SEO Writing: Is it Worth the Time?

SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is a science all by itself. Each search engine has its own methodology of spidering the web and analyzing page contents in order to award these pages with "rankings". For anyone who has ever been rewarded with a Top 10 Google ranking, it is akin to receiving an Emmy Award.

However, unbeknownst to many, these rankings may have little to do with the SEO techniques and contents on their website.

Following standard SEO suggestions is fine, but since Google won't even utter a mere hint of how they go about ranking words or pages or content, many webmasters and company owners and blog writers spend too much time and effort trying to optimize their verbiage while frequently reducing their reader integration.

Using the assumption that keywords should be used a minimum of five times in the top three paragraphs of every page can play havoc with the reader's understanding and ultimate interest in the material. In many cases, while the page may be given a decent ranking, the readers' interpretation of the content may be swayed simply because the verbiage is forced and sounds unnatural.

For instance if you are selling sneakers, how many times does a customer need to see the word "sneakers" on your home page to get the idea? Now, repeat it five times in the first few paragraphs, and your content just looks plain silly.

Many websites and individual pages achieve high rankings for other reasons - and we may not ever completely understand how or why it happens. But there is also no guarantee that using SEO technology will help rankings either.

What to do? Write like you speak. Talk to your customers and prospects - not the search engines.