Juniper Ink.

Over the past week or so, I’ve been learning about Search Engine Optimization (SEO) writing. There is an abundance of information about it online, obviously. The articles that I read are by the better SEO writers, I guess, since they’re the ones that showed up at the top of my Google search results.

I also took an SEO writing course at work. We need to consider search results and the retrievability of information in our documentation, which is presented in online information centers, so SEO is something I need to start thinking about while writing at work.

What I learned
The goal of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is to improve the ranking of Web content in search results. Web users tend to click on the first several results of a search, so sites that manage to turn up there will have more viewers. Web search engines such as Google use algorithms to determine rankings for Web sites and pages, and the rankings in turn determine where the sites show up in the results. Through the use of various writing, tagging, and linking strategies, you can attempt to ensure your pages turn up in the first pages of a user’s Google search.

Here are some of the SEO techniques writers can use:

• Include keywords and keyword phrases that searchers are likely to use when looking for information.
• Use appropriate tags that include keywords (but don’t overdue it—Google will penalize you for that).
• Use keywords in titles, headings, and site abstracts-these are what users see in Google before deciding whether or not to click on the link.
• Use keywords in the first sentence and near the end of the visible text.
• Place keywords throughout the rest of the content (again, don’t overdue it).
• Include keywords in anchor text of links used on the page.
• Use synonyms of keywords-there are tools that list appropriate synonyms to use for specific keywords.
• Spell out acronyms, as users are more likely to search on the full term.

This is just a start-there are many more things to think about when writing or revising content for optimization. There are also more advanced linking strategies to consider (for example, the ranking of a site depends on the number of other sites that link back to that site).

What I think, so far
In theory, SEO writing is straightforward and it relies on some of the same qualities that are required for good technical writing, especially clarity and good structure. But, I wrote a sample piece and I found it to be an awkward process with a result that also seems awkward, simple, and lacking natural flow. It was just one quick-and-dirty sample, but I guess it means that I need to work on it if this is something I want to do.

But, I don’t know that it is something I want to do. At least, I don’t think I want to do it just to do it (as seems to be the case with many of the freelance SEO writer roles I’ve been reading about where quantity more than quality is the goal). I don’t like the idea of writing just to be read, online. I understand the value of SEO writing as a marketing tool, and I will certainly apply the concepts I’ve learned to any online writing that I do (for example, in this blog post, I normally would have just used “SEO” in the title, but now that I know that Google likes it when you spell out acronyms in titles, that’s what I did-not a big deal). I will try to use more subheadings and keywords (likely implemented after I’ve written a piece, not as a primary concern while writing it).

But, I would hope that what I write has a larger purpose than just to turn up at the top of search results. I hope that it at least instructs, informs, or amuses. Landing the top results should be just one by-product of good online writing. If being read was my number one goal as a writer, I certainly would not have been a technical writer for so long. But, I know that SEO is very important now—if people aren’t viewing a site, then they’re not learning what the site is teaching, or reading the story the site is telling, or, most importantly, buying what the site (or its advertisers) is selling. So, although good, purposeful writing, will still be my goal, I will continue to learn more about, and put in to practice, Search Engine Optimization writing techniques.

Stay tuned—in my next post I’ll talk about my sample SEO piece and what I did with it. Hint: In seven years, it might net me $4.65 in earnings.