Sometimes people will ask me, "If you were in charge of getting my website a higher search engine ranking, exactly what would you do to achieve that goal?"
I am happy to share this info with you because I have my own websites that I want to rank highly in Google and the other search engines, and I want as much targeted traffic as possible and to also draw more business into my website.
Isn't that what you're after too?
I have spent a good bit of time and effort figuring out what works and doesn't, and I have developed a strategy for my own sites that has produced really excellent results. I used this strategy for my most recent article marketing campaign that I started about a year ago, and I couldn't be happier with the results.
Over the past few weeks I have been sharing this strategy with you, going step-by-step through each and every thing that I did to create an article submission campaign that works and is pretty easy to execute.
Nothing has been difficult or 'advanced' so far–In steps 1, 2, 3, and 4 you have been very detailed about where you're starting from and how to get to where you want to go. The focus has been consistency in your article submissions, and in Step 4 when I was telling you how to write an article, I also told you not to sweat the keyword stuff–at least not right at the beginning.
So far, the only things I've advised you to do with your keywords is to 1) figure out what they are, 2) keep them in the back of your mind, 3) learn how to make an HTML resource box, 4) and to enter your keywords into the submission page (there is a field on the article submission page that asks you for your keywords).
This is what I told you–as you're just getting started, submit articles consistently on the topic of your website. Don't obsess over keywords or fret about where and how to use them in your articles.
The reason for this is that too many times I see folks who are new to SEO and marketing a site, and they just get overwhelmed with the concept of how to use keywords, and then they overdose on keywords and misuse them and forget that they're supposed to be writing for a human audience.
Using keywords in your article submission is very useful when you're trying to get a higher search engine ranking, but things can also go terribly wrong if you don't know what you're doing and if you try too hard.
The Right Way To Use Keywords
If you use keywords correctly, you end up with an article that is extremely readable and useful to your target market, and it is not obvious to anyone that you are targeting certain keywords. You are just writing an article on a certain topic, and when you do that certain words come up naturally along with semantically related variations of those words. Your article does not look repetitive or sound stiff and cumbersome–it just reads like a quality piece of content.
The Wrong Way To Use Keywords
On the other hand, we can probably all spot an article that has misused keywords–it is not very readable, and there are obviously certain words/phrases that keep re-appearing throughout the article where other words would have served the article better. There may be words in the title that make you think the article is about a certain topic when it is really about something different. In general, when you look at the article, it sounds like it was written by a robot for a robot–the sentences and phrasing just don't sound natural.
Now, this next step in creating your own Article Marketing Strategy is for when you start to feel comfortable with writing and submitting articles. It may be months after you start your submitting articles, or it may be years. As I've told you before, the most important aspect of a successful article marketing campaign is submitting articles consistently each month, so don't feel like you have to understand everything about keywords in order to see results with article marketing.
But if you're ready, let's take the next step.
When doing article submissions, there are 3 main places where your keywords are can make a big impact:
1) Your title
2) Your article body
3) Your resource box
We've already covered how to use keywords in your resource box , so let's focus on the article body and your title.
Your goal, as always, is to produce a well-written, easy to read article that contains helpful information.
You might try just writing an article as you usually do, and then after you're finished read through your article again and see if there are any places where you can use your keywords or semantically related versions of your keywords in a natural way. You may very well find that your keywords are already appearing in your article, because they naturally pop up when you write on the topic of your website.
I would advise you not to try to use the same exact word/phrase over and over again throughout your article–this impacts the quality and readability of the article, and using a particular keyword too much in an article can cause some publishers to decline the article.
A good rule of thumb is this–keep your keyword density to no more than 3%.
Example: Let's say that your keyword phrase is 'sail boats'–this does not mean that you need to pepper your article with that phrase. Your article will be on some aspect of sail boats, so variations of that phrase will appear throughout your article. Google recognizes semantically related variations of words, like 'sail boats', 'sailing boats', 'sail boat gear', 'how to sail a boat', etc.
I just put my keywords where they will naturally fit in the article. The more you write, the easier it will be to use your keywords in your articles without sounding contrived.
Your title should always indicate what your article is about.
The title is an extremely beneficial spot to use your keywords for these reasons:
- Your title will sometimes be used as part of the URL for the page where your article is published. For example, look at the URL for this page–the title is in the URL. Keywords that appear in a URL speak especially loud to Google and the other search engines.
- Your title will appear in search engine results.
- Search engines pay special attention to titles.
Knowing how beneficial it can be to have your keywords in your title may tempt you to insert them in the title when it's just not appropriate.
Let's say that your keywords are 'New Jersey physical trainer'–unless your article is specifically about some aspect of physical trainers in New Jersey, it would not be appropriate to use those keywords in the article title.
If the article was about a more general topic–"10 Ways To Find A Good Physical Trainer", then putting 'New Jersey' in the title would not be right, because there is nothing in the article about New Jersey.
Also, sometimes your keywords will just not sound right in an article title because of the topic:
Let's say one of your keywords is 'low carb smoothie recipes', and your article is instructing people how to pick out a quality blender. The article is on the same general topic as your website (you need a blender in order to make the smoothies), but the article is not about 'low carb smoothie recipes'. Consequently, you would not use that keyword term in your title.
First and foremost, your title needs to tell the reader what your article is about. Anything that the title promises must be delivered in the article.
Your title should attract a reader's attention.
Your title should be written in such a way that it catches the attention of a reader who is looking through a list of titles in Google or on an article directory.
Pay special attention to the first 3 words of your title.
You have to keep in mind that people are skimming article titles when trying to see if they'd like to click through and read that entire piece. This holds true when your article appears in search engine results listings as well as on article directories.
A great technique is to focus on the first 3 words of your title since those are the first words that a reader will see, and if your first 3 words are attention grabbing, the reader is more likely to click through and read your article.
Now, this is not always possible, but many times it is–when you're writing your titles, try to phrase it in such a way that the first 3 words give a clear indication of what your article is about.
What is this used for?
The keywords you type in are used on many sites where some keywords are wanted for the meta keywords tags for the page where the article is published.
In plain English, meta keyword tags are a technical thing to help Google and the other search engines determine what your article is about. Additionally, these keywords also help search functions on some article directories.
Directories will also use your keywords (just one usually) when they are creating the URL for the page where your article is published, which helps Google and the other search engines identify the subject matter of the page.
But I don't know what my keywords are…
That's okay–with a little research you can determine the best keyword for your website.
And if all this talk about 'keywords this' and 'Google that' is starting to make your brain hurt, then take a step back. This step is only for when you're feeling comfortable with writing and submitting articles on a consistent basis.
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