Internet Writing :: Inklit.com

Posted by John Lockwood on April 3rd, 2008

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I’ve made my living for many years as a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) specialist with myself and the people who work for me as my sole “client”. Now with Inklit.com I have an opportunity to explore the broader world of Internet writing. Like most people, new things interest me only if I can relate them to what I already know. Because of this, I’m fascinated by how Internet writing in general relates to SEO writing.

How Are Writing and SEO Related? It Depends Who You Ask

The answer you get about the relationship between writing and SEO varies quite a bit depending on who you ask.

Pro bloggers often tend to minimize SEO. Authors like Andy Beard and John Chow show a certain disdain for Google-only business models. Professional bloggers often point out that relying on Google is inherently fragile, since you can’t guarantee that the algorithm that favors you today will continue to bring you good fortune tomorrow. Furthermore, these authors argue that great writing makes SEO unnecessary, because great writing in itself will lead you to be widely known and recognized, making the search engines superfluous. In this respect, some authors stress that there’s something we can identify as first class writing, and this first class writing is somehow a thing apart from “mere SEO”.

Other authors — often those who are blogging trainers and hosting providers — stress that SEO is little more than constant writing. According to the blog salesmen, if you just blog consistently and often and well, you will rise to the top of the search engines. Do enough writing and you will inevitably rise to the top, so you don’t need an SEO specialist — what you need is to start blogging.

To the pro blogger, SEO has nothing to do with great writing, and to the blog salesman, SEO is nothing but great writing.

Adequate Writing is Good SEO

My own position is that I can’t envision Search Engine Optimization without writing, especially today. Many people still cherish the common misconception that meta tags or other secret shortcuts will rocket them to the top somehow, and this misconception doesn’t hurt the professional SEO consultant one bit. (In fairness I should point out that in the the “title” tag and the “description” meta tag are the exceptions to the misconception). Were his clients to learn the truth, that good SEO is 90% about writing, I’m sure many SEO fees would go down.

This riddle captures the essence of the problem, from an SEO consultant’s point of view:

Q. What’s the difference between an Internet Writer and a Search Engine Optimization specialist?
A. About forty dollars per hour.

Jokes aside, if it’s 90% true that you can write your way to the top, the SEO specialist makes a legitimate stand on the remaining 10%. Along these lines, there’s one blog salesman who uses one of my blogs as a “case study” of someone who blogged his way to the top of the search engines. He’s correct that blogging is a big part of my strategy. Where his analysis fails is that I did several other things that had nothing to do with blogging. To that extent, I understand and am sympathetic to the SEO specialists emphasis on their “secret sauce”. (Of course I’m talking about legitimate SEO specialists here, not the “rocket your web site to the top in 24 hours guaranteed” people who show up daily in your mailbox.)

Good Writing is Also Good SEO

Although I believe adequate writing will get your web site to 90% of where it needs to be all by itself, I believe that some of the 10% gap we’ve been discussing can also be filled in by writing, especially if your writing is exceptionally good. One of the things that happens to good writers over time is that they build a human readership. Depending on your niche, this may be valuable in itself, but from an SEO perspective, it’s always valuable as a source of potential incoming links.

As the Barbara Streisand SEO song goes,

“People…
People who need (one way links from high page rank sites that are thematically similar to their own)
Are the luckiest people in the world.”

Beyond incoming links, the other thing that good writing on your blog will buy you are opportunities to go be a good writer on someone else’s blog. Hey presto: more incoming links.

Is Adequate Good Enough?

I believe that if you’re looking to optimize your site, you should either start writing or hire someone to start writing. This is the most important thing you can do. Search engines have gotten much smarter over the years, so that more and more, they’re focused on indexing sites with lots of good, fresh content. Once once you’re writing on a consistent basis, your next step is to see if you can improve the quality of your material. Can you learn how to make it more link worthy, and can you find venues off of your main site that can help you to build your link reputation? Guest blogging and article submission are two great ways to place your writing strategically so you’ll get a search engine boost.