In most cases, this isn’t true. Publishing a lot of content on a regular basis will undoubtedly get traffic to your site. However, if the content isn’t what people want to read, or it doesn’t satisfy their query, they will most likely bounce straight off your site in search of an answer elsewhere.

The content of your content is what will lead to conversions; and quite possibly improvements in search engine rankings. If you are writing “search engine copy”, you will most likely alienate users once they hit your site as they will recognise the content to be content for content’s sake.

Content doesn’t just have to be words. Content can be videos and audio and as long as that content is relevant to the user, that’s all that matters. Even though a search engine can’t necessarily read video or audio content, it will still recognise that if certain content is popular, it will class it as important. And we all know what happens if a search engine thinks your content is important…

Content and publishing are hot topics at the moments, especially as Rupert Murdoch is trying to pave the way for monetising content online. The importance of content has never been under-estimated, but maybe the quality of content is now going to become much more of a concern.

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• If you hire someone to write content for you, make sure you draw up a contract stating that you are purchasing all rights to the created content. If you don’t do this, you will not be able to use the article on an unlimited basis. If you have paid someone to create a really interesting and informative article, you want to be able to use it without restrictions
• Always ask for permission before using an article you find on a website. If you do not do this, you could run into trouble with copyright law. Remember that copyright is a process which occurs as a natural process. You don’t need to register something as being protected by copyright or stamp a big copyright notice across the article. Always assume that you will be breaking some kind of copyright law if you take content without gaining clear and thorough permission
• Rewording the content written by other people is fine if you provide an original slant. However, if your new content is practically a copy of the original but with a few words changed here and there, you could be punished. This is a complicated topic because it is hard to draw a line between something being a copy and something being original. For this reason, many companies choose to hire the services of a content optimisation company in order to avoid the worry of potentially losing valuable money
• There are exceptions to copyright rules and these include government sources (although there are still some exceptions to this rule, so it is important to assume that you don’t have the right to take a source until you have researched it thoroughly).

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• Asking the author of another site if you can use some of their content. Although this sounds a bit cheeky, you will probably get some positive responses, since there are benefits for the site owner. Remember that it is best to put a unique slant on the content so that it does not look like outright duplication. For instance, you could provide a quirky comment at the bottom of the article or write a short article about the author of the original content. Make sure you keep the importance of relevance in mind at all times. Only think about asking for content that relates to your website in an interesting and informative manner.
• Visiting content syndication sites. This is sometimes an easier method than the one mentioned above but it follows a similar pattern. Instead of approaching an individual website author, you simply visit a content syndication website. Authors post their content on here with the knowledge that other website owners will use it on their own pages. The potential downside to this method is that you will need to provide links back to the original website, so make sure you check where you will be sending traffic!
• Finding government sources. It’s surprising what governments spend their time writing about. You may think that the subject of your website is too obscure to be considered for content creation by the government but in many cases you will find that you’re wrong. Spend some time looking on the internet for good government sources and include them in your website.
• Tracking down (or creating your own) press releases. These can be found by looking on a search engine. Make sure you keep relevance in mind once again when looking for informative and useful press releases.

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It’s all very well attracting proportionately more visitors to your website as a result of gaining a high rank in search engines but, ultimately, it is the content that will either make them stay or look elsewhere.

Style

Companies often make the mistake of believing that the best way to attract new business is to sell themselves through clichéd corporate talk. These companies will think nothing of boasting about their previous successes and promoting themselves as the best in their field in a shameless, and frankly embarrassing, manner. Far from attracting new customers, this technique only serves to disenchant people, who do not want companies to preach at them about how great they are.

Good copy should be written in as natural a style as possible. After all, websites are viewed by real human beings. They should therefore be written in a manner which appeals to real human beings. The concept of conversational economy should be followed at all times. Individuals want engaging, down-to-earth copy that does not stick to a preconceived formula.

It is actually more difficult to write in corporate speak than it is to write in a more natural style. The key is to be yourself. Don’t think that your personality is split into two, with one part suitable for life outside the office and the other suitable for life inside the office. Write in such a way that would make you feel comfortable if you were visiting your website. Cut out the jargon and write in a relatable manner. Visitors to any site are far more likely to stick around if they actually understand the content.

As a general copywriting rule, it is better to use shorter words rather than rambling phrases. This not only makes the copy easier to read and scan through for important information but will also make it more memorable. Short and snappy buzz words stick in the mind. Long, elaborate phrases do not.

Avoiding deception

Whilst it is important to speak on a personal level with visitors to your website, it is also important to remember that you are trying to sell or promote a product or service. As such, it is not appropriate to ramble for several paragraphs about your latest night out in the pub. Rather than appealing to visitors, this could introduce an element of dishonesty into your relationship and this, obviously, is not desirable. Instead, be upfront about what it is that you are trying to convey. Honesty is key in this context.

Make your copy relatable

In your written content, you should try to make your service or product as relatable and practical as possible. Talk candidly about the potential benefits of your service or product and the ways in which it could directly impact upon the everyday life of a typical website visitor. You can talk about the features and individual aspects of your service/product later in the copy.

As a general rule, consumers are far more likely to be interested in products which are presented in a practical manner. Products which are discussed in a theoretical or abstract way will not appeal as much as products which are described as being directly beneficial in the real world.

The same rule applies to language in general. Using confusing concepts can make language lose its original meaning. Try to make what you say accurately reflect what you think. Abstract concepts can make companies seem remote and inaccessible to the average website visitor.

Structure

Long, uninterrupted paragraphs intimidate visitors. Make sure you make your website as user-friendly and aesthetically attractive as possible. Use obvious and clear sub-headings, bullet points, lists, and highlighted excerpts of text. Visitors to the website will be far more inclined to read the entirety of your site if it is easy and manageable to do so.

Furthermore, individuals will be more likely to revisit your site in the future if they think they will be able to find important information quickly and easily. Your website could easily become a reputable authority on your given subject if you make it easy for visitors to find important information time and again.

Interaction

Encourage interaction in your written content. Include questions in your copy and actively ask visitors to leave comments and feedback. Do not ignore this feedback. Instead, provide useful answers and solutions and make it seem like you care. Do not be afraid to admit that you and your company are fallible and can be constantly improved by the input of other individuals.

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The fact remains that whilst articles have decreased in popularity since the rise of the blog, they still have their own unique advantages. The lists of respective advantages below clearly show that whilst blogs may have boomed in popularity, both articles and blogs remain important communication channels in today’s day and age.

Blogs

• More personal than an article
• More direct than an article
• Mirrors the feel of face-to-face contact in a virtual world
• Good for fresh and up-to-date content that will no longer be relevant after a few days
• Respected because you can provide inside-information

Articles

• More informative than blogs and better for including details or statistics needed to back up your content
• Respected because articles automatically appear more official and, importantly, more objective than blogs
• Can include more content within one article
• Can be timeless
• Can be listed on more sources and thus viewed by more people

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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.

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