Avoiding SEO - Search Engine Optimization

The other day I wrote about the Our Story Project, which is currently underway with the Lake Havasu Museum of History and Robeth Publishing, LLC.

I mentioned our quest for writers, not for us to hire, but possibly to be hired by our sponsors. Yet, it will be the Our Story Project who ultimately approves the submitted story. As long as the article meets the guidelines posted at www.Our-Story.org , there should be no reason a story will get rejected.

I thought I would mention something about these online stories, which makes them unique from other articles written for the numerous Internet websites. They will NOT be written for SEO (Search Engine Optimization).

The Internet has redefined what it considers good writing. More important than sentence structure and good grammar are keyword use and density. Which may be great to gain attention from the search engines, yet changes how writing is perceived. We tend to be writing for some non-living robotic search engine, and not for real, living, breathing readers.

The other day I read my mother an article I had written for an Internet site. In her critique, she pointed out I had used one word too many times in the first paragraph. I had to explain that the word was a keyword, and I was aiming for 6% concentration. My mother has limited knowledge of the Internet, and I imagine she thought I was making excuses for poor writing.

The articles of the Our Story Project will not focus on search engine optimization. They are not being financed by keyword click on ads, their focus will be the story, and hopefully, good writing from the perspective of the pre-internet days.