Writing For Google. Or Not.

The key is not to write for Google, but after writing make sure that it is optimized for Google. Look at your title and instead of writing something witty, make sure it has the terms that people looking for the meat of your post will use.

The example that you used is obviously crap, and should be judged as such. However, for the novice blogger, making sure that your content has the correct keywords that will help readers find your posts is a very smart move, and one that Google heartily endorses.

Let’s not forget the whole reason that you’re blogging in the first place — to allow people to “warm up” to you before they ever meet you …. They get a feel for who you are by how you write, and what your opinions are about real estate (or whatever you happen to be blogging about.) They can feel passion, sincerity, humor, or sadness from what you write. They can also peg you as a pushy, used-car-type of salesperson (which is the feeling I get from reading your example above.)

Don’t get hung up on writing for Google. Google isn’t going to buy a house from you. Don’t even worry about stuffing a few keywords into the first paragraph — do that in your SEO plug-in and let it do the heavy lifting from there. Just worry about what you do best…being yourself.

And don’t forget this — what you write in that first paragraph is possibly first impression that people will get of you. So think hard about who is more important to impress…

Jay: I totally agree. You do write like CRAP!

Dum-dum-dum-dum-de-dum-dum-de-dum … sorry, Jay. Have had a tune stuck in my head all day.

I’ve been probably annoying readers by putting Phoenix real estate in the title of many posts. But I also changed URLs and killed my SERP and am working to recover. Once there, I can cut back. The key, as Tom said it, was to optimize but not write for Google.

And I’m honored to be in the same sentence as X and Kris. Not sure I belong, but I’ll take it.

I know the post for which Jay writes, and it is indeed a gag fest for me. In fact, I couldn’t get through the entire post, and it was only 2 paragraphs long. If a search engine brought a human being to that post, I can’t imagine they’d stay there long. And if they don’t stay, what’s the point? If they don’t stay, they don’t subscribe, they don’t read other posts, they don’t call or email, they don’t do anything that would be of value to a business owner.

But anyone reading here already knew that. Clearly, not enough people are reading here.

I’ve seen a blog that does that exact thing, and it’s a tough read. I write like I talk, then I try to clean it up a bit to remove those “idioms” that Ohio tends to use or possibly change some words that might help match a phrase a client might use. As Matt T noted, my numbers aren’t incredible (~ 6K visits/mo) but the majority of my Google hits are the result of long tail phrases – not the “city, state, real estate” type of keywords.

Jay,

Gratuitous comment aside (and thank you, by the way), I couldn’t agree more. I continue to do this on-line thing all wrong. I write what moves me in a way that I would tell the story to you over coffee. I couldn’t give a rat’s hind quarters about what Google thinks of my posts, although the experts will tell you I am misguided and failing to capitalize on my true potential. I am not writing for the casual reader in Omaha or Great Britain or even Phoenix; I am writing for the potential client who lives in my county and my neighborhood. If Google finds me, so be it. My potential client four doors or four miles away doesn’t search for San Diego Real Estate, but they do search for “Kris Berg,” and I do just fine, thank you, for those keywords. My real would-be clients come to my blog or website because I sent them there through other marketing efforts. And, go figure, I am getting a more than a little organic success through my train wreck, true-to-myself approach.

My Father-in-law liked to say, “Don’t fight the feeling.” I like this approach. I simply do not want to think that hard or obsess because, like anyone who has obsessed over a deadline, the thoughts, meaning and geniousness get lost when one overthinks the problem. The result is maybe a valid message, but it is so mired in unreadable, self-serving tripe that the message gets lost.

In other words, I am just a San Diego Realtor writing about the San Diego home buying and selling market in San Diego for consumers wanting information on San Diego properties. But if you ever catch me using the words “San Diego” out of context, you have my permission to write a blog post about it AND use my name.

Jay , When you mention Berg/Dalton/Corbett were you working on an alphabetical listing or are they ranked in order of their beauty? (Sorry Jeff – not my ordering, though Jonathan vs Jeff is a tough call for anyone)

I was put in mind of the Keavin Nealon character on SNL (Philadelphia real estate) who would insert (Philadelphia real estate) his subliminal message (Philadelphia real estate) during his regular conversation, Like this

Echoing others sentiments: If you actually generate traffic to your site (through SERPs or whatever), you need to have something compelling to keep them there. But, by the same token, I can sympathize with the other guy – who feels that he has to do something to try to become more visible in the searches. Its an act of desperation. I’m not saying its right or even good – but I do understand their desire to get seen.

I think the most difficult task is teaching the words MODERATE and APPROPRIATE to Realtors (grin).

Kris, I meant the sponsored ad in Google for Scripps Ranch real estate..

The reason I mentioned it is that your site could easily rank well for Scripps Ranch real estate without having to compromise your writing style at all.

Benn, I didn’t ask because it was insurance. I asked because Kris isn’t showing up organically 1-10 and could/should be. The myth that gets perpetuated ad nausem with real estate bloggers is that they rank primarily because of what they write or how they write.

Kris has written several times that she won’t be found for certain keywords because of how she writes, so she is writing off an opportunity for greater exposure because of a misunderstanding of why her stuff ranks or doesn’t rank.

Question: Does the NY Times write for readership or search engines?

If you read your blog post out loud and it sounds weird, you need to fix it. I love the Kevin Nealon analogy, perfect! What you can do to a well worded, conversational blog post is ensure your url has keywords, title has keywords, H1 tags have keywords, images have alt tags and links have good anchor text and titles. But if you really want that page to have some google goodness, get some links pointing to it. People have teensie attention spans – they’re going to skim it unless it’s amazingly compelling. I can tell from my stats I don’t often write anything terribly compelling – but I keep working to improve.

Writing to get found on Google and writing to attract a consumer to come back after the first article are the two steps (IMO) that should be considered. However, I think writing many posts with the same key words is much better than writing one post with all the key words repeated.

“It is a matter of priorities for me, and I place a higher priority on
the readability once I am found than being found in the first place.”

I understand that. However, readability, or the lack thereof, has very little to do with being found.

You’ve written the same thing about quality vs results before, most recently on Inman, so it’s my goal to dispel the belief that a writer of your caliber would have to compromise to compete. A site like your castles site with your local content could and should be more readily found for Scripps Ranch real estate, and it’s certainly better for the user than what is currently on page one now. SanDiegoCastles.com at #1 would be the map to the treasure
you mentioned.

As for the horse, no way I’m giving up. When you speak, people listen, but this is the one thing where I don’t want them to believe you. I don’t even want you to believe you on this. You don’t have to change a word. It isn’t all or nothing. You really can have it both ways.

I wonder if people think we/clients/others are actually going to read bad redundant crude like your Realtor above. To me it is offensive because he/she thinks we are stupid. Good information is what we want, it doesn’t have to be written by Hemingway, it needs to be informative. Give me good substance!!