When I first started writing online I spent a lot of time in the forums trying to pick up hints and advice from the experts. The first thing I noticed was the unique vocabulary that online writers use. As I soon discovered, if I wanted my work to be read, it would be crucial to understand this new lexicon. If you choose to share your blog or articles only with friends and family, you may not need to know this, but if your goal is to direct traffic to your work, establish yourself as an online writer, or to make money through your writing, then here are some important definitions to get you started.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Search Engine Optimization is the practice of maximizing the volume or quality of traffic to a web site. As google notes, it is important to think of your online writing as an interaction between users (readers) and search engines. The idea is to write content that appeals to both. Users search for topics they are interested in but can only find it if the search engine knows where it is and rates it for relevance.That is where SEO comes in. Including strong keywords will help readers and search engines find your work.
Keywords
Keywords are words and phrases that describe the subject of your blog or article. They are important because they will determine how reader's find or are directed to your work. How to know if a keyword is popular with users and indexed by the search engines involves some research using a keyword search tool such as Google Adwords.
One main place to use strong keywords if the title as the search engines will crawl and rank your title first. Avoid quirky or bland titles. They do not work well with search engines like Google. For example, if your article or blog post is entitled, 'Had a Great Time at the Show' you will not direct any traffic to your site because it is too general; no one out there is searching for words like 'great', 'time', or 'show'. However, a title such as 'Avatar: Great Movie for Teens' will attract more readers because people do search for 'avatar', 'avatar movie', 'movies for teens', or 'teen movies'.Long Tail
Long Tail is an SEO term that refers to keyword combinations, usually 3 or more words combined to help make the topic more specific. Using the above example of the Avatar movie, the title is a long tail because it combines 'Avatar' (a popular keyword) with 'movie for teens'. Using just one word such as Avatar will have to compete with millions of other sites featuring the same word. As of today, the term 'avatar' receives 55, 600,00 global searches a month and is therefore insanely competitive; 'movies for teens' is less competitive with 18,100 monthly global searches, but combined they create a specific and unique title that may lead to a better page rank in the search engines.
Page Rank
Page rank is the placement of your site in the search engines. For example, if you searched for 'teen movies' in google and your post 'Avatar: Great Movie for Teens' was at the top of the list, you will receive many more readers than if your post appeared on page 10 of the search (most searchers do not go past the first few pages). Ultimately, the goal is to get on page one so aim for keyword rich, long tail titles, sub-titles, and even images.
So those are the main one I can think of right now. I am sure more will be forthcoming as I learn about writing online.
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