SEO Articles: Creating Website Posts That Get Found

SEO Articles: Creating Website Posts that Get Found
SEO Articles


“SEO articles 
are extremely effective at generating more awareness for your business on the internet andcommonly used by search engine optimization specialists to generate top ranks on search engines.”

SEO writing is one of the fastest growing marketing mediums for small businesses today. SEO article writing is a strategic business writing style where the objective is to rank high in the search engines for a particular keyword or key phrase.   Ideally, you will have several different keywords to use, and each keyword should normally be used at least once per paragraph – though the exact guidelines for SEO article writing vary from one company to the next depending on comfort levels with writing styles.

In the past 10 years I have written and published over 10,000 pages of SEO articles on the web for my clients, and my own web sites.   I was fortunate to have the opportunity to work under some very bright SEO writers, and I picked up some gems of web publishing wisdom from them.   Below are a few quick tips that might help you write your SEO articles in a way that will increase your ranks on Google and other major search engines.  Enjoy.

1.  SEO articles are “strategic content’. 

seo-articles-strategic-content

Search engine optimized articles are considered to be “strategic content” for your web site (relevant + keyword rich).   Strategic content is essentially a block of informational (typically non-self promotional) text that contains the keywords that are important to your business.  Google loves web sites that contain helpful, objective keyword rich articles.

2.  SEO articles strike a balance between Ernest Hemingway and Google.  

thumb-keyword-research-report-phrases

Always err on the side of readership and style, when it comes to stuffing keywords inside.  The goal of the SEO Article is to drive people to your web site from the search engines, and do so in a way that is graceful, not spammy.   In most cases readers will spend less than a minute glossing the SEO article, and then click to the homepage (internet surfers are usually in a hurry).    SEO articles are generally 500-1000 word blocks of factual, helpful ‘informational’ text (writer is confined to a set of keywords).  The title of your web page, blog post, blog article, etc, is one of the most important areas to consider.  Consider adding your target keyword first like this:  Keyword – 7 Big Mistakes To Avoid.  The reasoning behind this is because Google considers the keywords in the beginning of your title more important than those at the end of your title.  Also consider using this little tool for keeping your titles and descriptions within an acceptable character range.

3.  SEO articles are ‘educational marketing’  (pull marketing).

SEO articles are 'educational marketing'

SEO articles educate and inform customers in a non self promotional way (informational).  Part of the success of a business today depends on the business owners ability to add value to the customer base through their web site.  Adding SEO articles is one of the best ways to do this because they increase credibility levels at your site, and generate top ranks in Google search results.

4.  SEO articles are typically written specifically for the search engines.

seo-article-writing-dollars

SEO articles help search engines find your product or service.    It seems that the majority of writers today, including press release writers, are including SEO keywords in their articles to increase visibility in the search engines.  SEO articles are specifically written for search engines.  The reason companies today are writing SEO articles is primarily because they make the phone ring with new prospects.  SEO articles generate awareness of a product or service online and help prospects easily discover your product or service.   New visitors at your web site results in more sales and more success.  Google loves to rank web sites highly that have helpful directories of how-to articles.

5.  SEO articles are a different animal than Magazine articles.

SEO articles are a different animal than Magazine articles.

This is often times a point of confusion for business owners, poets and journalists.  SEO articles tend to be more factual in nature, not taking serious points of view on the industry, but rather, just finding creatives ways to connect the target audience with the search engine audience by using embedded keywords that customers use when searching for your product or service.   In contrast, with magazine articles, the writer has full freedom of expression, and generally has a goal of getting the reader excited.  The type of writing that you see in magazines is more motivational and compelling.  With most SEO articles, this will not be the case and shouldn’t be the case.  SEO articles aim to be short, factual, helpful and keyword rich. A greater degree of flexibility is typically afforded for the literary aspects of SEO articles for this reason.  SEO articles are not written for a magazine or for your homepage.  They are written primarily for the search engines and to build in-roads to your web site (links), and ultimately to generate more traffic for your web site.  That said, they are still helpful and informative for the reader.

6.  SEO articles have Twitter streams or RSS streams.  

SEO articles have Twitter streams or RSS streams.

Google loves to rank fresh content. Hence, it would make sense to keep your pages (blog posts) fresh.  You might consider adding a Twitter Stream (such as the one you see at the bottom of this SEO article) to keep the page fresh.  *Adding video/audio helps as well in terms of keeping the visitor on your website for a longer period of time (time on page is measured as well when ranking websites).

7.  SEO articles using a list based writing format.

SEO articles use List Based Writing

This is because most people on the web are scanning, not reading.  Most people prefer to read list based content.  Just take yourself as an example, do you prefer reading big blocks of text on the web?  Probably not.  List based writing is a way to get your message across on the web.  SEO articles utilize proper keyword density.  Do not overuse the keywords. If you saturate the article with too many SEO keywords, it is difficult to maintain the flow and a style of the article.  Always opt for readership over stuffing a bunch of keywords in the article.  Google may even penalize you for “keyword stuffing” if your keyword density is too high.

8.   SEO articles bold and italicize the SEO Keywords.  

 SEO articles

Bolding and italicization on certain text inside your SEO articles might score additional points in the search engines for certain keywords.  Scoring systems consider bolded and italicized keywords to be more important (more emphasis) on the page.  The same holds true for heading tags, such as h1, h2, h3, etc.

9.  SEO articles use ‘anchor text’.  

 SEO articles bold and italicize the SEO Keywords.

Anchor text is king, and the king rarely shows up these days.  This is one of the most overlooked areas of SEO article writing, and it’s simply a matter of internally linking 5-10 key phrases to relevant pages inside your site.  Do not hyperlink the same target keyword back to itself.  When linking keywords and keyphrases, try to make sure they have a handshake with the h1 tag and the title of the page you are linking to.  Also, double check that all links are using target=”blank” so they will open in a new window, which of course increases the numbers of instances of your brand in front of your customer.  One of the best places to add anchor text is inside your “About The Author” box at the end of your article.  Here’s a handy author box tool that might help you with formatting.

10.  SEO articles use proper alt text on images.

SEO Articles properly optimize alt text

Search engines cannot read images.  They rely on ‘alt text’ (an html code tag, i.e. an alt tag), to help identify the image.  Hence, it makes sense to use those SEO keywords inside the alt tags.  Images really help spruce up your SEO article, and I always use an image in the very last line of the SEO article, embedded with the target keyword for that keyword.

These are just a few points to consider when writing SEO articles.  I hope you enjoyed these tips on SEO article writing.   I love to use a military analogy in the workshops I teach here in Santa Barbara:  “Every page / post of your web site is like a ‘special operations’ agent.  Their mission (should they accept it) is to rank for a particular keyword.  Marketing is a battlefield.  Are you winning in the search engine wars?

The search engines are constantly evolving and keeping writers guessing on the best practices.  Remember, practice makes perfect and the best way to approach SEO article writing is to focus on the user first, and robots second.   Consider following the About.com & Wikipedia writers and study their writing styles as they post new

Why Fresh Content Attracts Google

Why Fresh Content Attracts Google

You’ve been reading up on SEO (trying to figure out why your site isn’t working…) and you read over and over about how having fresh content helps keep your web site on top of the search engines.  But…you STILL wonder secretly, do I REALLY need to blog every day? 

YES!  “A blog post a day, keeps the robots from going away…”

Want to hear real-world examples of how business blogging has transformed sales for local business owners? Join us tomorrow at 5:30pm for an hour of interesting and engaging conversation about Google, the web, and online marketing.  Details here.

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The Thursday SEO workshop is a group of local business owners talking about how to generate more leads from their website via google site optimization and pay per click. Attendees come to learn SEO and search engine marketing from other like-minded business owners who have developed effective internet marketing strategies.

When : 

Thursdays Nights 5:30pm-6:30pm ADD OUTLOOK REMINDER 
Where : THE EAGLE INN (by Sambos) 232 Natoma Ave Santa Barbara, CA 93101

SEO Articles Perpetually Promote…

Content is what makes the web-go-round so….If you haven’t done this already then it’s time to start creating content for your site.  Include lots of keyword-rich articles so that you get traffic from the search engines, then make sure you add an opt-in email form on all of your pages so that people that enjoyed your articles can sign up for your list (the most overlooked and most critical online business strategy).  Keep in mind that you don’t have to write all for the content yourself. You can hire one of The Search Engine Pros Article Managers to write the articles for you.

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How does my Article Manager know about my business?

This is a big hurdle for some business owners to overcome. It is important to realize that other people are smart too, and they can help you if you let them. Your Article Manager will research your business, and often times they present information that you were unaware of about your industry and field.  With the advent of the internet, knowledge is everywhere. In the old days, just having access to knowledge made you powerful. Today, it’s how you filter that knowledge and apply it. The difficult part for business owners today is letting go of the idea that they are the “only” or the “best” offering in the market place, and instead of sharing ideas with others and collaborating. Writing is a passion for some people. The smartest business owners stick to what they are good at and let others do what they are good at.

Strategic Content Is King On The Web

How are these special search engine articles written?

The SEO articles will be 500 words each and written in a list based format (most people on the web are scanning, and not reading, and people love list based writing on the web). The SEO article is written around a predetermined niche keyword with proper keyword density.

Does the article “trick” the search engines?

The article writer does not engage in any keyword stuffing or tricky practices. The articles we write are 100% compliant with search engine guidelines. Did you know that search engines (Google themselves!)  recommend that you include the keywords in your articles that you wish to be found for. It helps them to better match up the search engine visitors coming to your web site, which also helps the search engine to be more relevant. The writer will include the important keywords that you wish to be found for inside the article.

Best Regards, : )

THE ART OF SEO ARTICLE WRITING – 8 Things You Must Know

THE ART OF SEO ARTICLE WRITING – 8 Things You Must Know

The other day I was counting the number of articles in the past 10 years I have published on the web for my clients, and my own web sites. I was amazed (and a little scared at how the years continue to sail away on me) in discovering that the number is approaching over 10,000 pages.  Needless to say, I have picked up a few gems of publishing wisdom along the way. Below are some quick concepts that will help you write your content in a way that will get you results on Google.  Enjoy.

1. Why do SEO articles have to be written around keywords? Search engine optimized articles are considered to be “strategic content” for your web site.   Strategic content is essentially a block of informational text that contains the keywords that are important to your business.  Google loves web sites that have loads of helpful, keyword rich pages.   The type of writing we provide is meant to make the search engines and directories happy, in turn providing you with well ranked content.

2. Could we loosen up the SEO power and make it sound more Ernest Hemingway style? Of course. But the question is will this effort produce results and meet your traffic building goals. The job of the SEO Article is to drive people to your web site from the search engines. In most cases readers will spend a minute glossing the article, and then click to the homepage (internet surfers are usually in a hurry). SEO Articles are generally 500 word blocks of factual, helpful ‘informational’ text (writer is confined to a set of keywords). SEO Articles are written specifically for the search engines – to help the search engines find your product or service. SEO is educational marketing!

3. Why do companies write SEO articles? Part of the success of your business today depends on your ability to generate a top ranks on Google. The reason companies write SEO articles today is primarily because the phone calls and new leads they bring in. SEO articles generates awareness of your product or service online and help your customers to easily find your offering. New visitors at your web site results in more sales and more success. Google loves to rank web sites highly that have helpful directories of how-to articles. There is no trickery or games here. Google describes in their guidelines how to write articles and place keywords in a way that will help them to find and consider showing your content on their search engine. We are simply following the guidelines and helping you to save time so you can focus on your core business. Our writing staff is trained on the art of web marketing content and SEO content. We write articles in a non-self promotional style so that they will be accepted into the major article marketing directories. This kind of foresight will help you to avoid having to rewrite your entire article when the time comes to do article marketing. We also utilize proper keyword density and do not engage in keyword stuffing techniques. The bottom line, your customer base is searching for you every day. Give your customers what they want, write SEO articles around the exact keywords they are searching for. You’ll be glad you did, and happy with the results.

4.  What’s the difference between a magazine article, and an SEO Article? This is often times a point of confusion for business owners, especially poets, journalists. :).  SEO Articles tend to be short blocks of factual text, with embedded keywords that customers use when searching for your product or service. In contrast, with magazine articles, the writer has full freedom of expression, and generally has a goal of getting the reader excited. The type of writing that you see in magazines is more motivational and compelling. With most SEO articles, this will not be the case and shouldn’t be the case.  SEO Articles aim to be short, factual, helpful and keyword rich. A greater degree of flexibility is typically afforded for the literary aspects of SEO Articles for this reason. SEO Articles are not written for a magazine or for your homepage. They are written primarily for the search engines and to build in-roads to your web site (links), and ultimately to generate more traffic for your web site.  That said, they are still helpful and informative for the reader.

5. Can an article be both motivational, compelling and SEO’d?  Yes, but the price tag rises substantially for articles taking more than 4-5 hours of time. Ask us about our 2500 word “Power Content” article ($400 per article.) We always do our best to provide the kind of content you are looking for. We’ve been told the article quality we deliver in our standard packages is the highest on the net by several firms. If you are not happy, you don’t pay for the article – bottom line. However, we encourage you to gain a clear understanding about the objective of the SEO article, which is to help you accomplish your SEO goals of traffic building. As with any business relationship there is a give and take among time and resources dedicated to the project. We are always listening and focused on your feedback. Our goal is to deliver a quality product for you. Please be aware that mixing strategies can get expensive. Writers are very expensive, and while you can pay for additional motivational and personal content to be integrated into your articles, you should expect our writers to spend on average 4-5 hours of time researching blocks of factual, objective content for you, and embedding the important high search keywords.  By itself, it is a labor intensive process. The result of having ten 500 word keyword rich articles at your web site is an increased volume of traffic and more business for you. Many of our clients hire us to write standard content and very happy with our price points. Others with stringent writing guidelines polish according to their needs and save large amounts of time by using our service. While still others opt to inquire about our 2500 word “Power Content” article ($400 per article.) We encourage you to take our lead as we are professionals in this area. Business owners that choose to rewrite the articles in their own way, often times will defeat the purpose of the SEO Article as proper keyword density is carefully crafted into each article. This is an important point to understand. Stay focused on the project goal which is short, factual, helpful ( and low cost) 500 word blocks of keyword rich content.  Magazine style content should be focused entirely on with a traditional copywriter that ignores the search engine aspects of your article. This kind of content is not really needed to accomplish your traffic building goals.   Our goal is to help you build a bustling article directory at your site consisting of 100+ helpful articles and at the same time, create a large return on investment for you. It is always our goal to find a win-win happy medium with our clients content generation needs. Lastly, as mentioned above, if you require special writing needs, help is available for an hourly fee of $75/hour, or ask us about our 2500 word “Power Content” article ($400 per article.) For the most part, we will try and be flexible for you.

6.  Why do you talk about the competitors? Sometimes we will talk objectively about competitors or solutions but we try to write in a direction that will help your cause. Objective content is what people want.  Keep in mind, if the content is objective and factual (non self promotional) it is more likely to be accepted in your article marketing campaigns.  Moreover customers trust levels increase with you when you write in this style.

7.  Can we pay more for higher quality writing? Yes. Ask us about our 2500 word “Power Content” article ($400 per article.)  For the most part our articles are very high quality.  However, should you require us to meet with you and gain a clear understanding of your material or web site and offering – help is available. Search Engine Pros are pioneering the lowest cost article writing service on the net, while maintaining a high degree of quality in each article. Should you decide that you would like an article to be rewritten, we will do 1 re-write of your article at no cost. If our 2nd pass fails, we will discuss your quality goals and the higher price points with you. Each of our SEO articles is written by educated and creative writers, and proofread for factual accuracy and spelling/grammar.  If you are a company that needs a different style of writing or more custom writing to your business, help is available!  To succeed with SEO, you need to have hundreds of keyword rich pages at your web site, please keep this in mind as you focus on your goal of building a helpful keyword rich article directory at your site.

8.  Article Marketing: After you write an article, the next step is to promote your article by way of Article Marketing. The important thing to note here is that most article directories require you to follow special writing guidelines, i.e. non self promotional content, certain numbers of links in the resource box, etc, generally they are seeking objective and factual content. Such writing guidelines are labor intensive to follow.  Hence it makes sense to take our lead on the SEO article writing format. If you choose to have us help with your article marketing, we will be uploading the article to your site, optimizing the article, and submitting to the article directories, such as www.ezinearticles.com The result is more traffic at your web site. Questions?  Call us at 800.605.4988 and we will help you every step of the way.

To Your Search Engine Success!

Taylor Reaume

Search Engine Pros

2010 01 05 GVC WebMarketing