Article Writing For SEO

Writing Article - Search Engine Optimization style

Almost everyone doing business online knows that writing good articles and submiting to article directories is a good way to increase your site's rankings in Search Engines and as well your site's exposure. However, sadly it is not just write, submit and forget. And if you do that, you will very likely not see any improvement in your rankings at all. Article writers also use this method to advertise and promote their site by offering small sniplets of information to their readers, hoping that these readers will in turn visit their site for "more" information. Thus with so many article writers publishing thousands and thousands of articles everyday, the competition is high indeed.

I will now attempt to provide you with some tips composing articles so that you can maximize the use of article writing for Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

1. Get a list of important keywords you would like to optimize for. They should include your main keywords and other less important (secondary) keywords. These must of course be related to your article and to your site's topic. There isn't much point in terms of rankings if your article is about food and your site is all about selling radios. And make sure you understand (at the very least!) the topic which you are writing about!

2. Write the article and try to make it as natural as possible. Do not, and I repeat, do not think of where to put in your keywords just yet. This way, your article will look as natural and smooth to your readers. Write normally and you will be fine. Although there is usually no limit to the number of words you can write in your article, you should limit it to 1500 words or less. If your article is too long, separate them into different parts to make it easier for your readers. Think of different parts as different articles, so why not get 2 for the price of 1? And another benefit for a 2 or 3 part article is that you can concentrate a few keywords on one part, and other keywords in the others parts.

3. After writing the article, make sure you proof-read it. Make sure there are no spelling or grammar mistakes. Would you really trust articles by "professionals" or "experts" that look like it has been written by a 5 year old? Poor spelling and grammar will tarnish your image.

4. Now, after proof-reading it, read your article once again, and only now, see whether you can add keywords here or there into your sentences. Make sure you add in your main keywords, but if you can, add in the secondary keywords as well. If your article is long enough, you should be able to squeeze it quite a few keywords. Do not overdo it and make sure your article does not sound like a broken player. From my experience, it should be pretty easy for you to add in your secondary keywords without making it too obvious. If you need to do some editing, please do. And if you do it properly, the article should still remain perfectly readable and understandable to your human readers.

5. Your article title. Another very important part to improve your rankings. As an added bonus, the title of your article will usually be the title of the page where your article directory is hosting your article. You do know that the title tag is an important component of onpage optimization right? So ensure you have good keywords in your title. Nowadays with so many articles published, you should also attempt to make your title as eye-catching to your viewers as possible. But you should still have keywords in them.

6. Your next step will be bolding your major keywords. There are a lot of article directories allow their publishers to use basic html tags in their articles, so you should take the opportunity to bold your important keywords. If the article directory supports other tags, you can also use other tags like emphasis and strong to help your human readers and Search Engines easily understand what your article is about.

7. Now, see whether you can add in 1 or 2 links with RELEVANT proper keyworded anchor text to your site in your article. It will greatly help improve your rankings. Remember, deeplink instead of only linking to your main page. You should link to your products or services page or some other page with content. Don't waste it on your main page. You do not get a lot of opportunity to do deeplinking, you know.

8. Now you have finished writing your article, is it time for you to submit to article depositories? No, not yet. Make a copy of your article first. Then go back to your article, and start summarizing it for article submission! Cut of some less important parts and see whether you can reduce the explanations or descriptions. You may be surprised as to the need of summarizing. The summarized form will be the article you will be submitting the article directories. The actual uncut article should be on your own site. I am sure you have heard the phrase "Content is King" right? So content on your site is good for your rankings. But if you submit your "content" to article directories, the "content" now is on the directories and not on your site. See the problem here? And if you have the exact same article on your site, Search Engines' duplicate content filters may ignore your site's article. So the idea here is to create 2 different sets of "content", one for the article depositories (the summary) and the other for your own site. Having the longer and thus more keywords rich article on your own site is good for SEO. All you have to do is to add the link to your full and uncut article on the set submitted to the article directories for your readers to follow. This way, you will always have an "unique" copy of your article on your site and readers of the article directory will still be able to follow your link to your site and get all the benefits of article writing. You just killed 2 birds with 1 stone.

9. Most article directories allow their publishers to have an author's bio. You can usually add a few links in this bio. Remember to link back to your site and please use the proper anchor text. Again, deeplinks would work better here.

So, you have it. Some basic SEO tips for article writing. Hopefully, I have writen it in such a way that it is easy to understand and follow and soon you will see the benefits.

Boon Leong is the admin for Simple Sites Forums. A forum/directory promoting the use of simple layouts & designs to create elegant & stylish sites for the web. He is also administrating: Singapore Food Catering Services A web portal with a comprehensive listing of caterers in Singapore.