Showing posts with label keywords. Show all posts
Showing posts with label keywords. Show all posts

Sunday, August 5, 2007

Write SEO Articles Without Sounding Like a Salesman

Writing SEO articles can become a little repetitive, and it is easy to lapse into a pattern of using the same phrases over and over again. Here are a few tips to keep your SEO articles interesting for both you you and your readers.

Write SEO Articles like you are speaking

I can't say this enough: write your SEO articles as if you are speaking to someone. Imagine that you are working for the company you are writing for, and speaking to a potential customer. Instead of using cliche sales phrases, be 'honest' about the product you are selling. Tell them in detail what it could do for them, and why it is good value.

Use Keywords Constructively

Before you start your SEO article, think of a few good ways to use your keywords. Make the sentence in each paragraph that contains your keyword interesting and informative. Your reader found this page because of your keyword, so make your SEO articles as relevant to your keywords as possible.

Be Specific

Don't waffle. The main thing that sets $3 SEO articles apart from $10 ones is their ability to inform the reader. Any 3rd language English speaker can sound like an infomercial for 500 words. You can do better, so write SEO articles as if you are an expert on the product you are selling. Describe it in detail, giving different price options and color schemes, etc. You can easily fill up 500 words on a single product if you give enough detail.

Remember: the higher the quality of your SEO articles, the more money you can charge your clients for them. Because we are in a bulk business increasing your per article rate by $1 or $2 can drastically increase your income.

Sunday, July 15, 2007

5 SEO writing tips

I've been doing this for a while, and I've come up with a few things that makes SEO writing go a little smoother.

1. Do your research

What ever you're writing about, the best thing to do is go to the client's site and see what they are about. Read the "About Us" section, as well as anything on the products and services they offer. If no site is available, look up the relevant topics. Even if you think you know a lot about them, seeing what other people have to say can give you ideas.

2. 500 words, 5 ideas

There is no hard and fast rule in SEO writing, but I find the easiest way to start is to count off 5 distinct points about the topic, and write five 100 word paragraphs. Think how many times you need to use the keyword, and figure out a few ways to use it. Try to use none of them more than twice.

3. When in doubt, repeat yourself.

There is only so much you can say about "New Mexico Plumbing Service". The thing to remember on the web is that content is king. In SEO writing, we are usually dealing with quantity, rather than quality. While the text must all read well and be informative, nobody is going to mind if you make the same point twice from two different angles.

4. Talk about the products

SEO writing is all about selling, so tell people what they are buying! Mention an example, pretend you are a catalog, and be specific. Details can fill up word count, and still be informative.

5. Keywords at beginning and end

As far as possible, try to begin and end your article with the keyword. This is generally the preferred style, and it will show your client that you know what you are doing. Keep the keyword as close to the beginning of sentences, paragraphs and headings as you can to improve the article's keyword proximity score.

Thursday, July 12, 2007

How To Write SEO Articles

A lot of people ask me what exactly goes into SEO articles. There are a few things you need know about how to write SEO articles:


What are SEO articles?

An SEO article is usually around 500 words, and contains a certain keyword, repeated a certain number of times. These keywords are what site owners think users will type into search engines like Google. If you are looking for a place to rent in Southern California for example, the keyword you might type in would be "rental home Southern California". This can be difficult to use in a proper sentence.

How do you keyword optimize effectively?

A general rule with SEO articles is that search engines don't like keywords that are broken by other words, but don't notice if they are broken by punctuation. So you could use the keyword above like this: "Looking for a rental home? Southern California has many..." and presto - it reads perfectly!

What is keyword density?

Keyword density is a measure of how often a keyword appears in SEO articles. If the article is 500 words long and the keyword appears 10 times, the keyword density is 2%. Depending on many different factors, I know that Google likes keyword densities around 2%, but this could go as high as 8%. Too many keywords and your article looks "funny" to Google, while too little means it could be overlooked.

What is keyword proximity?

Basically, this is how close together your keywords are - and exactly why "rental home Southern California" should not be broken by words. If it is, then a site that doesn't break this keyword up in its SEO articles will get a higher search engine ranking.

What is keyword prominence?

This is not usually a concern for people who write SEO articles. It is a measure of where in the HTML code your keywords appear, and how important these places are. The best places are in the HEAD and TITLE tags of your page - without keywords in these places most search engines won't even look at your SEO articles.

So how do you actually write SEO articles?

If you find yourself with SEO articles to write, the best thing to do is go to the client's website and look at what they actually do. Going by just the keyword can be disastrous! If you are given "Health Insurance Indiana" as a keyword, and you write about how great our health insurance is, it could be embarrassing if all the client's website does is compare quotes from health insurance companies!

I find that if you come across a point that isn't in the client's website, it's usually easier to make up something new than to research it elsewhere. If you have a 500 word article, try to come up with 5 different points about the company, relevant to the keyword. It also helps to use the keyword a few different ways, as this confuses Google's spiders into thinking that your SEO articles have a lot of information about the topic searched for. (But this is really more of my pet theory and the theory of some of my clients)

Anyway, I found a good resource for all of this kind of information. Mike Wong has a cool site about SEO marketing and such and such. He tries to sell you a lot of things, but he has piles of info for free. Check out Mike's website here.




Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Getting started with GetAFreelancer

GetAFreelancer.com is just about the best online resource to find online writing projects. This site works on a post-and-bid system whereby people who need writers post projects, and writers bid on them. It sounds easy, but it was a long time before I actually won any projects. That was because I didn't know how to find the right projects, and how to write GAF bids to make sure that the buyer picked me.

Here are step by step instructions on creating your GetAFreelancer account and winning GAF projects.


1. Create your account by clicking here or on the GAF banner.

Take your time to fill in all the fields on your profile, because buyers will look at this when deciding on writers. Put in as many relevant keywords as you can because searches will also pick these up.


2. Check out your bid limit

You only have a certain number of bids per month, so make sure you don't waste them on projects you don't understand or will not be able to complete.


3. Check your inbox:

You should start receiving relevant projects straight away. Don’t bid on everything. For example, say you see this project in your inbox:


39 articles about Real Estate (Budget: $100-300, Posted by Andrea23 at 07/05/2007 at 10:35 EDT, Jobs: Copywriting)”


If you believe you have the skills and the time to complete this project within the time frame (would be a week or 7 days) then click "Bid on this project"


4. Make your bid count!

Always bid in the lowest range, but put your actual time frame in. The actual payment for the project will usually be negotiated privately). When you write your bid, don’t put your entire life story in the block. You need to say 2 things in as few words as possible:


· Why you would be good at the project

· “Please see the PMB”!


5. Write them a message

Go to the project again, and click on the “Post PM” button. Tell them in a few words why you would do the project well, how soon you could finish it and how much you would like per article. You should be guided by my prices as to what you should bid. The best way to win a bid is to post a relevant sample. Don’t have one? Go to a related site, look at their and write a 500 word keyword optimized “mock article” advertising something on their site. Post it and the buyer will probably get back to you within a few hours!


Just a few things you should know:

You can't post contact details without being accepted as the project bidder, but the PMB works fine for any contact you need in the beginning


You need an online payment facility to get paid from GAF. If you have a US bank account, you can use PayPal, otherwise use Moneybookers. (It's what I use and it's brilliant)


Being accepted as the project provider means that you can contact the buyer, but it costs you $5 every time you are accepted. Why? This is GAF's only real cut they take, and it allows you to rate the buyer (and they to rate you). This ensures security and guaranteed payment, because nobody is going to stiff you if they know you can let everyone else on GAF know about it. Becoming a Gold member means that you don't pay this fee.