Blog - Article Tips & Strategies

Spun Content = A Complete Waste Of Time

Matt — Wed, 02 May 2012 20:43:35 +0000

Having been in this industry for many years, I am still shocked by what people still choose to do. For example, there are still way too many people using spun content as a part of their internet marketing strategy. For those of you not familiar with what spun content is, spun content is basically a computer generated mash up of words found on the internet. These articles read horribly, make no sense, and almost always have a high duplication percentage. Most internet marketers use this type of content because it is extremely low priced, and they post it to link network blogs and other sources just to get a few contextual back links. Well the old adage of “you get what you pay for” has never been more true as people who have used spun content are being directly targeted by Google for de-indexing. What does this mean? It means that anyone that has spent any money on duplicate content over the years has just wasted a ton of money and time. Google is removing any and all sites from their index that primarily uses spun content for their link building strategy.

A State Of Panic

I have had several friends in this industry write me as of late to see if the most recent update this April have effected my sites. Since i loathe spun & duplicated content like the plague, my rankings have not changed much. Sadly I have heard too many horror stories on the other end of the phone of what has happened to some of my colleagues in the industry. As a strong proponent of “white hat” SEO and SEM tactics, I couldn’t help but say, “i told you so” to some of these people as their sites have completely been erased from Google’s index resulting in a huge loss of revenue, and for some, their entire livelihoods! What was the main culprit for these tales of horror? Spun & duplicated content.

Paid link networks have all been shut down as Google has lifted their heavy hand and completely destroyed them. The problem is that these network sites primarily publish spun & duplicated content. This means that even if you put a piece of original content on one of these sites, you can still be penalized as everyone who has posted on a site like this is “guilty by association” in the eyes of Google. While i do genuinely feel bad for people that have completely been bumped from the rankings, I am also happy that these changes are happening as it rewards sites that post original content and that use “white hat” internet marketing tactics.

Avoid The Temptation

The biggest temptation when it comes to spun content is the price. While you may be able to buy an article for as low as a dollar a piece, it is the same as flushing that same dollar down the toilet. Eventually Google will find that garbage content, and all of the hard work you put into posting spun articles will be quickly unraveled when your sites are penalized or even de-indexed by Google. The best course of action is to buy the content that will never end up hurting you, which is unique and original content. This type of content will end up paying for itself over the years as all of the work you put into internet marketing with original content will never come back to bite you. While it may be more expensive up front, it is well worth the extra money as you can avoid future headaches, and in some cases, a complete loss of your internet marketing livelihood.

To learn more about what Google deems as “high-quality” content and link building, visit their blog post here.

-Greg

Facebook Drops Cool $550 Million for Microsoft Patents

Matt — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 20:42:54 +0000

Although this doesn’t directly deal with SEO articles, I thought it was still an interesting news article for all those techies out there. You can bet that the bigger Facebook and Microsoft get, the more they’ll have their hands in the internet marketing landscape…

Image via CrunchBase

Although Microsoft recently spent over a billion dollars on hundreds of patents it purchased from AOL, it is turning around to sell more than 2/3 of those patents to Facebook for only $550 million. Microsoft, a Facebook partner, is basically recouping half of what it paid for the patents while still retaining access to them.

The deal includes special licenses so that each company can use all of the patents. For instance, Microsoft can still use all of the 650 patents and patent applications that Facebook purchased while Facebook may use those patents it did not purchase. There are a total of 925 patents and patent applications involved in this deal.

Facebook is preparing for its entrance into the public trading arena as it will soon have its initial public stock offering in May, 2012. Experts feel that because of the impending IPO that Facebook is planning as well as a patent lawsuit that Yahoo brought against them last month, there is an even greater need for Facebook to protect its own interests.

Facebook’s general counsel, Ted Ullyot, said that the agreement with Microsoft was a very important acquisition for Facebook as a step in building an ongoing intellectual property portfolio. He feels that building an intellectual property portfolio is very important in protecting the long-term interests of Facebook. Last month, over 750 patents were purchased by Facebook from IBM.

In addition, Facebooks offering to purchase Instagram for $1 billion in cash could instantly add 30 million active users to the Facebook company.

The number of lawsuits regarding who actually owns the rights to certain technological innovations is accelerating, and is particularly fierce with regards to mobile technology. With Facebook being a relative newcomer, it is important that it have protection of patents. Because of its incredible size and popularity, Facebook is definitely a target, according to BGC Partners analyst Colin Gillis. Significant players must make significant strides toward protecting their intellectual property.

-Matt

Google Algorithm Changes Improving Searches

Matt — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 19:25:43 +0000

Image via CrunchBase

Google is one of the world’s busiest search engines. When looking for information on anything from illness symptoms to history records, Google is one of the top sources that people turn to in the world today. However, inorder to remain an efficient and safe source of information, Google frequently updates its search algorithm in order to exclude results that are insignificant. Many of these insignificant results refer to pages that have no substance and are packed full of ads and other content. So, by eliminating these search results, Google is improving its own accuracy as well as efficiency.

Content writing is by far one of the most important features of any webpage. This is the information itself. Whether it is an article, a blog, or any other form of writing, this information is the reason traffic is directed to the page. However, pages that have nothing but ads do not have this content writing on them at all. These useless pages are known as parked domains. With Google’s new algorithm, these parked domains are detected more accurately and excluded from search results, leaving only valuable content as a search result.

Another change in Google’s search algorithm that will benefit those who post original content writing is their reward for originality. Quite frequently what happens is an original blog or article is reposted by another source. Unfortunately, when that topic is searched for, the recopied version comes up first, rather than the original content writing. As a result, the original artist is not nearly given enough credit and can even lose out on money since his or her writing is not viewed as frequently. With the new algorithm, Google is trying to detect the original content and post that information first.

Finally, a third change to Google’s algorithm results in a more fair market and even brings about more competition with search results. As it so happens, many times a site becomes large enough that it is the most visited search item. As a result, it takes up more space in the top search results, which can create host crowding. So, Google is trying to compensate for this issue by altering the ranking algorithm so that any one site cannottake up too much space in the top results, therefore, giving the competition that might not be as well-known a chance to be viewed.

To conclude, Google is making several changes to their algorithm in order to better the search experience for consumers. They are trying to screen out pages that contain only ads in order to bring pages with content writing to the forefront in order to provide more information to consumers. Secondly, they are trying to provide original content rather than content that has been recopied with this new algorithm. Finally, they are trying to stimulate competition and limit searches that are top ranked to provide consumers with variety.

What do you think of the new Google Algorithm changes? Helpful or annoying?

-Matt

Is It Possible To Over-Optimize SEO Content?

Matt — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 17:19:32 +0000

Matt Cutts (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

At South By Southwest (SXSW), Matt Cutts, Google’s head spam derail-er gave an interesting speech in which he said that Google would be, “leveling the playing ground.” What exactly does this mean to all of those that are in the SEO world? Well, the reality is that Google is the only one who knows what that means as he didn’t give any specifics. Matt Cutts did allude to the fact that Google would more heavily penalize sites with over-optimized content, as well as poor content. This statement begs the question of whether or not you can indeed over-optimize your content. Let’s go over this point in detail and really find out what I believe as far as what I view over-optimization to be.

Unnatural Keyword Densities

As a content creation company, we see all kinds of keyword density requirements that SEO companies send our way. Keyword density refers to how many times a keyword phrase pops up within a written piece of content. While there is no right answer, I would like to stress that keyword densities should be used naturally. For example, if the keyword being used in an article is “green widgets”, it would read very unnaturally if I put that word within the article an excessive number of times. This would be an example of over-optimizing content. While keyword density is important, make the article read naturally by using the keyword effectively with a relatively low keyword density in order to keep the red flags at bay.

Poor Content Always Comes Back To Haunt You

While there are several content companies out there that offer SEO content at ridiculously low prices, the old adage of “you get what you pay for” couldn’t be more true. Google knows what good content is as opposed to bad content. Good content is interesting, gives the reader something useful, and and written correctly. Bad content is jumbled, spun, makes no sense, and is a grammatical nightmare. If you are getting super cheap content, chances are that it is either spun, or is written poorly. While the savings you may gain from buying cheap content may seem like a plus, this content will always come back to haunt you as Google will almost always penalize your site. Save yourself the hassle and buy articles that are well-written, and that will keep Google’s algorithm happy.

Spun Articles Don’t Compare With Originality

While spun articles are definitely designed to optimize, they can never truly compare in value to an original piece of content. While original content is more expensive, it will always trump a spun article when Google reads it as it will be better written, won’t be jumbled, and won’t abuse keyword densities. While spinning software has come a long way, it still can’t create a naturally reading article that can compare in any way with that of an original piece of content. With the new penalties that Google will be dishing out, I wouldn’t be surprised to see harsher penalties for content that is not 100% original and unique.

As you can see, over-optimizing content is possible, so make sure to follow a few basics. The basics include to keep content original, grammatically correct, and interesting to the reader. By following the basics, you can ensure to keep your site at the top of the rankings while carrying out your SEO strategy.

The Importance Of Keyword Research

Matt — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 04:23:22 +0000

What’s The Big Deal With Keywords?

Over and over again I get people that call in with questions about keywords. Maybe they have already ordered a package and are wondering what keywords they should pick, or maybe they are thinking about ordering but aren’t quite sure how to select keywords in the first place. Maybe you are in this same boat, or maybe you have insights on keyword research to share in the comment section. Either way, it seems fitting to address this topic on the blog.

Why Are Keywords So Important?

First and foremost, keyword research is ESSENTIAL to any internet marketing campaign you have. These are the direct portal that a customer uses to find your products or services. Whenever someone conducts a search, they enter in keyword phrases to find what they are looking for. The Websites that most appropriately match that keyword phrase will be brought up. No matter if you are ordering onsite or offsite content, you MUST have keywords! Think about it: Google uses an automated spider to crawl the web that then indexes websites based on the content located inside of it. If you own a roofing website that has words like “roofing in Salt Lake”, “Salt Lake roofing”, or “green roofing techniques”, you are much more likely to come up in a search for those terms on a major search engine. Selecting the right keywords to target for your marketing can make all the difference.

How Do I Select Keywords?

There are a few different ways to go about this. We’ve put together an online school that teaches the basic concepts of SEO keyword research that you can check out to get a full tutorial. Basically, brainstorm some of the buzzwords in your industry. Try to put yourself in the shoes of your potential customers. What might they type into “Google” to find your products and services? Once you have done this initial exercise, you aren’t done. This is just a starting point. The next step is to analyze these keywords and see if you have a good chance of ranking for them. SEO is like a big race, those that have been in it for a while are going to be a bit further along. Some keywords have been dominated by large PR sites for so long that it could take you years (not to mention a lot of money) to get to the top. So, for the sake of being efficient, you need to select keywords that will start bringing you results.

Use free tools such as the Google Adwords Keyword tool to find out the number of searches that are done for the words that are coming up. While some that collect 20,000 searches a month might seem appealing, they might not be the best words for you to shoot for. Usually, longer tail keywords (meaning keywords with 3 or more words in the phrase) are usually less competitive and easier to win. Try to find some of these that have low competition and at least 50 searches a month. Once you get a list of about 10 or 15, you’re good to start pumping up your SEO efforts.

I’ve Found My Keywords So Now What?

This is where we come in. You can now use these keywords to your benefit. You can have us create landing page content with these keywords included so that your site is SEO optimized. Next, you’ll want to buy offsite SEO articles from us that are centered around those keywords that you can place around the web and link back to your site.

If you are confused at all, don’t worry; you’re not alone. We can offer help and guidance through this entire process. Whether you need us to write your content, or do your actual keyword research for you, we can get it done. Check out our content services page for more info!

-Matt

The Biggest Problems With Automated Content Brokering Systems

Matt — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 20:52:18 +0000

What’s the Issue?

If you have been ordering content from other content companies, you know that most of them use an automated brokering system to get your content written. While this system can provide you with SEO content, many people find this ordering process to be extremely frustrating. Here at Buykeywordarticles, we have revolutionized the content industry, and have brought back a customer/client based content service. To better understand why our service is the ideal way to go when ordering content, let’s first go over the issues that arise when using an automated brokering system.

The Pitfalls of an Automated Content Broker

Most online content companies use a fancy software system to pair you up with writers that can write the content that you need. While this may sound incredibly simple, it’s actually the complete opposite when it comes to getting the content that you really want. Here are a few of the major problems that clients experience when using an automated brokering system such as Textbroker or IdeaLaunch.

These systems make it impossible to ensure that the person writing your article has any SEO or SEM experience.
Fast turn times don’t exist in this type of system because you have no control of when you will get your articles back as the writer is not managed, not to mention they could be in an opposite time zone.
If you have a problem with your order, who do you call? The answer is that there is usually nobody to talk to because the system is completely automated by a computer.
The most frustrating part of this type of system is that YOU do all of the work. You create the training, you have to order each article separately, and YOU have to manage your own articles which are being written by hundreds of different writers. Not only do you have to manage this, but you are also the quality control manager. This means that YOU have to check each article, send them back if they’re bad, and keep track of article revisions.

As you can see, automated content broker systems equal a massive headache and a less-than-desirable content buying experience.

We Make Content Buying Easy

Instead of making you work with a computer for all of your content needs, we provide you with a much more personal content buying experience. Since we ARE NOT an automated brokering system, we have dedicated project managers and In-House writing teams that will handle your order to make getting what you want a piece of cake. Our personally managed services allow us to provide the following benefits:

Hand picked, In-House American writers to ensure high-quality content.
Creation of order templates for large order volumes to ensure consistent quality.
Consistent and quick turn times on all projects.
Wide variety of content services which include proofreading, revisions, and other custom content services upon request.
If needed, the creation of sample content to make sure your content expectations are met.
A dedicated and accessible project manager to take care of your ordering, questions, delivery, and quality.

Why would you ever do all the work yourself when you can have the experts here at Buykeywordarticles take care of it for you? Stop getting frustrated by the majority of content companies out there and make the switch to hassle-free content ordering. If you haven’t already, give us a try and see why a personal content service blows the competition out of the water!

Click here to see our wide variety of content products.

-Greg

SEO and the Super Bowl?

Matt — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 22:59:47 +0000

It only happens once a year; and likely, your team didn’t make it there. Despite that, you still watch it. One, it’s a great reason to whip up (or purchase) all kinds of fatty foods that you can eat in the name of football’s, and arguably America’s, biggest sporting event. Two, it’s a great reason to round up friends and family and yell whenever you feel so inspired to. And three, you all know that there are going to be some GREAT commercials. Funny, isn’t it? That aside from sports, the next best reason to watch an event is for the advertising? Ironic, really. No matter how you look at it, Super Bowl advertising can be a very educational experience for anyone involved in the marketing industry.

The Super Bowl is One-Of-A-Kind

Granted, there aren’t a lot of advertising platforms out there quite like the Super Bowl. It’s the mecca of the advertising industry. If you air an advertisement during it, you’ve made it. Or, if your commercial bombed, you’ve likely ensured that you are going bankrupt. So, how does this apply to SEO and content?

Compelling Advertising

Ok ok, this blog is a bit of a stretch, but who says we can’t have fun and work at the same time? Back to business. First of all, those that make a spot in the Super Bowl only have a few seconds to really make an impression. The world of sales-copy/web content is the same. If you don’t have compelling content on your landing pages, your ad copy, and your product descriptions, you’re likely to lose the attention of your target market. Keep it simple, keep it sharp, and think outside the box. This can be done through the use of creating a need, adding curiosity, evoking emotion, and many other methods. Advertising is constantly changing, but with content the method is the same. Get to the point, and get to it quickly.

Fake it Til you Make it

This could be taken the wrong way, but the intentions are good. If you ever hope to be a company that someday advertises during an event as big as the Super Bowl, you need to start small and work your way there. This could also translate to someday dominating a niche with your affiliate site, or taking over an industry keyword with your company site. You won’t get there over night. If you have the products, services, and staff to back your claims, act as if you’ve already won it. Then, use SEO article marketing methods to slowly gain exposure in the industry. SEO articles can be one of the greatest ways to increase your brand and start getting your name out there. Not only that, you’ll start to raise in the rankings. This leads to increased sales, more money for marketing, and increased advertising opportunities. Who knows, maybe you’ll even be in SEO “Super Bowl” position before you know it.

Good luck in all of your internet marketing endeavors! Happy Super Bowl Sunday!

-Matt

Content, Content, Content.

Matt — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 06:03:46 +0000

While this may seem like one of the most basic and bland topics about SEO, it’s actually quite complex and interesting… ok, ok you’re right. It’s basic. And sometimes it can be boring. But is it beneficial? You bet your blog it is.

Amidst all of the SEO opinions and theories out there, content is the one constant. No good SEO theory will tell you to build a site completely out of videos, images, and audio tracks. None. Why is that? Because content is what drives search engine indexing. Google, Bing, Yahoo, and other engines will crawl your site, searching for keywords and phrases that give a clue as to what your site is all about. Not only that, these search engines crawl other sites looking for links and their ANCHOR TEXT to see what keyword phrases are leading to which sites. While it may take some time to learn how to utilize content effectively, the need for content never changes. It can make or break your SEO efforts.

With that cleared away, let’s talk about the different kinds of content. Content (in SEO terms) basically breaks down into two different categories: On-site, and Off-site. No, that does not say “off-line”. “Off-line” content is meant for school essays and those annoying ads that always show up on your windshield when you’re buying toilet paper at the grocery store. We’re not into that. What I’m talking about is content meant to promote a website and make it sell whatever products and services are offered there.

On-Site Content

On-site content is defined as the content that is placed directly ON your main website. Despite how many pretty pictures and videos you have on your website, your content is what drives people to purchase. In order to have an effective website, you need to have engaging, expert content on your landing pages to drive people to the site store. Without this, you might as well be the next Wikipedia. On-site content needs to match the tone, feel, and core beliefs of the company, people, and products it is representing. It should be well thought out, include facts, easily explain site navigation, and ultimately have a call to action. On top of that, on-site content should utilize keywords that you hope to rank for on popular search engines. On-site content is also known as sales copy, landing pages, and web copy. You usually hire a web copywriter to take care of this sort of a service. (Yes, we offer this service if you were wondering…)

Off-Site Content

Off-site content is defined as the content that is placed on article directories, blogs, and other websites to help PROMOTE your main website. See the difference there? This is content meant to go everywhere other than your main website. This content is focused around keywords that you hope your main website will win, is posted on other websites, and linked back to your site. The more content you have like this scattered across the web with links back to the site, the more you look like the authority on that certain subject. This content utilizes keywords, is informative, and should be written naturally. Oh and did I mention this content has to be original? Let me repeat that, this content has to be ORIGINAL!! If not, you might as well go out in the backyard and dig holes in your yard, only to have to fix them later. It’s the same effect. Duplicated off-site content placed around the web will actually HURT your main website, not help it rank. If the content is original, however, you’ll be launching your website through the realms of organic traffic to ultimately land a top spot on the rankings. This content is also known as SEO articles, SEO optimized content, and is written by SEO article writers, content writers, and off-page content. (As you may have already guessed, this is a specialty service we offer here.)

So there you have it. Content is king. There’s no way around it! Finding quality on-site and off-site content is one of the main keys to being successful online. If you haven’t already, buy articles from us and let us tell you why they’re the best. I promise you won’t find a better content creation company out there.

Not So (Keyword) Dense After All

Matt — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 02:55:00 +0000

If you’ve been doing SEO for a while, then you are probably familiar with the phrase “Keyword Density“. It’s about as standard as the slices in your white bread. It’s nothing new. But it’s essential. Or at least a part of it is. Let me explain: Keyword Density is defined as the number of times you insert targeted keyword into your web content so that popular search engines will index your articles and call you the authority on the subject. For most blogs, article directories, and landing page content, a 1-3% keyword density is a healthy number to stick to. This means you have your keyword, or keyword phrase, inside the article 1-3 times per 100 words. If your keyword phrase has 3 words in it then you would only want to include it in the article once every 100 words to keep the 1-3% guideline (since 3 out of the 100 words are being used for the keyword). Obviously, there are other tools available where a higher keyword density might be appropriate. But unless you have been introduced to such tools and seen them bring results, it’s always safer to stick to 1-3%.

In internet marketing days past, companies and individuals would pad their articles with an infinite number of keywords to make sure that Google knew that they knew what their article was about. It’s become quite apparent that this is a quick way to get penalized by search engines and to ensure that your website is never found on the web. While keyword stuffing has gone down (especially with the Google Panda update), just having your keyword in a generic piece of content a healthy number of times just isn’t enough anymore. Let me show you what I mean through a few different scenarios:

Scenario 1: Spun Content and 1-3% Keyword Density: While your keyword density may fit all the parameters of the article directory or blog that you are trying to post it on, your spun content is going to come back to haunt you. Search engine algorithms are smart. Much smarter than you. Stop trying to cheat the system with copied (albeit reorganized) information or you’ll just continue to cheat yourselves. Take one spun article through a simple program like CopyScape and you’ll see just how transparent spun content really is. Keyword Density is ONLY effective with original content.

Scenario 2: Off-Topic, Original Content and 1-3% Keyword Density: In this scenario you may think you’ve got it made. You’ve just found about 40 old essays on your computer from your days back at the local community college. You open an essay about whatever subject and just insert your keyword a couple of times, add a resource box, and call it good. While you may get some benefit from this (since it technically is original content), your results will be very limited. Search engine algorithms now take into consideration focused content that complements the keywords that you’ve selected. If you’re content doesn’t match your keywords then you’re losing most of the SEO value you were hoping for.

Scenario 3: On-Topic, Original Content and 1-3% Keyword Density: You’re on the right track! While Keyword Density is still a must in article writing, you must pair it with helpful and directed content. If you provide helpful information that fulfills the criteria of the keywords indicated, you will find that your article efforts are going to take you a lot farther. So instead of just focusing on planting keywords in a mess of words, work on developing better content. This will revolutionize your article marketing because this is what major search engines (Yahoo, Bing, Google, and Ask) are looking for.

Have any personal experiences with any of these scenarios? Feel free to share the good (or the bad) in the comment section below. Have a great weekend and good luck in your internet marketing efforts!
-Matt

SES Chicago

Matt — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 19:50:07 +0000

Hey Everybody!

Welcome back the BKA blog! Since this is a bit of a new experiment, it may take just a couple weeks to get into the groove of things. We get so busy writing for all of our other clients (you), that we sometimes forget to write for ourselves! Such is the life of an internet marketer.

Speaking of internet marketing, buykeywordarticles.com just had the chance to visit one of the world’s most renowned SEO conferences in Chicago this past week from Nov.14-Nov.16. This was my first visit to the Windy City and I was thoroughly impressed. Aside from Navy Pier, Sears Tower, Italian Beef, Deep Dish Pizza and the Silver Bean, there was more than enough going on at the conference to make it worthwhile.

If you’ve never been to one of these conferences then I’d encourage you to check out the dates and locations of future venues to see if you can make it a part of your future plans. Not only was it educational and a great place to network with other players in the industry, it also opened my eyes to just how profitable this industry is. There are literally MILLIONS of dollars to be made through the use of SEO and SEM tools. Whether you are an actual SEO company or just a company that wants to learn more about the world of SEO, this would truly be beneficial. It’s a great place to get your foot in the door and meet other people who are trying to make it big; just like you.

Overall, the conference was a success. And while there were a few other content companies in attendance, it’s pretty apparent that we’ve got an edge over our competitors. When it comes to quality, price, and convenience you can rest assured that we do it better than anyone else out there. We appreciate your business, and will continue to do all that we can to help you and your clients stand out from the competition with high-quality SEO articles!

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Sincerely,
Matt