You want your web pages to climb the Google rankings? Well, there’s the science of search engine optimization (SEO) that you need to master. While there are basic things you can do to increase your rankings, such as writing lots of good content and having plenty of inbound links, and – of course – not using Flash (wineries please note), there are also more advanced techniques.
The problem with these more advanced techniques is that they distort your content. You have to write certain things in certain places, making sure your keywords are carefully positioned, and thus your content becomes shaped by your intent to climb the search results.
This is crazy. I refuse to do it. I write what I want to write, and how I want to. It I were allow my content to be shaped by the desires of search engines, however subtly, I’d be crossing a line that I really don’t want to cross. Then, would I change my content to keep my friends in the wine trade happy, or to avoid upsetting them? Or would I write with advertisers in mind? Readers’ trust would be lost pretty quickly.
4 Comments on Writing for SEO?
There are many aspects to SEO. The most important being good contents. One thing many experts say is “write so that it is *easy* for the reader to find *relevant* *information* and you will make the search engines happy” (meaning you will get good rankings).
But doesn’t “I write what I want to write, and how I want to” sound very much like the wine maker who says “I make the wine that *I* want and I don’t really give a damn what the customer/wine drinker thinks about it or what kind of wine *they* like”? Is that a good approach for a winemaker?
I have you book marked 😉
I think it’s the only authentic approach for a winemaker, Per-BK, as it is for a wine writer.
It’s a pain in the butt writing for SEO, unfortunately though for the newer and less well known sites you have to do it to get anywhere in the search engines!