Writing for the Web: the all-important search engines

Google.com – the Web’s most popular search engine

When you write for the Web, whether you’re writing for your own Web site, or are writing for someone else’s, it’s vital that you remember the search engines. It’s also vital that you keep up what’s happening online.

For the purposes of this blog post, let’s imagine that you’re writing your own site. You can’t write for the Web without creating your own site – yes, you’ll get some writing work without a site, but it won’t be highly-paid Web writing work, because until you have your own site, you haven’t shown that you know what’s involved in Web publication. Your own writers’ Web site gives you credibility: it means that you can charge more, you won’t get stuck writing “$5″ articles.

Millions of Web sites, billions of Web pages
The Web search engines are indexing software. They scour the Web, and build their own databases by indexing every word they find. These words (and Web links) are weighted in various ways, so that the search engines know what pages to return when someone types a query into the query box. (Web searches are usually made of a search engine’s database, not of the live Web itself.)

With millions of Web sites online, and billions of pages, how will a searcher find YOU in a search engine’s database? Chances are, that if a prospective client is looking for a freelance writer (you), he will type into the search query box: “freelance writer.”

So, when you’re writing your home page for your site, because you’re writing to be found when someone types “freelance writer” into the search query box, it’s important that the term “freelance writer” appears high up on the page. “Freelance writer” is your primary keyword for this page. Although including terms like “freelance writer” on your Web pages seems fundamental, it’s easy to get so caught up in your creativity that you forget the search engines.

Resources:
* Bruce Clay’s page gives you the basics of search engine optimization, an important skill when you’re writing for the Web; and

* My ebook: Writing For The Web gives you the fundamentals of writing for the Web.

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