Google’s webmasters recently advised site owners to get in touch after fixing the issues that led to a penalty, putting strong emphasis on the resubmission process.

The search engine giant has been in touch with a group of penalised webmasters, providing unprompted advice on recovery from a paid linking scheme. The advice provided some helpful insights for the website optimization industry in general.

Document your actions

If you’ve ever suspected your site was suffering under a penalty, your SEO company probably advised you to get on it right away. What they may not have told you is that it’s just as important to document what you’re doing to resolve the problem. Google’s webmasters have noted that records are also SEO tools in this area. Sites should keep a record of what they’ve done when trying to sort things out, as this counts as evidence in their favour if they’re not able to fix it. It can also help make a case for resubmission.

Scouting out content sources is something that everyone can do. No matter who you are, it’s guaranteed that there is something you’ve got you’re not currently using.

*Old content – everyone has old content lying around. With just a little effort, it can be freshened up to provide new content for a website. Old hard-copy newsletters are a classic example of content that can easily be posted to a site and made into a reviewable archive for site users. Got old email marketing sitting in a file somewhere? Why not scan it for potential fresh articles for your site?

*Website data – data analysis is something that your search engine optimization agency will be encouraging you to do. It’s also something you can use as a foundation for new content. Things like consumer trends, traffic fluctuations, pricing changes and even location data can all be made into interesting reports that your site users will want to read. Talk to us at Searchengineoptimization.co.uk about crafting attention-getting articles from raw data.

As you can see, you need to think outside the box when reviewing your SEO assets. Not only are these content sources useful for fresh content for your site, they can provide the kind of content that’s magnetic for SEO link building. Are you overlooking valuable SEO assets?

Your content schedule shouldn’t just be ‘post article, post article, post article’. If you really want to keep the creative ideas flowing, and your business schedule in order, your plan needs to be a little more thorough:
*Monday: informative blog post
*Tuesday: personal reflection using daily business anecdote
*Wednesday: how-to article
*Thursday: review of new product, service or series of websites
*Friday: industry commentary on recent events

As you can see, there are lots of content types that work into an SEO plan, and you can discuss this with us at SearchEngineOptimization.co.uk. Your content plan should take advantage of every content type you can think of, and it should be thorough.

Just planning out articles isn’t sufficient, however. Take a look at a successful search engine marketing blog, for a good example of what daily content is required. An SEO content plan needs support in terms of social media promotion. In fact, your full schedule should look something like this:
Monday – morning: post new info blog, then tweet about posting and Facebook status update
lunch: reply to comments from first blog
afternoon: post personal blog, re-tweet comments from first blog

When you’re drawing up a plan for your content, be as thorough as you can.

Internal link building

Outstanding content is essential for successful SEO but internal link building is often tackled poorly. Internal links are vital for successful SEO campaigns and if done effectively will ensure positive page rankings. Pages are also easier to navigate as a result and by using tools such as SEO Smart Links you can automatically set up good quality links.

Title tags, URLs and meta descriptions

Page titles are often overlooked and yet these small details can have a big impact on SEO rankings. Using long winded titles can be mistake and cause issues with Google. Keep then short. The same applies to URLs – use five words maximum. Also check out your meta descriptions.

Keyword research

Once the topic for an article has been found then look at the keywords for that area. Use free keyword research tools to keep your budget fluid. Be aware that the data is sometimes inconsistent, but you’ll gain some excellent insights. Use tools to highlight key phrase variations which can inspire new inspiration for further articles. Every new keyword and phrase can open up new topics to write about on your blog section or in information articles.

At www.searchengineoptimization.co.uk we offer a range of SEO services including link building and content management.

And though the phrase is trotted out at every given opportunity, it still rings true. AOL, though, are taking the phrase literally, and investing heavily to produce more quality content to attract visitors to their services. AOL want to be seen as making visible changes to their structure – the company has recently acquired GoViral for $96.7 million, and have recently bought American news website The Huffington Post under a $315 million acquisition agreement.

Arianna Huffington and Tim Armstrong discuss the buyout on PBS News Hour

“It’s amazing to see the work, for example, that we can now do on the local space, the global space, around engagement, the women’s space, and with original reporting. These were our highest priorities for 2011, now we can work on all of them all at once,” says Huffington Post co-founder Arianna Huffington.

Tim Armstrong, AOL CEO, sums it up in one sentence: “The next phase of the internet is about content.” Well, as far as we’re concerned the internet has always been about quality content, but we see where Tim’s coming from. The investment isn’t just in The Huffington Post. It’s in Arianna’s ability to create more content, and create a Huffington ‘media brand’ that can grow and grow.

Content, in this case, is news. Content, in GoViral’s case, is video-based. AOL looks to be splashing the cash and invest in creative businesses that can grow, and have the potential to produce original web-based copy and videos for years to come. When it comes to SEO, original content is crucial when expanding your web presence. We can’t help wondering what AOL will invest in next…

At Searchengineoptimization.co.uk we attempt to satisfy the needs of users. This is not just because Google makes clear that this should be our aim. It is because users are the ultimate judges of a site. If users are kept content then they are likely to buy goods and/or services from a site.

The question should not really be posed in an either/or fashion. By pleasing users you are keeping Google onside. A search engine optimization campaign which does this properly can develop significant momentum over time. An initial patience is required, if ethical techniques are used. However, by providing users with a healthy diet of high grade content, for example, it is possible to stimulate their interest and win their trust.

Keeping users happy with content requires a diversity of techniques. Firstly, it is important to consider that content does not have to be just text. It is crucial to evaluate whether or not something like video could serve a site. If video is employed, it must be properly optimized or put on YouTube. Secondly, it is imperative to maintain the focus of content. If it deviates away from the target audience the users will soon desert the site. There are some other things to bear in mind:

• No user enjoys reading inaccurate content. It has to be of an excellent standard in terms of grammar and spelling. Frequent lapses make a site appear very unprofessional. It is a question of combining decent copywriting with conscientious editing. Editors deserve a lot of support because of their crucial role

• Few users take pleasure in content which is excessively repetitive. The content has to be unique. Plagiarism can be punished directly by the search engines. This means that copywriters have to generate new ideas and to look at similar topics from fresh angles. Bland content will only convince users to look elsewhere

• Users often like to get involved. It makes sense to try to provoke comments. This does not mean deliberately seeking to be very controversial. Such unsubtle methods can alienate a target audience and can seem unprofessional. What is needed is content that tempts users to take a position and to respond to it

• Content can be made which has the capacity to travel via the social media networking sites. Users like spending time on these popular sites and just putting the relevant buttons on a site indicates that you share their enthusiasm. Content has to be concise and useful to thrive on the social media.

At Searchengineoptimization.co.uk we pursue high quality campaigns on behalf of our diverse clients. We know that our tactics yield the best results when the site owners we work with have a good understanding of the basics. Delivering the basics like content is not as easy as it might superficially appear. The following list of five content types may prove of some utility and underline the value of using experienced copywriters:

• Commentary on industry news can be highly effective in a diversity of contexts. The beauty of industry news is that if it is pitched correctly then it may prove very difficult to avoid connecting efficiently with the target audience. The difficulties with it stem from two sources. Firstly, other bloggers may comment before you and beat you to the story. Secondly, and much more seriously, a more proficient blogger may address the issue in a more insightful or comprehensive manner than you do
• Reviews are often welcomed by users. Not all sites are appropriate for hosting reviews, but some can really benefit from doing so. A balanced and interesting review can reflect well on a reviewer. In addition, reviews are great ways of stimulating user-generated content. Furthermore, reviewing goods and/or services may get your firm’s offerings reviewed elsewhere on the net
• Lists of an instructive type can prove very popular with users. Not every blog or article should be broken up in a list format. Like every other type of content, its impact may be diminished by using it too frequently. Despite this concern, the list keeps pulling writers and users back to it. The list suits the way people read on the net and fits with our diminishing attention spans.
• Interviews are a form of content which can prove highly effective. The interest of a reader is stimulated if a figure of importance in a sector is interviewed with proper care and respect. The problem is that it can be very difficult to conduct relevant interviews on a frequent basis
• Videos are a great form of content from the perspective of a user. Moving pictures can be worth thousands of words. However, while producing a video may not be too problematic, this type of content is not wholly suitable for many sites. This is because video content is not easily ranked favourably by the search engines. It can even detract from site performance if it has a detrimental impact on loading time.

At Searchengineoptimization.co.uk we appreciate that every site is different and therefore requires different treatment, so that it can make progress in the search engine results pages. The employment of high quality content is effective in that it can attract and retain traffic.

It has been argued by one expert that content should be opinionated. The idea is that it should stimulate debate and provoke comment. However, this claim needs further scrutiny. The answer is far from simple. Content should not be opinionated or controversial all the time. Sites which push too hard at being controversial fall down on two fronts. The first is that some users and potential consumers may be deterred by a site which is excessively controversial. The second is that if something seeks out controversy too often it becomes tedious reading. It is always best that users should not be quite sure what to expect when they revisit a site.

On the other hand, bland content will lead to boredom and bored users will not hang around. So content should be injected with opinions in a subtle and variable manner. The best approaches to content provision in this regard base their position on the nature of the site under scrutiny. If a site sells fancy dress costumes to a certain demographic, its blog content should be different from content which is featured on a concrete floor polishing site. It is not just a matter of taste. It is all about focusing the content on the target audience. Reading content scattered around the net, it is easy to see where this is achieved and where it is not. Content can be laden with opinions where appropriate, but a neutral tone can also work well. What seldom works is a brash, opinionated style that is not easy on the eye.

An example may be instructive. Literary blogs need colourful opinions, but the very best literary blogs avoid getting into a rut. The ideal literary blog reviews a range of books, but largely sticks to a genre or two. Literary blogs that review everything from Tolstoy to the Twilight series have no focus. If a literary blog focuses on elevated literature it should strike a balance between being controversial and being bland. For instance, it might comment negatively on Tolstoy’s moralistic approach to the work of other authors, but it would be very foolish if it condemned Tolstoy’s own work. Being that controversial would alienate users.

At Searchengineoptimization.co.uk we treat every site on its individual merits. This enables us to devise and implement effective continuous search engine optimization campaigns which tick all the correct boxes.

Videos are a brilliant form of content. Many individuals have been on Twitter when someone has provided a link to a remarkable piece of video. Lots of people have also spent many, many hours on YouTube. There is nothing like a video for attracting the attention of a jaded user. Even things which may have been uninspiring in other formats can be given a shot in the arm by an effectively constructed video. It is possible for talented kids to make a great video, so proficiency should not be an issue. Furthermore, the equipment required to create video is rather basic these days. So why are the search engines and some of the SEO professionals not so keen on videos?

Videos should certainly be used in moderation. Users do not welcome videos for their own sake. However, the problem with video is similar to the difficulties associated with images. The major search engines do not seem to value videos at all. This is obviously problematic, but the potential value of video to users has to mean that nobody should give up. Techniques must be used to describe video content to the search engines in a way that they can comprehend. Otherwise the effort which has been expended in getting the video on the site will not have been used to maximum effect.

Work can be done on the area around the video to ensure that it will be greeted as favourably as possible by the web crawlers. For instance, keywords should be featured in both the title and the video description. It should not be forgotten that the search engines are involved in a competitive struggle for supremacy. This means that they never rest on their laurels. It is quite possible that Google will eventually discover a way of giving video content its due. Until then, site owners can profit from the advice provided by those search engine optimization specialists who perceive the benefits a video can bring.

It should be remembered that the aims of SEO are basically twofold. It is crucial to please your users and essential to perform well in relation to the major search engines. Using a video is often a way of getting users to linger on your site which should benefit your firm.

At Searchengineoptimization.co.uk we know the ins and outs of SEO. This enables us to deliver high quality campaigns which have positive outcomes in terms of rankings, traffic and conversions.

Users and search engines alike appreciate sites which feature fresh content on a frequent and regular basis. Users are much more likely to make repeat visits and leave comments if fresh content is added on a regular basis than if a site does not change very much from day to day. Potential consumers appreciate novelty. Even if a purchase is not made on a specific visit, being greeted by fresh content is welcoming and interesting. Being welcomed and interested is a reason to return. If the content stimulates regular comments, a virtuous circle will be formed by people returning to check out replies. Frequent content is rewarded by the major search engines and their web crawlers will be attracted to it even more strongly if it is sprinkled with long tail keywords. So frequently added content directly contributes towards better performance in the search engine results pages.

It is vital to remember that content must be of a high quality. Users soon pick up on content which has been designed for the search engines rather than the human user. They can easily detect content which has been written merely to incorporate keywords. It is also the case that they can be quickly alienated by content which is sloppily written or composed too hurriedly. In addition, users can become bored by content which is tedious and does not vary sufficiently from day to day. Content should ideally inform and entertain, although the content featured on a site has to reflect what the site is all about. This constraint can make content production inherently problematic, even for skilled and imaginative copywriters. Trying to produce high grade content inhouse by using overworked staff with no specialised writing skills can easily prove disastrous. This is because they may not have either the requisite writing gifts or the necessary experience in generating ideas.

It is vital that content is not produced out of mere necessity. It has to be written by personnel who enjoy using words effectively. They will comprehend that content must be scheduled and accomplished with the obligatory rapidity. At the same time, their prose will never become too formulaic.