotes and search for it. What are others doing with the phrase? In this case, the only thing that came up was this thread. Take away the quotations and you will see what G does match to that phrase .

I try to accommodate clients with pre-determined keyword lists. It's not always possible. I once received an assignment from a web design firm where they wanted a huge list of keyword phrases in a 500 word piece. Each phrase was supposed to be used at least twice. When I pointed out that left only 80 or so words for me to play with, they agreed to reduce the list but admitted they really wanted all of them. The client had done it with their original piece and they thought a professional writer could make it readable. Needless to say, that firm and I parted ways.

I generally try to give it a go when clients ask for crazy phrases. But, I also try to educate them on making things human friendly rather than just a pile of keywords strung together.

Don't forget to check the adwords keyword tool and see if there's a better phrase you can recommend. I've had clients demand a phrase only to find out it gets no hits - like the one you're asking for help with. I think I would share that with your client before proceeding and maybe the two of you can find a better phrase to target.

Good luck.

 

I agree with Kraven2 and actually Google mentions this somewhere in its guidelines but I don't remember exactly where.

 

Thanks all, good stuff, Kraven hit it right on the nail head ,just what I was wondering. Great input from all of you ,

 

Of course you don't want to use words in your site that do not make sense as written. It is very easy to, as others have shown, use those same words where they do make sense. In this case, it is easy to do with out even adding any other words:

"foods for cats dogs affordable" can be written as "Affordable foods for cats and dogs" and just that easily you have used the identical words but now it make sense as a page title or a heading for a list or blog post or whatever. One need not bend over backwards to use search terms verbatim when it does not read well to an actual visitor to your website.

 

As far as I know, crawlers don't usually buy anything so you should write for people unless you want to make your website look ridiculous and amateurish.

 

Some people try to sell it off as if it were written by someone with crappy English. If your writing style is important to you and more importantly, if you are writing, say, a blog post about it, I do not recommend doing it.

Another way that I figured out while I was writing SEO content was to use a format like this:

Foods for Cats Dogs Affordable - Is it really?

I know that it doesn't make a lot of sense for the phrase that you gave us but it did for a lot of what I was writing for. For someone who understands even a basic level of English, understanding a statement like the one above shouldn't be a problem.

I agree with Sharpay (and I like her post, too bad I can't actually Like it). Go for phrase/broad match rather than exact match (you don't really have to do anything special. Just use the terms in that order in a sentence that makes sense!).

 

Always write for the readers and not the search engines. While you do need to optimize your articles for SEO, ultimately, it is the readers that you want to keep on your site, and they won't keep coming or stay if they do not understand your articles.

My two cents. Have a good day!

 

While your suggestion is of course far more readable, did you check out the Google search results for both? They're extremely different. One phrase has the Hill's Science Diet site in the #1 and 2 places - probably a hard nut to crack. The other one has some blog post from 2009 and a Yahoo! Answers question - seemingly easier articles to knock off the top.

There's also the issue of doing what the client asks for and/or explaining to them a better alternative. Just rearranging their phrase without explanation would seem a great way to lose a client.

Here's a great article that explains words and symbols that don't impact keyword phrases... http://www.thesearchagents.com/2010/06/the-final-word-on-punctuation-period/

And finally, since 'and' is a word that Google generally normalizes/ignores, how about "When looking for foods for dogs and cats, affordable choices abound."?

That still yields different results but at least you're not running the risk of totally alienating a client.

But, as I said before, it's a phrase that gets few if any searches and this thread is the only place using it exactly. As a professional accepting money for your expertise, it should be part of your job to gently suggest to your client better options. Of course, there's always the option to put in whatever ridiculous phrase they ask for (assuming there's actually a way to do so) and also include ones they might actually get some traffic from.

 

I get what you are saying. I don't work for others so that angle did not cross my mind. Also, I didn't see anything in the OP that indicated that this was for a client. I was answering this basic question:

"Do we stick to strictly writing for human readers or cheat a bit and use the full keyword?"

I did not check the Google results for both search terms either. Frankly, I would always write for a human and avoid using odd phrases like the sample he gave "foods for cats dogs affordable" unless there was a very specific reason. Obviously, if one is trying to rank for that odd arrangement of words for whatever reason then that alone would be a reason to leave it.

 

I've often been surprised at how Google parses phrases, particularly odd ones. Things that most of us mere mortals would consider the same exact thing, regardless of word order, can yield results that don't even come close to being the same. One of the phrases I searched for had the 4th or 5th result for an article about whether or not some pet food had dog and cat parts in it. yuck.

Answering your question, when I can do both, I try. It's makes it a bit of challenge and more fun for me. If there isn't a way to make it readable then I find an alternative.

 

As a content writer it is very important that they do research on any topic on which they are preparing content, it is true that some of the topics the writer is not aware with and needs to update his knowledge before he writers, so every writer should do some research on Google for new topics or topics which he is not good at writing.