Posts Comments

You are here: Home / Archives for SEO Writing Tips

How timing can increase readership– When is the best time to post content, articles, blog posts and social media?

February 21, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Best time to post blog content
Timing is everything and the posting of new articles, press releases, blog posts, and social media posts is no exception to the rule. By learning when your audience is surfing and engaging in social media activities, you will achieve a greater amount of readership.

In 1993, I started a PR firm and in early 2000 made a media division of the firm.  Over time, I have built a portfolio of approximately 200 online magazines and blogs of various topics, focused on many different industries and demographics.  I always noticed that the timing of publishing greatly effect how much exposure it draws, including email blasts, press releases, and publishing articles.

When it comes to marketing, my rule of thumb is that success comes from analyzing what is and is not working.  To achieve greater readership, I examined my analytics and looked into what industry experts said about timing and posting content. After correlating the data, here are my findings:

Increasing Traffic

When do people read blogs / online publications?
Blogs are read throughout the day, not just at one specific time. However, experts and my analytics indicate that 75% of people read blogs and online news sites in the morning. The average blog and online news site gets the most traffic on Mondays. The average blog usually gets the most traffic before 11 am Monday to Thursday.

Differences in Genders
If you’re targeting men, a higher percentage of men read blogs and online news sites in the evening hours.

Feedback By the Hour
The average blog usually get the most amount of feedback around 9am

Growing Links Organically
The average blog usually gets the most inbound links Monday & Thursday morning at around 7am.
By posting more than one article per day, you increase your chances of getting unique views and inbound links. As you increase the number of posts-per-day, the number of unique views per month also increases.

 

Social Networks

It’s important to know when the highest percentage of your audience is frequenting social networking sites. This way will get you maximum exposure when you share content. The data below will help you understand the timing and frequenting of Social Networking Users.


Facebook
1 post every 2 days will achieve the most likes on Facebook. The best sharing frequency on Facebook is at Noon and a little after 7pm. Most Facebook sharing is done on Saturdays.


Twitter
The best time to tweet (in hopes of getting re-tweeted) is in the afternoon and before 5pm. To get the most people to click through to your site, it’s best to tweet 1 to 4 times per hour. You can expect the highest click through rates (CTR’s) during midweek and weekends between Noon and 6pm.


Google+
Google+, also referred to as GooglePlus, is the new kid on the block. Because of this, neither I nor the experts have a solid year of data.  For now (until further research is completed), as a rule of thumb, the best practice would be to follow the same times as Facebook.

 

 

If you have any of your own tips on gaining more readership through optimal timing and SEO, please comment below.

 


Filed Under: SEO Writing Tips

Penalized for Duplicate Content

December 24, 2011 By 1 Comment

Writing / Publishing Duplicate Content SEO No No !!

Google Panda Algorithm and other Search Engines look down and penalize any site that duplicates content on their site internally or from other sites. Make sure the content is 100 percent original and interesting. Don’t cut corners by taking an old article, or someone else’s article and changing it around with a new title and switching up the wording here or there. Search Engines have become so sophisticated they can tell when a writer has cut corners and will penalize the site dropping in ranking to removing the site all together from the search engine

Avoid duplicating content by accident, a basic mistake that can hurt ranking as well.

Basically anytime you or someone cuts and paste info from one place to another on the web you could be penalizing your website and search engine rankings. Be careful to always change the content when posting info that is too similar such as

  • Your company is hosting an event and has a description on their website. To market the event your marketing department sent out a press release with the same wording, posted the same wording in community event calendars or posted in industry related forums
  • Posting links in Social Media such as Facebook and they automatically posting a snippet of the content
  • Posting contributed articles too similar to various websites

Search Engines such as Google are so frustrated by laziness of people who take shortcuts of duplicating content they now de-index websites, yes remove the sites completely from their search engine who have kept on publishing or not updating and removing duplicate content from their websites which clearly breaks the rules of Google Webmaster Guidelines. If a site gets removed by Google from their search engine it can be a very painstaking task to ask Google for reconsideration. The best way to make sure Google doesn’t remove your website or pages for duplicate content is to make 100 percent original interesting focused content and watch where you cut and paste on the web.

If you discover someone else is duplicating or copying your content

Theft of website content, from one website to another became an epic trend until Google started penalize for duplicate content. However some companies and websites are still getting away with it and Google hasn’t caught up to them. If you discover someone has duplicated or copied your content file a DMCA report with the violators’ hosting company to have their website taken down or have the duplicated content removed.

 

An excellent free tool to see who is duplicating your content or see if your own website has duplication violation use http://www.copyscape.com

 

 

Filed Under: SEO Writing Tips Tagged With:

Writing SEO Friendly Content for 2012

December 24, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Writing SEO Friendly Content for 2012

Writing 2012 SEO friendly content is more important than ever for companies and websites that rely on traffic to increase leads or revenue this year

In 2011 Google’s famous Panda Algorithm changed the playing field for 2012 SEO copywriting and it is more important than ever to follow Google Webmaster Guidelines as being aware of how to write Search Engine Optimized Content.

To be successful anything that will get posted on the web, if it is an article, a product description, a calendar event, blog post, or a classified ad should be written to be search engine optimized.

Due to Search Engine Algorithms, writing styles have changed in 2011 and changed for good for 2012 onward and anyone who writes needs to be aware what will get their content ranked well in search engines and what will hinder their content from being found or penalized by search engines.

If you noticed over the last couple of years news papers and magazines have slowed down using catchy fun titles or long interludes to the stories. Their titles and first paragraphs of stories are keyword driven.  They try not to duplicate stories as much, and their grammar skills have tightened up.

To have 2012 SEO friendly content the following four items are important

  • Avoid Thin Content, 400 Words or More – Search engines do not like anything under 400 words. They consider this thin content and will penalize sites that have pages with little to no wording
  • Avoid Duplicate Content – In 2011 Google and other Search Engines cracked down on people duplicating content with in their site and from other sites. Search Engines have algorithms that are so sophisticated they can tell if an article has been duplicated slightly or completely and will penalize any site/company that does so.
  • Using Keyword Phrases and placing them in specific locations. – Where traveling humans have street signs to understand where they are, likewise Search Engine Robots traveling sites determining how to index them by how the content is laid out, they need specific signs to asses where you fit in their search.
  • Proper English – Search Engines got frustrated in 2011 and made algorithms that penalized sites for bad grammar and spelling.  Whoever writes the content, make sure they understand grammar structure and you spell check or Search Engines will penalize you.

 

 

Filed Under: SEO Writing Tips Tagged With: ,

Checklist to Write, Publish SEO Friendly Content

December 24, 2011 By 1 Comment

Below is a simple checklist to ensure your content is search engine optimized and drives traffic to your website.

  • Use Google Keyword Tool to find which Topics and Keyword Phrases the content should focus on.  Choose well searched phrases that have low to medium competition.
  • Determine who will be writing the SEO friendly content, yourself or a hired writer
  • Give the assigned writer three to five friendly SEO Keyword Phrases which are highly searched with low to medium completion

Before the writing make sure the assigned writer understands repetition or keywords and not duplicating content.  This is very important for SEO friendly content to rank well in Google and other Search Engines. This will ensure search engines algorithms index the content better.

Keyword phrases should be repeated several times throughout the content in the following places

  • In title  (at least two of the assigned key phrases, ideally used at the beginning of the content)
  • First Sentence (at least two of the same phrases used in the title, ideally used at the beginning of the content)
  • All Key phrases used minimum once, ideally twice in the first paragraph
  • If anything is bold or italics make sure it has a key phrase
  • In links if it flows with the content
  • Summary paragraph at the end of the content.

For best SEO practices, webmaster or who is posting content on the web should use Keyword Phrases in the following area:

  • in  naming the page /URL / Permalink
  • used 2 Times in the meta title Tags which is also often the H1 tag
  • used in Keyword Tags
  • used in Description Tags
  • used in H2 & H3 Tags
  • used in Image alt text
  • used  in naming image files
  • used in links
  • used in anchor texted
  • used where phrases are bolded
  • used where items are italics

    •  
    Important SEO TIP – Webmaster or Marketing Department needs to remember to not duplicate the content accidently or intentionally

With following the above checklist will help improve  your website to get more traffic.

 

 

 

 

Filed Under: SEO Writing Tips