But there are a few other things Google likes also, from keywords to links, metatags and social signals (what’s that?). This handy infographic tells the whole story.

Based in Staunton, VA, Heritage Hospitality Management, Inc. owns, manages and develops Hilton and Marriott franchises. The company works closely with brand representatives, area banks, and skilled builders to deliver  first-class hotels.

Each of their half dozen hotels already had its own website for hotel guests and others, but the umbrella company lacked a site of its own for its business audiences, especially banks, to learn more about Heritage Hospitality Management as a company.

The Curren Group built a clean and simple web site giving the company’s business audiences the information they needed about hotels managed and people involved.

As a result, Heritage Hospitality Management can more easily convey its value proposition and experience to potential new business partners.

Visit the Site »

The Renaissance Planning Group is a planning, design, and policy analysis consulting firm that specializes in the integration of transportation, land use, urban design, and technology for communities to create thoughtful, lasting plans and policies.

To help establish itself as an industry leader, the company wanted to take advantage of the powerful communications and brand-building capabilities of publishing a blog. However, the cost to add a blog to the company’s existing website, built on older technology, was prohibitive.

The Curren Group’s solution was to build a new blog website in WordPress but to integrate the site through design with the existing company website to give web visitors a gentle transition from one site to the next. In this way, the company’s Cities that Work blog helps support the company’s overall brand while building a new and bigger audience of web surfers interested in the thoughts of Renaissance’s staff bloggers.

Not only has the blog helped the company’s staff hone the short-form writing skills so crucial to their work, it also supports the company’s efforts to compete for highly qualified new hires and, at the same time, helps Renaissance establish its brand with potential new clients.

Visit the Site »

The Heifetz Institute is dedicated to the artistic growth and career development of some of the most talented and promising young musicians in the world. They needed a website to highlight their summer residential program for young musicians and allow for potential students to file applications online. With their new WordPress site from the Curren Group, the Institute is now able to process applications with less time and effort, all while offering potential students and families a better experience.

Ever since the advent of social media turned the Web from a one-way medium with website owners talking to passive audiences into a truly interactive, two-way conservation where audiences can talk back, the demands for higher quality internet content, especially writing, have increased.

Don’t sell me; talk to me

In the past, customers and other web visitors would settle for straight up pitches, advertising hype and other poor quality communication because, well, that’s all there was online.

But now, having gotten used to more soft-sell commercial communications where a pitch must be embedded in interesting or helpful information, audiences now expect to be treated with more and more respect.

According to Copyblogger, which has pronounced 2013 “The Year of the Online Writer,” content marketing is not a fad that’s going to pass. Instead, online marketers must get used to offering their audiences intelligent content or else risk falling behind.

And who creates this intelligent content? It’s not the engineering department, it’s not your salespeople and it’s not even the vice president for marketing.

It’s talented writers.

Talent in demand

Recent updates to Google’s search methodology have elevated the status of high quality content and also started to rank writers by influence. And that’s not all, says Copyblogger:

Now who creates the content, and who does the linking out matters – which is why Google wants to know who you are via your Google+ authorship profile. What’s been dubbed Author Rank has the potential to be the biggest algorithmic signal for SEO since the hyperlink itself.

The days of lame anonymous content are over. Even better, rock star writers with demonstrated success and strong social followings will command the highest compensation and equity positions.

This means that skilled web writers won’t be cheap in the future. And what that means for your business is that, if you need to rank well in Google searches, then it may be your best investment to engage an experienced web writer now, while you can still afford their rates.

Yes, if you know how to type, you can write your web copy yourself, meanwhile spending hundreds or thousands of dollars a month on Yellow Pages listings, newspaper ads and other old fashioned marketing strategies that may not be delivering results in today’s marketplace.

For that same budget, you could get yourself a writer who can help your website rise to page one in Google results, bringing you more web visitors and ultimately, more customers.

To get new visitors, you need to do well in search engines, ideally coming up on the first page of any search related to your targeted search terms. And to do that, you need to give search engines what they want above all — new content.

But attracting new visitors is only half the web traffic story. Then, perhaps more importantly, you need to entice your visitors to return with new content on your website.

So, you can see why you need to start blogging and do it on a regular basis, say, once every week or two, minimum. But you’re busy running your business and don’t have time to come up with blog post ideas, research them and then write them up.

No worries. There are plenty of skilled web writers out there who would be happy to do your blog posts for you. You can search the web for freelancers or hire a small agency like the Curren Group which offers blogging, ghostwriting and blog coaching. Either way, you can engage a writer to create blog posts on topics that would interest your audience, building your company or organization’s reputation as a  helpful expert in your field.

And all without breaking the bank — whether your writer charges hourly, by the blog post or for a package of posts, you’ll probably spend less on blogging per month than the cost of one ad in your local paper.

How to find the right blogger for you? Connie Sung Moyle at the email marketing company Vertical Response offers a few tips:

• Ask around among your friends, family and business contacts — word-of-mouth will give you the best references
• Go to online talent directories Elance.com and ODesk.com, but use them with caution
• Reach out to local colleges for students looking to flex their writing muscles
• Avoid “content farms” where the articles may be poor quality and not suited to your needs
• Don’t hire on resume alone

After years as a physical therapist in medical settings, Lisa Shelton wanted to start her own practice as a massage therapist offering myofascial release and craniosacral therapy.

The Staunton Creative Community Fund, an innovative micro-lender, knew it could reach more entrepreneurs through social media and an active blog.

The Valley Conservation Council, a land trust that helps preserve open space in the Shenandoah Valley, wanted a site that would appeal to both landowners and potential donors.

Parents organizing Stuart Hall’s fundraiser wanted a site separate from the school’s website with a visually arresting look.