When Jill Whalen speaks, I listen and pay close attention. She’s been in SEO since before there was SEO,  I’m an avid fan and have modeled much of my own SEO approach and philosophy on her model. (Thanks, Jill!)

She was recently interviewed by the folks at Pandia Search Engine News, an online newsletter I like since it has a more global focus than a lot of other similar online publications. It does a good job of compiling  SEO-related news in a convenient weekly format.

In her interview, Jill provided a nice summary of top tips to writing SEO-friendly content. (Some of these will look familiar to Maven fans, but good tips are always worth reviewing.)

• Avoid the use of graphic file to present text. The search engines
  can only read text. They do not understand Flash, but may read PDF
  files.
• The users comes first, the needs of the search engines second. The
  content must make sense for people, so this is not about “sprinkling
  keywords”.
• Be descriptive. Tell the visitors what your site, product or
  service is about. Hence the term “our search engine marketing firm” is
  better than “our team”.
• Focus on search phrases, not keywords. Few people find relevant
  content using one word queries anyway. Hence write “small cap
  investing” instead of “invest”, if that is what you mean.
• Focus on location. That will help you rank higher for searches of
  relevance to your neighborhood: Write “our New York City office”, not
  “our office”.
• Add variations of your keyword phrases: plural, tenses, ings etc.
  Do not rely on the search engines’ stemming ability. You should also
  take a look at words with multiple spellings (“web cam” vs. “webcam”,
  but do not use different spellings on the same page.
• Add bonus phrases to rank high for more than one keyword phrase.
  Bonus phrases would be those that are less targeted, but still relevant
  and descriptive.

Maven’s Maxim
Add Pandia and High Rankings to your must-read bookmarks folder. There are always nuggets to be gathered and results to be gained.

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