Infinite Path

The number one rule to remember with regards to content is that it should be written with the website visitor in mind. Content is written by humans for humans and nobody wants to visit a website and read text which sounds like it has been created by a robot. Having said this, when it comes to SEO, you want to tailor your content so that it keeps the search engines happy. Striking the right balance between pleasing visitors to your website and the search engines is difficult but getting it right is essential for successful search marketing.

It is worth remembering that when search engines crawl a web page, they are looking for content which has been created in a natural style through organic means. As a result, if you create your content for humans using natural techniques, it is likely that the search engines will be satisfied. However, ignoring the preferences of search engines with regards to content altogether really isn’t advisable. At Infinite Path, we create optimized content for search marketing which appeals to humans and to search engines, bearing in mind the following features which keep the search engines happy:

• Although content can refer to features on your website including pictures, videos, and sound clips, the content that search engines love the most is written text. These other features will not help you in the quest to gain higher rankings in search results for particular keywords. The search engines want you to include content that they can actually read. Luckily, this preference of the search engines fits nicely with most people’s preferences. Think how annoying it is when you’re trying to track down some important information only to be bombarded by unwanted and intensely irritating sound clips and unnecessary pictures that hinder your task of tracking down key data in the form of text.
• Search engines tend not to stick exclusively to the old cliche loved by humans: “it’s about quality, not quantity”. The search engines love high-quality content and have particularly hateful feelings towards content which has been produced solely for the purposes of SEO. Pages filled with sentences which barely make sense because they are stuffed with keywords and little else really repel the search engines. It therefore seems obvious that quality is important, as it is to humans. However, search engines also get excited by quantity. They love finding sites with thousands of pages, each stacked full of useful content.
• Search engines, like humans, reward originality. Duplicate content is a big turn-off for search engines and for humans as well. Nobody will bother visiting (and, crucially, re-visiting) a website which repeats the words of other people without offering a unique and interesting slant. What they really want to see is authoritative comments and viewpoints and this applies equally to search engines. The golden rule remains that you shouldn’t bother writing something if you have nothing new to say.

Cohesion is also a major bonus in the eyes of the search engines. An article built around a single theme, such as content for search marketing, is particularly pleasing for them. Search engines find very few things more frustrating than a web page which has obviously included several keywords but the surrounding text has nothing to do with the theme of these words. If you want to include keywords in a web page, make sure they are there for a reason other than boosting your rankings in search engines.