Google’s New Hummingbird Algorithm Update—Good News or Bad?

Is Google's Hummingbird Update Good News or Bad?

It's happened again, Google has rolled out yet another SEO update. People are wary when Google announces a new change in their search engine algorithm. Many have gotten caught in the Panda and Penguin updates with disastrous results. But with Google’s new hummingbird algorithm update we get some good news for a change!

If you’re a little behind and not sure what I’m talking about, here’s a blog post that explains SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and What Google Has Done. 

Social Media Monday—Is SEO Dead?

With the birth of the Internet came the birth of SEO

Like everything else in our world, social media is changing and evolving. When the Internet was young and search engines new, a way had to be found to rank the order of websites that came up during a search. With that, Search Engine Optimization was born.

SEO or Search Engine Optimization is simply that, an algorithm that ranks websites when a consumer types in a query. The quandary comes when you compare the goals of the consumer, the specific search engine and the website owner.

Learn the Basics of Writing for the Internet—Part Two SEO

Searching the Internet

Anyone who’s spent any time writing content for the web or even researching this market, has run across the acronym SEO. This stands for Search Engine Optimization. It's basically where, in the list of millions, your content will show up when searched by a reader (search engine). This is determined by a closely guarded, mathematical equation called an algorithm.

When you use different search engines—Google, Yahoo, etc., you'll notice each will give slightly different results from any given search, because they each have a proprietary calculation. But there are things we can do as writers to move our content up in the rankings. To accomplish this we have to have a basic understanding of how SEO algorithms work.

Mathematical Calculations

Early on, these algorithms were less complex and depended heavily on keyword usage. (Not sure what I mean by keyword, be sure to visit my post from last week, Writing for the Internet Part One—Keywords.) Website writers would just use pages of keywords to raise their ranking. The search engines caught on and the equations got more complex. These algorithms will continue to evolve, with the goal being to give the searcher the most valuable sites first in the rankings.

Even with the evolution of algorithms, one thing hasn’t changed. They are still mathematical equations and as such, Search Engine Algorithms take words literally—and that can be good or bad.

This means that they don't always understand double meanings or the clever usage of words. For example, a recipe for vegetarian chili cleverly titled, Too Hot to Handle Chili will rank far lower than one titled, Homemade Vegetarian Chili. This is because an algorithm uses the literal meaning of words and the first title doesn’t even have the word “vegetarian” in it. Often times a clever title will result in fewer clicks.

This doesn't mean we can't be clever—only that we have to be deliberate in where we're clever. Take that chili recipe, give it a title that can be searched literally, like Hot and Spicy Vegetarian Chili, but in the description use the clever tag line as too hot to handle.

Sometimes a clever title can work. This blog—The Write Conversation—is a clever play on words that works. The reason being I want this site to be searchable for the keyword write as well as be clever about educating writers as an ongoing conversation.

Playing with words

As a writer, I love to play with words. Part of that play is coming up with creative titles. Instead of seeing SEO as a hindrance to that, I look at it as an added level of difficulty in a game I enjoy more than any other.

So now it’s time for you to play. Here are a couple of topics, lets see how creative you can get with titles—with the added difficulty of SEO thrown in.

First Choice: You’ve been hired to write for a dog groomer. This is a small business looking for new customers. Their business name is The Pooch Palace.

Second Choice: You’ve been hired to write for a florist. They’re an established business looking to raise their search engine rank. The name of this business is Lovely Blooms.

Give me your title, keywords and focus of your article. Don’t shy away from this challenge, if you’re serious about earning money writing for the Internet you’re going to need to write for different clients.

Don’t forget to join the conversation!

Blessings,

Edie

SEO for Writers—Basic Hyperlink Tips

SEO or Search Engine Optimization and Hyperlink are important terms for writers to know, whether you’re a freelancer writing blogs or websites for customers; or a novelist trying to build a platform.

If you’re not familiar with SEO here’s a post I did on Search Engine Optimization a while back that should help you come up to speed.

Today I want to concentrate on hyperlinks and teach you how to use them effectively.

A Hyperlink is a clickable link found within a post. The paragraph above contains a hyperlink—Search Engine Optimization. If you position your cursor above any of those three words and left click you’ll be taken to another page on the website. Other common terms for a hyperlink are a Hotlink or just a Link.

Hyperlinks are a good thing to have within a post for a couple of reasons.

• Including them will raise your search engine ranking.
• It’s a way to utilize previous posts and get more traffic on your own blog.
• They can give your readers more value by linking to valuable site that your readers may not have visited.
• It’s a way to build credibility by linking to other sites you’ve written for.

BUT, there are some tricks to formatting hyperlinks correctly to give you the best results. 

• Tie your hyperlink to valuable words. The words hyperlinked in your post are also searchable by search engines and you don’t want to waste them, so pick words that are specific to the topic you’re linking. For example, in the first paragraph, I could have made the word POST the link. It would have made sense, after all I was referring to a previous post. But how often do people do a Google search for the word post? Not very often. So I linked to a much more interesting set of words, SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION.
• Be sure the site you link to opens in a new window. This is important because your website stays open and it’s easy for your reader to check out the info you’re referencing and return to your post. Otherwise you might lose them. In most standard blogs and websites you have an option to decide this.
• Always check your links. Let me say that again—ALWAYS CHECK YOUR LINKS! Very few things will irritate people more than to be curious about something and then be directed to a dead-end when they try to learn more. I don’t care how familiar I am with a link, I always test it before I publish a blog post.
• Inform others. If you’re linking to someone else’s site or article it’s polite—and smart—to drop them a quick email and let them know. We all like to know that others have found our information valuable. Frequently the honoree will tell others about your article and this can also help you get the word out about your blog or topic.

Now it’s your turn. Post any questions or comments you have about hyperlinks in the comment section of this blog and let’s learn from each other.

Don’t forget to join the Conversation!

Blessings,

Edie

SEO—What is it and Why Should a Writer Care?

In this day and time, it’s becoming more and more necessary for a successful writer to have an online presence. For most of us that translates into a blog, Facebook page and Twitter account.

SEO

Without good search engine rankings, a blog can become more of a liability than an asset. To help raise those rankings it’s important to understand a few terms and how they apply. The first is SEO. This is an acronym that stands for Search Engine Optimization. Sounds complicated, right? Actually it’s not.

SEO is where, in the list of millions, your content will show up when searched, using a search engine. When you use different search engines—Google, Yahoo, etc., you'll notice that each will give slightly different results from any given search. But there are things we can do as writers to move our content up in the rankings. To accomplish this we have to have a basic understanding of how SEO algorithms work.

SEO used mathematical algorithms (or equations) to compute the ranking of any given site. The actual algorithms are extremely complicated, but what we need to know about them is relatively simple. First though, lets separate myth from truth.

Myth

There’s also a common myth that an article’s search engine rank is determined by the number of times the keyword is used. There was a time—early in the history of the Internet—when this was partly true. But no more

Truth

If this were the case, all a website would have to do is have pages of nothing but keywords to up its search engine ranking. Search Engine Algorithms have done away with that method of cheating. Algorithms are too well written to fall for that—and many have built in sensors that penalize websites for trying to cheat.

Here are some other truths about Search Engines

Nowadays, Search Engine Algorithms take words literally—and that can be good or bad

This means that they don't understand it when we make a play on words. For example, a recipe for vegetarian chili titled, Too Hot to Handle Chili will rank lower than one titled, Homemade Vegetarian Chili. This is because an algorithm uses the literal meaning of words and the first title doesn’t even have the word “vegetarian” in it. Often times a clever title will result in fewer clicks.

This doesn't mean we can't be clever—only that we have to be deliberate in where we're clever. Take that chili recipe, give it a title that can be searched literally, like Hot and Spicy Vegetarian Chili, but in the description use the clever tag line as too hot to handle.

Search Engine Algorithms also look for keywords 


Keywords are the words that appear in the blog post that describe its content.
Search engines read from the top of a webpage to the bottom, searching to see that important keywords are used throughout the page.

Here’s a good rule of thumb when determining keyword density

• Always use the keyword in the title.
• Repeat the keyword at least once in the first 50 words.
• Spread the use of the keyword naturally and evenly throughout the rest of the article. In a 400 word article that would mean using the keyword a minimum of three more times. 

This should give any writer a good working knowledge of SEO. 


Any questions? If so leave them in the comment section and I'll check in and make sure they're answered!
Don't forget to join the conversation!
Blessings,
Edie

Writing for the Internet—Part Two

Anyone who’s spent any time writing content for the web or even researching this market, has run across the acronym SEO. This stands for Search Engine Optimization. It's basically where, in the list of millions, your content will show up when searched by a reader (search engine). When you use different search engines—google, yahoo, etc., you'll notice that each will give slightly different results from any given search. But there are things we can do as writers to move our content up in the rankings. To accomplish this we have to have a basic understanding of how SEO algorithms work.

Myth
There’s also a common myth that an article’s search engine rank is determined by the number of times the keyword is used. There was a time—early in the history of the Internet—when this was partly true. But no more

Truth
If this were the case, all a website would have to do is have pages of nothing but keywords to up its search engine ranking. Search Engine Algorithms have done away with that method of cheating. Algorithms are too well written to fall for that—and many have built in sensors that penalize websites for trying to cheat.

Here are some other truths about Search Engines

• Nowadays, Search Engine Algorithms take words literally—and that can be good or bad

This means that they don't understand it when we make a play on words. For example, a recipe for vegetarian chili titled, Too Hot to Handle Chili will rank lower than one titled, Homemade Vegetarian Chili. This is because an algorithm uses the literal meaning of words and the first title doesn’t even have the word “vegetarian” in it. Often times a clever title will result in fewer clicks.
This doesn't mean we can't be clever—only that we have to be deliberate in where we're clever. Take that chili recipe, give it a title that can be searched literally, like Hot and Spicy Vegetarian Chili, but in the description use the clever tag line as too hot to handle.
This blog—The Write Conversation—is a clever play on words that works. The reason being I want this site to be searchable for the keyword “write” as well as be clever about educating writers as an ongoing “conversation.”

• Search Engine Algorithms also look for keywords.

Keywords are the words that appear on the website that describe that page. When writing content for a client they will often give you a list of keywords. It's your responsibility to use those keywords effectively. This is called Keyword Density and refers to the number of times a keyword is used on a page.

Search engines read from the top of a webpage to the bottom, searching to see that important keywords are used throughout the page.

Here’s a good rule of thumb when determining keyword density

• Always use the keyword in the title.
• Repeat the keyword at least once in the first 50 words.
• Spread the use of the keyword naturally and evenly throughout the rest of the article. In a 400 word article that would mean using the keyword a minimum of three more times.

This should give any writer a good working knowledge of SEO. You can apply it to your own personal blog or website or you can use it to write effectively for clients.

Let me know if you have any questions about writing for the Internet because next week I’ll be wrapping up this series.

Don't forget to join the conversation!
Blessings,
Edie