What is SEO and what does Google really want? 

Halfway through writing an article about SEO and why you need it, one of my awesome partners – Monster Creative in Whangarei, asked me to write one for them with the exact same topic – What is SEO and why should you care?

That’s when I thought, a link to their blog is just as good as writing a whole new article about the same thing. It gives them a backlink, which is great for SEO, and it’s a good way to show the world that we’re friends.

Ten years ago or so, content marketing was pretty straightforward. Most marketers focused on filling up their websites with as much copy (read: keywords) as possible. The content didn’t even have to bring much value to the actual website, it just had to be there. Surprisingly, it worked. Not today, though, as Google now has no less than 200 known ranking factors.

However, there is no need to let words like algorithms, crawlability, metadata, link building and keyword cannibalisation freak you out! The basics of SEO are not that difficult. It’s mostly common sense.

But first, what is SEO?

In case you are not familiar with SEO, the main objective of search engine optimisation (SEO) is to improve search engine ranking by optimising a website. If you want your website to be found by the people who use Google (which is practically everyone) but more importantly, by your ideal client (which certainly is not everyone), you’ll need SEO. If the algorithm likes what it finds on your web pages, the closer to the top of the list they will show it when people search for the products and services that you provide.

Why do you need an SEO writer?

A professional SEO writer drafts high-quality, engaging, and highly authoritative content that’s SEO-friendly. It will have the keywords your customers are looking for, but don’t be fooled. There’s so much more to SEO than that! It’s not just about the keywords anymore. It is great content and a positive user experience that brings more traffic to your website. That’s why you need content with the appropriate tone, keyword density, length and so on, all written with your audience AND Google in mind. That’s what an SEO copywriter does and a good one is worth their weight in gold!

It’s what we do

About 80% of the work we do here at Sweet Orange HQ is writing optimised website copy, and we do it for both product and service-based businesses of all shapes and sizes. Because SEO writing is something we specialise in, we know that we can make your website copy perform better. No one is promising you the number one spot (without a considerable budget for ads) on Google, but we’ve had some great successes. If you found this page via Google search, you’ll know what I mean by that!

Yes, your organic search results will benefit hugely from a focus on SEO. If you need some help, have any questions, or want to know more, just ask.

~ Martine Pierhagen, founder of Sweet Orange Copywriting & PR

Here is the link to the Monster Creative Blog. You’ll find lots of value there!

~ With huge thanks to the amazing photographers from around the world that generously upload their work for free sharing on unsplash.com