Although they may sound similar, SEO content providers and SEO writers are actually quite different in practice. While it’s true that they both provide valuable services to website owners or similar, there’s actually one main area where the two are completely different – and it’s in the name itself. Whereas SEO writers will generally write articles for a website or blog, SEO content providers will also look at the overall SEO of a website to maximize its SEO visibility.

Writing SEO
To really understand the difference, you need to know what an SEO writer is. Whether it’s for their own website or blog, or creating articles for a client’s website, blog or even article directory like EzineArticles.com, an SEO writer usually only writes keyword rich articles. That’s not to lessen their worth – far from it, since SEO writers need to know how to distribute keywords effectively throughout their articles.

However, SEO writing is completely different from SEO content writing – after all, an article for a website or submission site can be on pretty much any topic that the writer or client wishes. It may be that the writer wishes to be known as an expert on a certain niche, so they write keyword rich articles to place on their blog or similar. Nothing wrong with this at all – but it’s a far cry from being an SEO content provider.

The SEO Content Provider Difference
While a good SEO writer may make for a decent SEO content provider, a decent SEO content provider will always make for a good (if not excellent) SEO writer. This isn’t said from a “mightier than thou” position either – it’s simple writing economics.

This is down to the different and more expansive roles that an SEO content provider has to fill. Not only do they need to provide strong, keyword rich and SEO-friendly articles and content, they also need to:

* Enhance the overall SEO of the website in question
* Work in conjunction with the website’s URL and meta tags for increased SEO performance
* Constantly provide fresh and relevant content to maintain SEO performance and visibility
* Be aware of the competition’s SEO and marketing methods
* Combine the SEO potential of website and complementary blog

When you take into account the various roles that an SEO content provider brings to the online marketing table, you can see why there’s a vast difference between top SEO writers and top SEO content providers.

Agreed, they both have their places and will continue to do so. However, to truly maximize your online visibility and presence there’s no competition – while an SEO writer will give you good keyword articles, for maximum results you need to look at using the services of dedicated SEO content providers and consultants.

It is commonplace for search engine marketers to drag and drop their campaigns from Google to Yahoo and MSN (and sometimes Ask). This approach needs to be treated with a grain of salt, however. It is important not to write off the other search engines, particularly Yahoo. There is a lot of excellent volume to be captured, depending upon the vertical you are targeting.

Some campaigns perform horribly in Yahoo and MSN. Indeed, it is sometimes hard to get anything out of MSN due to the low search volume. It is also easy to become frustrated with Yahoo and MSN bulksheets, especially if you do not have a ton of experience working with them. I have worked alongside search engine marketing managers who have completely written off Yahoo, and sometimes understandably so.

Truthfully, I have not always been the largest proponent of Yahoo’s search technology. However, in many cases, it is possible to get a lot of quality business or leads out of Yahoo — again, if you are in the right vertical. You might even get more than you are getting in Google! There are always exceptions to the rule, but it is often times the case that the Yahoo and MSN searchers are less savvy than the Google searchers. They also tend to be older and less educated (again, not always). It is possible to make logical conclusions about what campaigns should perform well in Yahoo and MSN, and those that should not. Without giving away every client I ever worked on, suffice it to say, I would think a Rolex e-commerce site would do poorly in Yahoo, and lead generation for The University of Phoenix could do quite well.

There are always exceptions to the rule, but it is often times the case that the Yahoo and MSN searchers are less savvy than the Google searchers. They also tend to be older and less educated (again, not always). It is possible to make logical conclusions about what campaigns should perform well in Yahoo and MSN, and those that should not. Without giving away every client I ever worked on, suffice it to say, I would think a Rolex e-commerce site would do poorly in Yahoo, and lead generation for The University of Phoenix could do quite well.

I found it very interesting when I logged into each search engine (today is the Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday). Google has a very slick looking image of Dr. King on a handsome background. Yahoo has something that looks like Monopoly Money. Well this is not direct evidence of the different audiences (and the brains behind each operation), it works out to being a funny comparison of the two search engines.

In conclusion, if you are running paid search and you have the budget for all of the engines, make sure to give Yahoo and MSN a whirl. They aren’t always going to work well for what works in Google, and sometimes they won’t work well at all. But it is worth dealing with those clunky bulksheets and the Panama UI to find out, because there is still a lot of quality traffic to be captured.

The Difference Between Google and Yahoo! Searchers