With the latest Google algorithm updates resulting in dramatically less AI generated being returned by them, Raspberry Flamingo have decided to officially offer an editing service.
Google announced in March 24 that it wanted to reduce unoriginal content (that means AI generated content in Google speak) by 40% immediately. And that figure will only increase.
What this means in real terms is that websites which have done well in terms of ranking, organic traffic, and enquiries are seeing a significant drop off.
The issues with AI generated content
I have always said AI should only be used to generate short form content – social media posts and maybe emails.
I have no problem with it being used to research subjects, get ideas for content, make suggestions for content structure…
However, AI generated content cannot meet Google’s requirements for long form text – website copy, blogs, articles, etc.
What we are now finding is that clients are coming to us with their AI generated content so that it can go through our editing service or be completely re-written.
In some instances, the AI generated content has been wholly inaccurate and in others the content has been on two very different subjects within one piece of content!
It’s really not good.
What Google are after with long form text
Google have some quite specific requirements for both website copy (pages) and content (blogs and articles).
They want specific primary keywords for each page/blog/article.
Each web page needs a different keyword to the next.
The primary keyword must be used in certain places on each page/blog/article and in a particular density (keyword stuffing is a thing of the past!)
Content must not be duplicated from one page to another.
The copy and content must address the reader.
So, the old fashioned ‘we’re an award winning service with excellent, highly trained staff’ kind of copy no longer works as that’s about you and not the reader.
You must demonstrate E-E-A-T on every page/blog/article.
That stands for experience, expertise, authority, and trustworthiness. (You can find more on this in another blog on here.)
They also like links – both internal and external.
That’s quite a lot for a non-SEO copy or content writer to take into consideration, and that’s why we have launched our editing service – or, of course, we can write everything from scratch for you.
I have always said, and I will continue to say, if you are writing (or worse still paying for someone else to write for you) copy or content to publish digitally that does not contain the correct on-page SEO, you are wasting your time and money.
And now nothing more could be true due to the new algorithm.
Raspberry Flamingo’s Editing Service
If you are generally happy that the copy and content on your website is accurate and covers everything it needs to, then our editing service is for you.
We’ve always provided the service, but we’ve never advertised it – until now.
It’s a quick, easy, and cost-effective way to get your website updated, on-page SEO inserted, and all the other elements Google are looking for ticked off.
Some clients are asking us for our editing service for their whole website, others for their blogs and articles… whatever element you need us to look at, we can.
We are happy to audit your website for you and let you know what needs to be done.
And our editing service can be implemented in a phased approach, if you wish.
Some clients ask us to update their last 10 blogs. Others their pages. Some ask us to do a certain number per month until the project is complete.
If you would like a chat about our editing service, then please contact Claire through the contact form at the bottom of the page or by sending her a Whatsapp message (QR code below).
The author
Claire Taylor Foster is the founder of Raspberry Flamingo Copywriting and Content Marketing.
She started her copywriting and marketing after leaving school way too long ago to mention! Direct Response Copy is her passion. Read more on Claire here.
As far as Claire’s concerned, if copy and content doesn’t contain ‘on-page’ SEO, then it’s pointless publishing it! (Unless of course, paid advertising is going to drive the traffic.)
The term ‘copywriter’ has become somewhat universal for someone who provides writing services these days. But with the massive rise in content over the past few years, there is now a definite difference between a copywriter and a content writer.
The different types of writer
Most people know what a journalist does. They write about the news and current affairs for publications such as the tabloids and magazines.
Columists fall into a similar category. Critics also usually writer for publications.
PR is another type of writing altogether. Many copywriters and content writers can write press releases, but someone who works in PR… well, they have the relationships with editors and so their email will always get opened. It gives their clients a much greater chance of the press release being published.
You then have ‘academic writers’ who will write research and white papers.
Technical writers are specialists in their field.
Corporate or business writers will put together reports and proposals.
We then come to playwriter and screenwriters… you watch what they write.
Poets write poetry.
Lyricists write the words to songs, so you listen to their words.
Novelists write fiction, whilst biographers write about an individual’s life, and a ghostwriter writes on behalf of someone else.
That really just leaves copywriters and content writers.
Marketing and sales words
Whilst some copy and content writers have niche industries they write about, many are generalists.
It really depends on their background and experience.
I have seen many specialists turn their hand to copywriting and make an extremely good living from it. How much money is there to be made depends on the sector.
Copy and content writers write marketing and sales words.
As a rule of thumb, content writers tend to write for marketing purposes and copywriters for sales.
What is copy and what is content?
Short form social media posts are content.
Long form blogs and articles are content too.
Most marketing emails are content… with the exception of sales sequences.
A sales page (sometimes called a landing page by web designers) is direct response copy. It’s the purest form of sales copy as it is designed to make the reader ‘buy now’.
Direct response copy is psychologically based and follows a format which allows the right side of the brain to ‘want’ what’s on offer, and the left side of the brain to see the logic, value, and benefit of spending the money!
This copy is very long form – a sales page can be up to 5000 words.
Website copy is copy rather than content but is what I personally class as ‘soft copy’.
It is still written to elicit a response, but that response is usually to take the next step in the buying journey, rather than the ultimate one of buying right there and then.
Many copywriters are also asked to write video scripts.
Ads, brochures, leaflets, and other marketing materials, where you have a small number of words to get a powerful message across, requires copywriting skills rather than content.
Can someone write both copy and content?
They can… however, I have found over the years that people are usually better at one or the other.
I am a trained direct response copywriter. For me to write content, it takes me so much longer than it would for a content writer to do it.
Copy is short sentences – think minimum words to create maximum impact.
Content, on the other hand, is full sentences, discursive, friendly, educational, and flows very differently to copy.
My team, here at Raspberry Flamingo, tend to be either copywriters or content writers. That’s not to say some don’t lend their hand to both, but it is always very obvious to me where their natural skill lies.
How do you know what type of writer someone is?
If you want content and you are talking to a copywriter, ask the question about what type of work they do most and, possibly, what type of work they enjoy the most.
If a copywriter tells you they write blogs and articles and/or relationship building emails, then they are a content writer.
If someone specialises in website copy and sales pages, or sales sequence emails they are a true copywriter.
Publishing words digitally
If the work you are having created is to be published on a digital platform which Google can access, then you need an SEO copywriter or content writer.
Having your website copy, blogs, articles, etc written without containing SEO is a waste of money.
If your writer doesn’t understand Google’s requirements for person-focussed copy and content (and by person, I mean the reader) then they won’t use keywords and other elements of ‘on-page’ SEO correctly.
Without it, Google are much less likely to return your copy and content in organic searches and so your company will get much less exposure. Your SEO ranking will also be lower.
A great example is that we have a client who published a blog we wrote for him well over two years ago and he still gets multiple enquires from prospective customers every single week because his blog has been returned when they’ve searched for the focus keyword we used.
Can AI replace both a copy and content writer?
Now this is a whole other article on its own.
However, I will offer this advice.
Use AI for your short form content should you wish. It’s great for social media posts.
Also use it to come up with ideas and structures for your content. (Maybe I should have done that for this blog… but this is straight out of my thoughts.)
The problem with using AI generated long form content is
It doesn’t show your expertise
It doesn’t show your personality
It doesn’t show your authority in your market place
It’s easily recognised as AI generated language
Someone else could have received the exact same piece of writing and published it before you (so Google will consider yours duplicate text, which is a big no no for SEO
Can you be sure it is factually correct (after all there’s some real rubbish published on the internet and that’s where it’s pulling its information from)
Copy or content or both
Whilst the world seems to speak about content way more than copy these days, that’s because of the ever increasing influence of social media.
I firmly believe that at some point a copywriter will genuinely be a copywriter and not used for someone who writes content.
Maybe I’m dreaming.
My advice is as I have already mentioned, ask what someone prefers to write and then you’ll be able to see if they are a copywriter or a content writer.
If Raspberry Flamingo can help you out in any way, or I can offer any further advice, just get in touch. You can simply scan the QR code below to Whatsapp me.
Do you ever look at your old blog posts and wonder how you could improve them? Maybe they’re not ranking as well as you’d like, or maybe they are a little out of date due to changes in your industry.
In this post, we’ll go over a simple SEO content audit process on your old blog posts. This will help you to improve them so that they rank better, read better and bring in new customers too!
So let’s get started.
Let’s start with the basics!
What is SEO?
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation and refers to the process of improving your sites visibility on the search engine results pages (SERPS for short), like Google.
Having good SEO will increase your sites performance and attract more organic search traffic. Organic traffic refers to all traffic that is unpaid and is a result of SEO efforts.
What is an SEO Content Audit?
An SEO content Audit is the process of looking at all of the existing content on your website and determining what needs to be improved.
Content audits allow you to go through the individual pages and posts on your site to see what is working and what is not. It also gives you the opportunity to locate any technical issues and identify content that is not valid anymore.
Why is a Content Audit Important?
Conducting a content audit is an important part of improving your content marketing strategy and increasing your SEO performance.
There are a few reasons why you might want to do a content audit on your existing content. Maybe you’ve noticed that your traffic has been declining and you want to figure out why.
Or maybe you want to make sure that your new blog post is off to a good start. Either way, a content audit can help you identify pages that need your attention!
By evaluating your content regularly, you can avoid creating new, unnecessary content and identify opportunities to improve your existing blog posts. This can save you a lot of time in the long run!
When should you do a Content Audit?
It is also important to carry out a content audit on a regular basis due to Google’s Algorithm, say every 6 months or so. Google sets a set of rules that determine what content appears in the search results.
As this is constantly changing and updating, this means that content needs to be updated regularly in order to be effective. The algorithm takes into account a variety of factors, including the quality of the content.
Google’s Helpful Content was rolled out in August and is designed to encourage people to create content that is more helpful and relevant.
So remember: Google is constantly updating its rules so always aim to constantly improve your content marketing strategy in line with new guidelines and adjust your content strategy based on your content audit!
How do I Conduct a Content Audit?
The best way to gather data from your website is to do a content audit. There are a couple of different ways you can do a content audit. You can either hire someone to do it for you or you can do it yourself. If you decide to do a content audit yourself there are few steps that you need to follow.
Let’s take a look at the content audit process!
Step 1 – Content Audit Spreadsheet
Gathering data on a Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets is an easy way to record your site content.
So, what should you be including on your content audit spreadsheet?
Page Title
Page titles help your blog post rank on the Search Engine Results Page. Page titles are written into the HTML code and are located on the search engine results page accompanied by a meta description – this is referred to as a ‘snippet’.
When a user visits the website the page title is seen in the title bar of the browser. Search Engines use the information in the page title to understand what information your website contains to enable the search engine to match your website with the users search query.
Page Title – Best Practices
Page titles must be original to avoid duplicate titles which can have a negative effect on the ranking of your website.
The page title should be approximately 50-60 characters long to avoid the page title being ‘cut off’ on the search engine results page.
Page titles must include the target keywords or phrases the searcher enters into the search engine.
Think about the what the user types in the search engine. – for example, “how to bake a chocolate cake?” The word ‘how’ in this sentence indicates the searchers question will be answered on this page.
URL
URL stands for Uniform Resource Locater.
HEADINGS
Header tags are HTML tags that represent the headings of a web page. They are ranked from <H1> to <H6>.
<H1> being the largest and <H6> being the smallest.
The <H1> is the most important tag and is essential for search engines to identify what the content of a web page is about.
Heading tags 2 to 6 are subheadings to add structure and organisation to a web page. The structure of the content on your webpage is important for SEO and can determine how well your website ranks on the results page.
It is important to record on your content audit spreadsheet how many H2 titles are in your blog post!
Remember: There must only be one <H1> per page!
Headings – Best Practices
Use headings to provide structure
Make sure you break up your content format by using subheadings
Include target keyword in your H1 (Page Title)
Use keywords and phrases in your headings
Headings should match search intent
Word Count
It is important to take note of the word count of your published blog posts. Having a higher word count makes it easier for search engines to determine what your content is about as you will be going into more detail.
You have a much better chance of appearing on the search engine results pages when your blog post word count is 1000 words or more.
Important note: Just remember not to just ad waffle, use only the word count required to get your point over in detail the reader needs.
Word Count – Best Practices
Aim for 1000 words or more
Write high quality content for your website visitors
Use headings appropriately
Images
Images help readers to better understand you’re content, you will see by the images we have used you can more easily understand what we are saying.
Internal Links
Internal links are hyper-links that connect users to other pages of your website.
Internal links allow website visitors to navigate your website and they also help search engines to understand your sites organisation and structure which is beneficial when search engine index the pages on your website.
Internal linking provides search engines with context about a webpage and its relationship to other pages and how important the page is compared to others on your website.
Take Notes
It is a good idea as part of your content audit to include a notes section on your spreadsheet to document any issues with your blog post.
There are a number of things you should be on the look out for:
Is there any duplicate content? Use Copyscape to check.
Are the facts up to date and is it current?
Check your page speed. Does your blog post have slow page load times?
Make note of any images not showing up or videos not working
Check for any broken links (Links that dont go anywhere or show errors)
Focus Keyword
Focus keywords are words or phrases that users search for in search engines. Your content must be based around your target keyword to enable search engines to determine what your website/ web page is about.
You should also use your focus keywords throughout your content, including your title and in the body and make sure that each post is optimised for a target keyword.
Make sure that you make note of your focus keyword in your content audit!
Remember: Always be mindful about search intent and the objective of your page!
Make sure you focus keyword is at the beginning of your H1/ Page Title or as close as possible.
Ensure that you have a focus keyword per blog post but dont use the same keyword on other posts or pages
Step 2 – Assess
Once you have gathered all this information you will need to take a look at your content audit spreadsheet and determine which blog posts need your attention.
Does your Page title explain what your content is about?
Does Your Page title have a Focus keyword?
Do you have enough headings and subheadings?
Are your blog posts 1000 words or more?
Is the information in your blog posts relevant and up to date?
Does your blog posts have any images?
Website Content Audit Checklist
Page Title
URL
Headings
Word Count
Images
Internal Links
Focus Keyword
Notes
Tips on High Quality Page Content
·Your content must be based around your keyword research to enable search engines to determine what your website/ web page is about to appropriately index and rank your website.
The content of the web page should be clear, structured, and easy to read (use short paragraphs)
Always be mindful about search intent and the objective of your page
Regularly review and update your content so information is up to date to demonstrate to users that your site is active and relevant.
All content must be original
Avoid cluttered content. It is best practice to organise your content in a structured and organised way to create good user experience and enable search engines to index your webpage.
Analytic Tools
If you would like to go more in depth with monitoring your blog posts SEO performance you can check out the following free analytic tools.
Google Analytics – you can track how many users visit and interact with your site.
Is There a WordPress Plugin to Help With Content?
After you have done your website content audit and realised that your blog posts need some attention it could be time to install a WordPress SEO plugin.
WordPress SEO plugins help to monitor your blog posts SEO. Allowing you to see if your post is optimised properly. Such as, letting you know if your page title is too long, making sure you have enough images, ensuring you have enough internal links and much more.
Both SEO Plugins will alert you if your blog post is not SEO friendly and provide you with different ways you can improve.
If you haven’t had content written by Raspberry Flamingo already, SEO CoPilot highly recommend their SEO copywriting services. If Claire and her team have already written posts for you but they need updating due to the helpful content update then please give her a call and once she has seen your content audit spreadsheet (or Notes) then she will be happy to quote on rewriting them for you.
Our customers are not just a statistic to us, we truly take pride in seeing businesses flourish, and do everything possible to encourage increased sales and profit for the businesses we work for.
By taking the time to get to know each business individually, including spending time with you and in your business to find out how it runs, we can tailor the services we offer to your needs and unleash your unique selling points. We take note of what you are looking to achieve when you work with us, and we use our extensive knowledge to advise the best options for you.
This is all part of the personalised service we aim to achieve for every client each and every time.
I thought I’d write about where to put keywords in your blog posts to maximise their effectiveness. If the on-page SEO in a blog post is spot on, they will get returned by search engines when someone searches for that term.
One of our clients contacted us to say that just three days after publishing his blog post, it was ranking third for the primary keyword we’d used in it. Another client tells us that he is still getting multiple enquiries every single week from a blog we wrote for him 18 months previously.
Just extremely briefly, for anyone reading who doesn’t know. Keywords are the phrases your audience search for, and SEO is Search Engine Optimisation, ie what Google looks for when deciding how to rank your website.
Back to blogs.
Why blog?
Google ideally want 2000+ words of fresh content on your website every month. This doesn’t include making changes to existing pages.
One of the great ways of achieving this target is through publishing blog posts.
Blog posts should educate your target audience on your service, product, and industry.
They should establish you as the expert in your field.
They should answer questions.
You can link blog posts back to your web pages. You can also link the copy on your web pages to individual blogs, so that a visitor to your site can find out more in-depth information.
Blog post content can be used to create your social media posts and evergreen emails, with links back to the blog, so sending people to your website for more information… Google loves traffic hitting your site.
You could even use the content of a blog post to create some video reels or stories to boost your social media marketing.
Right on to the real subject of this article – Keywords in your blog posts
Each blog post needs to be original, never ever copy someone else’s words or just tweak them. (Trust me Google knows if you’ve duplicated copy from elsewhere, and they will penalise your SEO for it.)
And, whilst AI tools are fantastic for creating short form content (social media posts) using them to write your long form content is a no no.
The way AI structures its sentences and paragraphs is obvious to Google.
They published their new SEO guidelines in late 2022 to discourage people from using AI to write blogs and articles.
AI tools can be helpful though to come up with headlines and ideas for content to include in a blog – just make sure a human writes it for you. (The other thing is you can never be sure that AI is actually giving you factual information – it’s well known for getting things wrong!)
Every blog needs keywords including within it, which will tell Google and the reader what the blog is about. They also need to form a phrase which you can repeat and vary throughout the blog.
So, for example, I was going to title this blog “Keywords and SEO in Blog Posts” whilst a great heading, wouldn’t be that easy to repeat in different sentences throughout the blog. So, instead I went with “Keywords in your blog post”. It fits in much better.
Now the heading can be longer than the keywords so I actually used “How to usekeywords in your blog post” but my SEO title would just be “Keywords in your blog post” and so that is the phrase to repeat throughout.
Where to place keywords in your blog post
Once you have decided on your primary keyword (the one that most people are going to search for) you need to ensure it is
In the main heading
In paragraph one – preferably in sentence one
In one sub-heading
In the final paragraph – preferably in the final sentence
with variations on it elsewhere throughout the text.
Your keyword should never be more than 2-3% of the overall word count.
Secondary keywords are phrases that are related to the primary keyword and blog subject. So, for example, a secondary keyword in this article could be ‘blog writing’.
You can also add “long tail keywords” into your post, but I’m not going to confuse things talking about them today. I hope that’s helped to give a little clarity on how to use keywords in your blog post. Hit me up if you have any questions or visit the main Blog Writing page here on the site.
Claire Taylor Foster is the founder of Raspberry Flamingo Copywriting and Content Marketing.
She started her copywriting and marketing after leaving school way too long ago to mention! Direct Response Copy is her passion. Read more on Claire here.
As far as Claire’s concerned, if copy and content doesn’t contain ‘on-page’ SEO, then it’s pointless publishing it! (Unless of course, paid advertising is going to drive the traffic.)
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