Forum Moderators: not2easy
For my site i write the content (its 90% in the form of articles). Then I stick in the keywords that relate to the articles.
My thought on the matter is that this way, regardless of my rankings (good or bad), then at least i can say my content is relevant to the users who come across it.
However, I have seen that some web designers will identify the keywords that their target market will search for and write their content around that.
Personally I dont think there's much wrong with this (after all, if you have a shop, you stock the products that your customers want - suppply and demand).
But, I think that given the way that users reach our sites (thru search engines) that this method can be misused (spam) and therefore runs the risk on envoking penalties. I also believe that if you put too much effort into this method, you can sacrifice the quality (and variety) of your content in exchange for high rankings and high traffic.
Which is your preference (ie, how much effort do you put into deciding what content to add to your site)? Do add what you want and optimise this, or do you go solely by what all the keyword tracking tools tell you people are searching for?
Just a thought! :)
JOAT
Congratualations on becoming a full member!
At least, that's the way I do it - I've found when I just write about the subject at hand, it has a lot of the keywords I want in it.
The rest is just formatting in different ways for bots and visitors alike to enjoy the page as much as you did when you wrote it. :)
Writing Copy while thinking about optimising will be dry as dust, I know and it’s a hard habit to break.
Then I close that file and start writing copy - agreed, not with optimization in mind specifically. The optimization is a later step, so the content doesn't get all warped and artificial. That is, I don't just "write around" the keyword list.
But doing the keyword research first often gives me ideas that actually help the content -- by showing me something about how the average person thinks, what vocabulary they consider to be "in my territory" and so on. Sometimes I see an aspect of the topic that I was shortchanging with my initial concept.
Many times I've expanded one part of an article because of this, and sometimes I've even shifted gears in a major way.
Define Long Term Goals For Site>
Keyword Research >
Break Key Phrases Into User Friendly Theme Groups >
Establish Internal Linking Strategy>
Outline Site Architecture >
Write Individual Pages Intuitively >
Tweak Individual Pages For Keyword Placement and Density>
Add Additional Links *in* Content Where Appropriate and Useful to the End User
Far from being articial, I think developing keywords first can work like using an outline - it can help to keep your writing concise and to the point. Having a background in journalism, brevity was not always one of my traits!
