Multiple writers on my blog without SEO experience, impact on organic traffic?

[BillyBacklinks]

Warriors,
I have a blog (on a broad niche, not one that’s really targeted to any sort of sub niche) you could say it’s more of a magazine and I have some questions around how to best optimize this for organic traffic (content syndication aside).


The issue I have is that the writers I have contributing to the blog (not guest bloggers, paid writers) are not too familiar with SEO and keyword optimization and I’m just wondering whether it is really necessary to have each of these posts keyword optimized, or is it still possible to pick up organic traffic in the longer term through the valuable content they are providing, as id imagine there would be some long tail keywords in there naturally?


I write my own posts that are very targeted so that’s not the issue but a lot of the paid writers don’t do this and I’m very unsure as to whether I should try and teach this to them but I don’t want the articles to come across as being search engine fodder, I like the style an value these posts provide alreaddy, plus I can’t commit the time to edit their posts either (which again would probably take away some of the value if they were edited just for the purpose of feeding the search engines keywords/LSI etc).


Just to be clear too, the site isn’t being monetized at the moment, I’m just looking to build a reader/subscriber base by providing great content, the longer term plan is to then build in monetization methods and build on my list.


My real dilemma at the moment is around the posts we’re adding almost daily and I just don’t know whether I’m likely to be losing any traction by not specifically targeting each post as detailed above.


Would love to hear from other warriors on this matter and in particular anyone that runs their own blogs (and by that I don’t just mean affiliate sites that are SEOd to the max to turn over a quick sale ).


Cheers


Billy

[TheInternet]

Find the writers who do know SEO and have them work links in to un-SEOd posts using good anchor text. And if there really are none who know how to SEO, teach some of them enough to do the anchor text thing.

[BillyBacklinks]

Originally Posted by TheInternet

Find the writers who do know SEO and have them work links in to un-SEOd posts using good anchor text. And if there really are none who know how to SEO, teach some of them enough to do the anchor text thing.

thanks, however i don want to be re editiing and existing posts and im not linking out to any other sites/affiliate links so the anchor txt element isnt really relevant for now.

I'm just wondering how importing that entire optimization element is on such a magazine/news type site ( will it pick up enough organic traffic in its true state) or do i really need to have these posts re worked?

trying to negate the costs of having SEO savvy people revisit each of the posts....

[yukon]

OP, my advice is give the writers a root keyword for each individual page, you write the page titles (seo).

Let the writers do their thing.

If the writers are good (they don't need to know seo) they will pick up a large amount of long-tail traffic, simply by writing about the subject (root keyword) of the page.

Just make sure to seo the page titiles & URLs, yourself.

It wouldn't hurt to give them a short description of what you want (per page).

[BillyBacklinks]

Originally Posted by TheInternet

Find the writers who do know SEO and have them work links in to un-SEOd posts using good anchor text. And if there really are none who know how to SEO, teach some of them enough to do the anchor text thing.

lol, just seen your signature had a look at your site. I assume you're against pro blogging then?

any lessons learned you would like to share?

btw, i do have some affiliate sites that are very optimized and bring in $$$ but the blog im referring to in this post is more my passion, not my main income stream (yet)

Cheers

Billy

[TheInternet]

Originally Posted by BillyBacklinks

lol, just seen your signature had a look at your site. I assume you're against pro blogging then?

I hate cutting grass. If you're going to make a business out of cutting grass, you should enjoy doing it or be able to outsource it to people who do.

Blogging and cutting grass have a lot in common.

But to answer your question, I don't have anything against professional mowers.

[BillyBacklinks]

Originally Posted by yukon

OP, my advice is give the writers a root keyword for each individual page, you write the page titles (seo).

Let the writers do their thing.

If the writers are good (they don't need to know seo) they will pick up a large amount of long-tail traffic, simply by writing about the subject (root keyword) of the page.

Just make sure to seo the page titiles & URLs, yourself.

It wouldn't hurt to give them a short description of what you want (per page).

@Yukon, very constructive, thank you . I should have mentioned actually that i do give them a brief (still finalizing their full objectives per category, still in its infancy but its my passion ) and that brief includes what the title should include (i.e keyword/topic) and i only then just add in some tags to each post after they have uploaded their posts directly.

Advice noted and very much appreciated, defo food for thought.

constructive feedback always appreciated

Cheers Yukon

[backlinksninja]

I would suggest that you install SEO Pressor and also create an instruction manual for posting and guidance on how to use the WP dashboard for the Seo Pressor.

Once they submit the article you check the dashboard for the SP scorecard and edit the recommendations. This effort will go a long way for your site's success

[FraserC]

This is an enormous opportunity Billy, this is exactly the situation I was in a couple of years ago. I was blogging and writing tons of articles, but never really getting ahead. I figured out the SEO part about 3 years ago, and built up my daily traffic.

Average day in 2008 - 1,500 search visitors
Average day in 2011 - 100,000 search visitors

So, do the keyword research and then hand out keywords to your different writers to get them to write articles. It doesn't take a lot of skill. If your keyword is "how to make blue widgets", contact a writer and give them that keyword. Get them to write an article on "how to make blue widgets". As long as they get the keyword once into the article, that's all the SEO they really need to know.

[BillyBacklinks]

Originally Posted by FraserC

This is an enormous opportunity Billy, this is exactly the situation I was in a couple of years ago. I was blogging and writing tons of articles, but never really getting ahead. I figured out the SEO part about 3 years ago, and built up my daily traffic.

Average day in 2008 - 1,500 search visitors
Average day in 2011 - 100,000 search visitors

So, do the keyword research and then hand out keywords to your different writers to get them to write articles. It doesn't take a lot of skill. If your keyword is "how to make blue widgets", contact a writer and give them that keyword. Get them to write an article on "how to make blue widgets". As long as they get the keyword once into the article, that's all the SEO they really need to know.

@FraserC,

Thanks, its an angle I've just overlooked. I give them a bit of free reign on certain broad subjects so I suppose when they advise me the article topic (in advance) i could easily do the keyword research and send that back to them to build into their articles.

@backlinksninja, i do use seo presser so yeah i suppose i should just give out some training to the writers (following what i've said to Fraser) and then that should get the traction i need.

with all the recent algo changes i was just wondering whether all this over optimization (& potential rubbish keyword stuffed content) would be necessary, or whether just simple and and engaging content (free reign) would be enough to eventually bring in organic traffic due to relevancy (& less system gaming).

thanks guys

[FraserC]

No, I don't think it's enough. You need to approach it very methodically, to get the keyword-targeted content into your site while still fulfilling the needs of your social readers.

It wasn't a huge deal for me to write "What is the Biggest Star in the Universe?". But I've got the resources to do a good job on that topic. And I get hundreds of visitors a day to that single article I wrote 3 years ago.

If you're not going to write the keyword targeted stuff, some crappy spammer will. Better you, as an authority in market.

If you're worried about overwhelming your audience, just backdate your articles so they don't show up on your homepage or in your RSS feed.

[BillyBacklinks]

Originally Posted by FraserC

No, I don't think it's enough. You need to approach it very methodically, to get the keyword-targeted content into your site while still fulfilling the needs of your social readers.

It wasn't a huge deal for me to write "What is the Biggest Star in the Universe?". But I've got the resources to do a good job on that topic. And I get hundreds of visitors a day to that single article I wrote 3 years ago.

If you're not going to write the keyword targeted stuff, some crappy spammer will. Better you, as an authority in market.

If you're worried about overwhelming your audience, just backdate your articles so they don't show up on your homepage or in your RSS feed.

Thanks Fraser, i think ill check out the keyword strategy trial that's in your signature. I've got some ideas floating around in my head, i just need to sit down and plan it out accordingly and then work with the writers to provide that type of content.

I appreciate your input

[jagthehat]

I'm afraid you can't have your cake and eat it. If you are not able to use writers who know about SEO, and most don't and don't care to learn, you will have to slightly spin the articles yourself and insert the keywords. But there are a few writers who know about SEO but you may have to pay for their top quality. Try Tiffany Dow or Nichole Dean. Good Luck

[FraserC]

It's not a writer's job to know SEO. It's the SEO's job to tell the writers what topics to write on to get the most traffic. Seriously, I wouldn't worry about teaching the writers anything, just give them the topics to write on and let them do their thing.

[BillyBacklinks]

Originally Posted by jagthehat

I'm afraid you can't have your cake and eat it

having my cake and eatining? are you serious!

I don't need any other writers, the guys i have are excellent, some of whom are independent journalists. I don't want them re editing their creative writing to stuff keywords for the purpose of feeding (or gaming) the search engines.

I've already had some great feedback on who to approach this. I need to go take some of these ideas away and to approach/structure this now.

[FraserC]

Keyword density is so 1999, don't spend a second thinking about it. Just give the writer the keyword and say, "write me an article about KEYWORD". Get the keyword into the article once, but then create the most useful, helpful article you can.

[pdrs]

If you've got good writers who are knowledgeable and providing quality information on the subject at hand - I'd say leave em be! Sounds like you're trying to really build out an authority site so real quality content is paramount.

Overtime you'll start to see longtail traffic and you can optimize for this as it happens as well as add more focused content as you see what direction you're headed in.

[BillyBacklinks]

Originally Posted by pdrs

If you've got good writers who are knowledgeable and providing quality information on the subject at hand - I'd say leave em be! Sounds like you're trying to really build out an authority site so real quality content is paramount.

Overtime you'll start to see longtail traffic and you can optimize for this as it happens as well as add more focused content as you see what direction you're headed in.

Yeah that's what I'm aiming for, but just didn't know whether it was worth going straight for keyword optimization from the start.

got some good tips and what Fraser has said is great starting point, i know the topic so i can provide they keyword for that topic and then just let them to it

i'll re evaluate as time goes on and see what the traffic increases are like.