How to Write Effective Keyword Articles
Copywriting is an excellent way to make some extra income, and it can be very lucrative if you become proficient at it. One way to put your skills to work is to learn how to write keyword articles or keyword-optimized articles to publish on the Internet. It's also a useful skill to use in promoting your own websites.
When writing keyword articles, the most important thing to keep in mind is that the articles must be interesting to the target reader. They must also be filled with relevant content that is valuable to readers, or they will quickly click away and go somewhere else for their information. As a starting point, therefore, you should always keep your audience top of mind when writing keyword articles – and this is true of all copywriting. Do your research on the chosen subject matter before you start to write, and gear your words to what readers want.
The search engines, like Google and Yahoo, obviously feature prominently when it comes to keyword optimization for your articles. When considering the keywords to use, always remember this rule: never litter your copy with so many keywords that the article is unreadable. Try to use enough to make the piece keyword relevant, but don't make it so dense with certain phrases that no one wants to read it. After all, it's no good someone finding your article on the Internet because it's thick with search terms – and then thinking it's complete rubbish. This will harm you or your client's credibility.
Before you put fingertips to keyboard, do the appropriate keyword research for your articles. Google has a great keyword research tool that shows you how many people are searching for certain terms, and suggests other phrases related to your keywords too. Remember that multiple keywords are often more effective than single ones – for example, 'web copywriting' is better than just 'copywriting'.
When you come to actually write your article, choose one main and two secondary keywords. It's then important to include your primary keywords or phrases in the title. For example, if your primary keywords are 'timeshare investing', then make sure these exact words appear in the title - not just the word 'timeshare'. Also ensure that your main keyword is repeated in the very first sentence of your article.
Keyword positioning is very important in order to attract a high relevance score from the search engines. Indeed, it helps to include your primary keywords as much as possible within the first 100 words of the article, (bearing in mind readability), and then spread these and your secondary terms quite sparingly throughout the rest of the copy. On this note, it's also good practice to make sure the last 100 words of the article contain your primary keywords at least twice.
It's crucial you find ways to use keywords in your articles in a natural way, and don't just include them in every single sentence – or the articles will read strangely. Don't just toss in the keywords or phrases wherever they seem to fit, because the search engines will flag this as 'spammy' content - which is not good for you or your client's rankings.
In general, keyword articles should be heavy with keywords at the beginning and the end, but much lighter in the middle. You can easily judge what is the correct usage by simply including your keywords twice within a span of 100 words in key places – and only once per hundred in the main body of the text. If you read through your article once it's finished and you're using keywords more than this, then you could be overdoing it. However, get the mix right and include a link to you or your client's website in the contact box at the base of the article, and the search engines will love your work.
About the Author
An English graduate from the University of Birmingham and professionally trained journalist at postgraduate level, Laurence James has been copywriting for over ten years. A Member of The Institute of Direct Marketing, he is also founder of The Copy Box - http://www.thecopybox.com
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