OK, this is more than a little gimmicky, but I’ll try any trick in the book to reinforce important SEO and content optimization principles. True, if the Bard of Avon were alive today and saw this, he’d roll over in his grave. Just the same, inspired by my guest SEO post on goodcopybadcopy, here we go.

SEO and Content Tips, with Apologies to William Shakespeare

The click’s the thing. It’s easy to lose focus in the complex world of SEO, but conversion is the name of the game. SEO is not just about getting rankings, it’s about driving action.

My kingdom for a quality inbound link. Obtaining inbound links from high authority sites is one of the most important – and most challenging – tasks in the world of SEO. The best way to get them – high quality, original content.

If music be the food of link love, play on. Multimedia is “sticky”, as they say. A blog post or web page with audio and visual content is more likely to be linked to and retweeted.

To A-B test or not to A-B test. That is no question. SEO is neither an event nor a project, it is an ongoing process that requires an organized cycle of monitoring, testing, and refining.

Out, damned goobledygook. Jargon and adspeak not only offend site visitors, nobody searches for “value added improvement levers”. Since people search in plain language, keyword phrases should be in plain language (though there are exceptions, such as for highly technical products and services aimed at a jargon-speaking audience).

Off with his headline! Headers and title tags are very important. Search engines give them lots of weight. Why? Because people make decisions whether to read a blog post or web page based on its title. Weak headlines invite traffic disaster.

There is a social media tide in the affairs of men. And women, too, for that matter. An SEO program bereft of social media presence is doomed to fall short on link love, buzz, and incoming traffic.

To thine own customers be true. Partly as an outgrowth of the interactive web, customers prefer straight talk to command and control communication. Web pages should read like conversations, not lectures or infomercials.

Assorted Writing Tips Straight from the Bard’s Quill Pen

  • Too much of a good thing – Edit.
  • The most unkindest cut of all – But don’t over edit. 200-300 words at least are helpful for search engine indexing, and people want more than a billboard from a web page.
  • Wild goose chase – Make navigation simple and intuitive.
  • A sorry sight – Too much bold text and too many fonts spoil the broth.
  • Done to death by slanderous tongue – Emphasize your strengths, not the competitors’ weakness.
  • More matter with less art – Again, straight and too the point works better on web pages, where decisions to stay or leave are made in an instant.

Enough about SEO – here’s a little Shakespeare, straight up: