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The SEO power of 25 words

Posted by Michael Martinez on October 22, 2007 in Intermediate SEO

We optimize for search through our content regardless of whether that content consists of links or huge ugly blocks of text. We can place the content on our own pages or on someone else’s pages. If you want to increase your mastery over SEO techniques you have to constantly devise your own SEO techniques. Don’t worry about whether someone else has done something before. There are no reliable short cuts to learning good SEO techniques.

A good SEO technique is a skill set you develop for occasional use. A bad SEO technique is something you feel like you have to do every time you create a page. For example, last week I suggested people stop using keywords in their title tags. Most of the comments I saw around the Web concerning that tip were tentatively accepting. A few people claimed it was just bad advice.

A small number of people pointed out that the purpose of the tip was to help people improve their skills in other areas — after all, if you don’t optimize through title tags, where will you compensate? That’s a very real question for SEOs who have clients that refuse or cannot change title tags. If you don’t know how to optimize without relying on placing keywords in title tags and page URLs, you need to start practicing now before you find yourself in a non-performing competitive situation.

So we all know that title tags and page URLs help but if you don’t look beyond those two on-page factors you’re practicing bad SEO. A competitive search optimization specialist doesn’t panic when page titles and URLs are taken away. A competent search optimization specialist builds a much longer list of on-page factors than page titles and URLs.

Another of my suggestions was to “Write 10 blocks of ad copy (no more than 25 words each) every week. Place them on the Web where they won’t offend anyone.” I’ve been asked where the 25 words of copy should go. First, let me point out that 25 words is the upper limit. What would you do with 10 words of ad copy? What would you do with 5 words of ad copy?

When you restrict the number of words you can use for an advertisement on the Web, you tend to pigeon-hole formats. There is nothing wrong with that. Back in the day when directory listings were important to us, we had to be very good at writing 25 words of copy that included our keywords once without looking like spammy self-promotional shpleen copy. Directory editors tended to whack out what they considered to be unnecessary words. So short was always sweeter because it gave directory editors fewer options to slash.

If I were to submit this blog to 100 directories (not that I intend to), I would write a 2-word title and a 3-word description: “SEO Theory” for the title and “SEO theory blog” for the description. Do I really need to say more?

SEO Theory is about SEO theory, not Michael Martinez, not J.R.R. Tolkien, not even 1st Query. SEO Theory is just about the theory of search engine optimization. So why not be short, sweet, concise, and to the point? Those five words (”seo theory,seo theory blog”) speak directly to the audience that reads blogs like this.

On those occasions when I have seen PPC ads in the “SEO theory” query space people were hawking SEO services. I have to conclude they didn’t make much money because the ads are no longer running. So one has to ask whether the SEO theory space is monetizable (I think so but I’d rather not say how) or whether the ads were the wrong ads.

Ad copy, ad placement, and ad targeting are issues we normally associate with pay-per-click services, affiliate marketing programs, and so forth. But search engine optimization is most effective when every piece of copy is treated like an advertisement.

I don’t mean we should fill our pages with shlocky ad copy. I mean that we should assume every paragraph and every isolatable block of text on a page will show up somewhere in someone’s Web search. Now, this should be basic stuff to most experienced SEOs. After all, I’m talking about the “long tail of search”, optimizing for less competitive queries, blah, blah, blah.

But there is an aspect to search engine optimization that goes beyond what the search engine algorithms do. That is, you have to look at what text a search engine shows to potential visitors. Will your text be sufficient to compel people to click on your links and stay on your pages until they convert? You cannot guarantee success but you can improve your chances if you think about how to compose your copy as if every block of text was a 25-word or less ad.

Your first attempts to compose 300 words of text in 12 to 15 blocks of ad-like copy should look pretty dismal. In fact, I would be surprised if anyone could do it (for the first time) in less than a day. You cannot simply string advertisements together. You have to write painless, human-readable copy that breaks down.

Now, each of us proceeds at our own pace but I have practiced the art of writing 25-word blocks of text by composing meta description tags, directory listing descriptions, floaters, sidebar articles, and in-margin promotional snippets. I’ve also written whole articles that break out points in small blocks of text. Did I always stay under 25 words? Of course not. But I have written a LOT of copy that is compartmentalized, concise, and covers many related topics.

In other words, practice makes perfect. It doesn’t matter how bad your first attempt is because you can always go back and replace it when you feel a little more confident in your ability to combine blocks of short text.

You want to avoid choppy text but you want to work comfortably with text components that easily and naturally lend themselves to being used as text snippets in search results, as citations from other Web sites, and in your own promotional copy.

You also want to avoid being repetitive. And duplicating your effort is easier than it may seem at first because after you’ve written your 10th block of short text you may find yourself hammering your keywords like a die press in a factory. You don’t want to do that.

Breaking up copy is easy to do. Make a point with each block of copy and move on. Think of how you might organize the copy in a list of bullet points and then write it without the bullet points.

Where you use the copy is entirely up to you. You can reuse it — no harm in a little duplication of effort — but the point of the tip was to suggest to people that they develop the skill for writing short copy comfortably with a natural ease. It comes in handy in a lot of ways, but it’s not by any means a suggestion that you always use short copy.

Just because you can optimize with a particular technique doesn’t mean that you have to optimize that way. Your ideas and work will stay fresh if you don’t throw yourself into a single, predictable pattern. You’ll be better able to take on challenging SEO opportunities if you don’t think to yourself, “I have to write 200, 300, 400 words of copy for each page.”

Your practice ad copy can be useful in forum signatures, blog comments (where appropriate), blog posts, in-site promotional announcements, new content meta descriptions, keywords meta tags, tag lines for distributed articles, etc. There is no limit to the number of places and ways you can use 25 words or less of relevant, meaningful copy.

Every page is a blank canvas until you paint it with your words. The more you practice being eloquent, succinct, and productive the more you will be.