Effective Copywriting SEO for Articles

Since Google’s Panda update, most people think that article writing has lost its effectiveness when it comes to ranking on google or other search engines.

Nothing could be further from the truth than that.

You see, keyword stuffing was the norm back then and there were so many articles which didn’t make any sense at all and article directories which ranked.

This potent combination lowered the quality of the content and the overall SEO process was now being abused by everyone who could get his or her results on these “article mills”.

This process is now referred to as “Keyword stuffing”.

This happens when you write as many of the selected keywords into one article so as to gain ranking within the search engines.

As such, SEO Copywriting as a service became bastardized and most people couldn’t get exactly what they were searching for which led to lots of frustration.

These days, if you even try it once, you become penalized or at worst get banned from being indexed by the search engines altogether.

It is frustrating to see when you’re searching for relevant results content which has so many of the same keywords over and over again.

What’s the Way Out?

While it is important to carefully put your keywords in relevant places within your article, the most important issues to consider when writing great copy as regards SEO are the following:

Your Article Must Inform

We are in the information age!

Any article which does not serve any unique purpose is usually not looked at as useful; either to the search engines or to those that use them.

You must, as a matter of fact, make sure that your article either

• Solves a problem,
• Answers a question,

or

• Provides information,

Once you get these three things in order, then you’re on your way to being an effective copywriter!

 

Your Article Must be Unique

If your article isn’t unique (that is if you copy from others which is a serious issue and a crime by the way), you will not only get penalized by the search engines but also by the public and even the clients who may have hired you to write for them.

Uniqueness also tells the search engines that your work is worth it.

It also ensures that readers will be able to connect with your article and engage on the various platform where you will release the articles.

You must also have a strong emotional component written within the “flow” of your article.

This is because people buy based on emotion and not on logic.

Engagement is key to making sales!

Your Article Must be Well-Written

While you’re certainly not Shakespeare or Hemmingway, you should still be able to write a decent article.

This is to make sure that your article passes the message which you’re trying to portray clearly and simply.

Quality is key when writing great articles for SEO.

These days, even the search engines are sensitive to poorly written articles.

The Best Way of Writing an Article for SEO

In order to ensure that you get the best results from your article, you should follow the following process:

• Choose the subject and the style of writing,
• Do your Keyword research,
• Make sure you write the article,
• Revise the article,
• Choose the title,

If You follow these simple steps, you are sure never to go wrong!

More Importantly, you will get the right kind of rankings and engagement.

 

Choose the Subject and the Style of Writing

When it comes to choosing a subject for your article, you have to work within the context of what is relevant.

If you have been hired by a client or just want to write for yourself, you still must look at it this way.

In choosing your subject, you must find a way to make sure that the relevance of the subject you’re writing corresponds with the business needs of either yourself or the client.

For example, if you’re writing for a Dentist, you could be looking at “the best ways of brushing your teeth”.

That is one effective subject for those within the dental health line or related industries.

Your style of writing has more to do with delivery and response of the reader than anything else.

Also, the sector you’re writing for is important as well.

If it’s for a formal or educational sector, then a formal style is required and compulsory.

On the other hand, if it’s for the informal sector or just for everyday readers, you can be semi-formal or totally informal in your approach.

Do Your Keyword Research

Keyword research is one of the most important activities to consider when writing articles for effective SEO.

This is the foundation which is needed for the search engines to know that your article exists.

While Google and other search engines look for over 200 ranking factors in order to rank sites and content, keywords shall always be in the top three.

Some of the best tools for this are listed below.

Ubersuggest

Ubersuggest is one of the best tools you could use to do this.

Ubersuggest as a tool helps you to know which direction to go when you’re doing your research.

If you’re searching for say,” wedding planners in Lagos”, ubersuggest will give you different combinations by relevance on what keywords you could use in your article.

Best of all Ubersuggest is free.

You can also use ubbersuggest to search for specific areas of the internet where the keyword is relevant.

YouTube, the web, or even shopping for instance.

Another tool to use is the Google AdWords Keyword Planner.

This tool can be accessed when you sign up for Google AdWords.

Specific metrics such as monthly search volume, analytics and other highly relevant specifics which can be used to measure how best keywords can be used are available in the user area (once you have signed up for the AdWords program).

In order to determine the keywords of your competitors (other websites within the same niche or niche), Mozilla’s Firefox Browser has an extension called Kgen which is used to analyze the webpages of other competitors.

Once you get the list of keywords and have analyzed what specifically what your competitors are up to, then you have to come up with a list of keywords which are related both directly and indirectly to the main set of keywords.

We draw specifically from the example given earlier “Wedding Photographers in Lagos”.

Our keywords hence will be the following.

• Event Planners for Wedding in Lagos
• Lagos photographers
• Wedding caterers in Lagos
• Wedding Planners in Lagos
• Top Wedding photographers in Nigeria
• Photography Studios in Lagos
• Price of Wedding Photography in Lagos
• Wedding Photography Packages in Nigeria

So, if you’re going to write your article, you’re going to write your article and insert your keywords (both specific and generic) throughout the article but mostly at the top the article (the title of the article and at the first and second paragraphs).

An example of a great article which would have great SEO value will be the following:

Who are the Best Wedding Photographers in Lagos?

The best wedding photographers in Lagos aren’t hard to find.

The way it is some of the most affordable wedding photography packages in Nigeria can even be found in Lagos.

From the caterers to the event planners, and even the general photographers who aren’t necessarily wedding photographers, one can find out that Lagos is full of the best professionals who can make any wedding a resounding success.

Weddings are supposed to happen once in a lifetime.  

So it is important that they must be treated as such.

Making anyone’s wedding to become a true success is the priority of the best Lagos wedding photographers.

So in answer to the question in the title, the best wedding photographers aren’t any specific set of individuals; they can be found anywhere!

Just ask the happiest couple you know!

 

You can see from the sample text that the use of the generic and specific keywords flowed fluidly and that the use of keywords was seamless.

This sort of creativity in such a way that the written text makes absolute sense without the stuffing of keywords is the kind of thing that makes for a great SEO enabled article.

What Next?

After writing that article you would have to get it out there.

The first place, of course, would be on your website or blog; or on the website or the blog of the individual or firm that hired you.

The next set of places that you could submit your articles include but are not limited to

• Forums which are great for backlinks; the naturally occurring ones,
• Article Directories which don’t break the rules,
• Social media can create all sorts of inbound links which are favorable to the search engines. Social media emit what is commonly referred to as social signals which send a sign to the search engines that content emitting from a certain website is worth ranking thereby causing the rankings to improve organically.
• Other blogs, websites or pages which allow you to post your content,

One Last Issue to Note

As a matter of principle, you don’t promote any financial links for yourself and your business or the business you’re writing about in the middle of the thumb.

It’s considered impolite and will even turn several of your users off who may stop reading article altogether.

The bio or resource box is the perfect place for that sort of thing.

There you can put all the information you want.

The only other way that inserting promotional links for articles can work is if it is the solution to the problem you’re writing about or if it is a core part of the recommendations you’re making.

If the commercial link cannot occur organically within your article then it’s of no use being in the article in the first place.

 

So there you have it. The most effective way of copywriting SEO for articles is all about being natural and original in your writing.

That way, the more people are interested in your article, the more search engines will be too.

Do you know of any other ways, means, and methods which articles can become more relevant in Search Engine Result Pages?

Please let us know in the Comments below!