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The “Writing for Search” Experiment

The “Writing for Search” Experiment

by Melvin · Feb 19, 2011

As most of you know, I was never really the type of guy who writes for search engines. If you look at my archives, you could literally see that most of my posts are titled by choice and personal preference, and not really to attract search traffic. Aside from that, I don’t really try to do keyword research and see trends and then make a blog post about it just to get some search visitors. I can say that I do probably set up the basic things on this blog search-wise but I don’t really pay that much attention to it nor do I spend a lot of efforts in it.

Obviously that worked for me ever since. I’m more about building relationships and branding myself so most of the traffic coming from this blog are either referral or direct.  On my other online businesses (affiliate marketing and niche sites), I probably do more SEO but again I know that’s very little as compared to what some other marketers do.

Early last year, I got curious about writing for search. I was thinking why do people desperately do that. Are they just THAT stupid? or maybe I’m being too harsh. So one day I wrote a test post on a topic that’s trending (I wouldn’t say the topic) and after about 4 days I have seen some traffic with that certain test post. It isn’t ever massive, just about 30 a day but its fascinating because it gets that amount super consistently day by day. Just in case you’re wondering, I did that experiment using my personal blog.

Anyway back to the traffic, the blog gets very little to no traffic since its just a normal personal site but when I did do that test post I started getting 20-40 uniques a day for like up to now (2+ months) which I thought was amazing since I never really did anything after posting that.

writing for search

I didn’t try generating traffic for that, all I did was wrote a rubbish article on a trending topic and then published it. There’s no maintenance whatsoever too.

Writing for search is something that I loathe and feel that I don’t need to do and obviously I have proven that with this blog and some of my other sites. But that certain test has given me some pretty good ideas on my next upcoming experiments. Am I going to write for search now? Definitely no! An increased focus on search? Maybe.

I know a lot of you here search-optimize your blogs more than I do so what do you think?

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Filed Under: Ramblings, SEO, Traffic Tagged With: blogging search traffic, writing for search

About Melvin

A blogger, basketball junkie, headphone enthusiast, aspiring chef, traveler wannabe and a big Taylor Swift fan.

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Comments

  1. tushar says

    February 20, 2011 at 12:42 am

    We are pretty much alike Melvin. I too never write for search engines. Did not remember even a single post in which i did some keyword research or SEO. Obviously my traffic is not the best around the blogosphere but I am quite happy writing for real people
    tushar´s last blog post ..Quitting After All the Hard Work Has Been Done Nah- Bad Idea

  2. Robert Dempsey says

    February 20, 2011 at 4:50 pm

    Hi Melvin I agree that writing purely for search engines is a big fail as once people get to those articles they will click away as they lack quality. Now that’s not to say you have quality and good SEO in an article, but finding the balance can be tricky.

    If you look for a ton of the long-tail keywords around your main keyword then I it makes it easier to inject SEO goodness into your posts.

    Melvin Reply:
    February 27th, 2011 at 11:37 am

    Right. For me long tail keywords are better than general keywords but you’re right its tricky because you have to write that yet make sure you’re really writing for people..

  3. Marcus West says

    February 20, 2011 at 10:11 pm

    Interesting post Melvin….I have a post on the same topic coming up.

    I think of Seo as a diamond….when people first started publishing material, you just splurged your keywords on the page. (uncut diamond)

    As search gets more refined, we see me and more factors/facets to the process.

    —–

    Maybe another analogy is warp and weft…. we thread one way for readers, cross ways for engines…..

    in the end it can make for some interesting patterns….maybe even new forms.

  4. Patricia@lavender oil says

    February 21, 2011 at 11:51 am

    Hi Melvin

    I write for my readers. I believe if you have content-rich posts published, that should be enough. However, with some sites it obviously works or people wouldn’t be going on about it all the time would they?!

    Patricia Perth Australia
    Patricia@lavender oil´s last blog post ..Create Impact- Not Traffic Spikes

    Melvin Reply:
    March 5th, 2011 at 2:09 pm

    Hmm. Good point. The reason why I did that experiment is I’m intrigued with those sites that get traffic solely from search and to see what model I can put into that approach..

  5. richescorner says

    February 21, 2011 at 11:56 am

    Hi Melvin,
    I don’t tend to write for search engines as well, although the topic of my blog does have a lot of cross over with search traffic. I just want to write well and pick interesting topics. I do find that over time as I continue putting out content, the search engines will pick up my posts anyways. Even when I don’t focus on search engines, they will just pick up more of the long tail phrases that I hadn’t even planned for. This is a natural result of just publishing lots of content.
    richescorner´s last blog post ..Creating a Premium Article for Your Blog

    Melvin Reply:
    March 5th, 2011 at 2:12 pm

    Yeah you’re right. But I think for some niches, traffic from search is much easier especially if its about something that has a lot of demand yet not a lot of supply from bloggers. Most of the times, the search traffic would just spiral in..

  6. Samuel says

    February 23, 2011 at 1:23 pm

    I don’t write for search engines yet I do get much traffic from them. Well I just don’t know why? Writing the way you speak and love is the best. Thanks so much for sharing. Rock on.

  7. Wess Stewart says

    February 25, 2011 at 9:48 am

    I never write to please the robots. I only write to please me. If other people like it, wonderful. 😀

    And I do get search traffic…so I’m thinking it’s more about constantly producing, rather than producing things that Google likes.
    Wess Stewart´s last blog post ..How to find the perfect job…

    Melvin Reply:
    March 5th, 2011 at 2:15 pm

    well thats what i do too, especially on my personal blog. I write to please myself! 🙂

  8. John McNally@Blogging for Pleasure and Profit says

    February 25, 2011 at 10:35 pm

    I’m the same Melvin, I don’t write for Search engines. This isn’t a principle or policy, it’s just that I’m too lazy to do any keyword research. I have Market Samurai, but haven’t used it yet…hopefully I will this year.

    I would be worried about the writing quality if I tried to optimise for Google, though like you, I will write some keyword laden posts to see if they get much traffic.

    John
    Leamington Spa, England
    John McNally@Blogging for Pleasure and Profit´s last blog post ..Blind Get Rich Quick Scheme

  9. Ajith Edassery says

    March 1, 2011 at 3:10 pm

    I do not write for search or twitter trending topics because mine is not that type of a blog. However, I tried to do some minimal SEO before I post. Writing for trending topics will only make you fed up of what you like to do (i.e. writing) and you will end up like a robotic news reporter than a blogger.
    Ajith Edassery´s last blog post ..Content farms and Google

  10. Brankica says

    March 5, 2011 at 4:35 am

    Hey Melvin,
    nice experiment. I write more for people and about 20% for Search engines on my blog ( just basic SEO, and not even on all posts) but I did learn how to write for both on my niche site.
    And it works because that site gets more and more visitors every single day.

    So I guess it depends on what your focus is. I love connecting and that brings me more traffic to the blog, but if you wanna make money with is SEO is inevitable. But I love this post 🙂
    Brankica´s last blog post ..140 blogs worth hopping

    Melvin Reply:
    March 5th, 2011 at 2:19 pm

    I agree with you. I think unless its a niche site or something that would widely focus on search traffic, the only thing that’s needed is basic SEO. So focus plays an important part., I mean I love to interact with people more than with search, who doesn’t? 😉

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  1. Tweets that mention The "Writing for Search" Experiment -- Topsy.com says:
    February 20, 2011 at 7:35 pm

    […] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Arie Rich/KMP Blog ツ, Melvin Dichoso, Young Yang, Robinsh Kumar, Brenda Cuby and others. Brenda Cuby said: RT @melvinblog The "Writing for Search" Experiment http://tinyurl.com/69s76r5 […]

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