Writing for the web
Free information on how to write effectively.
Writing Articles for Search Engine Optimisation
One of the most important activities within any SEO campaign is link building. The number of backlinks into a website can have a dramatic effect on organic rankings given by the search engines. However, it is not the sheer quantity of links that is important but the quality of the links. For example, sites linking in with a high Google PageRank (PR5+) or those from authoritative domains (such as .gov), are far more desirable and are viewed positively by the search engines. It is also important to have backlinks that are relevant to your website rather than random links that will provide little “link juice” value to a site.
Online article syndication is an excellent way to generate good quality backlinks as, by their very nature, they contain links back to your site. It involves creating articles that are not a direct promotion of a company’s web site; they are written to provide topical, informative and valuable content that will appeal to online users. Successful articles can go viral and will be republished across the Internet generating, potentially, vast numbers of backlinks to your site.
Create SEO Friendly Articles
1. Choose the right topic.
Take a look at your website’s content and any keyword search terms that are relevant to your site as this will enable you to write a targeted, keyword rich article. By listening to the views of your customers and being aware of online “conversations” centred on your Brand, you may be able to identify suitable topics that are relevant to your customers or your website. If you have an SEO strategy in place, write articles based on your particular identified keyword search terms to maximise the SEO benefits.
It is important to get the tone of your article right. This will be largely dependent on the topic that you have chosen but the tone can have a big effect on how the article is perceived by the user online and its subsequent popularity.
2. Optimise the Article for SEO
Whilst your content must engage with the user, it is important to ensure that it is optimised for SEO. This involves:
- Adding the right meta data
- Correct use of headings and image tags
- Ensuring the title is keyword rich
- Careful inclusion of selected keyword phrases
- Adding in links into the article body back to your company, where appropriate, and additional links to other sites of interest.
- Creating an “About the Author” section that will link back to your site.
Once the article has been written and optimised, the next step is to publish it online.
3. Publishing Your Article
To give your article authority, you must first publish it on your own website. This in itself has SEO benefits as it is viewed by the search engines as fresh content on your site.
Once the article is live on your website, wait for Google to index the page before you go ahead and publish in through the online syndicates. You can check that the page has been indexed by selecting a sentence from your article and typing it into Google using quotation marks at the beginning and end of your sentence. Google will then return the landing page on your site if it has been indexed.
There are hundreds on online article directories to use when submitting your article but it is best to be selective to ensure that the backlinks that you generate are quality links. Each directory will have its own submission guidelines which you must adhere to when publishing your article and the majority are free to use.
I would recommend submitting to article sites with a Google PR of 5 or above initially as these will bring the most benefit to your link building activities, moving on to lower PR sites thereafter.
Each article is usually reviewed by an editor before it goes live and this process can take anything from one hour to a week. Once published, you will receive an email to confirm that your article is live.
4. The Results
The results of publishing an article online can take a few weeks to become apparent but the level of backlinks that they generate is pleasantly surprising.
As an example of what to expect, we recently submitted an article for a client to around 10 article sites back in mid October 2010. After performing a search on Google today using a specifically selected part of the article, the search engine returned 56 results across a wide range of sites demonstrating that the article is being republished and is generating further links back into the client’s site.
Many of the article sites provide statistics for your articles so you can monitor certain factors such as the number of times the article has been viewed, and how many viewers clicked through to your web site. This will give you an indication of the popularity of your article and might assist you in improving subsequent articles based on the feedback provided.
About The Author
Essex based Web Elegance Web design provides a web development service with a focus on effectiveness. We create accessible web sites meeting W3C and DDA requirements, ensuring the widest possible audience. Our sites are optimised through solid design giving a fantastic return on investment, and our Search Engine Optimisation service will get your site where you want it to be across the major search engines.
