Blind Five Year Old

It’s not your imagination. Google’s rate of search innovation has accelerated. Google has marched through shopping Onebox enhancements (9/14), expanded forum listings (9/14), anchor based jump to and site links (9/25), Search Options expansion (10/1), Quick View PDFs (10/7), Twitter integration (10/21) and Social Search (10/26).

You could even include ancillary search innovations like Sidewiki (9/23) and fetch as Googlebot (10/12).

It’s been so fast that Google launched a series of weekly blog posts (This Week in Search) to keep up with the changes.

Pent Up Search Innovation?

For the past few years Google has stated in numerous venues that they didn’t particularly want to grow their share of the search market. They explained that extending their market share lead could incur the wrath of government oversight or create user backlash.

The jaded in the audience rolled their eyes and even the purists probably furrowed their brow. Sure, it makes a bit of sense but … really?

Yet, the timing of these recent search innovations is intriguing.

Bing Allows Google To Innovate

Microsoft’s latest dedication to search could be the reason for Google’s recent spate of search enhancements. Before Bing went live Google rolled out rich snippets, making Google last to the rich listings party. The preemptive move secured a certain search parity in the space.

That box checked off, Google sat back and watched as Bing innovated, advertised and finally partnered with Yahoo. Bing’s share began to inch up toward 10% and that seemed to be enough for the search behemoth to release the hounds engineers.

One gets the impression that projects that had once been stashed in a drawer were suddenly taken out, dusted off and quickly deployed.

What else does Google have in store for us?

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is filled with passionate debate. One such debate is the validity of keyword density as an SEO strategy.

Keyword Density is Dead

The well respected SEOmoz says keyword density is a myth.

A complete myth as an algorithmic component, keyword density nonetheless pervades even very sharp SEO minds. While it’s true that more usage of a keyword term/phrase can potentially improve targeting/ranking, there’s no doubt that keyword density has never been the formula by which this relevance was measured.

Yet, looking at their 2009 Search Engine Ranking Factors report you’ll note that keyword density does appear as a factor. In addition, you’ll see factors such as using the keyword in the first 50-100 words of text and keyword repetition in the text.

So, what’s going on?

Keyword Targeting Matters

Keyword targeting helps a search engine understand what a page is about.

There is a fringe element who would have you believe that unique content is enough. They assume that the search engine will understand the content as written, no keyword targeting required.

But how does a search engine understand content? A search engine doesn’t read the text on the page like you or I. They’ll always fail a reading comprehension test. No, search engines have to assess and understand content in a mathematical way.

Keyword Targeting Strategies

While search engines use a mathematical approach to understanding text, they try to emulate human reading behavior. The use of the keyword in the title tag is important, just as the title of a book is important. Imagine the confusion of an organic chemistry textbook titled ‘Sunshine Boogie’.

The use of the keyword in the H1 tag is essentially a chapter heading. Headers are usually the biggest text on the page and size matters since it conveys the relative importance of text on the page. To a lesser extent, any emphasized text (bold, italics) may also provide a clue to search engines as to comparative relevance.

Using the keyword as the first word in the title as well as the H1 and in the first 50-100 words of text points to a bias toward natural left to right reading. What’s on the left – first or early on – is most important.

And then there’s the repetitive use of the keyword in the text. If you’re reading a chapter on the history of the Crusades you’re likely to see the word ‘crusades’ quite a bit. A blog post on Twitter is going to have the word ‘Twitter’ repeated numerous times. The repetition helps to define the topic of that content.

Keyword Targeting Measurement

Search engines may use a number of different methodologies to extract meaning and determine keyword targeting. Proximity, distribution and co-location have been around for ages. I understand linearization, tokenization, filtration and stemming and grok lexicographic analysis. Yet, I’m not sure to what extent search engines really use any of these methodologies.

I’m particularly suspect of linearization since Google has indicated it can distinguish and weight text and links by where they reside on the page.

But enough about the search engine, how does the every day person measure keyword targeting?

You’ve written a new piece of content – an article or blog post. You know what it’s supposed to be about, but did you stray too far from your original keyword target? You know you’re supposed to use the keyword a number of times but did you use the keyword enough?

Long Live Keyword Density

Like it or not the easiest way to determine if you used the keyword enough times is … keyword density. When I use keyword density I’m looking at the percentage and frequency of that keyword compared to other non-stop words. Usually I’m not even looking at numbers but instead use Wordle for visual keyword density.

Remember, you’re not using keyword density in a vacuum!

Getting the keyword density from 4% to 5% probably won’t do squat. And keyword density isn’t going to matter if you simply stuff the keywords into an incoherent, keyword bloated final paragraph.

But if you have 5 or 6 keywords with the same general density, or if your target keyword has a density of under 1% you’ve got some problems. The search engine will be confused. It might figure it out (with or without additional SEO help), but why take the chance when you have full control over this part of the optimization!

If a number of keywords have the same density, which can happen when you have a very long piece of content, you can choose to target the ‘right’ keyword. Or you may come to the conclusion that the content covers too many topics and should be split (or paginated) into smaller, more focused articles.

If the keyword density is low, it’s a reminder to review your writing to look for dreaded pronouns, to make sure you’re using the keyword in the first and last paragraphs and to remove any leaps in logic.

Keyword density isn’t about density it’s about enforcing proper keyword targeting.

Keyword Density and Readability

Research shows that people scan web content. They very rarely read word by word. People are in a hurry and our broadband tabbed browser environment allows us to go even faster than before.

Steve Krug’s Don’t Make Me Think! has this to say about scanning content.

The net effect is a lot like Gary Larson’s classic Far Side cartoon about the difference between what we say to dogs and what they hear. In the cartoon, the dog (named Ginger) appears to be listening intently as her owner gives her a serious talking-to about staying out of the garbage. But from the dog’s point of view, all he’s saying is “blah blah GINGER blah blah blah blah GINGER blah blah blah.”

So, when someone comes to a piece of content, you need them to instantly understand what it’s about. Sure, a big H1 with the keyword goes a long way but if they’re scanning the text, you’ll want that keyword to show up numerous times. Don’t make them search for Ginger.

Keyword repetition helps the user make a conscious determination that the content is about that keyword. Unconsciously you’re bouncing a keyword rich visual image off the user’s retina. In a five second test environment, that type of visual osmosis might count for something.

Is it a stretch to think that keyword density might help users read content? No.

The real myth is that keyword density degrades content, when in fact it often does the opposite. Well written keyword dense text is generally easier to read.

Why Keyword Density Matters

Keyword density matters because it is an easy measure for keyword repetition and helps users access and engage in your content. It is not the biggest ranking factor (by a country mile), but keyword density is completely in your control and is one of the building blocks upon which other techniques are balanced.

Keyword density isn’t about hitting a certain percentage, it’s about ensuring that your content is highly focused and easy to read.

The other day I was walking to lunch with a long-time client and we passed one of the main entrances to Pac Bell, SBC AT&T Park. He noted that this particular entrance seemed overly obvious.

This image, from Google Street View, shows the ‘Giants Building’ sign with a SF logo underneath and a ‘Home Of The Giants’ as a type of sub-header.

My response was simple. That’s good SEO.

This brought me a round of good-natured chiding from my client about being a bit too SEO focused. But really, this was a great example of Blind Five Year Old SEO. The sign was simple and instructive. (Perhaps also a reaction to the frequent name changes that Park has undergone.)

Could the San Francisco Giants be SEO savvy?

Let’s say I’m a tourist from … Sweden. What name tells me more: AT&T Park or Giants Building? That’s a no-brainer, right! Better yet, I’ve got that nice SF logo there for some context. And if I’m still confused I’m even told that this is the home of the Giants. Without a doubt I know the building in front of me is the home of the Giants.

Whether or not they’d know that the Giants are a baseball team is another thing entirely.

So am I too SEO focused or is this just a good real world case of providing easy, instructive signage?

At SMX West 2009 Bruce Clay stated that Yahoo! didn’t ‘like’ pipes. I’m a big fan of pipes so I made a beeline for the Yahoo! representative at the show and he was nonplussed. He saw no reason why Yahoo! would treat pipes any different than dashes.

What are pipes and dashes?

I’m talking about the delimiter used in the title tag, which ultimately shows up as the first line in your search engine result. The two most frequently used title tag delimiters are pipes and dashes.

Are pipes better than dashes?

So, it seemed like Yahoo! had no preference but what about Google? I asked Matt Cutts and got the following video reply. (Thanks Matt.)

The answer seems to be the same. Google most likely handles pipes the same way it does dashes.

Do users prefer dashes or pipes?

Matt brings up an interesting point surrounding click through rates on pipes versus dashes. And maybe that’s what Bruce was referring to – a study of click through behavior, specifically on Yahoo!

The real problem is you can’t really do an A/B test like you can on AdWords. But wouldn’t that be an incredible tool Google could provide through … say, Webmaster Tools! Because what you’d really want to do is take the same URL and send half of the traffic to one treatment and half to another.

In the interim I suppose you could conduct an eye tracking study. But Matt’s probably right, there’s likely little to no difference. Until then you can feel safe using both pipes or dashes for your title optimization.

Google wants to see long clicks not short clicks. That’s the new SEO terminology coming from Google.

What’s a Long Click?

A long click occurs when a user performs a search, clicks through on a result and remains on that site for a long time. They don’t come back to the result set immediately to click on another result or to refine their query. In general, long clicks are a proxy for satisfaction and success.

What’s a Short Click?

A short click is the opposite of a long click. (No duh!) A short click occurs when a user performs a search, clicks through on a result and quickly comes back to the result set to click on an alternate result. In general, short clicks are a proxy for dissatisfaction and failure.

How is Google Tracking Click Length?

No, it’s not through Google Analytics. They’re not peeking at bounce rates. Instead Google is measuring pogosticking activity by leveraging their current tracking mechanisms. Remember, Google already tracks the user, the search and the result clicked. All Google needed to do was to accurately model the time dimension.

Why are Long Clicks Important?

Long clicks are important to Google because it gives them a way to measure the satisfaction of the result based on downstream behavior. Sure, a result might get a lot of clicks but did it actually satisfy the query?

Is it a success if 100 people click but 98 go back within 10 seconds? What if those 98 people all clicked on an alternate result?

Google knows that the search algorithm still isn’t that smart. It routinely makes mistakes and can often be led down the wrong path by aggressive search engine optimization. Long clicks provide a feedback mechanism, a type of human quality assurance that is lacking in the algorithm.

Long clicks are important to you because they will may help increase your SERP rank.

The chatter from Google makes me believe that it is part of the algorithm. How much it is weighted now and in the future remains to be seen. One way or the other Google is saying that longer is better.

Starting Monday, Google began to display an image based shopping OneBox, changing the SEO landscape for any product or eCommerce related site. The shopping OneBox seems to be in high rotation, usually appears within the top three results, takes up more vertical real estate and has broad coverage over product searches.

What is a Google OneBox?

When Google wants to display information that is not exactly in the algorithm, but is related to the query, it does so through what is called a OneBox presentation. Think of it as a promotional unit.

The OneBox terminology was used by Google when the unit was first introduced and seems to have survived, at least externally. SearchEngineWatch (sorta) confirmed the OneBox terminology in an interview with Google Product Marketing Director Debbie Jaffe in 2006. (Jaffe never actually refers to it as OneBox.)

OneBox can display a variety of different information from news to weather to books to products and can be placed anywhere from the top to the bottom of a result page.

The OneBox presentation is controversial because it creates a very prominent listing that provides … cherry-picked results. As an example, Google has begun to implement a health OneBox.

The health OneBox for the query ‘stroke’ brings Mayo Clinic, Medline Plus and WebMD to the top of the page instead of where they’d wind up under natural results. In this case WebMD would be 3rd, Medline Plus 6th and Mayo Clinic 11th.

Google Shopping OneBox

The shopping OneBox or product OneBox brings the same cherry-picking controversy to the surface. It’s exacerbated by the fact that Google Product Search essentially competes with shopping comparison engines and review sites, many of whom have spent time and effort to perform search engine optimization.

If you’re not participating in Google Product Search (aka Google Base) then you’re never going to be in the shopping OneBox. And even if you do participate, there’s no guarantee that your listing will be featured. Here’s an example of the shopping OneBox for the query ‘proform 980 cs treadmill’.

Sears, JCPenney and Best Buy are all featured in the shopping OneBox. At least Sears and Best Buy have a natural listing but JCPenney has essentially circumvented normal SEO and is now a preferred result for this query.

Sites such as Buzzillions, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Shopping.com and even Amazon suddenly lose out on this query despite matching and delivering a very good experience for this product search. Even Best Buy might not be thrilled since they’d be first retailer listed and not the third if the OneBox wasn’t presented.

Today, Google is a huge part of any product based business, so changes like this will have an immediate impact on traffic and sales.

Shopping OneBox Evolution

The evolution of the shopping OneBox shows an increasing interest by Google in this vertical. First there was the old Froogle presentation.

Image from Google Operating System.

In 2008 Google experimented with a compact version with a product image.

Image from Google Operating System.

By early 2009 Google had reverted to a slightly less compact text version again.

Image from Best Rank.

Now the shopping OneBox has a large product image and is not compact at all, taking up a tremendous amount of real estate.

Importance of Shopping OneBox

On September 2nd, the Google Base blog announced new features for marketplace and aggregators on Google Product Search. This is a real change from the initial launch of Google Base, where Google seemed interested in having individual sellers upload to Base and use Google Checkout on their sites – middlemen be damned!

The change in direction for Google Base coupled with the focus Bing has had on shopping seem to have accelerated Google’s interest in the vertical. They’ve been toying with it for many years but have never really made it a priority.

The new shopping OneBox indicates that might be changing.

SEO Judo is used when you have a site or blog with content that hasn’t been optimized for search. When content isn’t created with keyword research as part of the process Google and other search engines define the relevant keywords for each page.

That’s where SEO Judo comes in handy.

What is SEO Judo?

First, let’s start with the meaning of Judo.

… it is the principle of using one’s opponent’s strength against him and adapting well to changing circumstances.

In the world of SEO the opponent is Google. Don’t misunderstand, Google isn’t evil. I don’t believe that Google has ulterior motives to each and every algorithm change. That’s not what I mean by opponent.

Instead I simply mean that when Google decides what a page is about it’s pretty difficult to change it’s mind. And the longer Google thinks a page is about a certain cluster of keywords the tougher it’ll be to convince Google otherwise.

Use Google’s Strength

Why fight Google? Instead, use their strength against them. If Google thinks a page is about a certain keyword and you’re currently ranked 5th for that term go ahead and optimize the page for that term and see if you can increase your rank and claim a greater amount of that traffic.

Sure you might look at the page and think that another keyword would be better, or you may look at a root keyword and get big saucer eyes with the amount of traffic you could get if you ranked for that term. But your opponent is strong. Very strong.

It will take a substantial effort and a fair amount of time to convince Google of new keyword targeting. Even then, you’re not guaranteed success. Instead, use SEO Judo and use Google’s momentum to reinforce what it already believes.

SEO Judo Example

Here’s an example of how to practice SEO Judo from my small Used Books Blog. In February I read and reviewed Erik Larson’s Devil and the White City. Using Google Analytics I can go and look at what keywords brought people to this page.

Even with the small volume you can quickly see a cluster of keywords around ‘devil in the white city quotes’. Performing this query on Google returns the page as the 11th result. Not bad!

In this case Google has ignored my meta description and created a snippet based on the text in the review. (More on this a bit later.) Clearly the Holy Trinity of SEO (title, meta description and URL) is not being optimized for the term ‘devil in the white city quotes’. But … it could.

With a bit of SEO Judo I can adapt to changing circumstances and use Google’s strength to my advantage. In a short amount of time I’d be a fixture on the first page for the term ‘devil in the white city quotes’.

When NOT to use SEO Judo

I wouldn’t use SEO Judo for the example I just used. Sure, I could, but to what purpose? The page doesn’t actually have any quotes from The Devil in the White City. (Thanks to the poor snippet algorithm.)

SEO isn’t just about traffic. Post Click SEO is the goal – getting the right traffic for your blog, site or business.

So only use SEO Judo if the keyword Google selects is actually good for your business. Remember, Google might be strong but it’s still not very smart.

When to use SEO Judo

SEO Judo should be used when you’ve given Google enough information to form an opinion. Google doesn’t need a whole lot, so this really means that the page must have a non-duplicative title and should have a keyword based URL.

In addition, the page must get enough SEO traffic so you can identify keyword clusters. If no one keyword phrase emerges, go back and optimize based on straight forward keyword research. If there are competing terms, you can again fall back on keyword research to select the best keyword target.

SEO Judo works best when you can create new content. Using the example above, I might change my review of Devil in the White City to include quotes, or I could create a new blog post specifically about quotes from Devil in the White City. Not only do I already understand Google’s appetite for this term, but I might finesse an indented listing by linking between the two posts.

This process is also useful if you’re pursuing a root keyword strategy. Instead of doing SEO Judo on the root keyword URL, you can use SEO Judo to create content for secondary terms that are firing on that root keyword content. This provides additional focus for the root keyword while building traffic on secondary terms.

Stop wearing yourself out trying to out-punch Google and instead use SEO Judo to throw Google to the mat.

This morning Microsoft announced a 10 year search partnership with Yahoo!

In simple terms, Microsoft will now power Yahoo! search while Yahoo! will become the exclusive worldwide relationship sales force for both companies’ premium search advertisers.

But it’s not all simple and straight-forward. If Bing now powers Yahoo! search, what happens to Yahoo! Paid Inclusion?

What is Paid Inclusion?

Yahoo! Paid Inclusion is a pay-per-click product that allows an advertiser to pay for a listing in the search index. That’s right, you can pay to look like an ‘organic’ listing. Paid Inclusion is the dirty little secret that nobody at Yahoo! talks about and is only whispered about among advertisers.

Will Yahoo! Paid Inclusion Survive?

At first glance it might seem that Paid Inclusion will go the way of the dodo bird. Or will it? The second key term provides an opening.

Microsoft will acquire an exclusive 10 year license to Yahoo!’s core search technologies, and Microsoft will have the ability to integrate Yahoo! search technologies into its existing web search platforms;

While this statement is clearly about the Yahoo! search algorithm and (perhaps) ancillary products like SearchMonkey, it could also apply to Paid Inclusion.

The reach of Yahoo’s Paid Inclusion product has never been clear and, therefore, the actual revenue Paid Inclusion generates is also a bit of a mystery. Is Paid Inclusion revenue big enough to preserve through this partnership or not?

Paid Inclusion and SEO

Paid Inclusion already obscures Yahoo! SEO. If Paid Inclusion goes away, many advertisers who were getting traffic ahead of natural listings will suddenly be at the mercy of natural SERP and SEO. There could be a substantial traffic impact for these advertisers who have come to rely on a certain amount of traffic at a predictable ROI.

Should Paid Inclusion not survive the partnership, SEO – Bing SEO specifically – will become more important. If Paid Inclusion does survive, does it do so just on Yahoo! properties or would it be integrated into Bing results as well? If it is the latter, Paid Inclusion becomes much bigger.

In the final analysis, I don’t think Paid Inclusion revenue is large enough, can’t see Bing integrating Paid Inclusion and similarly can’t see Microsoft wanting to explain why searches on Yahoo! and Bing are materially different.

For these reasons I’m guessing that Paid Inclusion will be terminated.

UPDATE (July 30, 2009)

Danny Sullivan was able to land a question during the Yahoo! press conference.

I asked what happens to other things search like at Yahoo? What powered Yahoo News? What happens to the Yahoo Directory? Is Delicious search? And what happens to Yahoo paid inclusion?

Bartz: We have full flexibility on what to do within our own sites. Paid inclusion, we’ll decide on that later.

So Paid Inclusion still has a chance of surviving but it seems like it’s on life support.

The SEO community was thrown into a tizzy by the announcement at SMX Advanced that Google had changed the way it dealt with nofollow links. The details were a bit fuzzy. Conjecture ran amok. Was nofollow page sculpting dead, or just crippled?

Nofollow page sculpting is dead

A post by Matt Cutts cleared up any confusion.

So what happens when you have a page with “ten PageRank points” and ten outgoing links, and five of those links are nofollowed? Let’s leave aside the decay factor to focus on the core part of the question. Originally, the five links without nofollow would have flowed two points of PageRank each (in essence, the nofollowed links didn’t count toward the denominator when dividing PageRank by the outdegree of the page). More than a year ago, Google changed how the PageRank flows so that the five links without nofollow would flow one point of PageRank each.

The days in which you could hoard page rank or authority on a few links by nofollowing others is a thing of the past. (In fact, has been in the past for over a year!)

Instead, the page rank or authority on nofollow links is lost, falling into the equivalent of the Bermuda Triangle.

SEOmoz wrote up a great piece that illustrated this point and detailed ways in which you can continue to page sculpt without the use of nofollow. Though doing so might not be wise. Read on to find out why.

Nofollow change outrage

Many in the SEO industry became irate. They shouted and stomped their feet, decrying the whimsy of Google, who in 2005 introduced the nofollow concept, nurtured it (to a point) and changed the rules without notice.

The changing nature of SEO is what keeps most agencies, consultants and talking heads in business. If the algorithms were transparent and had been perfected then no one would need our services.

The truth is that the algorithms are a work in progress. Search Engines are like blind five year olds and, as such, are still learning. If you’re a parent, you know that as soon as you figure out how to deal with one problem your kid has moved on and given you another one to solve.

I mean, really, are you still grousing about how meta keywords are no longer important?

So why did Google make this change? Well, it wasn’t to target specific people or sites. And it wasn’t malicious or to make your life miserable. The truth is that the nofollow change is about usability and Google’s continuing efforts to make the web more useful for people.

Nofollow change is about usability

The problem with nofollow was that it didn’t allow the search engine to look at the page like a human being. If you nofollowed 20 links out of 25 on a page you were essentially telling Google that only 5 links existed.

But to a human being, all 25 links exist.

The fact that you were telling Google that those 5 links were what mattered most isn’t how a human being would interpret that page. This made Google unhappy.

Nofollow Design Guidelines

Yes, Google does have design and content guidelines.

Keep the links on a given page to a reasonable number (fewer than 100).

The nofollow change essentially means that they’re counting your nofollow links against that 100 link benchmark. Translation. Stop putting so many links on a page!

Many at Google point to Barry Schwartz’s The Paradox of Choice as a favorite in the Google Tech Talk series.

The one hour video is absolutely worth watching but, to make a long story short, more is not better because more makes it difficult for someone to make a choice.

The Paradox of Choice applies to web design and user experience too. In a time compressed society with broadband access and tabbed browsing, you have a limited amount of time to communicate what your site is about and where they should go next. Overwhelm your users and they’ll run screaming to the next tab.

Search engines are simply trying to emulate the human experience. That’s not an easy job. It’s essentially designing artificial intelligence! Remember, right now a search engine will always fail a reading comprehension test.

Instead, search engines have to model the ability of humans to parse a site. The nofollow attribute interrupted that model. It forced the search engine to see authority where a human user might not. The nofollow change removes this bias and also pushes sites to design according to that model by tossing nofollow page rank and authority into the Bermuda Triangle.

The real nofollow question

Google is serious about this mission, which is why it has begun to execute JavaScript, another favorite way to obfuscate links without using nofollow. There are still plenty of ways to hide links and sculpt your page rank or authority but it seems clear Google feels it needs to see all the links on a page to properly evaluate how it is being processed and interpreted by people.

The nofollow change is a not-so-subtle push to encourage sites to simplify. Not just so the search engine can better understand, but so people can better understand too.

The real question resulting from the nofollow change is far more thought-provoking.

How comfortable are you with Google shaping user experience?

Last week David Risley wrote a blog post for Search Engine Journal that recommended that you forget all about SEO and write for readers, not search engines. His advice borders on dangerous, in part because some of it is accurate.

My recommendation is to write posts designed to help, provoke or inspire your reader.

That’s great advice. However, his definition of a reader is far too narrow.

Search Engines are Readers Too

Future readers are searching for your content. They’re typing queries into Google right now. The search engine has read your blog and come to some conclusions about when and where to show your content.

SEO is about making it easy for the search engine to come to the right conclusions. It’s about ensuring that the content you write is displayed for the right searches.

Search engines are the gate keepers to the more than 15 billion searches performed in the US every month. They are powerful but they are not smart.

Welcome to Kindergarten

A search engine is like a blind five year old. They don’t care what your site looks like and they have the intelligence and attention span of an average five year old. This is why SEO is important and why you do need to write for search engines.

Search engine algorithms are tasked with trying to understand the value of an item of content. But they don’t really see the page and they don’t truly read the content either.

Search engines do not understand the text they are reading. You can’t sit them down after they read a blog post and ask them reading comprehension questions. They are not human, nor are they some super-advanced form of artificial intelligence.

This is why quality writing will not be enough.

Sit a five year old down in front of a Don DeLillo novel and they’ll quickly become bored and confused. The plain fact is that there are thousands of well written blogs that languish in the dark cobwebbed corners of the Internet.

Dumb and Dumber?

I know what you’re thinking. “Am I supposed to dumb down my writing for the lowest common denominator?” Yes and no.

Let’s cover no first. No, you should still write helpful, provoking and insightful content. It should be intelligent and have a point of view. The search engine does not require that you lose your personality.

However, that writing should be concise, well-structured and devoid of generalizations and logical assumptions. This will help all of your readers, search engines and humans alike.

So yes, you should write in such a way that, at a glance, a reader can understand and engage with your content. And to be fair, David Risley does actually provide some good direction on the structure of content and in covering the SEO Holy Trinity: Title, Meta Description and URL.

Good Writing + Social <> Links

Risley also understands that links are perhaps the most important part of SEO.

If you provide enough value, you’ll get people spreading your link across other blogs. You’ll go viral on Twitter. You’ll get people Digging your posts.

This works … for a small percentage of blogs in certain niches where the author has enormous amounts of free time. Does that sound like you? Probably not.

When was the last time you saw a serious blog post dealing with Alzheimer’s Disease reach Digg’s front page? Do you think a book review of David Mitchell’s Black Swan Green is going to get massive viral adoption on Twitter?

Rely on this technique as a way to optimize search engine traffic and you’ll be sorely disappointed. Social marketing is a piece of the puzzle but it is not a plug-and-play panacea for link building. If links were this easy to get, they wouldn’t be that important.

Search Traffic Creates Links

Get people to your blog through search engine traffic and let the same type of viral link building take place. The idea is to get your content matched to the right queries first, and not wait for social marketing to inform the search engine of your content value or for which queries it should be displayed.

Get the people who are naturally seeking out your content to do the link building. This way you are not constrained by the size of your social network, nor are you held hostage by the ephemeral ADD nature of social media.

Write for Search Engines

Write for search engines because it will benefit all of your readers. Subscribers will find more focused, accessible and valuable content that respects their time and new readers will locate your content with greater efficiency through their natural search patterns.

Writing styles adapt to their environment. Novels versus business writing. Haiku versus grant writing. So, come to to terms with the fact that good blog writing requires a different writing style. Embrace it and search engine and human readers will thank you.