How to Avoid SEO Penalties

December 9^th 2010 Sally Ormond copywriter, copywriting tips, search engine optimisation, SEO copywriter

Search engine optimisation is helping businesses, of all sizes, reach a wider online audience. If it is done well they can slash their marketing budgets because the need for ‘paid’ advertising can be greatly reduced.

But because SEO takes time, many are still inclined to try to cut corners.

Be warned, SEO shortcuts can, and most probably will, incur the wrath of Google and you really don’t want to do that.

So don’t be lazy. Work at your SEO strategy.

Building links

Every link you get to your website is seen by Google as a ‘thumbs up’ for your site. The more you have the more authoritative you’re perceived to be.

But gathering links is time consuming so many are tempted to buy them to speed the process up a bit. But buying is not good. Building your links naturally will ensure they come from reputable, related websites. If you buy them there’s no telling where they’re coming from and you could damage the reputation of your site.

Good links can be attracted in several ways:

A well thought out Google profile
Contacting your local Chamber of Commerce and asking for a link from their site
Link swap with your clients/suppliers
Press releases
Entries in influential online directories
Through blogs and articles

The main thing to remember about link generation is that it’s an on going process. If you find it too much for one person to handle alone, set up a link building team within your organisation to share the workload.

Keep away from black hats

There are many SEO companies out there that will claim to be able to get you on the front page of Google just like that.

Remember SEO isn’t quick and it’s not a one-off solution. Some (not all) of these companies will employ ‘black hat’ techniques such as cloaking, using link farms, invisible text and keyword stuffing. All of these will land you in hot water with Google.

Readability is key

SEO is a lot to do with keywords so people make the ‘logical’ step of thinking all they have to do is stuff their keyword into their copy as many times as possible to get good rankings.

Wrong.

SEO copywriting is quite an art so it always pays to find a professional to do it for you.

If you cram your text with keywords you’ll render it:

Unreadable
Unable to convert any visits into sales
Forgettable – your readers will be completely turned off by it

A professional SEO copywriter will create content that’s compelling, benefits driven, natural and that converts your visitors into sales.

Don’t be repetitive

Gaining as much space on the internet as possible is vital. But in a rush to do so, many companies simply cut and paste their profiles across numerous directories and websites.

Don’t! This will result in duplicate copy issues which Google hates. Although it takes a lot of work, make sure you only enter original content to your website, directory entries and blogs.

Keep going

Your SEO strategy must be on going. Back links have to be build constantly, blogs and articles should be written regularly, the content on your website should always be up to date. You should constantly monitor the effectiveness of your keywords and amend as required.

Yes it’s hard work but boy can it be rewarding. If you want higher rankings, more traffic and a lower marketing spend get your search engine optimisation right.

Tags: copywriter, copywriting tips, search engine optimisation, SEO copywriter

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