Are you Smart Enough Not to Get Emasculated?

Sara Sentor
Tuesday, May 1st, 2012

Read on and, find out how Google is slowly emasculating websites.

As a writer I have always been tooting my own horn. Content is king I wrote. Get unique content for your website, I begged clients. Some listened, others not so much. Today I have been redeemed. Some of my former clients will be eating crow as Google bumps them from its search results.

What Does the Penguin Update mean to Users?

The bottom line is Google wants the best user experience for its visitors. That means the content that will eventually make its way to the top of the search results will be top notch.

Google in its latest update has literally emasculated hundreds of websites. While searchmetrics.com states only 3% or so of the keywords have been affected, the data is still coming in. We won’t know the actual numbers until the fluctuation stops [some webmasters are still seeing their websites falter in the search results].

Consider that when you search for ‘doctors’ you do not get a fluke pharmaceutical site that has optimized its way to the top rather you get a website for an actual doctors office based on your location.

Sure Google has a long way to go before it tweaks all the web analytics, but it has started the process.

What does the Penguin Update mean to SEO?

Does the Penguin update mean SEO firms will be made obsolete? Not quite.

The Penguin Update will force SEO firms to reinvent their strategy.

They can no longer offer blank packages successfully; rather they will have to offer more customized services.

SEO firms, even those using white hat techniques know how to manipulate data. They can add keywords in the right places; create links in the right neighborhoods and, boom, the site ranks #1. It is not necessarily offering the best information for the searched keyword, but it is ranking.

Now, that will not be realistically possible. SEO firms will not be able to offer 200 directory submissions to two completely different web sites.

They can offer it, but if it were me, I would not accept.

Why do SEO Firms have to reinvent their strategy? Case in Point

‘A’ has a site on mortgage loans

‘B’ has a site on music videos

‘XYZ’ is an SEO firm offering a package for $250 a month. This includes 200 directory submissions, 20 search engine submissions, 100 do follow links etc.

So what happens if A and B Choose XYZ to do their SEO? They get royally screwed by XYZ.

How you ask? XYZ will not have people going to individual directories, checking whether the directory is the correct category for the site. They will randomly submit the sites to any directory. So Google will find links for site A and B in directories that are catering to Health, or News or even useless information no one in the WWW has ever heard off.

What will Google do? You got it. It will penguin site A and B for web spam.

What is the Future of SEO and Web Marketing after Penguin?

SEO has to become customized. As a small business I would hire individuals over companies. As a big business if I am hiring a company, I would opt for a dedicated team, whether virtual or local.

This would ensure that I get a customized solution. I do not need people submitting my site to 200 directories; I do need someone who is able to market my site in a customized way.
What Should Site Owners do to get Top Rankings?

Add quality content to their websites.

Quality content does not mean that you can hire writers sitting in third world countries for 0.01 a word, and become a success. These writers are cheap for a reason. They simply go online and, reword articles already there.

Can you do that? Yes.

Will it be successful? Not after Penguin.

What Google expects is content that offers originality. It does not want similar content across tens of websites. It wants to bring to the top those sites that offer a quality user experience.

So if I want to know about ‘Symptoms of Diabetes’ I would expect a site like WebMd to make it to the top. It actually offers an answer to my query.

If a SEO firm using yesterday’s formula does help your website make it to the top, it will be temporary. Google’s Algorithm is being altered in a way that allows it to trace the user behavior for top results. If a site is ranked #1 for a keyword and, the bounce rate of that site is 90% you can bet your last dollar that the site will soon be obliterated from the ranks.

However, by the same calculation, if a site is #10 for a keyword with a bounce rate of 10% you can again bet your last dollar that it has a good chance of making it to the top.

The Bottom line is Content. It has always been Content.

It is clearly stated in the Google Webmaster Guidelines

•Create a useful, information-rich site, and write pages that clearly and accurately describe your content.

•Make pages primarily for users, not for search engines. Don’t deceive your users or present different content to search engines than you display to users, which is commonly referred to as “cloaking.”

•Avoid tricks intended to improve search engine rankings. A good rule of thumb is whether you’d feel comfortable explaining what you’ve done to a website that competes with you. Another useful test is to ask, “Does this help my users? Would I do this if search engines didn’t exist?”

Google has always focused on content. It is simply that now, with the Penguin update; it has come armed with more than just words.

It is ready to emasculate, yes that is a word I will reuse. It will emasculate web sites that do not offer quality content and, insist on using over optimization techniques.

Tags: Google, SEO, Small Business Marketing, Website Traffic, Writing
Posted in Web Content, Web Marketing for Small Businesses | No Comments »

Google Just Knocked the Socks of Most SEO Providers

Sara Sentor
Wednesday, April 11th, 2012

The latest Google Update has knocked the socks of most SEO’s. No longer can you get buy on article spinning or blogs that have been reworded for posting. What you need to succeed is custom content.

Not the custom content that is a rewrite of articles already online, but unique, individually structured articles that engage your visitor towards your industry. A month or so ago, tens of sites were affected by Google’s update. Some were penalized because they were buying links and, others were penalized because their content was simply not good enough to be considered for first page ranking.

Google wants to make its search optimized for the visitors. It wants to humanize its index as much as possible. If you had great Meta tags, used H1-H2 tags, followed every SEO rule except providing extraordinary content, you may have been penalized after reigning supreme in Google rankings.

The buzz is, Google does not want hard core SEO it, wants SEO balanced by content that is worth the visitor’s time.

How does Google gather the data? Simply-through analytics. Google sees where the visitors are going when they click on your link. So if your website was #1 for the keyword ‘Student Loan’ and, people went to your site which really did not have much about Student Loans, and they bounced back. Google would decide that the site does not belong at #1.

So if you have been optimizing your site for keywords that are not relevant to your visitors. Think again.

- You need content that will engage your visitors to remain in the Google ranks now.

- You need to make sure the articles and, web content is updated.

- You need to have something other websites lack-information.

Forget the $1 articles that you have been buying, reduce the amount of articles you have been adding to your site, and add one or two articles that really matter. Otherwise watch as your site goes down in a blaze of glory.

Tags: articles, SEO, small business, Writing
Posted in Web Content | No Comments »

Do Not Hire Cheap Writers-I Will Tell You Why!

Sara Sentor
Monday, February 14th, 2011

I am a web content writer. Maybe not a great one, but definitely a good one! I began this blog after I quit my job, and found it a good way to pass time. I wrote when I found the time, and on topics I thought would be useful.

Then last month, I had a good e-commerce idea, and decided to launch a site [more on this later]. I did not have the time to write so many articles so I thought, “Well I’ll hire some writers.”

I went to sites like, freelance.com, elance.com and vworker.com, and posted my project. The going rate is apparently $1 per 100 words. I would never write for so little, but I can understand people in India, Pakistan, and other small economies working for that amount.

So, I hired a couple of writers from two different websites at the rate of $1/2 per 100 words. I divided my projects, and had the writers begin the work. I thought, if the work needs editing, I can do it myself.

Well let me tell you something, it is not worth it!

I posted the projects 15 days ago, and set the deadline for 35-50 articles, 100-200 words each, to be sent in after 8-10 days. I asked the writers to let me know if they would be delayed. As long as they sent me a couple of articles every day, I would have no problem with the delay.

This is what happened:

VWorker.com: I hired two writers.
One writer was in the UK and one in the US. I assigned both two sets of articles 50 and 36.
The first writer with 36 articles sent me 21 articles after 8 days [he had said he could have the articles in 7 days]. Surprisingly, they were well written. So I suggested he take 2 more days, and send me the rest. The writer agreed. Three days down the road, I had no idea whether the work was being done. Then, the writer sends me the work. He sent 6 new articles, and 9 he simply resent.

So, I asked him to rectify the mistake. He did so after another couple of days. It took me one whole day to edit the work he sent me after the 21 articles. There were numerous grammatical mistakes, punctuation errors, research problems, and more. The only thing he did was kept begging me for a 10/10 rating. Really!

The second writer sent in all 50 articles only a day late. The problem was the articles had punctuation errors, grammar problems, and even capitalization issues. Now, I could have edited them, but I was paying the writer $100 for 50 articles. I asked her to edit them, and send them in after 4 days. That was 6 days ago; I have heard nothing from her.

As a result, I cut about 10% from the first project payment and 20% from the second. Each of these writers was rated at above 9.8/10.

Elance.com
Again I had two projects. Both projects were for 50 articles 100-200 words each. They went for around the same rate. I set two milestones of 25 articles after 1 week.

After a week one writer sent me 25 articles—completely plagiarized. When I complained, he said I should have informed him that I did not want research from other sites. Excuse me-really? I have put the project in dispute, as I had stated specifically in the projects details that I could reject all the articles if even one was plagiarized. 90% or more of the work was plagiarized!

The second writer, whose work was due yesterday, February 13, 2011, has yet to send anything!

Crowd sourcing and Writing:
I chose workers/writers who were apparently from the US, UK and European states. I had assumed that they would be good writers. I am now, not even sure their profile is real. As a writer, I could write the articles myself, but I thought I would save myself some time. Reality check!

I have got to thinking, why would anyone hire a writer who would work for such a minuscule amount?

I know you save money, but after 15 days all I have is a headache. I would rather pay someone a higher amount; get the work done on time, and save my resources. Crowd sourcing may be working for other industries, but writing, from my own experience, has a long way to go!

Bottomline:
The freelance sites online are an amazing resource. However, their rating system is flawed. I had an unprofessional writer begging to be rated 10/10 even after a project fiasco. How many employers just give the rating?

Do the freelance sites check where the writers are located or are the profiles fake?

Before hiring anyone off these sites, make sure you have a guarantee of sorts; otherwise you will be out of time and money. Better bet is hiring someone who you can call, and talk to in your own state of residence!

Tags: Creative Writing, crowdsourcing, Publishing, Writing
Posted in Web Content | 3 Comments »

Web Content-Contributing Content with Value

Sara Sentor
Monday, January 10th, 2011

When I write for my blog I have to think twice before publishing a post. I have to research every title. The reason is simple. I want to contribute value added content. There are thousands of blogs online and there are hundreds of blogs on the same topic as mine. So how do I contribute content with value?

Website and Web Content

Most webmasters realize that without valuable and unique content, their website has no hope of being successful. Websites may get listed in search engines, but to be competitive webmasters have to add unique and value-added content on a regular basis.
Search engines prefer sites that have new content and will give the sites a better ranking.

Qualities of Web Content

The types of web content search engines seem to prefer have the following qualities:

Unique content
Rich in keywords without spamming
In-text links to relevant sites
Consistently updated content

Creating Titles from Long Tail Keywords

You have a website, and you are ready to update it with new content, what is the next step?

The next step is to find keywords and titles that are user friendly. If you use the ‘Google Keyword Tool’ to search for the word, ‘blogging’ chances are there are thousands of searches. You think to yourself, ‘this is the perfect keyword’.

Think again.

This keyword has been saturated online. If there are thousands of searches, then chances are thousands of people have used the word as their main ‘keyword’. Your blog post will become a shooting star, glorious, but unseen.

The trick is to find the long tail keywords. Find the keywords that are the least competitive. Find the keywords with low search ratio.

So, if you use the ‘Google Keyword tool’ and put in the word ‘blogger’, go ahead. But find a phrase that has very few searches and write an article on that e.g. ‘Blogging for Cash’. Though not many people are searching for the phrase; those few who are will likely end up on your blog.

Creating Value for Users

Once you have chosen your long tail keyword do some research; search for the keyword phrase. See what sort of web content is available. Read the comments people have posted to the articles already done. Most times readers have some great input. Some give opinions, some ask questions. If they have given an opinion, feel free to write a post arguing for or against it. If they have asked a question, write and article that answers those questions. Maybe even link back to the article where the comment was posted; and where you found inspiration-chances are your post will be read by the same readers.

You have to find a niche and fill a need. The more targeted your niche, the more value you will be able to provide your readers!

Tags: Blogging, Blogging Tips, Creative Writing, web content, Writing
Posted in Web Content | 2 Comments »

Home Page Web Content for Small Business Websites

Sara Sentor
Thursday, September 16th, 2010

The one mistake small business make while having a web design made is they tend to focus on making it beautiful. In the end, the result is a site that sucks in terms of marketing.

Then they make their second mistake, they write content that is, structurally perfect, grammatically correct and excessive. The result is again, content that their English teacher would be proud off, but content that sucks in terms of marketing.

Web content for websites has to be written very carefully. The average web user scans content, you have to grasp their attention within a five second time zone. Yup, five seconds flat. So forget the history of your company, the testimonials and the ten paragraph description. No one will stay on the site long enough to read it.

So what Makes a Marketable Home Page?

Opt to write in short sentences. It may seems grammatically incorrect but with more and more people opting to write in abbreviations when online, you can bet you they want the sentences short and sweet.
Add in the Keywords: These days to make a home page search engine friendly you have to have the keywords. Choose the three keywords you are focusing on and use synonyms as well. The result will be a search engine friendly home page.
Present the Content as an Outline. Yes, the bullets and numbers may seem an elementary form of writing but that’s what the users want. So make sure you put in your most important information in bullet or list form.
Add those headers. Headers are essential for web content readers. The visitor wants to scan information and the best way to do that is focus on the bold headers. If the header has the information they want they may read more than just the headline.
Be concise and write in inverted pyramid form. When I write for my small business clients I get a lot of complaints. They say the structure is wrong, they want more description and they want it on the home page. They are wrong. For web content you have to give the most important information first, present the facts in list form and then leave inner pages for the description. Believe me you get more attention that way.

Should the Web Content be Formal or Informal in Style?

The style really depends on the small business in question. If you have a local consignment shop or organic store, opt for informal. Your target audience is more likely to be the moms, the house wives and women who are money and health conscious. You do not want to be condescending.

However, if you are a local real estate agent you have to take a tone that is personal yet, professional. Mix the formal and informal so that while you hook the house hunters with your charm, they also see you as a professional.

If the small business is more finance or accounts related-formal is it. Do not try to be friendly. You need to show the web content reader you are professional and can be trusted with their money.

The Bottom line for Web content:

Always be clear and concise, make the content keyword rich and provide lists and headers. However, never forget your target audience. You want the people coming to your small business web site to actually stay and take action-not bounce off the site in five seconds!

Tags: Creative Writing, small business, Small Business Marketing, web content
Posted in Web Content | 1 Comment »