Picking the perfect blog length

As the owner of a public relations firm many requests cross my virtual desks that ask for arbitrary lengths of blogs. I refer to them as arbitrary because they don't take into account the amount of actual available information on a topic, the average length of other blogs written on that topic area or what mobile readers enjoy.

A recent contract requested 4,000 to 7,000 word articles. At first, I thought I'd landed an e-book contract, but no. My client puts these on a website… as a single web page. They showed me examples. Now, I adore and love them as I do all my clients because I enjoy writing cool creative pieces and the fact that I get paid for this bliss. (Being a writer was actually one of the grown up gigs I dreamed of as a kid. I feel blessed every day that my dream came true.)

Back to the client. I was flabbergasted to see the two or three exemplars they had up which, indeed, like the Energizer Bunny, kept going and going and going. I scraped through my first 7,000-word piece barely and vowed to write one short blog about how to determine the appropriate blog length.

Plenty of information.

Have a heart. Rather than arbitrarily determining a length – say 4,000 words on a topic – please, make sure there is enough distinct information available as source material to reach that word count. I see a bevy of requests for 1,000 words on topics that have enough source material for about 400 to 500 words. This is bad. Choosing an arbitrary number because it sounds good or you read a source that recommended that just doesn't work well.

Conduct an Internet search on your topic. Click on the top six links to check the content. Many sites duplicate the content of others. The top two or three might be Wikipedia clones or take the Bloomberg information on a business and duplicate it with a tiny bit of added information from Wikipedia or the company's own site. Click the news tab in the search engine to see how often the topic or company gets covered. Also, look for recent articles. As a general rule, you need 1,000 words of distinct resource material for 200 to 250 words of business, news, or explanatory article. For example, this article will top 1,200 words, but if you used it as a source, you'd only use the topical portions. About 250 to 300 words of it is personal anecdotes and humor. You'd rewrite the topical information using only the highlights and attribute this article via link.

Don't get trendy.

Another client recently hired an SEO keyword specialist. He really knows his long tail keywords. Alas, the latest trend toward r-e-a-l-l-y long blog articles also appeals to him. So, every request literally comes with a request for either an 800 or 1,200-word blog using a specific keyword. Heh.

As a journalist and a publicist, I will honestly tell you that is not the optimum way to plan your blog content. It does make for amusing writing though as I valiantly try to fit random long tails into hard news articles.

Now, it may provide an SEO advantage to use longer articles, but what good is it for people to find your site, if they don't want to stick around to read your content? The idea is to HOOK the reader, suck them in and get them to stay, explore and convert them through your sales funnel. Even if you don't have a paid product, you have a sales funnel because you're trying to sell your site. Maybe you'd like them to share their e-mail address for your weekly or monthly newsletter. Maybe you want them to subscribe to your RSS feed. Perhaps you offer an e-book download. Just getting them there is a tiny part of the battle. To win the war, you need to provide them germane content that's geared toward their needs.

Competition analysis rocks.

Your blog or your client's blog probably has a central topic. Maybe it's HVAC systems or MMA or the construction industry or lean systems implementation. Whatever you write about has an industry. That industry has competing blogs. You should look at each of those to see how lengthy their blogs run. If your competition all uses blogs that go for 300 to 400 words or come in at 500 words, you can probably assume that is what all of their readers enjoy, especially if you don't see tons of comments requesting even more information. Their readers are your potential readers. Cater to them.

Check the algorithms.

Bing and Google love to tweak their algorithms. I mean, they live for it. It's like crack to them, seemingly. If they update to favor 800-word content, (Please, don't Bing and Google. Please.) but if they do, hey, throw in one or two 800 worders in between the short pieces your readers like. You'll still pick up higher ranks without pissing off your readers. Again, what good is a high rank if no one who visits stays? Your goal as a blog publisher is to write something they love so much, they stop for coffee, curl up and read. Slurp.

Serve your readers.

Hand them the equivalent of chocolate and expresso on a silver platter over the Internet. That's content they can use in the format they need. So, if your super busy readers consuming your pithy blog on their morning commute dig short, quick 300 to 500-word pieces that they can scan, give them that. Now, how do you know what they want? You ask, my friend. Survey them. People tend to like it when you ask them what they like and you follow it up by listening and giving it to them.

An old friend once told me he wanted food for Christmas. He's comfortable with a gorgeous home and three touring bikes Lance Armstrong could've raced on, so he could literally buy whatever in the store. Dude knew I can bake, so he wanted what he could not buy himself – home cooking. Not only for that Christmas, but for every holiday thereafter, I baked my friend a basket of baked goods for his gift. Never once did I get that crestfallen look that says, you didn't listen. Never once did I get re-gifted. I did, however, get invited to a number of potluck dinner parties where the invitation requested I bring dessert after my friend shared his baked goods and got others addicted. Cake. People love cake. They also love when you ask them what kind of content they favor, when they like to read it and where. Most folks don't want to watch a video on the subway commute because they have to compete with the train sound and everyone else who is also watching a video. They read. Videos get watched in the office on lunch or at home.

Now, I have to hit the hay because I have three articles for other folks to author tomorrow. One is 500 words, one 600 words and one is 1,200 words. All will go on websites. All are serious, non-fiction and newsy. Guess which two readers will likely read all the way through? Of course, if you made it this far, I appreciate that you read all 1,229 words. Thanks.

Carlie Lawson writes about tech, mobile and online video, entertainment, sports and fashion. She wrote for JollyJo.tv and Movitly for a combined seven years. A former newspaper journalist, she now mostly ghost writes for her clients via her company, Powell Lawson Creatives. Invalid Inputs is her first independent, formal blog. She earned BAs in Journalism and Film & Video Studies from the University of Oklahoma. She also earned her Master of Regional & City Planning at OU. She has also worked as a model since she was 17.

How to Get Your SEO On

Everyday at Powell Lawson Creatives, I read a pile of client briefs that describe exactly what they want in a creative piece. They usually need an article, blog, or catalog description. About a third of what I read shows they don't understand search engine optimization (SEO) to the point that they're hurting their business or brand. Without naming names, I'll present the most common mistakes and how to fix them so you optimize your SEO, bring more visitors to your media and better build your brand. The following tips apply to single or blog posts, not websites as a whole.

Not Knowing What a Keyword Is

A keyword in SEO means a search term. It is what you would type into a search box to find relevant results. Your name is a keyword. Your business' name qualifies as a keyword, too. Your occupation, the service you provide, the main topic of your blog or article all qualify as keywords. Not to get too grammatical but, articles, conjunctions, prepositions and pronouns are not keywords. Nope. (More on this later.)

Requesting no keywords.

If you request no keywords in your creative piece, you do yourself and your brand a disservice. Each blog or article needs at least one keyword or natural language keyword phrase. Choose your company or brand name as the less subtle choice. Choose the name of the service you provide as the more subtle choice.

Requesting too many keywords.

An article or blog should contain at most three to five keywords or natural language keyword phrases. Lean toward the low-end of three keywords, otherwise you run the risk of keyword stuffing, the practice of overloading an article or website with keywords. Less is more. The best choices include your brand, the name of the service you provide, and the key element of the blog topic. For example, if you read carefully, this article already named my company, Powell Lawson Creatives; its service provided, creative pieces; and the blog topic, SEO.

Repeating Keywords Too Much

Some clients not only request too many keywords, but too many repetitions of keywords. You may need one keyword to repeat many times. Try not to exceed five to seven repetitions. Ideally, use one to three keywords repeated one to three times. Anything more than that can negatively impact your ranking. The search engine algorithm will dock you for keyword stuffing. Minimal keyword density works best.

Natural Language vs. Keyword Language

Too many briefs request multiple keywords strung together. It either creates gibberish phrases or poor grammar. Natural language means how you would actually say it using proper grammar when speaking or writing.
Incorrect: Whipple Maserati Nome Alaska
Correct: Whipple Maserati in Nome, Alaska
Search engines ignore connecting words like prepositions (in), conjunctions (and), and punctuation. When you request an article using keyword language instead of natural language, the result reflects poorly on your brand because you force the writer to use incorrect grammar and punctuation. You look bad to search engines who see it as keyword forcing and/or stuffing. You look bad to readers who see it as incomprehensible. Enter each word or phrase as a separate keyword item. For instance, enter "Whipple Maserati" as one keyword phrase and "Nome, Alaska" as a separate one. If it's offered on the brief form always choose to allow connecting words.

Misusing Keyword Extraction Tools

Okay, you can call it misusing or misunderstanding, either way, it hurts you. If you have a small business or just started a blog, you may not have the coin to hire a SEO consultant. Some apps can and do extract keywords from your competition's websites and blogs. Some simply exact every word more than one site uses.

True (horror) story: I once received a brief from a client requesting 99 keywords. New to SEO and on a tight budget, they had used one of the keyword extraction apps to mine their competition's sites. Despite my best efforts to explain SEO and how these unneccessary words and phrases would hurt their SEO efforts and the article's readability, they kept the request as is. One of the "keywords" the app identified? "That." Folks, "that" is NOT a keyword. The app only works as well as your understanding of what it does. The well designedapps mine keywords. The poorly designed apps merely return words used on each site. Know the difference. Choose a well designed app and use the top three to five resulting keywords.

Ignoring Local SEO opportunities.

Next time you search for something online, look down at the bottom of the page. Both Bing and Google optimize results by location. As creepy and Big Brother as it is, it can help you draw business. If your business relies on local customers, you need to make your city and state or country one of your keyword

phrases. Whether you bake wedding cakes or plumb houses, this can help you increase your search ranking and draw more business. Also, include your location in the meta data of your website. Search engines use local SEO data to provide the top results since the plumber three blocks from your house makes a much more relevant result than one living one thousand miles away.

Not Linking to Other Sites

I read a ton of briefs from people who want no links in the article. This hurts them in so many ways including loss of credibility, decreased rank and fewer visitors. What does linking to relevant sites do?

• Linking to sources adds credibility.
• Linking to sources increases SEO rank.
• Linking to sources can get you links back to your site.

Some clients worry that a link will take readers away from their site or encourage them to use the competition. Put your mind at ease by having the writer or your web designer set the links to open in a separate, background window. Also, direct the writer to use relevant, non-competitor sources. That does not mean they can't use other plumbers' blogs, for instance. It means they should not use other plumbers' blogs within a 100 mile radius of your business. Your competition means someone actually competing for the same work you do. The writer linking to a plumber in Los Angeles when your business is in Miami does not qualify as a link to your competition. Notice the linked information in this article. I run a creatives company that provides written, photographic and musical pieces to individuals and companies. That means linking to the blog of a publicist or SEO consultant provides validity without linking to my competition.

Using SEO properly can increase your search engine rank, help build your brand, and bring you more customers. Get the most from the money you spend on the creative pieces for your brand by crafting the best requests. I have to brew another cup of coffee and return to the

briefs pile now.

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Carlie Lawson writes about tech, mobile and online video, entertainment, sports and fashion. She wrote forJollyJo.tv, Keysian and Movitly for a combined seven years. A former newspaper journalist, she now mostly ghost writes for her clients via her company, Powell Lawson Creatives. Invalid Inputs is her first independent, formal blog. She earned BAs in Journalism and Film & Video Studies from the University of Oklahoma. She also earned her Master of Regional & City Planning at OU. She has worked as a model since she was 17.