Some people think that in order to benefit from search engine optimisation that they need to go to drastic lengths and take a lot of time to learn how to do it. But, the reality is that you can benefit from just a few simple tips and you can use these tips for your articles as well as your blog posts.
The best way to go is to start by building a big keyword list of words and phrases that are closely related to your niche. Ideally, you will want to find keywords that get at least 1,500 searches a month and no more than 20,000 competitors.
Once you have your keyword list built all you need to do is to pick one keyword per article and / or blog post and write a well written article around that keyword. You should then include the keyword in the title of your article or blog post.
Please do not make the mistake of thinking that the more keywords you include the better. That is called keyword stuffing and it will do far more harm than good. The search engines have remarkably sophisticated algorithms that can pick up on this and your article will be penalized if you try.
Instead use the keyword once in your article or blog post title, once in the first paragraph, once in the last paragraph and once or twice throughout the rest of your article. You want the article to read naturally.
Remember, you aren’t just trying to attract the search engines, you want to make sure your article makes sense for human readers too, actually this should be your main focus. You don’t have to short change your readers just to keep the search engines happy, you can do both.
You want to strive for a keyword density of no more than 3%. Obviously the longer the article the more keywords you can include and still make that 3% goal. I recommend you keep your article and blog posts at about 350 to 500 words in length.
That is the optimum length because it is long enough to allow you to include some useful information without being so long that it turns off any potential readers. If your article is too short it just looks like it is all for the purpose of keyword stuffing and many search engines and article directories don’t appreciate that.
On the other hand, internet surfers are notoriously short on attention span, so to get the most out of your articles you can also include bullet points and keep your paragraphs short and to the point. Also, don’t make your articles too long, over 500 words, or too short, less than 350 words.
There is a lot more you can do with search engine optimization if you want to invest the time and effort. But, for most people just a little knowledge and keyword placement in your articles or blog posts can really help you get more traffic to your website.