When you are creating content for yourself, do you put in extra keywords for the search engines? I haven't been, and I don't know if I should. I know a lot of people swear by writing content for readers, and not search engines. I know I could get ranked a lot higher if I put in a few phrases and keywords here and there. What do you think? Do it and be discrete about it, do it without mercy, or not at all?
If you're writing for your readers, you're writing for good SEO results. Want to hear something funny? The buzz now is "long tail" KWPs. These johhny-come-latelys are finally saying that targeting "widgets" or "blue widgets" isn't enough or the best. Instead, target something like "how to buy widgets." Well crap on a stick, dip it in Hersey's chocolate, feed it to me, slap me on the ass and call me a sheeple. I've been saying this forever to my clients. I was reading something from a PR expert and this person was talking about how the reader/consumer and interaction mattered now. Really? It took you how many years to figure that out? When you target your readers, you're naturally targeting what's important. Look, step back and see how Google has been morphing over the years. And oh yeah, it's not 100% automated. They have people that actually look at sites in their listings. Amateurs think of just KWPs in an article. Pros think of content targeting and saturation. Let me ask you this. Imagine you wrote an article about "blue widgets" and used extra keywords (above what normal writing habits would produce). Now imagine I wrote an article on that topic and focused on 1) quality and 2) my reader. Who do you think will get the best bang for the buck? Want a tip for massaging KWPs into your articles? Oh wait, that's one of the things I get paid to do. The fact is, 95% of the SEO writers walking around here (and those thinking about SEOing their content) are like someone building a 2007 vehicle from 1920's technology. Today's KWP-only SEO writer is tomorrow's homeless person. Sorry for going off on tangents.
Very interesting, marketjunction. I will stick with my current plans, and won't change any of my content. I don't like sacrificing user satisfaction for better exposure anyhow.
Who says that you have to sacrifice anything? Better content leads to better results. It's those who frolic in the forrest of inadequacy that have to work harder, hope 1994 SEO KWP techniques work, and who ultimately will lose. It's the 1990's philosophy that says SEO is about KWPs only. For frack sakes (Yes, I'm a Battlestar Galactica fan), it has to do with so much more. Who's going to bookmark and talk about a piece of crap article?
very true! (I'm a fan of BSG myself!) Just out of being curious, do you support having digg buttons on each blog post?
If you're targeting Diggs, then why not. My only problem would be if you did it poorly and your site/page/whatever turned into a reading obstacle course.