Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Write Really Great Keyword Articles

When you get an assignment that involves ten of the same keyword or twenty or more,it can feel like a bottomless pit at the start. How on earth can I write 10 keyword articles about a common word such as Google with a 1.5% keyword density?

Here's what I do:

Get information on the keywords you are looking at. Look at the search engines and figure out what the competition is saying about those keywords. Those are the people that your client is trying to outrank and outdo. Look at their meta descriptions and think of a way to make yours stand out more AND offer quality to the reader so that they will 'click'. This is a great way to also research your subject!

Use extra related words wherever you can. I use search tools to help me. One free one is http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/. I try to use a few of the top words related to my search term and pepper them through the article. This not only helps your customer optimize for their keywords but also looks at the Long Tail of search engine marketing which means you are actually giving them more value for their money which can get them coming back! If my keyword is a phrase, I try to not only use it as is but also to break it up as well.

Look at your long list of keywords and try to come up with an idea for each word. If you just start writing without a plan, you will get repetitive and struggle to come up with ideas. Instead, try to come up with as many different ideas as you have articles (if there aren't too many). If my keyword were Google and I had to write five articles, I might tackle it like this:

-A Brief History of Google
-How Google Changed Search Engine Dynamics
-What Is In The Google Lab?
-What did we do before Google?
-Is Google Trying To Take Over The World?

Your articles will be easier to write because you have a focus. The keywords will flow in the articles naturally instead of you having to struggle to sprinkle them in to articles about nothing.

After you are done, look at a keyword analysis tool to help you determine if you've hit your mark. (Here's one: http://www.live-keyword-analysis.com/)If your articles are easier to read, they'll look better to the human readers. If they're at the right level with keywords and related words, the software readers will like them too and you'll get through your project easier and be beloved by your client.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is a fantastic post, Dana.

Dana Prince said...

Thank you Sharon!I've learned a lot through trial and error and am happy to pass info on to newbies (unlike yourself) or just those struggling with this problem. I know it took me time to come up with a system that worked for me.

Michele said...

Excellent post!

Anonymous said...

Hi Dana,

I enjoyed this post. Although I'm not a freelance writer, I think your idea for coming up with multiple articles for a single topic can help me as a blogger.

After coming up with five ideas, I simply pick the one that sounds like it would be the most fun to do!

I look forward to more of your contributions in the Writing Lab News!

Mitch (formerly of WritingUp)