Writing Articles for your site and to point to your site, will help you with a lot of things. Let’s look at three things you’ll get help with.
1. SEO
2. Human Bait
3. Authority Building
SEO
Organic search engine optimisation will happen when you write articles with a bio box that point to your site. You could also simply put some anchored text as well. You can post on blogs, on article directories, or on other free pages and point keywords you want to rank for with anchored links.
Human Bait
If you write interesting articles that lead a reader to want to learn more, they’ll click on your links. Those links could be to a sales page, to an opt-in page for a mailing list, or to another website that will help convert that reader to a customer.
Authority Building
Writing Articles on your site and off your site will help you build authority on your subject. You can bring search engines to your site, human readers and get the rankings you want so that you can sell what you want to sell. Articles as content for your site and as part of your search engine optimisation efforts will pay off.
How To Write Articles
So, how do you write articles? Basically, you want to write something interesting that your readers will find interesting and you want to include some words that may help you rank well for your subject matter.
An article can be just a few paragraphs with an intro and a conclusion. A good formula to use for a basic article is to:
1. Introduce a subject.
2. Expand on the subject in a few paragraphs.
3. Reiterate an important point in closing.
Internet articles work best if they have plenty of white space so short paragraphs and subheadings are very helpful in helping the reader scan the article quickly for information they want.
Keyword Density
How many keywords are enough? How many are too many? When writing articles, you want to attract search engines but human readability is the most important factor.
You can try to rank for specific keywords by including a decent keyword density in the content without keyword stuffing. Using a keyword in the title, at the start of the article and towards the end plus one or two times more is a great keyword optimisation strategy. If you use laterally related words for the article body that’s something that is going to be helpful to you as well.
Another option for Article Writing is to introduce a list of items in an intro and write a few sentences expanding on each of those items throughout the article and then concluding. Concluding with a call to action for more information is also a great idea.
Content Rich Articles
Creating content rich articles for your website or blog and for article directories is a great way to increase your online exposure and search engine optimisation as well as writing useful content that will appeal to potential customers.
A well written article could easily result in product sales and one article can be re-tooled into another. You can also re-use your articles for your blogs, special reports, or e-books as well.
See you at the top of Google!
Sean Rasmussen
SEO Australia Pacific
AussieSEO.com © 2007 - 2010
Great article on article writing. I was delighted to discover that I am able to tick all the boxes as I compare your advice with my latest articles.
.-= Wal Heinrich´s last blog ..By: Wal =-.
Good to hear Wal, keep up the great work
Hi Sean,
I find that writing articles and submitting them to the directories gives me a lot more exposure for my site. I find that I get more traffic to my site after each article submission.
Also, I like the backlinks. Some of the article directories have excellent PageRank.
Great to hear it’s working for you Jazz, keep up the good work!
I have started to focus on writing articles that employ a ‘Top 5, Top 10 etc’ theme. I can then write future articles that expand on each of the points making even more unique content.
The team at EZine articles actually have their own blog that is worth reading. They provide some great tips on how to get those creative juices flowing and generate ideas that will keep you writing many articles.
.-= Cemil´s last blog ..Scribe SEO Plugin – Making SEO Easy =-.
I also great emails from Ezine as well about writing for their site – there is some great info in there!
.-= Jayne Pleysier´s last blog ..How A Marketing Service Can Help Your Business Grow =-.
With the exception of being concerned about keyword density, your “Article Writing Basics” covers what was drilled into me over and over during my high school years by my English teacher, Miss Mullett. And possibly the 1960s equivalent of keywords was covered in the concept of reinforcing the concepts of the essay.
As we proceed through the seven weeks of the Learn and Earn competition I hope to get a a better handle on the type of article to submit to different sites such as article directories, Squidoo, Tumbr, etc. The difference between those sites still has me confused as to the style of articles to submit.
.-= Don White´s last blog ..You Cant Throw That Out- =-.
Your experience shows that good writing skills once learned with pen and paper give you a great online advantage
The basics of how we humans want something presented to us obviously has not changed that much over the years, I guess it is mainly the medium we read it from that has changed.
.-= Renee´s last blog ..Self Improvement Books – What Are Your Favourites =-.
That’s right Renee what you say in response to Don – skills in writing don’t just fade away after we leave school etc. Of course if we are also avid readers throughout adulthood, the skills continue to get honed automatically as it were.
I suspect that those of us of an older generation, when English was a top subject at school, can write better than we think – if we give it a go. And, article marketing is a good strategy.
Hi Sean
Creating myself as an authority online is the way I see myself going. That way I am also creating a niche in the market.
The correct understanding and utility of keywords is immensley important and is of itself a real skill yet to be learnedby me, and one I continually strive to conquer.
.-= Elly´s last blog .. =-.
Re keywords – you and me both Elly! I know I should pay more attention to them in my blogs and article summissions to Ezine – but I often forget – I just write away and don’t review for the KWs when I do the spell check!
And, I know it is one of the article writing basics too!
Knowing what you want to get across to your reader is the foundation of article writing , and to be able to do it in an entertaining way is a great benefit.
For some it comes easily while others find it hard, and must keep practicing to get it right. With patience and perseverance you will find your article writing improving with every post.
Hi Rita,
You’re right; it doesn’t come easy to all of us. But, it’s a skill you can learn and with a little persistence; you can get the results you’re after. The most important thing is to hang in there and keep trying.
I still have a long way to go with my writing. But, I think I’m getting better all the time.
.-= Jazz Salinger´s last blog ..Finding Your Passion =-.
The good thing about Article writing is that you don’t have to a ‘trained’ writer or do papers to Masters level academics.
People want to read easy to understand, clear and to the point articles. They are looking for answers or information. If you have that information, then you can write about it.
All you have to do is do a quick outline of what you are going to say – intro, text, summary mainly, and then write it conversationally. Just as if you were chatting to a person in the room with you.
Go to EzineArticles and just browse over some of the submissions in the niche you are interested in – look for writers who have many published – this will give you an idea of style, content etc.
If you find it easier to talk than write – have you considered getting “Dragon Naturally Speaking” – it records what you say and then puts it into document form. No writing!
Hi Sean,
Very useful article, thank-you and great info in the comments as well. I can relate to the experiences expressed. I’ll take Camil’s advice by reading the Ezine blog. The more Article Writing Basics I receive the better.
At school I loved writing stories. Writing becomes easier with practice, as Rita said – the creative juices begin to flow. Thanks to all.
.-= Jill Brown´s last blog ..Couples Marry at Common Law =-.
You are really set if you like writing – that’s more than half the battle done and dusted! You will like Ezinearticles.com – they have 98% of the traffic and Google loves them.
I find article writing doesnt come very naturally to me – mainly because the last job I had was about minimilisation for writing curriculum and syllabus – so everything had to go into dot point – so I became very good at using as few words as possible. I found too that a lot of the areas I have been writing articles on were not natural areas of interest, so I was having to do a lot of research to get good quality information.
I have found a fantastic writer on Elance who now writes my articles in a very similar style to myself so it has been easy to adapt the article to suit KW, SEO etc and found for what she charges it just isnt worth my time now to write my own articles. However, it is something which I still do, not just the masses of articles I initially was writing.
.-= Jayne Pleysier´s last blog ..How A Marketing Service Can Help Your Business Grow =-.