Adding SEO To Your Articles

An article that has good SEO characteristics and is well written will do several things for your website, it will:

• Attract search engines.
• Attract people.
• Convert readers to customers.

Attracting Search Engines

Put a Strong Keyword in the title. The title tells the search engine what the article is about so use strong keywords. It’s also wise to use the keyword again at least once in the first paragraph and if possible, also sprinkle related keywords into that first paragraph. If you were selling a computer, you might also mention hardware, software, or specific parts in that first paragraph.

Search engines look not just for a word but words that are expected to relate to that word and that can make your article appear not just as indexed but as highly relevant as well.

Attracting People

Attract people with great copy, this is imperative with any article marketing strategy. Your Headline should be catchy and that first paragraph should convince them that they should read the whole article. Tell them what information you’re going to share with them and tell them why it will benefit them.

Make your articles are readable, with short paragraphs and subheadings (like this article) so that people will be able to quickly scan the article and see that it contains info that they want. A long block of text without paragraph breaks will make reading your article look too daunting.

Subheadings with related keywords can also help the Search Engines see more relation to your subject matter as well. Use H2 headers in your subheadings wherever possible.

Meta Data

Don’t forget to use the meta description as a teaser of your article. This should be written for search engines and for people. You want people to see your article high in the search engine results and to see in the 2-3 line description that the article is worth reading.
Conversion

So, now that you’ve gotten some search engine indexing and some resulting traffic by incorporating SEO into your article, how are you going to convert your reader to a buyer? Copywriting can be an art but it’s important to tell people why buying will benefit them. Overcome their objections with assurances, and create trust and believability in the article. Clean layout, pictures, and a clear call to Action are also important.

Checklist

After you’ve written an article, whether it’s going to be placed on your website or used in an off-page SEO campaign, check the following:

• Does it read well?

• Are there strong keywords in the headline, first paragraph, and meta description?

• Are there related keywords sprinkled through the text?

• Is the article beneficial to someone reading it?

• Is there a call to action so people know what to do when they get to the end?

• Are there any typing or grammatical errors?

• Is there plenty of white space around the article (short paragraphs, headings, etc?)

• Would a photo help you with your message?

Don’t forget to tag the article with appropriate Keywords (if you can) and once it’s published, do some social bookmarking / promoting to help along the process of getting readers and search engine spiders to the article.

Have a most outstanding day.

Sean Rasmussen
Aussie Internet Marketing
www.SeanSEO.com © 2008 - 2010