Importance of the right keywords

While writing SEO content, you must be sure of the keywords you are using and implement them in the most perfect way. When I started my content writing career, I was advised to make the best use of these keywords and use them in the most appropriate places. In fact, just like me who didn’t have much knowledge then, most of us might not get the real picture behind the importance of keywords. Keywords or key phrases play a key role in the Search Engine Optimization task. If you want to drive traffic to your site, you can do it simply through the application of the perfect keywords. Several efforts might be employed to modify your web pages to get better rankings, yet without the presence of right keywords, all efforts will go in vain. For instance, the efforts (link exchange, social bookmarking) put in are sure to fetch good page ranking, but they will not get you enough traffic.

Now, once you recognize the significance of keywords, it is equally necessary to select the perfect keywords. For keyword analysis, you can use some of the common advanced tools: Wordtracker and Keyword Discovery and select the best key phrase(s) that go perfect with your web content. Once you are sure of the keywords you are using, you need to decide your target audience and the purpose for which the article is being written. But then, while you are developing your content, never make the mistake of using one keyword over and over again. This will reduce the beauty of your article. Instead, at places you can use different but similar meaning words (related to the key phrase). One thing must always be kept in mind; apart from placing the keyword in appropriate places, you must also ensure that your article is interesting enough to grab the attention of the readers. Present your idea (through the article) in a clear, crisp and interesting way employing the ideal keywords, and this way, you can enjoy immense traffic every single day!

What is keyword density?

Anyone who is a professional content writer knows about writing a SEO article. SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization and is the method of boosting the page’s rank when any search engine is searching for a particular word or phrase. Hence, SEO articles must be written in such a way that they contain the main keyword and other meta tags in good number. One important aspect of SEO writing is maintaining a good Keyword Density. So, let’s see what this term is all about:

Keyword Density is a numerical number that is derived by dividing the number of words within that page divided by the number of time the keyword has been used in the page. Any content writer will, of course, want his or her page to have a high keyword density, as that will mean a good page rank (and the subsequent e-commerce from it). But does it mean you go and fill your article with as much keywords as possible?

Do that and you are in danger of being labeled as a spam!! That’s true; if you have too much keyword density, your page may be marked as containing no useful article and banned from many indexes and sites. So, it is ideal to maintain a keyword density of 3% to 6%. If you want to know what is the keyword density of your page you can try keyword density analysis tool like http://tools.seobook.com/general/keyword-density/. http://www.metamend.com/seo-tools/keyword-density-analyzer.html is another free tool to find about the keyword density of a page.

How to write a great blog?

Blogging has suddenly become the order of the day. From your favorite cine artists bitching about their co-stars to your office-colleagues unveiling their secret desires – almost everybody seem to be bitten by the blog bug and turned into overnight bloggers!

So, what makes you think about joining the blogging bandwagon? Do you want to maintain a daily online diary or looking forward to express your own views on different matters? Or, are you starting a blog just because lots of your friends are doing so?

Whatever may be the reason and topic of blogging (You may write on various issues, subjects or can just pen down your personal experiences); you must know the basic ingredients that can make your blog a winner!

• Write in an interactive way, as if you are engaged in a tête-à-tête with your closed ones. Remember, you are sharing your ideas through your blogs that can somehow inspire, influence and help other people. If you fail to strike the right chord in the minds of the readers, then, I think, your blog is of no use. Write in such a manner that makes the reader stay glued to his/her comp-screen while going through your blog.
• Your blog must be absolutely transparent and authentic and written with a passionate approach. How will you feel if some reader posts a comment saying that “the blog seems to be written for the heck of it” or “it appears that the writer doesn’t have adequate knowledge of the topic”. You will come across such comments, if the reader fails to connect emotionally with your write-up. So, why take risks? Write on such a subject you are adept at or on such an issue you are really concerned about.
• Also, write with authority and make your blog as unique as possible. I bet there will be hundreds of blogs written on the same topic. So, try to create your own distinct mark (of course, not deviating from your topic) through your write-up. That will help you to bring in more and more visitors to your blog site. Timeliness is another major aspect of a great blog. Your blog should come at the right point of time when the issue is still relevant. Just think, if someone now starts a blog-site centering on the 9/11 attack, will it get many visitors?

Well, there are a few more things that contribute towards making a successful blog. I will discuss about them later on. For now, keep the above-mentioned points in mind while developing blogs. Who knows, you may soon get inundated with phone calls, messages and e-mails congratulating on your blogging expertise! And on a more positive note, you may even end up winning an award for blogging too!

Why is plagiarism bad?

What can catch eyeballs when hundreds of content keep publishing every day on the Internet? Well, it is, of course, the uniqueness of your material presented in the most attractive manner. But then, what must you keep in mind while you are developing a piece of content. It is the originality of the matter. Yes, when I started off my career as a professional content writer, I was instructed by my respected seniors to strictly avoid replication of someone else’s material. The usual term we use here is ‘plagiarism’ or else, as we content writers say ‘copy pasting’. So, why is plagiarism bad and why must it be avoided?

Plagiarism is described in general the duplication of some already present content. In general, it amounts to stealing someone else’s creativity. The academic world refers plagiarism as a heinous crime and when something like stealing is concerned; one can make out why such duplication is considered to be bad. Writers caught plagiarizing content can face serious fine and might also be sued by the original author. Again, if content is the means by which you are planning to enhance your business on Internet such duplication can mean a serious blow on your face. You will certainly lose credibility on the web world and this can mean a permanent end of your business. At times, writers feel that it is tough to get caught after you resort to plagiarism, but then today there are some software programs that can help you check such replication. Once caught, there is no space for escape and you can see a permanent blot on your career. So, be aware and stay away from such stealing.

Avoiding unintentional Plagiarism

Plagiarism is every professional content writer’s most dreaded word. Only a few of the unscrupulous kind like to progress as a writer by intentionally plagiarizing other’s work. For the rest of us, it’s a much feared thing. I don’t know about others, but I always try to check that I do not, even unintentionally, plagiarize from somebody else’s work. My company Indusnet Technologies has a strict rule in this regard. If a writer does it for the first time (whether intentionally or unintentionally) he or she is duly warned. If the offence is repeated more than once, he or she may be terminated! The rule is more or less same for any good company from this field. So, if you are working or planning to work in this field, here are some tips on how to avoid unintentional plagiarism.

• First of all, research thoroughly about the subject you are going to write on. From my personal experience, I have seen that if I consult very few materials, my writing, unintentionally starts sounding like the material I consulted. So to avoid it, read quite a many articles and then assimilate the materials in your head. Your write-up will have elements of many articles, but will be written in your own words. They will be a reflection of your thought after reading the subject. In fact, as I read somewhere, “good content writing is a mixture of 90% research time and 10% of actual writing time”!
• If the research material is too scanty, as it happens many times, try to write in a different format altogether when you write your article.
• Suppose your article has to have a list of things, which are identical to the main source. Here, changing the list pattern is one way to avoid making yours look like a plagiarized version.
• If you have to write a phrase or a data in the same way as in the source material, put in double quotes and if possible, give the link or the author’s name from where you quoted. Saying “author so-and-so said that” and then quoting the line or data will also help you to avoid plagiarism. Giving reference to the source is a surefire way to avoid being labeled as plagiarizer.
• To make sure you know where you got your information from, you can either put the links at the end of the article or record them in a separate file.

Hope these pointers help you. These are my personal experiences and I look forward to others from my field to give extra inputs to this very important subject. So, do leave a comment!

Why Have You Created That Piece of Web Content?

All that we do is for a purpose. It applies to web content writing too. Writing content for the web without having a clear purpose in your mind will not lead you anywhere. Before you press the first key on the keyboard to prepare any type of content for the web, make it clear inside your mind why you are going to do it. On which website will it be published and in which form? Who do you assume to be the reader of your content? Do you just want to inform or do you want to sell?

Many web content writers I have come across lose their focus while writing. While reading the content you can actually imagine how the writer must have completely forgotten the purpose for which the content was being developed. Writing an informative article is surely different from writing a blog. While I can pour out my heart in my blog, I will not do so for writing sales content for e-commerce sites.

As e-commerce is gaining popularity, more and more websites are requiring sales copy on their websites. Besides articles and blogs, writing sales copy for websites and online advertising is increasingly gaining importance. The established rules of ad copywriting are applicable for writing sales copy for websites. After all, it is the copy on a website that compels a visitor to buy a particular product or service. Thus, in the absence of a flesh-and-blood salesperson, the responsibility of selling falls on the shoulders of the web content writer. Not just speaking about a company, effective web content persuade and convince visitors to turn into customers.

Thus, never ever forget WHY you are writing a particular piece of web content. While articles have to be informative and educational in nature, and blogs are personal, writing sales content for e-commerce websites is certainly a challenge for all content writers and copywriters.

Content writing as a profession

When I first heard about the term content writer, to be very frank I had no idea about this profession. I had been familiar with internet and computer, but just as an avid user and nothing else. It was my cousin brother who first mentioned about this line of work when I asked him about what kind of jobs I could do from home. I always had a flair for writing and enjoyed learning about new things. So, when I started to do freelancing, I thoroughly enjoyed my job. Each article I did was different (though some were pretty boring to be very frank!), and I learned something new while researching for them.

It is only after I joined Indus Net Technologies as a full-time content writer, I learned more about the intricacies of the profession. I learned what SEO is and how to make your content SEO rich. I also learned about plagiarism and “copy-paste” jobs and how to avoid them. I am still learning and hope one day I can master the art of writing such great content that will captivate the readers who visit the site.

For the newcomers, they have more opportunity coming up their way than they can imagine. There are more resources and even courses than before on writing good content. If you are interested in this profession and like to make it your career, the following links may help you in learning more about the profession:

http://articles.getacoder.com/6_Step_Plan_to_Becoming_A_Professional_Article_Writer_700022x1194429882.htm

http://articles.getacoder.com/Amazing_Article_Writing_-_Announcing_4_Rewarding_Ways_to_Jumpstart_Your_Article_Writing_653809x1193060640.htm

Are you content with your content?

“If it’s visible, it’s saleable”. We all have heard and read this not-so-true remark like a zillion times before. Even a fifth grader knows that intangible offerings can and are sold (at times with lesser effort) just like their tangible counterparts. So, there’s Coke competing with VLCC beauty & slimming clinic (you can see the clinic but that’s not what they’re selling) for a share of the consumers’ wallet.

You must be wondering what has all this to do with writing content for the web. For one, the web is undeniably the biggest platform for a marketer to announce, “I’ve arrived”. And if the site is user-friendly, interactive and lists the product’s USP (s) in a captivating manner, half the job is done. This is precisely what we, at Indus Net Technologies, try and deliver: websites that work and keep our invaluable clients happy (which in turn keeps us happy!). Thus, this hoopla is all about ‘how.’

Since I’ve dared to knock at your grey cells and rattle them off their afternoon siesta, I might as well put an end to this intrusion and your agony by informing you about one of India’s highly sought after Internet consulting and interactive marketing agencies – ‘webchutney’. With its humble beginnings as a two-man team back in 1999, today Webchutney operates out of Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru. Many of you might already know about it; others can check it out at: www.webchutney.com

The tone is light throughout with humor thrown in for good measure. The pages are colorful; the content is crisp and easy- to- understand. The home page gives easy access to their work, clients and some amusing photos of their employees @ work & play. I’m confident you’ll find it interesting and helpful (in whatever little way) in generating more effective content for our clients which they’ll presumably be content with.

How to write an attention-grabbing headline

If you have visited my blog just because of the headline, then you already know how important it is to write a good headline. Headlines, whether in printed pages or in electronic ones, are the launch pads for the information they convey. There are many professional content writers who have more problems in phrasing a great headline for a topic than in writing on the topic itself. So to help fellow writers, here are some tips on how to write a headline that shouts its presence in the cyber world.

· Make it simple and short. Avoid using clichés and popular catch phrases. Assume that the person looking for information doesn’t know much and won’t understand your clever word play.

· Make sure that your title is reflecting the content that is there below it. The headline is the first thing that a searcher in the net will read. If he can get hints on what lies ahead (and that is what he is looking for), then only he or she will click on the relevant link.

· Also, ensure that your headline is not too long. It will be better if it is under 10 words. Among the words, make sure that there are at least two to three words that describe the topic or the content of your page. If you have to give a proper name, give it at the end of the headline.

· But the headline should not be a random selection of the keywords of the page. The headline, no matter how short it is, should have a meaning of its own.

These are some of the tips I could think about. You can check out the following links to know more about the subject: http://www.masternewmedia.org/2005/06/01/how_to_write_great_titles.htm and http://www.7nights.com/dkrprod/gwt_seven.php.

Following the Rules of Writing on the Web

No doubt we have “freedom of speech” and we have learnt to believe that rules are meant to be broken for a good cause. Yet, without rules we would not be able to communicate. If the alphabets “t”, “r”, “e”, “e” put together in a sequence meant “tree” for one person and “table” for another, then the world would be in a chaos! I would say one thing and you would understand something else.

Rules are necessary. With a common understanding among us, we have decided that the alphabets “t”, “r”, “e”, “e” when put together signify a “tree”. Similarly, when I say “sky” it means the same thing to all English speaking people. Rules define our existence, even though sometimes we need to break them, because rules are born out of ‘need’.

So, why web content writing would be an exception to the rules of writing? It is an accepted fact that writing for the web is entirely different from writing for the print or the audiovisual media. Most of us are aware that no rules are followed in web content writing. There is much scope for creativity in this medium.

Yet, wouldn’t it be great if we made some rules and followed them? Don’t forget the ultimate purpose. It is after all better communication that all of us are seeking.

I got to know about this book that I thought would be very interesting in this context. It is called “The Web Content Style Guide: An essential reference for online writers, editors and managers”. Published by FT Press in 2002, it has three authors: Gerry MacGovern, Rob Norton and Catherine O'Dowd.

If you want to write effective content for the web then this book can be really useful as it covers all the rules and standards of writing for the web. It is surely a must have for all those who are involved in web publishing.

Who’ll find this book useful?

• Online writers
• Editors
• Designers
• Managers
• Anyone involved in web publishing
  

This book is definitely different from the existing style guides as it focuses only on web writing. From grammar and punctuation to documentation issues it covers all. Here’s a brief list of topics that is covered by this book:

• Accessibility
• Animation
• Fonts
• Forms
• Information Architecture
• Intranet
• Navigation
• Newsgroup
• Search
• Style Guides
• And a lot more

Common spelling mistakes and how to avoid them

English can become a very difficult language sometimes. There are some words that are so near in spelling and pronunciation that they very frequently switch places with disastrous (and sometimes hilarious!) results. In my career as a professional content writer, I had my share of “malapropism” (and still do to the utter annoyance of my editor), but I have learned to rectify them. Whenever I commit a new “blooper” and am pointed out, I write it down in a post-it and stick it in front of me. There are also some forums and sites that give handy hints and lessons.

There are some common words that are usually misplaced like lie/lie/lay. One is related to sleeping and lying down like “She lies on her bed” while the other is not telling the truth: “she lies about her affairs”. The third one is also a verb; it means to put down something like “softly lay the baby on the crib”. You can learn more of such common mistakes in http://www.fanfiction.net/topic/30302/1966428/1/, a forum of users who love the English language despite its peculiarities.

If you want to learn about a list of words that are commonly misused in English, you can see Wikipedia for their list of frequently misused English word. On the lighter vein, if you like to see a list of hilarious malapropism from the net and other sources, see http://www.fun-with-words.com/mala_explain.html for a quick laugh. I end my blog with this immortal line from Sheridan’s “The Rival” quoted by Mrs. Malaprop (who gave rise to the word in the first place):

“….she is as headstrong as the allegory on the banks of Nile”

Can you guess what she wanted to say???

Some helpful concepts for new webmasters

One-way links send out a significant message about your website. It shows that your website is so useful that other websites want to direct visitors to your site. One-way links increase your link popularity and when Google ranks your site, this link popularity plays a huge role in determining your site ranking.

The most valuable one way links are the ones which find a place in the content of another site, which directs visitors to your site. These are, however, quite tough to get. You can get them if your website is already a reputed one and you offer something, which proves to be of great value to the visitors of another website.

Until then, all you new webmasters can do one good thing. If you are planning to launch valuable link building campaign, you must be clear of certain essential concepts.

Firstly, make sure that your website is interesting and useful enough; especially the content of the website must be highly gripping.

A link is, in general, a vote – a vote cast by a website for another website. This vote offers credence to the linked site. But then, here every vote does not come with similar weight, very much dissimilar to politics where every vote is of equal value.

Now, if 2 websites (say website A of PR 5 and website B of PR 4) link you, the vote of website A will be of more value than that of B.

At times, you might come across some links that have little value or of no value at all. If you tend to easily get a link from another site, it is safe to believe that the link is of less value. Since, everyone else is keen to get links, they give away links too.

As a starter, one way of getting one-way links is through directories. Here, you might get tired of the level of energy you need to put into the submission task. You might buy a service or software to do the job and get innumerable links within no time. But then, it is best to keep your linking system ‘natural’ since, as you are availing the software, another webmaster must be doing something similar as well.

When you are into link exchange, try to use something unique that most of the other webmasters haven’t tried. In fact you can ask yourself “What would I do to rise from a few links to a few hundred links within a few days?”

For new webmasters, these concepts can surely be of great help. In fact, I suggest you to move out from the crowd and plan something unique, something which can set you apart from many others!

Write with a reason

While generating content for a page, you must be aware of one thing - ‘a well-organized and informative content always comes from good references’. It is pretty difficult to develop an entirely new page all by yourself. A few people do possess the skill and creativity to start from the scratch. But for many to develop content about a subject you haven’t read at all is surely very difficult.

For this, you can look through the web for information or refer to old books or periodicals at a nearby library. Thus, while you are writing, you must have enough knowledge about the subject. Though it is a fantastic idea to refer to valuable resources, I personally feel you must write for a particular reason and have a clear idea of ‘what you are writing’. Above all, your write up must reflect your passion and love for the subject and refer into its tiniest detail.

Now, the challenge simply does not lie in writing informative content or going into details, but in making it unique and exciting. Yes, your content must bear its freshness and of course, needs to be catchy. Don’t just write what the matter is all about; also write why the matter is important. Reveal the details and its ensuing significance; describe why it concerns you and how it can matter to someone else too.

Effective ways to search the net

When I started my career as a professional content writer, the most difficult phase of my new job was to learn how to effectively search the net for information. Not only me, many of my colleagues and friends too get equally frustrated when google shows a lot of pages, but none of them contain the information we are seeking! Sometimes, I just used permutation and combination of the major keywords of the information I was looking for, till I got satisfactory results.

But that cost me lot of time and the end result was either working overtime or compromising on the quality of my writing. But one day I was like “enough is enough” and wanted to find ways to improve my search techniques. I searched the net for that and these are the websites I found educative and useful:

http://webquest.sdsu.edu/searching/fournets.htm: This site gives you handy tips with exercises (just as you did in school!) to help you learn the art of shifting through the pile of information available online.

http://hanlib.sou.edu/searchtools/searchtips.html: This site will give you great tips on searching not only google, but also other search engines on the net.

You can also see Google web site help Center, if google is the only search engine you know (like me and million of us).

Hope this post helps you whether you are a fellow professional or anyone looking for some information on the net.

Where have all the writers gone?

When I started this blog, one thing that kept bothering me is the quality of writing on the web. The Internet is so full of information! It is a huge knowledge base for people around the globe. There is hardly any subject on which you won’t find information the web. Yet, from my experience I can tell you, over 90% articles or content I come across on the web are written in a way as if the writer didn’t have any clue about the subject!

And the story doesn’t end here…sometimes the writer doesn’t seem to know even basic English grammar! I wonder why they take the Internet so lightly… You will never find such quality of writing in other media like newspapers and magazines. There seems to be a dearth of good content writers for the web. Net users spend so much time on the Internet… at least they deserve to read good English!

Some tips for developing effective web content

Have you ever thought why the role of content is so important in bringing in visitors to your website?

What are your parameters of writing good content?

Are right spellings, proper punctuation marks and grammatically correct sentences are all that you need to write effective content?

Of course not! There are several other things that you need to keep in mind.

The popularity as well as the profitability of a website largely depends on the content of that website. To establish your website’s value, content plays a big role. So, you can easily assume how a content writer or content developer is esteemed in this era of Internet marketing. But, what are the fundamental characteristics of quality content?

• At first, capturing the attention of the readers is a must. Your content should strike the right chord in the minds of the visitors. Otherwise, why would they stay glued to your website?

• Shorter content with bullets and highlighting in proper places is always a hit among the visitors. Longer content too is sometimes welcomed, but try to keep them as interactive as possible.

• Easy to read, comprehensible content is always a winner! Develop the content in such a way that even a layman can understand what you are trying to say. Moreover, always check out whether the flow has been maintained throughout the content.

• Quality is always important, no matter what type of content is there in your website. So, never ever try to give up quality for the sake of quantity!

• Your content should be able to generate interests and meet the requirements of the readers. Also, give a thought how the content of your website can stand out among the rest of the websites.

• The content of your website needs to gel with the design of your website. Properly organizing the content in different pages is vital as well. So, you have to pay special attention in this department too.

• Understanding exactly what kind of content you need is another important thing. For instance, you may want to write some blogs, pages for your website, newsletter, press release or just some informative SEO articles. Your approach and way of writing need to be different in all the cases.

• Whatever content you are developing, comprehensive research work is always essential. And the most important thing – steer clear of copy-pasting jobs!

I think now you can surely understand what it takes to write great content for your website! But, it’s better if you resort to professional content writers. They can lend you a helping hand in this matter.