SEO Writer

Writing SEO content is an art that requires both the ability to write well, but also to write within the "rules" of search engine optimization. As an SEO writer, I have learned a lot of my lessons by trial and error. To help you shorten the learning curve, here are 12 SEO writing tips that will help you get more targeted traffic to your website:

1. Research the keywords you want to target. Choose keywords that get a significant number of daily searches, but also make sure these keywords are not so competitive that you stand no chance of ever rising to the first three pages of Google search results.
   
   
2. You can determine how much competition a keyword has by doing a Google search and putting it in quotes. For example, the keyword, "fly fishing Alaska" gets 23,900 pages on Google. Any keyword that gets under 10 million hits is considered doable.
   
   
3. Put most of your efforts into "long tail" keywords. A common misconception is that a keyword is simply one word. Actually a keyword can be an entire phrase like the "fly fishing Alaska" phrase mentioned above. As a general rule, the longer the phrase, the more targeted the traffic.
   
   
4. These keyword phrases are basically the search terms your ideal visitor would type into a search engine to find out information related to what your website is about. This means you have to put yourself in the mind of your targeted visitor and think of what search terms they will type in to do a search.
   
   
5. Use your main keyword in the title of your website, if possible, or in a subsection of your site if it is an existing website.
   
   
6. Similarly, use your main keyword in the URL of your website, if possible, or in a subsection of your site if it is an existing website. For example, you could either use, "http://flyfishingalaska.com" or "http://traveldeals.com/flyfishingalaska".
   
   
7. Use a variety of related keywords in the titles of the articles you post on your site. Research seems to indicate that using several related keywords will push your main keyword higher up the search engine rankings. For example, fly fishing equipment, fly fishing tour guides, fly fishing safety tips, how to fly fish, Alaska fishing, Alaska outdoor sports, Alaska travel, etc. will all help your main keyword "fly fishing Alaska" rank higher.
   
   
8. Within the articles, break up the material into sub topics and make use of subheadings. Be sure to include your keyword in those subheadings.
   
   
9. Use your keyword in the first and last paragraph in each article.
   
   
10. Maintain a good keyword density. This means to use your keyword about 3 to 6 times per 100 words of text. If you load too many keywords in your article, the search engines may determine your site is a spam site. If you use them too sparingly, the search engines may not recognize the theme of your site.
    
    
11. Post SEO articles on a variety of article submission sites like http://ezinearticles.com with links pointing back to your site. Make sure these links have your keyword embedded in them.
    
    
12. Do not have all these inbound links point to only your main page. Instead, demonstrate that your site is a rich resource of material on your topic by having inbound links that point to many different pages on your site.

With all this said, don't overlook the fact that you are also writing to a human reader as well. A lot of SEO writing sounds stilted and awkward. The point is not merely to get people to visit your site, it is also to get them to do business with you.

An SEO writer has two different audiences. A search engine robot and a living, breathing human being you want to turn into a customer. So be sure to write for both.

Hopefully your website is doing just fine and you are getting search engine traffic because you have followed the rules for SEO copywriting, and your website content is written to sell. But if both of these conditions are not true, read on.

I recently posted a test ad on Craigslist.org with the same headline as this article, "Why Isn't Your Website Making Money?" and was flooded with calls.

Obviously I hit a nerve here because a lot of companies, both large and small, are just not getting the revenue from their sites that they want, expect and need.

When I look at these sites, I see two distinct problems:

1. First, the sites are simply not written to attract search engine traffic. There is either no concerted effort to target specific keywords over and over again so that search engines will determine a specific "theme" to your site and send relevant traffic your way.
   
   Or, the keywords targeted are too competitive and you will never rise to the first pages of Google or Yahoo's search results.
   
   Let's say, for example, you have a travel site. If you are simply targeting the keywords, "travel," or "vacations," your chances of rising to the top of the search engines are somewhere between slim and none.
   
   But if you target keywords like, "honeymoon adventure travel," or "family adventure vacations," your competition is much less and you will find your rise up the search engines will be much faster.
   
   But how do you use these keywords in your website's content? The rule of thumb is to use them enough but not too much. You definitely want to use your main keywords in your website's title and in the URL (for example, if your site's name is "Honeymoon Adventure Travel Ideas," the URL should be http://honeymoonadventuretravel.com).
   
   The next point of SEO writing is to sprinkle the main keywords throughout your text. As I mentioned in a recent article called, Dynamic Copywriting: Writing for Search Engine Traffic, the ideal is to write your keywords about 4 to 6 times per 100 words. Less than this and you won't get noticed, more and Google at least may regard your site as a spam site.
   
   
2. You must write website content that sells. I recently wrote another article called, Dynamic Copywriting: My Formula For Writing Money-Making Website Content, in which I gave a list of ideas for making websites more profitable.
   
   But they key for a profitable website is to write content that is informative and valuable to the visitor. Literally you want to make your site a resource for people who are potential buyers of what you sell.
   
   The mistake many website owners make is to write content that is little different from their company brochures or Yellow Page ads. The web is simply a different medium altogether.
   
   The second reason people use the internet (after pornography) is to find information. But most websites fail to deliver written content that meets this purpose. And a site that fails on this level will not be bookmarked and not be returned to. And more importantly, it will not collect leads or make sales.
   
   If you remember nothing else from this article, remember this: "Writing website content that delivers problem-solving information will make sales for your company."

Of course there is a balance between SEO writing and writing website content that makes money. Basically it requires writing for two different audiences, machines and humans.

The search engines want writing that can help them identify what your site is all about and whether your keywords are relevant to its theme.

On the other hand, humans will be quickly distracted by writing that seems to plug in keywords randomly or in a way that makes the content seem disjointed.

The point is that SEO writing gets visitors to your site, but good website content writing gets those visitors to take action.

COPYRIGHT © 2008, Charles Brown

This article originally appeared in my blog, dynamiccopywriting.blogspot.com.

Did you know that ezinearticles.com gives you all the tools you need to get your next article a high ranking on Google?

Here's how:

Step One: Go into the category you wish to write about and do a search for the articles within that category that have been re-published, viewed and emailed the most.

This is a wonderful tool within ezinearticles that helps you look at the most successful articles within your niche.

Step Two: Study the top ten of these articles. Look at their headlines, the content and how they are laid out.

Step Three: This is the most important step. Copy the keywords used for these articles. These are simply the most successful keywords within your niche for your competing articles.

Sprinkle those same keywords within your article's headline, first paragraph, last paragraph and throughout the body. Don't over do this, but make sure the most important keywords are in the headline and first and last paragraphs.

Then, using these top articles as patterns, write your own article. Use your own original ideas of course, but imitate the style, the headlines and most importantly, use the same keywords.

If you do this, you can litterally force the search engines to put your article at the top of searches related to those keywords.