HOW TO CREATE COMPELLING CONTENT THAT RANKS WELL IN SEARCH ENGINESOnce upon a time, there was something called SEO copywriting.These SEO copywriters seemed to have magical word skills that allowed them to place just the right keywordsin just the right places and amounts, and even in the densitiesthat were just rightfor miraculous top rankings. And that’s all you needed . . . or at least that’s what was advertised.There’s no doubt that the location and frequency of keywords is still critical. Search engines work by keying in on the word patterns people are looking for and returning relevant content. Butthat’s not all there is to it.Here’s the deal . . . much of what determines the ranking position of any particular page is due to what happens off the page, in the form of links from other sites. Getting those links naturally has become the hardest partof SEO, which is why we’ve seen the mainstream emergence of social media marketing as a way to attract links with compelling content.Put simply: If your content isn’t good enough to attract good, natural links, itdoesn’t matter how “optimized” that content is.That’s why agood SEO copywriter is also a writer who has a knack for tuning in to the needs and desires of the target audience. And becauselinksare so important, those needs and desires have to be nailed well before that content will show up prominently in the search engines.The same emotional forces that prompt people to buycan also cause other people to link from blogs, and bookmark, vote, and retweet fromsocial media platforms. The context is different, as are the nuances, but it’s still a matter of providing compelling benefitsin the form of content.“Ask yourself what creates value for your users,” sayeth Google. Their brainy engineers continue to diligently create smarter search algorithms, while people-powered social media sharing delivers links and traffic as a reward for compelling content.