The Truth About Hiring An SEO Copywriter

Hiring an SEO copywriter is a great way to get your business' web copy optimized for the search engines, however, there are a lot of things that you need to know before you hire an SEO copywriter to your staff. Terrible Beginnings knows that there are a lot of SEO copywriters out there that do fantastic work. In fact, we keep a few on staff. But there are a lot of SEO copywriters out there that do very bad work and try to charge a lot of money for it. An article was being passed around the office this morning from Raven Internet Marketing Tools entitled 5 Ways An SEO Copywriter Can Screw Your Brand. After reading it, I thought that we might shed some light on why there is so much darkness surrounding the profession. Here is the truth about hiring an SEO copywriter.

1. Some Claim To Have Much More Experience Than They Actually Do

There are a lot of SEO copywriters out there that tons of experience, have worked with major Internet marketing companies and held steady clients. But there a lot more that have zero experience and very little knowledge about what they are actually doing. The problem with the profession is that anybody can say that they are a freelance content writer. Anybody can sign up for a website like Yahoo Voices or register for an account on Hubpages and say that they are experienced with what they are doing. Then you give them the assignment and what they hand back is...well...underwhelming at best. Make sure that you go with an SEO copywriter that not only knows what they are doing, but has credible references.

2. Some May Over-Optimize Your Content

Over-optimization used to just be something that made the copy stiff and boring. Now with the Google Penguin updates, over-optimization can be detrimental to your search rankings. A copywriter is supposed to mix optimization and their craft to give you something that will rank well in the search engines and keep your readers entertained. If you find that your SEO copywriter is over-optimizing or not optimizing at all, get rid of them and go with a professional content group. A professional SEO copywriter will be able to mix the SEO with your voice to deliver a blog post, article or affiliate review that not only helps with your rankings, but also coverts customers into buyers.

3. Some Have No Idea What They're Doing

The fact of the matter is that some have absolutely, unequivocally, no idea what they're doing. They keyword stuff, they don't proofread, they don't have any focus, and then they want a check. This is the biggest problem with SEO copywriters. At Terrible Beginnings we like to keep all of our client's best interests at heart. This means keeping up with Internet marketing news and the latest search engine updates. Most freelance content writers do not do this and it's reflective in their work. Make sure that you ask the copywriter if they are up to date on all of the Google updates and what they know about Internet marketing. You can also avoid issues by giving them a clear keyword density and the tone that you are looking for in the writing.

Published by Terrible Beginnings: A Content Creation Company
Do you hate writing your blog? Do you need to hire an SEO copwriter? Contact us today!

How To REALLY Do Keyword Research

Keyword research is essential to getting your website listed in the search engines and gaining more followers, readers and customers. But how do you do keyword research? Since Terrible Beginnings is mainly a blogging service, we don't usually have to deal with keyword research, however, we do have to do it for our own blog. Keyword research is actually a very easy thing to do, but there is an important ingredient that many people miss out on. Instant web traffic.

Here's the problem. You can go to a search engine like Google and type in a keyword to see how many search results come back for it. On average, there is will be anywhere from 1 million to 2 billion websites on the Internet that are trying to carve out their own little niche. The trick to finding a good niche is to put the keyword in quotes. "Blogging services" is one example. When you put it in quotes, Google brings back the pages that are trying to rank for that exact keyword instead of broad range searching. This is one way that you can see how much effort is going to be needed for advanced link building strategies.

So now that we have that out of the way, let's talk about search traffic. You could have a great keyword with very little competition but if nobody is searching for it then you're out of luck. So how do you find out the traffic volume for a specific keyword? This is where the problem lies. One way that people find out the traffic volume is by using Google Trends. This is an exceptional tool that can give you the search volume for any keyword on the Internet. Another way is through Bing Webmaster Tools. You will have to sign up for an account, but it can help you widdle down the keywords.

Once you have your final set of keywords you can begin writing the seo content for your blog. This content needs to incorporate the keywords, but not so much that you're tripping the Google spam filters. One way that we like to keep the keyword density under control is to use a keyword density tool. You can find a lot bunch of them online, but one our favorites is Keyword Density. The problem with this tool is that it only analyzes published pages. If you want to just cut and paste your article or blog post into an online tool, you can go with Live Keyword Analysis, another fan favorite around the office.

Now, there is a lot of debate over what you can get away with in keyword density, but we like to keep it fairly safe. Some marketing companies will tell that Google doesn't care if your keyword density is at 8% while others will say 2%. We like to go with the later. Playing it safe will always keep your website, blog or online store in the good graces of the Google gods. With everything that has happened in the last two years with the updates, everybody is keeping on their toes.

So once you have your final post written you can begin the linking process. Try not to link too much in your article. One link per 75 words to the same domain is pretty standard. In other words, keep links to your domain 75-100 words apart so it doesn't look like you're link spamming. Now that you have your linking done...well, you're done! Post away. If you have found this post informative, please like, link and follow! If not, please write your nasty thoughts in our comments box. We love to have a laugh at the office, even if it's at our own expense.

Published by: Terrible Beginnings: A Content Creation Company

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Marketing Your Business With A Blog

 Since Terrible Beginnings offers blogging services, shouldn't we know a few things about marketing a business with a blog? I hope so! Marketing your business through a blog can give you significant advantages in your niche. When you use a blog to market your business you can deliver information to your customers. This information translates into trust and helps you to build a relationship with them. Everybody online is trying to make money, but what rarely see is somebody trying to give out free information to help people. We're not saying that you can't make a profit, but giving away freebies is an excellent way to engage your customers. Here are a few more tricks.

1. Offer Real Advice

Look at any niche and weigh how much information is available against what is actually helpful. There are tons of websites that offer the same rehashed content to their visitors. If you are going to market your blog to customers, be original and offer real advice to the problems they are facing. If you run a plumbing business, create a few Instructables (or have us do it!) on how to repair a leaky pipe. Don't just say, turn off the water.

2. Get With The Program

The Internet is full of social media. How anybody runs a company without a Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin page is beyond us. If aren't using the latest social media apps, you need to start. There are so many ways that you can engage your customers through social media that it's ridiculous. Google+ is making it extremely easy to hold video webinars and meet face-to-face, well kind of, with people from your company. Get the program and you will see that your business' clientele are much more enthusiastic about your products and services.

3. Update Your Blog Twice A Week

Updating your blog is essential to getting higher rankings in the search engine. If you don't like to write, or you don't know what to write about, using an SEO content writer to help you out. The last thing that you need is a blog full of spelling and grammar errors. Updating your blog twice a week shows the search engines that you are delivering quality content on a regular basis. Be sure to include backlinks, pictures and good information. Don't just toss something together. Most of all, leave the posts up for discussion so that people will engage the content.

Hate writing your blog? Let Terrible Beginnings do it for you with our professional blogging services.

10 SEO Trends For 2013

SEO is a huge part of having a business website. It dictates everything from where ads are placed to what words we type. We're not really SEO fiends here at Terrible Beginnings, but we do like to keep up so we aren't creating content that is going to hurt our clients. While browsing through some of my favorite SEO and blogging sites and I came across a very interesting infographic about how SEO is going to change from the ending months of 2012 into fiscal year of 2013. While Panda and Penguin pretty much knocked out every crummy content farm and link exchange program, the rest of the blackhat world is going to start shaking pretty soon. Here are some of the trends for SEO in 2013.

1. Humanized Ranking

The days of link exchanges, keyword stuffing and low quality content farms are coming to a close. SEO in 2013 is going to start relying much more on humanized ranking. We should have seen this coming with all of the social media hitting the streets, but Google is finally making this transition. Google has said that they are going to start using social media for human relevancy and give people more "real time" search results. This means that having quality blog posts and updated social media  is going to become even more important than it already is.

2. Mobile Searches

Who do you know that doesn't have a smartphone? Whether people are using iOS, Android or Windows Mobile, smartphone browsers are getting a huge bump for SEO in 2013. Mobile searches are becoming more and more popular as people transition from the 3G networks into 4G technology. As the mobile searches grow, Google and the other search engines are going to jump on the bandwagon. Make sure that your blogs and websites are updated for mobile searches and mobile capabilities. It doesn't take much to have your website updated for mobile searches. Get with a qualified SEO company like Active Web Group or TopRank Online Marketing for updating your mobile search capabilities. These companies can even help you with backlink indexing services.

3. Domain Authority

Domain authority isn't going anywhere so you can take a breath. SEO in 2013 isn't going to take much away from domain authority, but you can keep your website from being penalized with content marketing and professional blog posts. Domain authority is measured in a lot of ways, but a big one is through readership. Age is also a factor and so is relevancy, but quality traffic and a lot of links are going to keep your website up and running no matter what updates are in store for us.

4. Link Building


Hold onto your britches! Here's a real whopper! Google is going to put a lot more emphasis on link building. We all know about link building, but 2013 is going to be the year that links become even more important than on-page SEO. Having quality links is very important. The days of link exchanges and other ridiculous methods of getting your website link onto a PR9 site are over. Natural link building is what we're going after here. That means that you can't have 15,000 backlinks to your site appear over night.

5. CRO

Remember this one. CRO is going to be a huge buzzword in 2013. Everybody wants conversions. Show me a website that isn't trying to monetize their site. However,  SEO in 2013 is going to depend a lot more on conversion rates than actual search traffic. This is an excellent addition to the search engines because there are a lot of websites that are ranked for certain niches, but do not convert. Why not give a higher rank to the website that actually sells a decent product for the niche?

6. Voice Searching

We've already talked about the mobile searching epidemic, but did you know that Google is going to start using voice searches as an SEO factor? Voice searches are primarily conducted through mobile devices and some tablets. This means that world of keyword research is going to go haywire. You might want to fire up the Adwords Free Search tool and get a headstart!

7. Quality Not Quantity

Quality people! We're looking for quality. SEO in 2013 is going to be focused on the quality of your links, content and website design. The days of sending out thousands of copies of the same article or link to different PR0 blogs and sites are gone. Google is even implementing a way for webmasters to remove links pointing at their website if they think the links are spammy. This puts more control into the webmaster's hands and allows them to basically shut down a link to their site. Forget blackhat techniques and start building your links the right way.


8. Paid Searching

SEO in 2013 is going to have a lot to do with paid searching. Right now, paid searching has it's place, but paid searches are going to become even more prevalent. This means that PPC campaigns are going to be needed to bring in visitors. Yes, blogs will still have their place as will on-page SEO, but Google is going to start plugging paid advertisements into their algorithm even harder.

9. The Longer The Better

Google has always wanted quality content and it's hard to have quality without getting into detail. SEO in 2013 is going to look at longer, detailed blog posts. This means having focused content on your website. If you're not a great writer or you hate writing your blog, you've come to the right website! Blog posts that are 700 words or more will always outshine a post that is 250 or even 500 words. When in doubt, go longer. As said before, if you hate writing, hire an seo content writer.

10. Title Tags and Headings On Articles

Title tags and headings have always been important and they always will be important. However, they are going to start playing an even bigger role in the way that your post and website gets ranked in the search engines. The thing that Google wants to see in title tags and headings is focused content or keyword based content. This means breaking your blog posts up into different sections and having each section clearly communicate a specific topic.

Published by Terrible Beginnings: A Content Creation Company

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Business Blogging 101 - 4 Tips For Company Blogging

Let's call your company website the meat of the meal and everything else...well, everything else is everything else. Nobody likes to admit that their company isn't going to be successful because of the sales copy on the site. The fact of the matter is that we don't live in 1998. The web has changed over the last decade and we're in a whole new world of blogging, social media and on-site SEO that was never even thought of 5 years ago. Sow where does this leave us? Well, we don't have that many options. We can either get with the times or die out with the people who refuse to change. If you are considering starting a business blog there are a few things that you should know. Here are 5 tips to help you business start blogging.

1. Use Professional Themes

Professional themes are going to make a big difference with your business blog. A cheap, overused theme will send customers screaming for the hills. If at all possible, get with a web developer to help jump start your business blog. Business is not for teens that set up their life stream, it's about dollars and cents. If you want to get followers and subscriptions to your content, you need to have a professional theme.

2. Navigation

Navigation on your blog is everything. The reader needs to be able to figure out whatever you want them to figure out. Whether this is clicking on a link a product or a customer form, the reader has to be able to figure out where to go and what to do. A great thing about the times that we live in is that everybody is looking to get paid for thier opinion. Consider using a website review company. These companies will pay people to write reviews on the usability of your website. Remember to always go as simple as possible and your business blogg will be better for it.

3. Sharing

Sharing is one of the biggest forms of traffic now. Back in the good ole days of search engines, people could optimize thier websites, throw a couple of meta tags and descriptions in and watch as the traffic rolled in. This is not the case anymore. Make sure that you have plenty of social media icons linking to your accounts on the business blog page. Twitter, Linkedin, and Facebook are essential to spreading the word about your business blog. Make your website very easy to share and you will see traffic start to increase as you blog more and more.

4. Content Creation

Creating content is one of the most important aspects of having a business blog. You own a business so I'm guessing you have employees. Designate a few employees to write short blog posts at least twice a week. Your business blog needs to be updated at least twice a week to show Google and the other search engines that you have important content and pages to increase. If you don't have great writers in your office, hire a blog writing service. Professional blog writing services can make a huge difference for very affordable prices.You can also consider using a link building strategy for targeted traffic.

Published by: Terrible Beginnings: A Content Creation Company

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