The Ocean Agency

Content is plebeian without research.

Mr. William Shakespeare–you may have heard of him–once wrote “Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown.”

What he meant by this was that much responsibility comes with the title of “king,” and sometimes that responsibility is too much. I mean, just look at King Hamlet: he’s a ghost now.

One of the major obstacles faced when explaining search engine optimization and what SEO companies do for new clients is explaining the impact of online marketing.

While you can regale your client hopefuls with statistics of SEO’s importance (like “42% of search users click the top-ranking link. 8% click the second-ranking link, and the click-through rate (CTR) continues to drop thereof” or “organic click-through generates 25% higher conversion rates than equivalent Pay-Per-Click (PP) click-through”), statistics can seem vast and vague to some. Luckily, there are stories.

This one is about indie rock band Clap Your Hands Say Yeah.

The series continues with what SEO companies can learn from the man I consider the cornerstone of almost all great writing (since his time): Mr. Samuel Clemens, better known to the literary world as Mark Twain.

Known by Faulkner as the “father of American literature,” Twain offers some great advice on writing (or, more specifically, not writing adjectives), the creative process and editing.

As I wrote in Part I of this series, SEO companies can learn a lot from Ernest Hemingway. But they can also learn a lot from a more unlikely source, one of my other favorite authors and the one who inspired me to pursue writing for a living: Kurt Vonnegut, Jr..

The iconic writer, known for a unique and humorous style that is near impossible to duplicate, was a dark optimist who had a clear love for writing. And while his tips on writing are important, his insights on readers are more important. And, though a lot of this is attributed to fiction, the lessons transcend type and make for great arguments in search engine optimization.

We “computer people,” as Vonnegut would call us, have been handed the most impressive and awe-inspiring medium since the printing press. It is important to remember that when writing content of any sort. As Vonnegut says, “what the computer people don’t realize, or they don’t care, is we’re dancing animals. You know, we love to move around.”

We are obligated, as writers, to both know and care that we are “dancing animals,” especially when choosing topics to write about. As a copywriter, it can be easy to lose focus on the audience of a piece–easy to forget we are writing for other people. Topics should cover things that are important, interesting and, ultimately, usable.

Users are looking on the Web for usable information. Remember, for an Internet reader, content is usually a means, not an end.

Vonngeut offers two great bits of advice on how to know you are targeting usable content and how to write it.

His seven steps for creative writing couldn’t apply more to SEO companies if he had written it to do so:

1. Find a subject you care about.
2. Do not ramble, though.
3. Keep it simple.
4. Have the guts to cut.
5. Sound like yourself.
6. Say what you mean to say.
7. Pity the readers.

To put it more simply, in terms that would be used today, don’t fake it. Readers are just like writers. If you don’t care about a subject, why on earth would your reader? If you don’t keep the reader in mind or keep a piece short and readable, what motivation would anyone have to read it? In Part I, I mentioned that the purpose of writing is to communicate. But it is important to remember the basic rule of communication is empathy. If a reader doesn’t care about what you’ve written, why have you written it?

But even when following these seven rules, there is still one thing to remember: nothing is certain. Writing is like picking ponies at the horse track: You can never be sure who will win or what will work. If you’re smart, you can win consistently, but, to win big, you have to take a chance.

As Vonnegut puts it:

“We have to continually be jumping off cliffs and developing our wings on the way down.”

The author series takes the wise words of the best writers of the past century and looks at them through the eyes of an SEO copywriter. If we are to learn, it should be from the best. And thus we shall.

SEO companies can learn a lot from Ernest Hemingway.

Hemingway, in one of his frequent moments of brilliance, once said “There is no rule on how to write. Sometimes it comes easily and perfectly; sometimes it’s like drilling rock and then blasting it out with charges.”

But, he was mistaken. There is one rule on writing, and he actually is responsible for stating it in the most Hemingway-esque way possible (short, concise and communicative): “The first draft of anything is shit.”

Both are true and relate directly to search engine optimization writing. As Timothy wrote, it is important to write solid, readable content more than posting frequently. But while you may have great information, how do you make it readable?

When writing a blog post, it is important to remember the basics of writing itself, then worry about writing for the Web. And these Hemingway quotes are extremely pertinent to online writing.

“The First Draft of Anything is [... err... trash]“
I know from experience that writers, stereotypically, don’t like to believe this. I know I don’t. But it’s true. It’s always good to write something and, if time allots, take a day or two before rereading it. This is the best way to edit. For example, if you have 10 blog posts to do in a week, spend a day or two on research, spend a day or two knocking out the articles, then read them in the order you wrote them. This way, the one you wrote longest ago will be your first edit, and you can see the mistakes and wordiness and superfluous flair that seemed like a great idea at the time.

Writing is like having one drink too many: What seems like a great idea in the excitement of the moment will probably seem very different after a little time of reflection.

“Sometimes it comes easily and perfectly; sometimes it’s like drilling rock and then blasting it out with charges.”
Another great Hemingway quote that perfectly describes the art and business of writing. Sometimes a blank screen or sheet of paper can look a little like a cliff face when you don’t have carabiners or crampons. If a particular subject has you stumped, come back to it later. This is the importance of spacing out all your topics and/or clients. Don’t focus on one before moving to another. Do a bit here and a bit there to keep yourself fresh, spry and producing the best writing possible.

And remember, good writing is simplistic. To quote Mr. Hemingway yet again, ““Poor Faulkner. Does he really think big emotions come from big words? He thinks I don’t know the ten-dollar words. I know them all right. But there are older and simpler and better words, and those are the ones I use.”

The purpose of writing is to communicate. So do this in the most simplistic way possible. This isn’t 18th-century Russia: the days of long, winding passages of words stacked like broken steps are over. Here’s an example: