1. Use a ‘link-bait’ title. The most important factor in getting read is the title of the post or article. This must be balanced by the fact that the title tag on any post or article is the most important factor for getting search engine rankings; so it is also important to use keywords. For an example, type “media bomb” into a Google search, and see the article that got over 500 diggs, and crashed our server from the traffic. The “link-bait’ title had a lot to do with it, “Social Media Bomb sent from USAToday office injures thousands.”
2. Give a compelling preview to the content. If you must ramble on about historical facts to set the stage for your point, provide a compelling prelude to give the reader hope that the effort will be worthwhile. For example, this article touches on a reason to read the article-the chance that the reader may be doing a less than perfect job of posting. If the reader is interested in the subject matter provided in the prelude, they may sit through your article as you build up to your point.
3. Allow the reader to participate. Anyone can make statements, but questions are more engaging, and convincing. Are you getting a good return from your posting efforts? Would you like to get more traffic? Would twice as much return for your time investment, or a thousand times more hits interest you? I have not made any outrageous statements here, I have only asked compelling questions.
4. Repeat the keywords that are in the title in the body of your message. The search engine robots need to see that the content within the article is relevant to the title in order to achieve search engine rankings.
5. Do not over-do keyword density. While the density of the keywords matters, ‘keyword stuffing’ is bad and will result in being relegated to the “supplemental index” (IE: oblivion).
6. Lead with the sexy part, and then reveal the meat and potatoes later. While ‘secrets’ is the ‘hook’ here, the real meat is a few simple formatting issues that will greatly affect your results.
7. Insert anchor text linked back to your website, containing your keywords. Many places where you can post allow a last minute edit in the html code before publishing. Add a link to your website by highlighting your keywords and clicking “insert link.” Then, after inserting the link, click HTML or Code Edit and search for rel=”no follow,” and then remove just that part of the code. Then click publish or submit, as the case may be. This creates a pointer stating to the search engines that your website is a source of information on this topic.
8. Make it personal. I was trained to ask myself, “so what?” after everything I say. Try doing this as you write. If you answer the “so what” with the benefits to the reader, they will have reason to read on. If you take my advice, you will rank higher on the search engines and get more traffic and better links back to your site from your efforts.
For more information, visit www.socialmediasystems.com.
