Write for readers, not for search engines!

[The-Text-Factory]

Hi all,

I am new to the forum, and I'm not an affiliate, but I am a writer, and I do practically live on the web. In fact, I find out everything online!

What I've noticed, both in my profession as a writer, and as a web surfer, is that a lot of people tend to post sales-y, keyword dense articles, which I suppose is great for search engines. I also write a lot of them, and that pays the bills for me.

However, when I look for information in my personal capacity, I always shy away from articles that look like they're trying to sell me something, or that are so full of keywords that they don't make sense.

Don't even get me started on the articles that look like they've been written by someone who's never read, let alone written English!

Bottom line here is this: If you want people to read all the way to your author box, and your link, you need to write articles that are interesting to actual humans. After all, they're the one's who are going to be buying from you!

Hope that helps a little, but please feel free to share your views - I am here to learn!

Ciao,

Tamara

 

[brandonmofiki]

Agreed although with the massive size of the net you have to keep engines happy to an extent otherwise nobody would see what you write. Better to find me and be critical than never know I exist. Although I am a Web Developer so I am partial to the code and do find myself pushing the end user to the curb if i'm not careful.

 

[The-Text-Factory]

Hi Brandon,

I agree that SEO and keywords are important, but there's a balance that you need to find.

If no one reads far enough to click your link, your article is just taking up space!

Not to mention that search engines work best with a keyword density of 2-3%, so keyword stuffing is pointless anyway!

I've seen some putrid articles in my time, that I had to rewrite, because all they were were vehicles for keywords, and had zero value of their own.

 

[djbaxter]

Actually, I don't think there is any "percent" when it comes to keywords in content.

However, Tamara is correct. You don't need to write a blatant sales pitch to create an article containing your keywords. Indeed, you'll probably both rank better and get more conversions (i.e., more people will actually read your article) if you write it naturally and blend your keywords into well-written prose.

And don't forget the benefits of "long-tail" searches: Not everyone who winds up oin your page will be searching using what you think are your primary keywords.

 

[The-Text-Factory]

Thank you minstrel!

As I understand it, article marketing is about establishing yourself as an expert in the field. If your article is poorly written, or does not make sense because you're just ramming in keywords, you're not doing that!

A lot of my clients have a formula for keywords: once in the title, once in the first paragraph, once or twice in the middle, and once in the last paragraph.

Many of them also have 'secondary' keywords, that are used once or twice in an article, but only where they would be natural to use.

I do get lots of repeat clients, so that must work!

Ciao,

Tamara