Spiders,Peeps,Why,Writing,for, marketing Spiders or Peeps? Why Writing for SEO Can Hurt Your Website

Automation technologies represent a fundamental aspect of any modern industry. The major types of industrial automation solutions, such as DCS, PLC, SCADA, and MES, are used on a large-scale in process and discrete industries.DCS technologie Awhile ago, I got an email from one of the "gurus" I follow and it shocked me. The gist of it was this person wanted to trade services for a household item.To say it floored me would be an understatement.What was worse was a few days later t

Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;mso-style-noshow:yes;mso-style-priority:99;mso-style-qformat:yes;mso-style-parent:"";mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;mso-para-margin-top:0in;mso-para-margin-right:0in;mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt;mso-para-margin-left:0in;line-height:115%;mso-pagination:widow-orphan;font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri;mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;}In mycopywriting trainings, this topic invariably comes up. And usually it's becauseI'm questioning my students' choice of words on their websites or other onlinepromotional copy. "Ichose that word because it's a good SEO keyword," they say. Ah. Itmay be a good SEO keyword but it's certainly not a good people word. Butbefore I get too far down this path, let me give you all a little backgroundinfo. SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. What that means is you makeyour website and other online copy "search-engine friendly" so thesearch engines will rank you high for your chosen keywords. (Like on the firstpage when someone does a search for that keyword.) Oneof the main tactics used to optimize your site is to scatter your chosenkeywords throughout your copy (the frequency and positioning seem to changedepending on how close the Moon is to Jupiter so I'm not going to even go downthis path today.) Whydo you want that? Presumably so you get more online visitors to your site.  Onthe surface, it makes sense. Your website ranks high on the first page when peopledo a search for your keywords, they see your website and click on the link. Easy,right? Well... Firstoff, SEO (like everything Internet-related) has changed. A few years ago, SEOmade perfect sense. That WAS the main way people found things on the Internet. However,with social networking taking the world by storm, and more people on Facebookand YouTube then Google, people using the search engines have droppedsignificantly. Now,that's not to say you don't need to take the search engines into consideration.There's no question people are still using the search engines. But theirsearching habits have changed. Now they're more likely to search for you afterhearing about you via offline methods (like newspapers, magazines, television,direct mail, speaking, meeting you at an event, etc.) Ofcourse, people will still do generic searches for keywords that relate to whatyou sell. But trying to get yourself on page 1 of those rankings can be reallydifficult. And with Google changing their algorithms every time the windchanges directions, you can be on Page 1 one day and knocked down to Page 20the next. (Also known as the dreaded "Google Dance.") Sowhat do you do? Well,my thought is while optimizing is not a bad idea, I wouldn't put too muchenergy into it. And I certainly wouldn't put words that sounded weird or off tomy ideal clients on my online materials even if they were strong keywords.(Look, if you're going to do all this work to get your ideal clients to visityour site, do you really want to turn them off with bad writing and poorlanguage choices?) Googleand all the other search engines are going to reward you if your website isn'tdeceptive, offers great content, and the content changes regularly. If you dothat, the search engines WILL like your site regardless of your SEO. (You mightnot end up on Page 1 but the search engines will regard you fondly and will probablynot move you around too much during any dances.) Andthe reality is, it makes far more sense to focus on other avenues for people tofind you. Be active on social networking sites, post articles, upload video,blog more. All of these things will increase your visibility out in that wildworld we call the Internet FAR more than simply focusing only on SEO. Andif you focus on those activities, then you can put your very best writing onyour website -- the kind of writing that will make your visitors eager to learnmore about you and do business with you -- instead of suffocating your copywith keywords that may make those very same visitors click away.  Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;mso-style-noshow:yes;mso-style-priority:99;mso-style-qformat:yes;mso-style-parent:"";mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;mso-para-margin-top:0in;mso-para-margin-right:0in;mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt;mso-para-margin-left:0in;line-height:115%;mso-pagination:widow-orphan;font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri;mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;}Michele PW (Michele Pariza Wacek) is your Ka-Ching!Marketing strategist and owns Creative Concepts and Copywriting LLC, a premieredirect response copywriting and marketing company that helps entrepreneursattract more clients, sell more products and services and boost theirbusiness.  To grab your FREE"Ka-Ching! Business Kit" with a FREE CD visit http://www.MichelePW.com/freecd