Keyboard For Article WritingWhen it comes to good grass roots internet marketing there are no magic bullets. Much of real SEO is not smoke and mirrors or magic tricks but simple execution of a few basic processes that are formed around a particular marketing strategy. Over time if the strategy is successful authority is established. Learning how to write or create content in an SEO friendly manner will help you become more authoritative. Here some quick tips on how to write an SEO friendly article.

First, What is an SEO friendly article?

Well it will be much easier to start by telling you what it is not. It is not an article that is stuffed with so many keywords and links that people give up on reading it.  Nor is it an article that was written in English, translated to French, then Italian, and back to English. (if that hits home because you got duped, or duped someone into one of those $499 training courses, that’s for you!) It’s also not a copy of some other authors article with a new title and a few extra words thrown in to cover it up. That’s still blatant plagiarism.

What it is, what it is.

An SEO friendly article is a well thought out, honestly original piece of editorial content that is somewhat focused around your marketing strategy. For example, if you were in the Jelly Bean business an article that discussed how to make a perfectly black black licorice jellybean might be relevant to the business. Including the word Jelly Bean a couple of times would be perfectly natural. Adding it to every sentence does not make for a quality article. If the article made a pitch about why your jelly beans are the best, that’s ok , you probably should add that in,  just don’t hammer it to death.

The point is for the piece to be truly natural. Most of the time the mere fact that your article exists is better than if it didn’t at all but there is another more important reason to stay natural. It’s the marketability of the content. That’s what your really after with SEO friendly content. If its a winner the editorial will help to accelerate any successful SEO strategy. If it’s engaging and relevant you might get “buy in” from others. They will link to it, tell other people about it who might tweet about it, maybe even throw it on their Facebook wall.  Hell, the entire high school mob might pick it up run with it. That never happens when you publish a pile of garbage and on top of that almost every human being has the ability to see right through it.

Tips to get you started.

  1. Pick a Worthy Title- Your title should be catchy and related to your goal. (that means include some targeted keywords)
  2. Write the way people talk- This is very important to get buy in. Very rarely is a frigid, technical article passed around. Never write the way things are written in a text book. It’s hard to master, but you gotta do it!
  3. Include a keyword or two- Pick some keywords and phrases related to your goal. Remember you don’t get a point each time use it so keep it natural. You should  underline , italic or bold it if it’s important or necessary to the paragraph or sentence (see jelly bean above)
  4. Spice it up! – add charts, videos, and images to go with your quality content
  5. Give Credit Where Credit is Due – don’t forget to list your sources or provide author information when you quote someone else.
  6. Give and Take – Use anchor text in a couple of links as a road map. Anchor text that reads SEO Services and links to a seo services site is perfect where anchor text that reads Jelly Bean and then links to an Ice Cream website is probably not proper. (It may help the ice cream site rank in the search engines for Jelly Bean, but users will be pissed if there aren’t any jelly beans to be had. ) Don’t be afraid to link to something useful that drives the point home. For example if your talking about an IRS form in detail. link to it.
  7. Add Some Technical Stuff-
    1. if you can use an <h1> do it. Just make sure its the only one on the page. It never hurts.
    2. If you spiced it up,  make sure you include  alt tags that are relevant. (calling an image of a person a “Cell Phone Accessory” is not ok)
    3. Add an improvise to anything on the list to fit your strategy.

That’s the long and the short of it. Now you can write a Search Engine Optimization friendly article the right way.