Traffic and Links! Traffic and Links!
It's like Chicken-Little's "The sky is falling! The sky is falling!" franticity. Frantic + ity...
I do feel a bit frantic over the whole rub. I admit it.
Link popularity is a main topic in search engine optimization and web content writing. Bloggers know, too well, the requirements for link popularity as a means to be indexed in a search engine like Google. (I'm actually sick of typing and hearing about Google. Businesses love it and like wallflowers at a high school dance desperately hold hopes they will be noticed. But I have learned that there are so many OTHER search engines and search directories that can be of benefit to websites trying to stir up traffic. This topic, maybe next week....)
When I include links in my text, they are considered outbound links. They have nothing to do with me or anything to do with getting this site noticed. I put them there as access to other people's information and opinion. What bloggers and all websites, actually desire are
inbound links. Inbound links are now understood to be one of the most effective means by which websites and blogsites establish a good page ranking, especially with Google. And what might you imagine that translates into? The business of
link building.
There are a number of ways I can pursue getting inbound links. I can look for other sites in my area of interest and ask their webdeveloper to include my link on their site in exchange for their's on mine. I would be hoping they would agree and that they are a reputable and, even better, popular, site.
I can become a member of a
link exchange, however the jury still seems to be out on the effectiveness of this method and how the practice is regarded in the industry at this time. I keep reading over and over about the importance of being choosy in who I link to and, in turn, request link exchanges with. It's a little like dating.....isn't it?
I discovered early on, though, that the most coveted brand of inbound link is
one I don't ask for. My goal would be for a well-established, well-ranked site to have a link to mine. Google's search engine loves that, apparently. This is what all the hub-bub is about and why link building can give online businesses and websites an edge with their competition and spell big revenue for their companies.
SEO Papers,
www.seopapers.com, is a virtual storehouse of articles on search engine optimization, including many on the topic of link building.
Also, here's a good article by Mario Sanchez on "Link Building and Pagerank,"
http://www.accordmarketing.com/tid/archive/link-building-and-pagerank.html
Speaking of Keywords--Drop the "Writer"
I've decided, over a glass of California syrah, that "writer" is the whole problem. Yes, that's it. Anyone with a job title with the word "writer" attached to it is in serious trouble, I've concluded.
I set out to write in this blogsite about what I was learning on the topic of writing web content. In one of my earlier postings I said I had clumsily stumbled into the realm of search engine optimization. Well, I've been poking about. A lot. Very interesting stuff. I'm losing sleep at night over such issues as link popularity and keyword lists. Geez, I was just a copywriter a few weeks ago.
Ah... But that's not really what businesses want anymore.
I have extensive knowledge of this because I have become an online job-posting junkie, slave to the likes of Monster, CareerBuilder and Craigslist, to name just a few of the online job services whose doorsteps I darken daily. My particular favs are businesses on Craigslist, especially, who want "copywriters." Not really. They just want to pay what they think any old lowly "writer" would gladly take-- $7-$10 per hour. EXCEPT their expectations for such a position are--besides the requirement that this person be an experienced writer-- that such a writer will, of course, have search engine optimization experience, knowledge of search engines as a marketing tool, and knowledge of web design and development "is a plus." So, since I was a 'copywriter' a couple weeks ago, I have since found out I need to have this whole new toolbox of things. Plus be willing to be paid pathetically for the service.
"Agonizing over all there is to learn." Like I said, but now it means so much more.
Thank GOD it's Friday.
Peggy Noonan at
The Wall Street Journal with an article on the current state of blogs vs. mainstream media,
http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/pnoonan/ .
I signed up for a counter -- from Shiny Stat. I had actually signed up for a couple of others and decided against them. A counter from Branica had HTML code that came with a nasty little ad bundled in with it, so I never pasted it into my template. Another counter from Web-Counter was easy to sign up for, but the counter itself was not a quality graphic, so I took it off the site.
The Metrics of Web Content
Search engine optimization and keyword-rich content are already popular internet business phrases. Businesses that rely on website traffic are reexamining how their existing content, often added by non-writers, is impairing their web presence in an environment increasingly driven towards search engine page rankings. In light of this, why is web content nearly always an afterthought?
Consider this: Google's very popular search engine crawls website pages feeding on one thing-- text. The Googlebot doesn't care about the design, ignores graphics, and no longer includes meta tags and alt tags in its indexes. Words. Text.
CONTENT.(I don't mean to diminish the work of designers and developers, here. Color palettes, graphics, use of space, site architecture and applications are proven elements in a user experience, but they are usually already a done deal when the content is the site's real impairment.)Save for a few universal symbols, people exchange information in the form of language. I buy magazines. I read newspapers. I read books and troll websites and blogs. And most people do at least one of these things. I crave language and language provides information.
Between customers and visitors searching for websites that match their search criteria and businesses and web sites vying for web presence and page rankings, the system of exchange has become based on a commodity of words. Keywords and web content are as negotiable as gold nuggets, then, right? But in the framework of an economical system that values the metrics of more hardware-based industries, it's not surprising that business' demands are not equalling the compensation for those who provide web content.
Why is it that one of the oldest and most accepted systems of communication is so often an afterthought? Because in the past writers as a whole have typically practiced what is thought to be a soft art, a fine art. But when the product a web writer provides is expected to shore-up a business' web presence and draw measurable financial revenues and exponentially increase customer numbers, then it's time to get a metrics system with which to measure the value of such a service. Likewise, when a writer's product becomes inextricably linked with the hardware and software underpinnings of a giant search engine such as Google's or Yahoo!'s, then can a web content writer really relate to the practice as a "fine art?" There is nothing fine about it. It requires hardcore attentiveness to current culture and trends in various areas, an understanding of the basic concepts of how words integrate into space and design, awareness of cognitive word associations, and respect for the influence that language can have on culture.
Optimization.
The word itself implies specialization, customization.
- When you pay a mechanic to optimize an automobile's performance.....$$$$
- When you contract a software programmer to optimize a program.....$$$$$$
- When you hire a cabinet maker to customize a kitchen.....$$$$$+
These people can bring home the big cashola because their industries, their services, have their own accepted standards and measures of value. Does the car go faster? Does the program involve less bandwidth, crunch numbers faster? How much value has the custom kitchen added to the value of the house?
Web content writers have the ability to focus the scope of webpages, emphasize a product name or brand and build a keyword vocabulary that blends smoothly into a text that synthesizes with the design and architecture of a website as a whole, providing a pleasurable user experience.
What content writers need now is a toolbox of measuring sticks. Has the website counted more visitors? Have revenues increased since new or fresh content was added? Is there a more positive user experience? Are there proven search engine results? These are the negotiating beads content writers and technical writers might come to rely on as their accepted industry wampum.
"The Rise of the Creative Class," by Richard Florida is well worth the read, http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2001/0205.florida.html
The Blog Roadside
If you're like me you are probably wondering "What's up with the blogside 'signage?'"
I'm referring to the sidebar space on almost any blog in cyberspace. Many of these spaces are lined with squared-off icon-links, affectionately called "chicklets." They advertise and link to services bloggers frequently use. Services include blog directories, XML and RSS feeds (more about this later), and services like BlogExplosion and BlogCrowd that promise to deliver traffic if you log on and sprint-click willy-nilly through other people's weblogs clicking ratings radio buttons as fast as you can. I tried BlogExplosion on my other blog,
http://strongcoffee.blogspot.com . It was NOT a pleasing experience-- something to be said for usability if you're beyond the age of 25. The user experience-- for me-- was much like a mosh pit of blogs.
But I'm like everyone else when it comes to learning something new. I subscribe to the practice of follow-the-leader. But which leader? Does every blogger know what she/he is doing? Clearly some do. They make it to the top of Google's search results. Any career coach worth their salt would recommend using the successful blogs as my blog role model. Anyhow my role model list is still fairly small and untried...
But, back to blog signage. I have begun to subscribe to the practice. I have seen some regulars posted on the roadside shoulder of quite a few blogs, so I went with those first. Like roadside bill-boards-- they are just there. I see them, some I like, some I don't.
Lemme run down the little ditties I have added and why.
- The "I Power Blogger" is the proprietary icon of Blogger, the software interface. I din't add it, just comes with the package. It has a cool look, too.
- FeedBurner. I love this one. This site powers my RSS feed. Their sign-up is easy to use. The code I copied into my template makes it possible for aggregators to subscribe to updates to my site. More on RSS later, but in the meantime Threadwatch.org has an article called "The 10 Minute RSS Primer," http://www.threadwatch.org/node/1340 although it pretty specifically applies to Bloglines' service.
- Blogarama is a blog directory. Adding my blog's URL to their bloglist was easy. Their site is navigable and not mucked up with pop-up ads. Easy to paste the little chicklet banner. I had the choice to go more minimal with the sidebar banner or super-size it. I don't know how long it takes for their editors to approve the site, though.
- Blogwise is a popular blogside attraction I've noted, so I'm giving it a whirl. Once again, rather easy sign up and they have a few different icon/banners to choose from. But, get this, 18 days before my site is approved for their directory, they have that many blogs in the pipeline. Is this king of popularity a good thing?
- Technorati is a sleek-looking site, nice greens and grays along with plenty of whitespace. I feel like I'm joining a club for blogging professionals with this one. Sign-up is free and easy. The only confusing thing about it at this brief relationship juncture is that I either need to find a way to add a ping script to my template (not sure yet if that's possible with Blogger) or ping Technorati manually, by visiting their site, every time my blog is updated with a new post. I can create a "Watchlist" by choosing blogsites or keywords--their brand of RSS aggregator. Technorati also has rather extensive links for developers. I like that kind of open-source opportunity, too.
- Blog Search Engine. Hmmmm. This was the first blog list I added my URL to. They claim that by linking back to them it will give me "higher rankings." Honestly, I'm not sure I care about their rankings. Blog Search Engine's site was so gummed up with pop-ups it made navigating frustrating and ultimately impossible. I finally closed the browser window altogether. So, if you are reading this, be warned.
This is what I've tried so far. There aren't many people who write about these curious phenomena, either. Comprehensive lists are hard to come by, but here's one that stands out-- Ari Paparo's "Big List of Blog Search Engines," http://www.aripaparo.com/archive/000632.html .
A Little About Search Engines--Robots and Spiders
The World Wide Web without search engines would be one vast repository of files. Epic struggles would be waged with researching, well, pretty much anything. Search engines like Google and Yahoo! are the big industrial-strength workhorses of the Internet. They make sense of the huge file cabinet in cyberspace, making the task of finding persons, places or things a rather simple pasttime. If nothing else, these tools certainly narrow down the search.
Search engines employ a few different strategies to organize their search findings. Some, like Google, use spiders-- a software that "crawls" the World Wide Web indexing new websites and updating the indices of any sites where the crawler detects updates. These are returned to the user in a ranked order, sometimes referred to as search engine page rankings. Up until a few months ago, I gave relatively little thought to the whys and hows a website ended up at the top of the search engine rankings heap. I thought, "Whatever.... just gimme my information and our relationship will be over." But now that I am wading about in the gummy waters of web content writing I've had the big "Ah-hah!" come over me. What are these little buggers, anyway and who the hell is the "Googlebot"?
What do search engines look for?
They don't all look for the same thing. Some search engines look at the site's text only. Others use a combination of site text, meta tags and page titles to index and catalog. And who are "they"? Google, AltaVista, HotBot, Lycos, MSN, Yahoo! (calls itself a "directory"), and lesser known search engines like MixCat and Surf Gopher. There are dozens of others.
The "Googlebot" is the affectionate name given to Google's website crawler. This software looks at web directories for newly added URLs and any updated websites already indexed. When you or I type in a search word or phrase into Google's "Search" box, we are actually querying the index or database of text, lots of text. The Googlebot returns those results it finds to be most relevant, current and popular based on the initial query. Returning a high Google page ranking is the hope of all websites, ("When I grow up, I wanna be..."), which is why Search Engine Optimization is big business today.
Where Am I?So, where is my blogsite in relation to the search engines? Nail-biting time. Drum roll....
Nowhere, really. In Google, I type the site url and still find nothing. My other blogsite, Strong Coffee, at least gets found, so it has some sort of index. That's my agonizing admission for today. Time to get to work.
For detailed information on the Googlebot and how it works, take a look at
Google Guide,
http://www.googleguide.com/google_works.htmlAs far as meta tags go, this is one of the best articles I've found on the topic, from
Search Engine Watch,
http://searchenginewatch.com/webmasters/article.php/2167931
Web Content Writing for Newbies
I am a newbie web content writer.
Repeat after me....
I have to accept my shortcomings first to realize my potential, right? As Tony Robbins says-- I really have to admit I like him-- "change is inevitable, progress is not."
My goal is to not only learn how to write effective web content, the ins and outs of the "sport," but by doing so, to provide that same product. My thought process this Sunday morning, after the help of half a pot of a strong chicory-laced coffee, was "gee, if I'm a beginner and searching for help online, it stands to reason there are most likely others like me."
My first lesson learned: target people with similar interests. This is where my first-line admission comes in. My blog would benefit most from attracting traffic from other writers who are new to web content writing and looking to put all the mental pieces together. Some of those "pieces" are elements related to search engine optimization. Web sites, including blogsites, want to be found. I know now that effective web content is that which postures itself with well-placed keywords and phrases that are often "tickled" during a search.
I also know that I don't really want to attract anyone here who is an expert. They'll be bored and my site will be useless, aside from a good chuckle, which is fine, but why spend time focusing on the wrong audience?
One of the first things I tried the other day was one of the popular-- and free-- keyword suggestion tools. I gave the
Overture Keyword Suggestion Tool a whirl,
http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion. A lot of the web content sites recommend these tools as a way to generate keywords and keyword phrase ideas. I think keyword phrases are the way to go. When you search say Google, do you really just type in one word? It's pretty fruitless to do that. Typically, most people are searching for more precise information. I thought that by targeting my audience with more precise keyword phrases I might draw someone to my blog site who is in a similar position. The beauty of blogs over static web pages is that the blog environment allows for a fluidity of information and an openness to communication via comments and tag-boards. And maybe, just maybe, if I learn something, I can actually generate traffic and--dare to dream-- decent search engine page rankings.
I took a few minutes to jot down the keyword phrases I would most likely use to search for sites related to writing keyword content and web content writing based on my experience level. I came up with "web writing how-to", "beginner's web content", and "web content newbie." My rationale was if I was using these phrases, so would others. Perhaps attracting an audience is based on keyword-rich content, but it has to appeal to someone specific, at the same time.
After all this, keyword or keyphrase rich web content is only one of the factors that make websites effective.
In my next posting, I think I need to explore what all the hub-bub is over web traffic anyway. After all, if I can't generate traffic to my site, why bother providing content? Most people who develop a website have knowledge to share or products to market. People need to find them.
Also, what are search engine page rankings and what are they based on? How do sites, even some blogs, end up in the top positions on Google's search engine?
If you're here, please contribute with a comment, link suggestions, or advice.
keywords, keyword content, content writing, keyw
Maybe you get the message.
I didn't.
In the interest of researching a job lead for a "Keyword/Content Copywriter" I quickly found myself up to my nares in marketing blogs, how-tos for content "that sells", and articles about how the right keywords in your web copy add up to SEO.
Yes, SEO. Search Engine Optimization.
Wow.
I thought I was a decent writer.
Feeling
this big and ignorant. Where the hell have I been, anyway?
"Watch Newbie Tech/Content Writer Blunder"-- my headline for today.
At this moment I have a line of orange Post-It notes with pencilled links to blogs (with no RSS feeds, fyi), freelance outsourcing sites, web content tutorials, and I'm not done yet. I have a headache, but nothing a Corona Light and a fresh lime wedge can't cure. These Post-It notes are the little guys. A caterpillar-like configuration of them is lined up along the desktop in front of me. And a cat is lying across the head of it.
I'm unemployed again. I just came to the end of a short-lived contract with a marketing firm for whom I researched and wrote original articles/copy on subjects ranging from debt consolidation to erectile dysfunction and travelling in Italy. The articles were destined for informational websites somewhere. Now I'm second-guessing every word I wrote for this firm. omigod, did I competely screw myself?
Anyway. (Shovelling my angst out of the way.)
I am at the bottom of the food chain and not comfortable with that position. And there are a hell of a lot of freelance writers who are bidding for work. Some of them run significant companies that specialize in all forms of web development work including the copy and the design.
This is where I begin to try and compete.
I am like an amoeba today. Let's evolve.
little guy (gal)
See? That's the thing. I want to quote a familiar phrase-- "the little guy", but in my case that's a misnomer. Everyone wants to quote someone. Makes it authentic that way. Like my way isn't alright enough. My thought or idea somehow needs to be underscored by someone (guy), no (gal), "bigger" than me.
I want to comment on communications or miscommunications, and while surfing around other "big" blog sites where they have underscored LOTS of things with much "bigger" guys ideas, cuz their's aren't concrete enough, I began to get this puny feeling. Here I am blah, blah, blahing about the smudgy little coins in my piggy-bank-mug and overpriced cups of coffee and then again about address changes-- the little things that mean a lot. I haven't posted the one on address changes yet (squirrely little buggers), but I think I'm going to edit the draft and get it on.
Without underscores, without comments.
Did you know corporate America is behind on the blog scene?
I refuse to underscore anything here with a link to someone else who links to someone else who links to someone else.....like some ugly blog-tsunami.
And what a g.d. surprise.
Here's my thoughts: Big corporations are still having problems securing their network backdoors. Blogs are like schoolgirl's dating diaries to some of them. Clearly out of reckless ignorance, yes....Truth is, regardless of all the slick corporate annual reports, the cleanly designed websites-- paint makes it what it ain't. That's a saying. And I'm not going to quote anyone. It's all out there.
I quit working for one of the major medical institutions in the country, uh, lessee, nearly 3 months ago. I can still login to their corporate intranet to check my email account. Yes, I still have an account. I'm sure they're planning to roll out a corporate blog campaign anyday now.
smirk.
afternoon blinds study
