Surprised to find out that good SEO is more about good content than good web design alone?  Well, it’s true.  Many web designers will tell you that they’re going optimize your site to achieve top search engine rankings—and while their intentions might be perfectly legit—the fact of the matter is that a site’s SEO-friendly design & development really only serves to support excellent, keyword-rich content to be contained within a site.

At least that’s the quick version anyway.  Regardless, now that we have that common misconception out of the way, we should move on to the real bread and butter of getting higher search engine rankings…writing good, keyword-rich content.

What Are The Standards Of Good Keyword Optimized Web Copy?

Writing good SEO-friendly copy for your website will generally be a matter of customizing to specific site needs on a site-by-site basis.  However, there are some rather steadfast guidelines to follow:

Keyword Research First – It’s impossible to write good keyword-rich content without having specific knowledge beforehand on which keywords and keyword phrases you’ll utilize.  Many start their research by using the Google AdWords Keyword Tool to come up with ideas for some high demand, low supply keywords to use.  Regardless of the method, you’ve got to pick topically relevant keywords to use first.

Write Naturally – Some “over-optimizers” used to suggest that the best way to rank well with good keyword rich content was to use a certain keyword density, or in other words, an exact percentage of how many times the keyword was used in the copy compared to the overall word count.  This is nonsense these days—could even be implied as spam—so avoid.  Instead, try to create a helpful piece of content that you would write regardless; it’s best to write naturally and then maybe go back and add in the keyword phrase you’re optimizing for a few times where it fits optimally.  Never, never over use it on purpose though.

Optimize Your Title & Headings – Definitely use the keyword phrase exactly once within the page’s title.  This is super-important.  You might also use it naturally in a heading or sub-heading within the page copy.  Other than that, just remember: keep it natural.

Use Similar Keywords – If you’re writing a topic focused piece of web content or blog post, chances are already good that you’re using lots of natural related lingo throughout the copy in addition to your optimized keyword or keyword phrase.  This is good—you’ll want to have a few appropriate related keyword variations and relevant similar keywords within the copy.  Again, though, this is almost instinctual anyway when writing topically-focused web content.

The Bottom Line – Keep it natural, natural, natural.  Write what your visitors want to read.  Be sure to answer questions they’re asking and address concerns they might have.  Really work hard to put yourself in the mindset of your target visitor when writing.  By all means, build the content around a specific keyword—and ideally focus on just one main featured keyword per page or post.  But at the same time, never push it to the level of becoming unnatural or spammy.

Follow these simple steps to writing good, keyword-rich content—and of course, make sure your web designer has paid attention to the important supporting factors within the design & development.  With this strategy in mind, you’ll be well on the way to getting higher search engine rankings.

1.    Use titles that capture reader (and searcher) attention.

Your headline is the single most important part of your entire blog post.  It’s what the searchers usually see in the SERPs (search engine results pages) and it’s what piques the interest of a potential reader to pursue the article further.

2.    Write your blog posts in a friendly, conversational tone.

Unless you’re in a very technical, professional, or academic field, it’s always good to keep your web writing as conversational as your topic and audience will allow.  Just talk naturally through your keyboard and let the words flow.  Be sure to grammar check once you’re all done by reading the post out loud—writing for your blog just got a whole lot easier!

3.    Use plenty of whitespace while writing your blog articles.

Whitespace means keeping your paragraphs brief (usually no more than 4 sentences), using sub headlines throughout your blog post, and otherwise ensuring that your copy doesn’t “appear” overwhelming to the eye.  If it just visually looks overwhelming, very few will actually go on the read the copy.

4.    Remember that bullet points and numbered lists make excellent blog copy.

This compliments the above rule about whitespace very nicely—but also stands on its own as a web writing principle.  It’s been proven that blog readers are attracted to quick and easy informative posts about the topics they’re interested in.  Lists and bullet points remain one of the top methods of delivering factual information in a quick and concise reader-friendly format.

5.    Cover a topic of interest with your blog posts.

This means planning and not just rambling about corporate policy or something else that’s really mundane to readers.  If you’re out of ideas, think about frequent questions that your customers ask (and answer them in conversational way through the blog).  That one always works in a bind—sometimes it helps to keep a swipe file list of potential blog post ideas handy so you can add ideas at any time they come to you in the normal course of your daily life.

6.    Consider including a relevant attention-grabbing image at the top of the post.

A picture has always been worth a thousand words…and nothing changes here when it comes to blogging.  Using an attention grabbing image can really make the difference if you’re having trouble drawing readers further into your blog copy.  Be creative and try and come up with stock photos that are colorful and somehow tell a story of their own.

7.    Show right away that you have extensive knowledge of the topic.

One way to do this is to share a few bullet point facts or statistics within the first couple of paragraphs of your post.  Sometimes this alone can make enough of an impact to catch a reader’s attention and keep their interest as they continue to read on.

8.    Know that while longer doesn’t necessarily make a blog post better, it does have more potential than a one paragraph blurb style blog post in the eye of the beholder.

Sometimes shorter is actually better too—but too many really short posts can send a message to the visitor that there might not be anything of value to read on the blog.  Getting this just right can be a challenging balancing act sometimes, but getting it right is worth the challenge.

9.    Integrate the basic principles of SEO in each and every blog post you write.

Think about important keywords that pertain to the topic you’re getting ready to tackle.  Make a list of those keyword phrases and at least try to include them where they fit naturally.  Also, include the single most important keyword phrase in the blog’s title.

10.    Don’t be afraid to use other popular blogs for inspiration.

This doesn’t mean copying them (in fact, by all means, you should definitely never copy them).  Instead, just look at their format and the kind of attention-grabbing headlines they use that make an impression on you.  They don’t even have to be topically related to your blog—the ideas and inspiration are universal.

Blogging is still alive and well.  Yep—it’s true.  Even with mass proliferation of the social media we’ve come to rely on today, and with the fact that in some ways blogs kind of pre-date social networking, they work really well as a cornerstone component of websites for a few practical reasons:

• Search engines love frequently updated blogs—which means your blog will help you bring in traffic to your site.

• Blogs are an ideal way to share the odds and ends—or news updates—that you might not ordinarily have a place for on your website.

• Visitors just like the conversational nature of blogs.  They can be catchy to read and foster some really respectable back and forth.

And the best part is that blogging is quite simple if you just commit to keeping up with it.  Here are 5 ways to get excellent results from your blog:

1. Stick to a schedule.

You don’t have to blog at the exact same hour each day or anything overly strict like that, but it is a good idea to keep a basic schedule and plan regular blog postings accordingly.  This way, visitors kind of get a feel for when you’ll be updating the blog with something new—whether it’s once a day or once a month.  Search engines like it too.  And if you want to fill in between the regular schedule with an occasional post, that’s icing on the cake…the more the merrier!

2. Use your blog as your social media hub.

Probably one of the most effective uses for your website’s blog is to use it as a central hub that all of your different social media broadcasts and campaigns kind of aim back towards.  It’s like the central foundation that all of your social outreach ties back into.  This way, your social media efforts still stand on their own, but they also lead visitors back to your site—such as through your blog—for the rest of the story.

3. Ensure your blog is SEO friendly.

When your blog is tuned and tweaked to be a SEO machine, it’s basically using its very organic nature to reach out to the search engines and say “Hey, this site has lots of helpful content that’s updated regularly…click here!”  Search engines love it when they can add super new content to their results pages—and the organized structure of a well-optimized blog really helps them do this very efficiently.

4. Write from the horse’s mouth.

The great thing about blogs and why they tend to be so attractive to visitors is that most people write their blog posts with a little bit less of a formal tone than they would write regular site copy (and posts are usually less ambitious than sales copy).  When writing a blog, it can be quite helpful to literally speak out loud and type what you’re speaking—just like having a conversation in person.  Maintain your professional edge of course, but be sure to make your blogs light and easy to ready for best results.  It kills the pressure.

5. Follow your theme.

One way to make your blog ultra effective is to have at least a rough idea of what it will offer to visitors.  Keeping with the informal, conversational nature that we’ve discussed above, it’s also a good idea to have some sort of theme—or at least a really solid idea of who your audience is—when developing and writing your posts.  In other words, if your blog is geared towards your customers, or turning search engine visitors in to leads or customers, then it’s probably not a good idea to use the blog for in-house communications as well.  Once you’ve figured out what the specific purpose of your blog will be, try and keep on point fairly closely.

Sure, there are some additional helpful ways to get the most from your blog—but by using these 5 tips for getting excellent results from your blog, you’ll definitely have all of the bases covered; you’ll be on the right track!

From start to finish, there’s a lot more that goes into building a complete website than meets the eye!  To say that web design is simply a matter of designing a website leaves out a lot of the important facts.  It’s really a multi-faceted process—one that takes quality planning and expert implementation to get right.  Let’s take a look at the major components of a comprehensive web development project…

One:  Planning

First things first, every website must be carefully planned.  Here at Sleepless Media, we usually start right away when receiving a quote request.  We’ll look at all of the information provided and conceptualize a better feel for how the overall project will flow and what details will entail.  As we evaluate projects, we maintain an ongoing dialogue with our customers to ensure we completely understand the goals and gather all of the right information.

Two:  Project Management

Once the details are all rounded up and put in order, the next step is sending over a detailed formal proposal.  After an agreement is reached and the deal is inked, then it’s time to start taking care of business.  This is where it’s integral to have an efficient, organized project management system in place—without proactive project management to track and guide the web development project over each phase through realization of its full scope, there’s really very little chance of putting all of the pieces together so they actually form a desirable, high-performance finished product.  Project management is just that vital.

Three:  Copywriting

It’s always a good idea to know going into a new web development project that copywriting is one of the most essential components of a good website.  It truly is the lifeblood of the site when it comes to SEO and drawing visitors’ attention.  The thing is, it’s not automatically a part of web design (even though the best websites are designed to work hand-in-hand with their copy).  Many folks choose to supply their own site copy—we can work with this and will even be happy to give you some pointers.  We can also help you produce compelling optimized copy; just ask us about our copy and content process.

Four:  Creating The Look & Feel

This phase is the artistic process—the graphic design, if you will.  Usually done by expert professional graphic designers using industry-standard software like Photoshop, the look and feel must be both attractive and thematically appropriate for the subject of the website being designed.  The look and feel can make or break a website.

Five:  Production & Development

Once the visual design of the site is complete and agreed upon, then the next phase of the web development process is to “slice” the design.  This is kind of a reverse engineering process where the visual and style elements are broken down into optimized pieces and tied together through standards-compliant web code.  Doing this right is really an art of its own!

Six:  Web Programming

With the front-end of the website in place now, the next phase of the web development process is building the systems on the back-end that make it work.  The cogs of the machinery include E-Commerce systems, dynamic databases, and content management systems (CMS), along with other detailed programming work.

Seven:  Testing

After the programming phase is complete, all of the components are put together in their intended final form and the quality assurance phase kicks into full gear.  Extensive testing for standards, functionality, and compatibility are very important to making sure full satisfaction is met.  After all, all of the prior phases of development would go to waste if the finished product simply didn’t work right.

Eight:  Launch

Only once comprehensive testing and debugging is complete will the site be ready to launch.  But once it is, this is the most exciting part…putting your new website creation on to the web after extensive planning, development, and testing.

So, would you agree that building a great website is a little bit more detailed than just patching together some code and content and calling it finished?  It’s true—quality web development requires significant planning and preparation; but as the project wraps up, it becomes very evident that the attention to detail is definitely worth all of the effort!