Writing for visitors and search engines - SEO copy

There are two main goals for the texts you write for your site: to draw visitors to your webpage and to get them to proceed to the sites that you promote. As an affiliate you sell leads and your most important task is to generate them.

“There are two main goals for the texts you write for your site: to draw visitors to your webpage and to get them to proceed to the sites that you promote. As an affiliate you sell leads and your most important task is to generate them.”

This is where search engine optimization (SEO) copywriting comes in. This is copywriting aimed both to push your product (leads) and to get specific terms to rank high in the search engines.

The content is the key

SEO copywriting not only focus on the viewable text, but also optimizes other page elements such as, title description and keyword tags in respect to targeted search terms.

The idea behind SEO copywriting is to create actual quality content that is liked both by visitors and search engines. In classic SEO copy the text should be optimized on certain key terms (usually1-3) in certain frequencies and densities. But the web has evolved and the focus of SEO copy today is how the content is viewed by others. So the most important thing is to write good quality content that others link to or rank high on Digg and other social media sites.

Texts that search engines and readers like

The most important place to put your keywords is the title tag. The effect is that both search engines and readers will take notice of them. The title has to grab the attention of the reader and give a good idea of what the text is about.

Follow up with the keywords in the opening of the text. But do it in a relevant way that interests the reader. Remember - this is where you need to persuade the reader to continue reading. If the headline and the opening sentence don't attract the reader it doesn't matter what you write in the rest of the text, because nobody will read it. Try to get the keywords into the subheadings as well.

Don't let the keywords limit your writing. Use related words and synonyms as well. This makes the text more live and dynamic and we can assume that modern search algorithms probably recognize contextually-related words that support your keywords.

Effective copywriting

It is important to remember that one of the main goals for the text is to make the user take some sort of action that we will benefit from. The overall principle of successful copywriting can be stated like this:

Grab Attention
Stimulate Interest
Build up Desire
Urge the reader into Action!
A.I.D.A is a well known acronym among copywriters. It gives a good overview of what good copywriting is all about. You use an effective headline to grab the attention. The introduction text stimulates the readers' interest, the body text build up the readers' desire and in the end of the text you urge the reader to take action. Sounds easy, doesn't it? But as with everything, to become really good at it takes a lot of practice.

To sell a product you need to isolate the product's unique selling point (USP). You have to tell your readers in what specific way your product will benefit them. If you are an affiliate your product is very similar to what many others also has to offer, but your goal should be to get your product to stand out with good copywriting. If you manage to do this convincingly and you find your USP, you have a great chance to close the deal.

Call to action

When you have gotten the visitor to read the whole text and told them about your "unique" offer you need to close the deal. We want the visitor to take some kind of action that will be to our benefit. In the end this is what it's all about, without it all your efforts will have been in vain.

No when you have enlightened the readers about your wonderful offer you have to get them to act on it. To do this you have to tell the readers exactly what they need to do in order to get your fantastic offer. You want them to sign up right away, because if they leave with the intention of coming back later there is a great risk that you loose them forever. A good way to get them to accept your offer right away is by setting a time limit on it or to give them some kind of bonus when they signup.

So basically SEO copy has three goals; to get you to rank high in the search engines, draw visitors to your site and get your visitors to do what you want them to once they've reached your site. 

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Blog Platforms That Drive Search Engine Traffic

ffiliate marketing, search engine traffic and well-managed blogs all work together in making the difference between a broke affiliate marketer and one who is making a living at it. Search engine traffic is the lifeblood of affiliate marketing. For some, using blog platforms is the cardio shock they need to get their business pumping.

“In truth, all blog platforms are excellent for driving search engine traffic. The trick is to stick with one platform and keep your blog up-to-date.”

However, just how do blog platforms drive search engine traffic, and which ones are the best at the job? Let's find out.

Blog Platforms And Search Engine Traffic

In truth, all blog platforms are excellent for driving search engine traffic. The trick is to stick with one platform and keep your blog up-to-date. The longer you use the same blog platform, the stronger it will stick with the search engines. If you change blog platforms often, you will be starting from scratch each time you make the change, at least in the eyes of search engines.

Blog platforms like Blogger, Wordpress and TypePad are commonly found in the upper reaches of the search engine results. Their user-friendly tools make it simple for users to continually update their blogs with new content, photos, videos or audio clips. With fresh content hitting the blog platform often, it causes search engines to take notice and thus pay them more attention.

Blog Platforms Driving Search Engine Traffic

There are a number of blog platforms available that exceed at driving search engine traffic. However, the reality of the fact is the blog's content is what truly drives the traffic to the blog. Blogger, TypePad, Wordpress and Tripod are four of the best platforms currently available for blogging. In fact, Google runs Blogger, so you can imagine its search engine worth.

Maximizing Your Blog For Search Engine Traffic

There are a few tips you can follow to increase your blog's search engine performance. Aside from writing compelling copy, infuse the copy with special keywords that your readers are typically searching for in the search engines.

This is the essence of "search engine optimization." The search engines will pick up on the special keywords embedded in your copy, thus increasing your blog's ranking within the search results.

Next, you can visit MyYahoo.com and set up a feed so the Yahoo! search engine can effectively spider your blog. Once you've completed that, surf over to SubmitFire.com and submit your blog to the other traditional search engines.

Lastly, you can submit your blog to a number of blog directories online to help spread the word about your affiliate marketing blog.

Over time, the search engines will begin taking notice of your blog and your readership will increase. However, it doesn't happen overnight. Your best chance of affiliate marketing success is to stick with the blog platform you choose and keep it optimized for the search engines. 

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Writing a Great Web Page Title

At AffiliateTips.com we think it's important to share the knowledge and we therefore asked Chris Felton, of OneNetworkDirect, if he could tell us about how to write a top web page title. We would like to thank him for his help and here's what he had to say.

“Don't forget that machines are nothing but machines - they won't for example, understand if you've written a witty joke or something sarcastic in the page title.”

When creating your affiliatesite you spend a lot of time finding images, creating links, designing pages and filling them with content. While all of this is important, you should never forget to put some effort into your web page title as well. The reason for this is that from a SEO (Search Engine Optimization)perspective, you could increase your amount of visitors and that means, in most cases that is, more affiliate earnings.

Creating a good page title is not as easy as it might sound, as you have to write for two audiences - people as well as for search engines. Search spiders recognizetitle tags as one of the most important things when it comes to ranking web pages; so make sure that they're created with this in mind. People typing in keywords on search engines get a list of the most relevant web pages, and the page title (the blue links) will be the first thing they see. Web surfers will click the links they find to be the best match to what they're looking for. As you've probably already noticed, the keywords in these links willbe in bold - create a list of your most important keywords!

Don't forget that machines are nothing but machines - they won't for example, understand if you've written a witty joke or something sarcastic in the page title. For search engines, it's all about keywords and trying to find a perfect match for their users. Try to think about what your visitors might be searching for and then use these keywords in the title. Why not visitother similar affiliate sites and have a look at what words they're trying to optimize. If you need some help, there are a few good keyword research tools that you can use for free; for example, Google Adwords Keyword Tool and KeywordMax Keyword Builder.

There are many things to be done with a homepage when workingwith SEO, and one of the easiest and most rewarding things is having top optimized titles. Take the time requiredto learn all about it - it will be well worth the effort!

By Chris Felton

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How To Maximize Traffic Using Keywords!

The common phrase, "actions speak louder than words" is true when it comes to everyday life situations. However, on the Internet, the rule changes to the point that words are the reason for action. Case in point is the world of affiliate marketing. The success of affiliate marketing depends on how popular your website or blog can become. The more visitors to your website, the better are your chances of affiliate success.

“By now, you should realize the importance of having a high rank in the search engine results. Let's face it, not many people venture into the uncharted territory of pages 100-125 on the search results.”

Today, we're going to discuss how using specific keywords throughout your website or blog copy can maximize the amount of traffic that flows your way.

How Keywords Maximize Traffic

By now, you should realize the importance of having a high rank in the search engine results. Let's face it, not many people venture into the uncharted territory of pages 100-125 on the search results. Search engines rank the search results based on keyword prevalence. This means that the more times the specific keyword shows up on a website, the higher the site will rank.

When people use search engines, they are typically looking for a certain topic or item. They type in the word or phrase most commonly related to their search.

For instance, if someone is looking for inexpensive computer equipment, he or she may type "cheap computer parts," or "discount computers" in the search box. The websites that feature that keyword in its copy will end up at, or near the top of the results.

Researching Keywords For Maximizing Website Traffic

Before you write your next article to post on your affiliate website, take the time to research which keywords you want to emphasize. Visit competitor websites and scrutinize their copy to see which keywords or phrases they use.

Choosing The Right Keywords

There is a right way to choose a keyword and a wrong way to choose a keyword. It's a sad fact that the majority of Americans only have a fourth-grade reading level. However, this fact is incredibly important to keep in mind when you're deciding on a keyword.

Avoid using industry-specific terms (buzzwords) and stick to easy-to-understand terms. For instance, if you are selling photographer equipment, instead of using the keyword "asymmetrical power pack," try using "flash power pack" instead. Choosing the wrong keyword can spell disaster for your marketing campaign, so choose wisely.

Using The Keywords

Research shows that on average, for a 200-250 word article, your primary keyword should be used approximately between six and twelve times. It should also be included in the title, as well as any subheads you will be using. If you have a secondary keyword that you would like to add, then it should show up between two and four times in the copy.

The use of keywords is what forms the basis of search engine optimization. Write effective and relevant copy, use keywords to attain a higher search engine result, give the customer what he or she is looking for and you will be well on your way to becoming a highly visited and profitable affiliate marketer.

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Black hat SEO vs. White hat SEO

There are several, some ethical and some unethical, ways of improving your ranking on search engines as Google and Yahoo. This article will discuss the differences of using black hat SEO vs. White hat SEO.

“Black hat SEO is when you're applying unethical methods to get a higher ranking on search engine optimizations. Everything you do is hidden for the visitor but visible for the search engines.”

Black hat SEO

What is black hat SEO you might ask yourself. Black hat SEO is when you're applying unethical methods to get a higher ranking on search engine optimizations. Everything you do is hidden for the visitor but visible for the search engines. This way of improving your ranking might work on a short term basis but it will remain a long term problem as you put your site at risk of being penalized or banned. It's suggested that there are especially three things to avoid when you're constructing a webpage.

1. Avoid keyword stuffing! Search engines, as Google and Yahoo, will know if you've stuffed a webpage with keywords that doesn't make any sense. Write for the user, and the search as well of course, and use a normal amount of keywords.
   
2. No doorway pages! A doorway page is a page that doesn't really exist. It's a simple HTML page that's customized to a few keywords and it's only there to trick the search engines and their spiders. There's no landing page - you're instantly redirected to the real website.
   
3. Don't use invisible text! Invisible text is when you write keywords in white and use it on a white background. This is also a way (that's not working) of trying to fool the search engines spiders

All these tricks will for sure improve your ranking on the web. For a while that is. Search engine spiders are highly developed, and in the end they'll figure out what's up and your site will be penalized or banned. Do it the right way instead of using black hat SEO if you want to keep a high ranking for a long time.

White hat SEO

When applying white hat SEO you design a website for the visitors as well as for the search engines. Creating a beautifully designed page is a must; otherwise using white hat techniques are useless. This way of creating SEO is a long term way of working and one can't expect to see results right away. Nothing is supposed to be hidden for the search engines when using the white hat method. What the user sees is what the search engines should see as well. Any kind of spam-techniques is strictly prohibited!

There is also another category of hats that are being discussed today; grey hats. Grey hat SEO is not as "pure" as white hat and it's not as "bad" as black hat. It's a little bit of both techniques. Another important issue that's being talked about is if it's always bad to be a black hat. A company that uses the black hat SEO often wants quick results and has calculated with the risk of being penalized or banned. With this said we strongly recommend using white hat SEO. If you're going to create a webpage, why not do it the right way?

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Tools for SEO and traffic analysis

Tools for SEO and traffic analysis

When you start out as a web affiliate, there are a range of tools that will help you navigate the infinite ocean of search engines and key phrases. Let's try and navigate the ocean of available tools.

“"Lots of free tools, even some pretty advanced ones. Make a top ten analysis for search phrases, find common backlinks for several Url:s, produce a site map, identify your strongest sub pages and a lot more..."”

You will need tools to handle the following important areas:

1. Search Engine Optimization (first step)
   
   Site analysis - site content, meta information, internal links
   
   External analysis - forward links, backlinks, quality of back-linking sites
2. Statistical traffic analysis (second step)
   
   See how visitors navigate to and from your site

Tools for search engine optimization

Tools can either be downloaded and run from your PC, or else you run them from the site that supply them. A few tools can analyze your site when it's stored on your hard disk, but usually they will analyze the site as it appears on the web and run its analyses against the web hotel or server where the site is published.

They may require some advanced functionality from your site environment, such as asp or php. Today most web hotels offer these functionalities per default.

Web CEO
Supplied by WebCEO.com. This is a range of useful tools for the beginning web affiliate. They let you analyze your site's page content, meta information and links. They can also assist you with tasks such as link exchange and setting up a link directory.

There are a number of free, basic tools as well as a couple of paid product packages that target businesses of different sizes.

Google Analytics
Found at google.com/analytics. These are tools for statistical traffic analysis. Probably the best free tools on the market. They're also strongly integrated with Google Adwords.

SEO Moz
Extensive SEO Toolbox supplied by SEOMoz.org. A number of free tools that you can use to see if you're included in the biggest search engines, to check your forward links and backlinks, and much more.

For premium members there are a number of more advanced tools, such as Keyword Difficulty and Link Finder.

We Build Pages
Provided by WeBuildPages.com, the home of SEO guru Jim Boykin. A lot of free tools, even some pretty advanced ones. Make a top ten analysis for search phrases, find the common backlinks for a number of url:s, produce a site map of your site, identify your strongest sub pages, and a lot more.

Tools for keyword analysis

There are a number of tools to assist you in your keyword analysis. However, no single one has all the answers.

Google Adwords Keywords Suggestions
This is a very useful tool. It shows search volumes and competition for the keyword phrases of your choice, or the keywords related to a site.

Even if it's intended for Adwords use, it gives the general picture for the requested keywords.

Google Adwords Traffic Estimator
Another very useful and free tool. It lets you estimate how many clicks per day a certain keyword would generate, and at what cost per click (CPC).

Keyword Country
This tool isn't free, but it's worth every penny. With Keyword Country you can make estimations not only of how much certain Adwords keywords will cost, but also how much you can make from them.

The tool gives you comprehensive information for more than six million keywords in its database, and it's not restricted to Google searches

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