There are many important pieces in optimizing your site. One that is often overlooked in importance is the text content of the site. Many of us write our web text in a manner we think appeals to visitors. Although it is very important to be grammatically correct and to form well structured sentences and paragraph's, it is equally important to understand how people get to web sites. You could have the most beautiful and content rich site in the world and if no one finds it in the search engines, what good does it do?

Below is an article that we think does an excellent job of showing why we need to "write for the web"

How Search Phrases can Help Copywriters - And Your Visitors

by Nick Usborne, Guest Writer

Writing effectively for search engines isn't the same as writing for people. Here's how to get copywriters excited and involved in the search engine optimization process.

It isn't easy to get copywriters excited about including key words and phrases in your Web page text.

Web page writers will often cringe when asked to include specific terms. How come? Because no writer likes to be asked to shoe-horn particular phrases into his or her text. So you end up with a conflict.

Here is how that conflict will often unfold.

Let's say you have a site devoted to advising people about how to advance their career or get a new job.

The writer writes something like this:

"Imagine having the following tools, resources, experts and services at your fingertips to help you manage your career and your life."

Then the SEO expert says, "Can we include the phrase 'career planning' in that sentence please?"

"You what?" asks the copywriter, all bristling and defensive.

Like I said, no writer likes to be told what words or phrases to include in their copy. Copywriting is a creative process, and while every copywriter will work from a creative brief, they often won't take kindly to being handed a group of phrases to include and repeat.

But here is one thing that decent online copywriters should be happy to do.

Ask them to look at your site logs and study the phrases that your visitors typed in to various search engines when they were looking for your site.

As regular Web users become a little more savvy about search engines, they type in fewer single words (too many results) and more complete phrases (better chance of finding what they want).

So a search of the 'career planning' site logs might reveal phrases like this...

* help writing a resume
* IT job listings
* career planning coaches and experts

And so on.

Suddenly, instead of an 'SEO Expert' TELLING a writer which phrases to include, now the writer is listening to what site visitors are looking for.

There's a big difference there. Key phrases are no longer being thrust upon a writer. That same writer is now doing personal research, based upon phrases that prospective customers are actually using.

Few copywriters will argue with listening to site users. (If they do, that's a whole different problem!)

So now you have a writer who is gladly including language and terms that are currently being used by your readers.

Suddenly, everyone is winning. Your pages are becoming more search engine friendly. Your writers are becoming more familiar with what your visitors are looking for. And your visitors are finding highly relevant language and information on your pages.

It's amazing how a potential negative, "Add these words and phrases", can so easily be turned into a positive.

And what could be better than mining engine search phrases to better understand your own visitors?

When you listen to your visitors, you are allowing them to become participants in the writing of your pages. And the more they participate, the more they will value the pages and the information that you deliver.

Let us help you Write For the Web!

For more valuable tips from Nick Usborne, visit his web site at http://www.nickusborne.com

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