by Marty | Apr 10, 2010 | General Pearls of Wisdom
Please.
Collectively – just shut up, and think about what you want to say. Just take a second.
{ }
Thanks. This greatly improves our chances of connecting in a meaningful way.
I recently saw a writer jump into a very tech-savvy crowd and pitch a very low-level eBook. Worse, the writer used an inanely simplistic marketing method. “Buy this color-by-numbers book, because I say I am a writer.”
This crowd and their normal discussions of online marketing were light years beyond this pitch. If it had not received the wall of indifference it ran into, this pitch may have easily been seen as a little insulting.
But the pros there did not say a thing about it.
Like a tiny fart on the breeze, this pitch was unwanted, ignored, and quickly forgotten.
Oops
The young writer unknowingly torched their own cornfield here. An inability to shut up about the obvious became the lasting impression only because this writer did not take the time to accurately understand the landscape.
Not only were no eBooks sold, but this connection was burned to the ground for this unknowing young writer because these tech-savvy folks remember bad pitches as much or more than they remember good ones. No contracts, no contacts, no progress.
Wasted spend all around, mainly because this rookie was too green to realize the useless e-book they were (re)selling was more-or-less the repackaged ideas of the very people being sold to here.
Ooops.
If you are new to the trade, chances are good you should probably shut up for a while. Same goes when you are brand new to a forum, group or association.
Read more, do some homework, and develop an understanding before you pose question one. Before you freak on that one, let me clarify.
Don’t be afraid to ask questions, even if they are unorthodox – logical questions quickly rise to the top of conversations, and for good reason. Good questions can literally build good communities.
But these are always good questions, asked after diving into the deep end once or twice to find your own pearls.
Break a few of your own eggs before you start demanding omlettes from others.
Don’t go into a new place, and just start yelling, or pitching, or spewing. Go in, feel it out, and take time to understand the natural flow. In this way, when you ask a question or offer a pitch, you are adding to what is happening, not impeding it.
Shutting-up for a minute helps.
And don’t underestimate the true reach of your online neighborhood. Anonymous nicknames can hide lots.
Just saying. This poor young writer has no idea how much potential was pooped on here.
Shutting up for just a minute first may have meant the difference – turning this lesson into a different one entirely.
by Marty | Mar 16, 2010 | Freelance SEO Copywriting Tips
Yes.
With the clear understanding that engines are useless without someone running them.
Get back to work.
by Marty | Feb 27, 2010 | Finding Freelance SEO Copywriting Work
So you’re raring to go, ready to fire away and land that next freelance SEO copywriting gig.
But are you really ready to get in there and pitch?
This freelancing tip is going to look at some simple do’s and don’ts of pitching your SEO copywriting. I am basing this on my own experiences, and those I have seen, especially of late.
Take cover if you must.
Don’t: Don’t close your eyes before you release
Closing your eyes is no way to accurately hit a target. In baseball, you wouldn’t simply close your eyes and throw everything you have as hard as you can in the general direction of the batter. You would choose a pitch – not try to throw all of them at once blindly in the general direction of the batter.
Don’t throw the kitchen sink of your experience into every conversation.
Do: Do Consider Which Pitch is Best for Each Situation
Is it a curve ball, a slider, or a fastball that will keep you in control? The main thing is selecting the best tool from your arsenal so you retain control of the momentum. Every pitch is not hurled at every situation. The game changes, and you adapt. You know your own strengths, you know their strengths, you know what is on the line. Selection is key.
Do know the contents of your toolbox. Select, tailor and offer only the best pitch for the specific situation.
Don’t: Don’t Start Pitching Too Soon
In baseball, it would not make any sense at all for the pitcher to start pitching before the batter is ready. Before the umpire is ready. Before the catcher is ready. Some very simple things come together to make it appropriate for the pitcher to take the mound.
Don’t jump into a pitch before you know all the players are in place.
Do: Do Understand the Marketplaces In Which You Wish to Trade
In baseball, a good pitcher is going to study a team before he faces them. He is going to understand the strengths and history of each batter, and know what to expect when facing the team. No one comes in front of him that he is not prepared to meet – and should it happen that he is surprised by someone new in the line-up, he is experienced enough to handle it strategically.
Do learn about the people you are pitching to. Know what they are about, figure out why they need you, and start throwing.
Don’t: Don’t Get Lost in Metaphors – There’s Work to Do
Hurling freelance SEO copywriting pitches is like baseball. It’s like your Aunt Edna’s bread recipe, it’s like penguins mating, it’s like spandex pants in the summer, it’s like cookie dough and it’s like Hollywood drug casualties.
Don’t spend too much time thinking about what SEO copwriting is. You will gain considerably more insight by simply doing it. The mistakes you make and the victories you earn are what this is all about. Experience makes more work.
It’s how you play the game, and win.
by Marty | Feb 26, 2010 | General Pearls of Wisdom
In business, as in your personal life, who you deal with is of crucial importance. It might even make you end a title in a preposition if you’re not careful.
Knowing who you are dealing with on the web is a little unlike anything else – the methods to mask identity are not complex. If you want to sneak in and out of the Internet, you can. People do.
I don’t.
I work in a pretty transparent way – I am who you see. My comments, when signed by me somewhere out there, are my thoughts. Still, I feel you should know more about who I am and why you should trust me.
So what better way, than to introduce you to my finest hair moment. Meet 17 year-old Marty Lamers, and his freelance mohawk.
Freelance SEO Copywriter and Passionate Thin Cotton Tie Endorser, Marty Lamers
My glasses are now a lot smaller (as if larger ones are possible), and my bald spot negates the possibility of this work-retardant hairstyle ever working the same way for me again. Though trying it today would be interesting, for sure.
Ahhhh, setting gel and cheap hairspray: the clumsy magic that was 1983.
I am sure I would still have that tie too, if my wife didn’t have the good sense to intervene when she did.
There you have it – now you know. I make no apologies.
by Marty | Feb 16, 2010 | Work Tools
OK, let’s start this with my personal thoughts on keyword density. That’s what we all came here for, right?
Keyword density is typically represented as a percentage. It a measure of the occurrences of a keyphrase relative to a body of text, typically a complete webpage. If a keyword happens 7 times in 350 words, its density is 2% (7/350).
Keyword density is a measure of SEO that has seen its ups and downs. There was a time years and years ago, where you could cram a ton of meaningless keywords into any page and get it to rank. These days the search engines are much better at what they do, so this is not such an effective tactic. In fact, it simply won’t work like that anymore.
When this keyword free-for-all was happening, the on-page keyword density definitely carried a little more weight. However, because it was easy for anyone to cram keywords all over the place, the search engines quickly learned to spot and filter over-stuffed pages.
And while many SEOs were saying “OK, the party’s over” and looked for other tactics, there were MANY who still believed in the power of keyword density. Personally, I have worked on projects for very well-known brands where the highly paid agency insisted on a specific (really high, actually) density per-page as the primary measure of success. Readability, tone, and even conversion were afterthoughts. Sigh.
Get On With It
…which brings us crashing into today.
Keyword density is still an SEO measure. Yep, sure is. And some people still believe it is a necessary part of a good plan in optimizing your site. I would not agree. But just like that agency I worked for, I know that everyone has their reasons and motivations…experiences vary. If you think (or know) it is important, go ahead and triple-check it.
If you ask me (as you should), it remains a very low level concern if you are trying to improve the pull of your page. There are usually MANY things you should be doing to improve your SEO before you start worrying about tweaking your keyword density. Many things.
I have made pages rank without having the keyword in the visible text once. Density, on its own, is just a silly measure of page strength in SEO. Don’t be silly – there is work to do.
But Wait…
Let me suggest another use for measuring keyword density, one that is much more valuable to today’s search engine algorithms, IMHO: Using density checkers in determining over-optimization.
Another by-product of the keyword-frenzied days of yesteryear, is that there seems to be a filter in Google for over-optimizing your pages. I am not referring to a site that gets completely whacked because they have crossed the line, but rather, an otherwise solid site that seems to hit a ceiling for ranking for targeted keywords.
What you might find, is that you may have inadvertently been a bit too focused on improving your keywords, and now you have gone a bit overboard and entered a gray area. Google likes most of your site, but thinks you are trying a little too hard so they put a “soft” filter on you – like your site will never get beyond #6 or something like that. (that is my own observation and not supported by a focused, data-enriched case study or anything).
Call it the SEO filter. Google doesn’t like SEOs, so if a page looks to be manhandled by one, it could get this SEO filter applied. What it would do, is force an SEO to spin his or her tires in the sand trying different techniques to improve. But if this filter is real, they won’t see improvements until they start un-optimizing their site a little.
In this case, you can use a keyword density checker (per page) and start, very carefully, dialing it back a little. You can look at the density on each page, and work out variations that tone down the optimization efforts.
So which density is the right one? Sorry, it’s just not that easy. Good SEO does not offer simple “Do it X number of times, and you’ll win,” kind of strategies. Too many variables.
Disclaimer aside, it is more often a range you are looking for, like between 3-7%, or something like that. I will say around 7% usually reads pretty spammy no matter what you do, and 2-3% might be a little on the softer side.
If you have a reading that is climbing over 7, 10, 12% or more, it may be very likely over-optimization might be an issue for you. Maybe not. Keep testing to figure out what works best for your site – it is not the same for everybody.
Links to Free Keyword Density Tools
Allright – with all that fanfare, it’s time to see what you can do.
First, you have online options. There are literally hundreds of sites offering web-based keyword density checkers. In these tools, you just enter in a URL, enter in your keywords, and get a report in seconds. The depth, accuracy and filters available will depend on the tool you use.
Here’s a Google Search that will show you tons of free keyword density checkers. Go have fun. The math is simple and consistent, so it is the interface, speed and features that will make a difference to you in finding the best one. The numbers should be the same between them all.
Here is another tool that is a personal favorite of mine – it has been there for years. http://www.live-keyword-analysis.com/ The big difference you’ll see in this tool, is it is not based on URLs – it is based on text you input into the text field. This gives you an ability to enter your text and tweak it – seeing the density effects on-the-fly. With three possible keyphrases, it has been a great little tool when I need it.
Bottom line is don’t think too hard on keyword density…it is simply not worth the effort as a page-strength building tactic. In today’s websites, you are much more likely to have an over-optimizing issue that a keyword density tool can help you find than you will a weak page that is bettered through a density analysis.
