The Language of SEO

As a Search Engine Optimisation analyst, working alongside my partner can be difficult - he is excellent at engaging socially, blogs in particular - so how to keep up ?  As someone who is not naturally creative, I must still promote our business to the best of my ability online. Is it an age thing, did me, and people of my generation come too late to the social party (that's social - not socialist !!!).  I have a teenage daughter for whom online social actvity is a natural part of her everyday communication - she has grown up at a time where online social activity is part of normal daily life.

So how to promote yourself online when its not something that comes naturally.  Well, if you're blogging, remember this is about you and your skills, so write what you know.  Write as you would speak and keep the language as straightforward as possible, don't use technical terms unless they are strong search keywords.  If you have a technical background, write your blog in the same type of language you might use for an executive summary.  The important thing is to try and open a conversation with your customers or prospects - ask questions in your blog and when you get comments, manage them and reply as soon as you can.

Search Engine Optimisation and Social Media Marketing are a strange mix of technical and business skills and the people involved in any SEO or Social Media strategy are likely to come from vastly different background and with very different vocabularies so finding a common language is difficult but if you follow some simple rules, you can create an effective blog that appeals to a wide audience.

1.  Keep the language very simple and if you need to use a technical term - explain it.
2.  Write about what you know
3.  Ask for feedback from your audience
4.  Include media - text is boring, your blog should include images and video where possible
5.  Ensure the title of your blog has strong keywords
6.  Use links in the blog to promote your business (backlink to your business site)
7.  Link out to reputable sites to reinforce your argument or point
8.  When linking use anchor text with strong keywords

Finally, if you are struggling with SEO and Social Media terms I recommend you have a look at one particular blog produced by Paddy - well written simple explanation of the various terms within the industry - an SEO Dictionary.