Tools for Creating SEO Content
If you’re building a website, it pays to have search engine optimized (SEO) content. After all, you want people to find your site when they search for terms related to your products or services. It’s easy to find your business if people know your company name. But finding your business through keywords is a lot trickier.
Naturally, this being the Internet, there are plenty of tools to help optimize your site for search engines. Here are just a few:
1. SEOmoz Beginner’s Guide
Don’t know SEO from SOS? SEOmoz (a SEO software developer) has a great online beginner’s guide to SEO. It’s a helpful introduction to SEO, and you don’t even have to submit your email address. (Although you might be subject to targeted SEOmoz online ads for the next few days. Slightly creepy.)
2. Webmaster Guidelines
A big part of doing SEO well is understanding how search engines weigh and rank content, design and quality. Although Google and other search engine companies will never reveal how they determine website rankings (it’s all part of their top-secret, constantly changing algorithm) most provide guidelines to website developers, designers and copywriters. You can find Google and Bing guidelines in their Webmaster Tools.
3. Keyword Tools
Once you understand SEO and search engine guidelines, you’ll need to figure out which keywords to use in your website content. Although a good brainstorming session is still mandatory, there are many tools available, some free, some not.
Google has a useful keyword tool as part of Google Adwords. You can input any word or phrase and see how often it is searched and how much competition exists. You can also use it to generate keyword ideas.
Wordtracker has a much more robust SEO keyword tool, but it is more expensive. Like many of the paid tools, it does come with an initial free trial period. So you can take it for a spin and go keyword crazy!
4. WordPress Plugins
If you’re a WordPress user, many plugins are available to help ensure your site and posts are optimized for search engines. One of the most popular tools is the All in One SEO Pack. It’s a sophisticated tool, but you can use as little or as much as you want.
Do you need help developing SEO content that doesn’t sound like it’s written for robots? Give Copperplate Communications a call at 604-657-0867. And if you have any favourite SEO tools, let me know by commenting below.