Writing Good Content

One of the most important factors today when it comes to optimizing your website for the Search Engines is good content. Not enough is written on this subject. I have seen so many pages that lack decent content and surprisingly the Search Engines are taking notice. Sites that have little or unrelated content are quickly being dropped out of the rankings, and fast.

This will basically explain what you should do to create good content for your site. Content does indeed matter. So follow these simple 7 rules and you'll be one step closer to getting good web rankings.

1. Be concise.

Cut out extra words in sentences, get to the point and express what you need to say quickly.

2. Be conversational.

Don't use complicated words or business language no one outside your industry will understand. Just write the way you talk, so your copy will convey a friendly, comfortable and confident tone. Don't be afraid to express yourself or your opinion.

3. Write in small chunks.

Group ideas by topics and present them in small, manageable chunks of information. Keep your sentences as short as possible and vary the lengths so you hold readers' interest. Then add descriptive, bold headings that will make the content easier to scan. It is a known fact that reading Internet pages is more difficult than reading printed text so use colors, quotes and bold text to make your important points stand out.

4. Give good information.

Most people go online to find information about their hobbies, products or other interests. Don't waste their time by placing useless, self-serving content on your site. Make sure you provide information that's not only interesting, but also educational and enriching. (In fact, many search engines won't consider listing sites into their databases if they lack useful information.)

5. Use descriptive links.

Go beyond the typical "click here" link on your Web pages. Try something like: "Take our demo," "Get a sample," or "Order now!" Not only is this more engaging, but it can enhance your performance with search engines. And be sure that if that link leads off your page you open that link in a new window. This is an excellent marketing trick because when the user closes the browser of that link you are still on their screen!

6. Link to complementary Web sites.

Include links to Web sites that offer supplementary (not competing) information. This will not only benefit your site visitors, but it also can boost your search engine ranking. And then try to get that site to link back to you.

7. Keep your content fresh.

This is perhaps the single most important element. Keep the information on your site interesting and updated so visitors will have a reason to come back. You know once they have read it or seen it they don't need to return. But what if you constantly change your content adding new things for them to discover. Yes you then have the power of a return visitor. Plus Search engine robots scan the server's modifications log to see when you last changed your page. If the date on the log is the same they may even skip their crawl figuring nothing has changed. So change is very important.

So there you have it, Content is Indeed very important and as the web moves fore ward into its next phase sites with pages that have well written, informative content will make a huge impact on Search Engines.