By Randy Reiser

The success of a Search Engine Optimization campaign hinges on a myriad of different variables – the entire process from competitive analysis to rank stabilization must conform to a well thought out strategy based on carefully conducted research. Not excluded from this rule is the ever-important on-page content that will provide the context for your keywords. Despite the prevalence of SEO as an online marketing strategy, however, the most effective methodologies for writing SEO-friendly copy are still shrouded in mystery for many of those who are not intimately involved in web-based industries. The question for many of USA Web Solutions’ clients then becomes, exactly how do I go about writing my content?

Initially, writing exceptional SEO copy can seem like a daunting task. In addition to writing content that your audience will find exciting, you must also write to satisfy the search engine crawlers that will be analyzing your pages. At USA Web Solutions, however, we feel that your top priority in writing content should be satisfying your visitors. Google’s algorithms are meant to reward high-quality content that delivers the best user experience, not that which is stuffed to the brim with keywords (as a matter of fact, you will be penalized for this). While writing, simply take care to write the amount of recommended words, while including the keywords an appropriate number of times (this information can be found on your Page Content Optimization Report). This will ensure a proper keyword density, without which achieving higher rankings will be very difficult!

Also, in keeping with the idea of optimizing user experiences, we would not recommend the practice of duplicating content and switching out one set of keywords for another. Content that is too similar and appears on multiple pages will “confuse" search engine crawlers (remember, we’re dealing with bots here!), making it very difficult for them to decide which piece of information is more important and should rank. Ultimately, the crawlers will try to figure out which piece of content is the original, and rank the page on which it appears accordingly. As a result, if you duplicate the same content across ten different keywords, you may only rank highly for one keyword even if every other SEO tactic is executed flawlessly.

Finally, the SEO tactic which will gain the most traction in 2011 is that which is being referred to as social signals. No longer is social media simply a virtual playground for high school students (and, to be fair, it hasn’t been for several years). Google and Bing now acknowledge that social signals such as retweets and Facebook links are absolutely being used in determining organic rankings. Interestingly enough in this case, however, user authority is only considered in a limited fashion, with search engines deferring to popular opinion in determining which links are legitimate or not.

While writing SEO content may not be the easiest task in the world, it is a necessary evil for achieving high ranks. Following these guidelines will provide the basis for an SEO campaign that will put you on page one in no time!