Effective Online Articles: More than Just Writing
Article marketing is one sure strategy to drive traffic to a website. Web users are attracted to well-written and fresh content. But it takes more than stellar writing skills to be able to do article marketing successfully.
Writing for the Internet requires careful placing of keywords to assure search engine ranking that’s good enough to attract visitors. It’s not easy but with practice, any writer can get used to doing it.
Knowledge of how search engines and keywords work is essential to the online writer. In a nutshell, a web user searches over the Internet using keywords. Search engines look for the keywords which are placed multiple times in content. Finally, the search result contains the articles with effectively placed keywords. SEO or Search Engine Optimization is a key to how content on the Internet is indexed by search engines so that web users can find it.
However, beware of “keyword stuffing” or putting too many keywords in the content. Not only will the article be difficult to understand, it will not rank highly in search results.
Begin with the title. This is where the keyword or keyword phrase should be placed first. Make sure that it reflects what the article is about and what the reader can expect from it. However, refrain from using the keyword only as the title. It may be too short to give valuable information.
Next is the article lead. Some writers consider only the very first sentence, but ultimately it’s somewhere in the beginning of the article. Others also consider putting a keyword in the body of the article—sparingly.
Lastly, place one in the concluding paragraph to remind the reader of the topic before ending the short read.
Another way of using keywords effectively in an article comes after learning more about its two types: the main and the long tail keyword.
The main keyword is a phrase composed of two to three words. It has a high search demand which is both good and bad. A lot of web users search for it but at the same time, because of the popularity, there is also a lot of competition from other sites. This can be used to link back to one’s website.
The long tail keyword, on the other hand, is a phrase consisting of three to eight words. It is better used in an article—and only once. It’s not as popular as the main keyword but there’s less competition and it’s easier to rank higher.
Yet another way of maximizing keyword use is to place it once every 100 words or more. A 500-word article will have 5 keywords in it.
But this way or that, whichever one chooses, the end goal is the same: to effectively reach more people, to inform more and to entertain more through the digitally written form.
***JHAJR***
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