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By: Yuwanda Black
SEO articles drive traffic and sales, -- plain and simple. Whether you have an online business, or a brick and mortar enterprise, SEO articles may just be the best free marketing you can do to drive traffic and sales, bar none. Here, we will briefly discuss what SEO articles are for the unintiated. Then, we'll go over how to write effective, traffic-driving SEO articles.
What Are SEO Articles?
Simply put, SEO articles are articles written with keyword phrases that help to drive traffic to a website or blog. To illustrate by example, pretend you have just inherited a painting and want to know its value. You may turn to the internet to look for certified art appraisers.
What would you type into your favorite browser? Probably "certified art appraisers," or "art appraisers," or "art appraisal" and then "your city name". It would be something to this effect. If you owned a site that catered to this need and wanted to drive traffic to it, a couple of keyword phrases for articles would be "art appraisals" or "art appraisers".
So you would write articles repeating this phrase a certain number of times. Usually repeating a keyword phrase 5-10 times in a 500-word article gives you enough keyword density to start getting your site ranked well by search engines.
There's a lot more that goes into SEO articles, but this is a broad, basic definition that gives you its gist.
Writing with SEO in Mind: How to Write Effective SEO Articles
Now that you know what an SEO article is, you may be wondering, "How do I write effecftive ones."
One reason SEO article writing has such a bad reputation as an industry is that there is so much bad writing. Writing with SEO in mind is different from writing keyword-driven text. Good SEO articles should contain the following:
4 Things Good SEO Articles Must Contain
1. Good SEO Articles Inform: SEO articles should be written with the end user in mind. The only way to grab a reader's attention is to dispense valuable information. If your SEO article doesn't dispense information that is valuable to the reader, what reason is there for them to click through to your site? After all, this is the whole reason for writing them in the first place.
2. Good SEO Articles Pre-Qualifies Prospects: They make a reader want to click through to your site to learn more. What does this have to do with pre-qualifying prospects? To understand this, read on for why I advise website owners to invest in two types of content for their site. What are the two types of content every site needs?
2 Types of Content Every Site Needs
Easy, Breezy Content: This is content you use to distribute to free article directories, in press releases, in forums, etc. This content can be posted on your site as well, but its primary purpose is as a marketing tool on other sites.
Foundational Content: This is original content that can only be found on your site. As an SEO writer, to drive traffic to my primary site for example, I do two versions of the same article. One is a short enticing piece that I distribute to article directories. I then write a more in-depth piece on the same subject and publish that to my site.
A link from the shorter piece (distributed to article directories) to the longer piece (published on my site) will be listed in the resource box of the shorter article. In this manner, those who are really, really interested in the subject matter at hand can click through to learn more.
And, this is how good SEO article pre-qualifies prospects. Pre-qualification separates the tire kickers from the buyers; it's these types of prospects who buy.
3. Good SEO Articles Set You Up as an Authority: As in, they add to your prestige as an expert in your industry. There is just something about the written word that raises your esteem, your value, your worth in prospects' eyes.After all, if you're ballsy enough to write on something and publish it for the world to see, you must be an expert, right? At least this is what your prospects will think.
Much of what makes prospects buy is subliminal. Who do you think a prospect is more likely to buy from, all things being equal: a recognized expert in their field; one who's articles they've run across on the web that dispenses valuable information to them. Or, a random site they just happen to run across that only lists producs and/or services for sale?
4. Good SEO Articles Are Well Written: All of the advantages listed above will be lost if your SEO articles are not well written. Poor grammar, spelling errors, incomplete phrases, unorganized content, and useless content simply crammed with keyword phrases are all examples of badly written SEO articles.
Cramming Keywords into SEO Articles
I felt the need to address this issue separately because many SEO writers and webmasters mistakenly think that this is what SEO writing is all about. It's not. Some SEO articles are written with no specific keyword phrases included, but that's another topic and technique altogether.
The point to remember about cramming keywords into an article is -- don't do it. Text should flow naturally. It should be readable without being distracting. Professional SEO writers know how to achieve this, and include all of the elements listed above.
The SEO Article Writing Process: 4 Steps to Follow to Churn Out Valuable SEO Content
All website and blog owners should write with SEO in mind. When you sit down to write an SEO article, following this simple four-step process. Note: The steps don't have to be followed sequentially. What's important is that they are all included.
1. Choose a keyword phrase: You can use Google's free keyword tool to find out popular phrases for your niche.
2. Choose a topic: How to, Lists and Tips content make great SEO articles, eg, How to Choose an Art Appraisers, Top 5 Things to Look for in an Art Conservator, 3 Art Restoration Tips
3. Address a specific reader need: The types of articles listed above lend themselves to achieving this objective.
4. Keep it brief: Remember your goal is to entice, so don't give away the meat. Make your article 350-500 words. That's enough to entice readers to want to click through to your primary site.
Author Bio:
Yuwanda Black is a professional SEO copywriter. She has written several thousand SEO articles in hundreds of niches. She also teaches others how to start profitable freelance writing careers via her collection of self-published ebooks on freelance writing. Find out more about her SEO writing services at http://SEO-Article-Writer.com.