Crystal Paradis
  • Projects
  • Services
  • About
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • Copywriting Services
  • Feminist Oasis
  • Somersworth City Council
  • Projects
  • Services
  • About
  • Blog
  • Contact

Crystal Paradis

Strategic Communications and Community Engagement

Community Engagementcontent managementCopywritingMarketing

Why SEO is really community engagement optimization

written by Crystal Paradis October 16, 2017

SEO isn’t gross. Its reputation has suffered from years of being associated with hacky marketing pitches, but it is an invaluable skill set to draw upon when engaging any community online. SEO best practices these days simply mean writing, organizing and attributing content online that is easily indexed by search engines, so that it can be found by your target audience — the community you’re looking to engage as a community organizer.

SEO in Copywriting & Content Strategy

SEO used to mean keyword-stuffing and “black hat” (playing dirty) nonsense that tried to trick search engines into ranking pages higher by exploiting technical loopholes. So, it’s understandable if you think writing to SEO best practices will result in stiff, jargon-y drivel. But it’s not like that anymore. Promise. Learning and implementing SEO best practices, particularly when writing online content, is an absolute genuine engagement booster.

Search engines haven’t quite caught up to the way humans think, but they’re getting close. While content marketers are busy optimizing their content for search engines, the search engines are busy trying to figure out how to optimize their results for the people using them to find information.

By looking at SEO guidelines, you’re looking at the results of multi-billion-dollar research on what humans who use the internet find useful. Optimize for those best practices, and chances are you’re improving your content for your own communities. (Hi, communities, I’m here to engage you better!)

From UX factor to X factor

One category of guidelines that search engines use to prioritize sites is user experience, or UX, guidelines. Having good UX means that your site, page or post is easy to “use” — easy to read, watch or navigate, everything works like a visitor would expect and it contains all the things promised in the title or description that led a person (the “user”) to your content. Make your site function intuitively and your UX, and therefore, your SEO, improves. Make it easy to buy stuff, sign up to volunteer or use a calculator tool, and your community engagement improves. Coincidence? Nope.

Improving your technical UX factor isn’t the only thing that will help your SEO. There’s also the “X factor” of just plain usefulness to your community. To judge this, search engines look at historical behavior — meaning that they pay attention what people have done when the’ve found your content in the past. Rather than a set of defined of technical specs, this factor doesn’t care why people like your content, they just see that they’re loving it and esteem your content accordingly.

This means that no matter what tricks you use or what rules you follow, if people find your content relevant and useful, that in and of itself will boost your SEO value. And who knows, the nifty way you’re structuring your content may end up being a best practice that search engines recommend that others follow in the future. Look at that — you’re a trendsetter!

Writing to SEO best practices, therefore, also means improving writing for humans.

Humans are notorious for being the ingredients of communities — and they are the ones that community engagement campaigns are trying to, well, engage.

That’s why keeping your copywriting and content strategy up to speed on SEO best practices equals stronger community engagement. Because by optimizing for search engines, you’re really optimizing for the communities who use search engines — which is a huge part of how people find and consume info online.

Learn from best practices, then think ahead of them

Strong headlines, concise bullet points and smart paragraph lengths are all important tools to help your copy appeal to Google and Bing. Writing this way also ensures that content has maximum “scannability,” since that’s how people tend to peruse sites these days, too.

But don’t get lost in these structural best practices. Straightforward language helps search engines to effectively analyze and serve up your content in the appropriate results pages. And, bonus, it helps the people you’re trying to engage understand your message. Since search engines are learning from you, too, don’t be afraid to take risks and do things differently if you have a hunch that your community will find more value in it.

And that’s how search engine optimization is also community engagement optimization. So if you’re in the business of optimizing for community engagement, go ahead and call yourself a CEO — community engagement optimizer.

Acronym Key

  • IRL = In real life, or offline, without the the use of interwebs
  • SEO = Search engine optimization
  • UX = User experience, or how easy your online content is to use
Why SEO is really community engagement optimization was last modified: January 4th, 2019 by Crystal Paradis
copywritingdigital marketingSEO Copywriting
0 comment
0
Facebook Twitter Google + Pinterest
Crystal Paradis

previous post
WordPress Content Management for Socially-Responsible Businesses
next post
Will One Less Gun Make a Difference? On Overcoming “Activism Overwhelm.”

You may also like

“Marketing” is Not a Dirty Word

September 7, 2015

A Pixelated Peek at a Marketer’s Evernote To-Do List

April 25, 2014

Reenergize Your Writing with Cool New Tools

May 23, 2013

Optimizing Social Media + Other Marketing Advice

June 11, 2014

Using Keyboard Shortcuts for Productivity: Never Type Out Your Email onYour iPhone Again!

December 4, 2013

Does Your Site’s Navigation Menu Tell Your Story? How Menu Copy Creates Clarity (or should, anyway)

July 4, 2018

How Your Slide Deck Can Make Event Marketing Easy

January 31, 2016

How to Write for Other People — The Art of Copywriting at #DigitalPorts

January 21, 2016

Using A Single Note As A Table Of Contents: Linking Within Notes in Evernote

November 27, 2013

Twitter 101: Getting Started with Twitter Lists

December 5, 2013

Leave a Comment Cancel Reply

19 − 9 =

About Crystal

As a writer and organizer with a background in digital marketing, event organizing and community engagement, I help values-aligned individuals and organizations improve their message, online presence and reach.

More about Crystal

Search 🔍

Popular Articles

  • Gun Violence is Our Responsibility

    July 12, 2016
  • Equal Access to Abortion Matters — Repeal the Hyde Amendment

    March 15, 2016
  • Domestic Violence Survivors Deserve a Better Court Model

    April 27, 2016
  • The Global Refugee Crisis — And What You Can Do About It

    December 31, 2015
  • New Hampshire Women Deserve Equal Political Representation

    May 22, 2016

Get Updates ✉️

Twitter Instagram Pinterest Linkedin

Values-Centric Work

https://youtu.be/pflxpCI9pm8

More from Crystal Paradis:

  • Feminist Oasis
  • Social Justice
  • Copywriting
  • Marketing
  • Tech & Productivity
  • Women’s Health
  • Writing
  • #PortsmouthLOVE

New Post Alerts

Featured Services

  • Copywriting Services
  • Feminist Oasis
  • Somersworth City Council

Search

Crystal on Instagram

No images found!
Try some other hashtag or username

@2016 - PenciDesign. All Right Reserved. Designed and Developed by PenciDesign
Featured homepage image credits: Latest Projects by Raya on Assignment; Services & Feminist Oasis by Kate & Keith Photography.


Back To Top