Writing for the internet is different from writing for other mediums. It requires the writer to engage readers quickly in order to avoid losing them to another website. But, the readers are only part of the equation. In order to make sure your website is seen in the first place, you must also write to attract the search engines.

Search engines use complicated and frequently changing algorithms to determine how relevant a web page is to any given search term. They then rank the relevant sites from highest to lowest in search results. The popularity of search engines makes them one of the best ways to get traffic, but it is essential to be ranked highly for terms that relate to your site to receive the maximum benefit and traffic. You want to make sure that the traffic coming to your site is targeted to purchasing your product in order to make money. Just getting high traffic is not enough.

While the algorithms used to rank sites are a well-kept secret, there are ways to ensure that your site will be ranked highly for the search terms you choose. These terms, also called keywords, must be placed strategically within your copy so that the search engines will find your page relevant. While this should come naturally to a certain extent it is important to make sure that they are included in a way that optimizes your chances of being ranked highly.

Choosing the Best Keywords

The first thing you must consider when adding keywords to your copy is which keywords to use. Some people make the mistake of using keywords that are not commonly searched. There are keyword selector tools online that can assist you with this. You just enter the keyword you are considering and they will tell you how often it and other related keywords are searched for. Also keep in mind, just because a keyword or phrase is popular doesn’t mean you will rank highly for it. Keep the competition in mind when considering your keywords as well. For instance, if your site is focused on hoodia diet products, you probably will have a hard time ranking high quickly because there are so many sites to compete with.

It is also essential to consider the audience or target market you are looking to attract. Think about who your ideal visitor is then think about what terms that person would use when looking for your web page. These may be less technical or otherwise different from the ones you would use because your ideal visitor may not be as well versed in the subject at hand as you are. Ask some friends what terms they would use to search for a topic. You may have some surprise answers that hit it big for you.

Finally, you can use more than one keyword on a page. It’s a good idea to stick with three or less though. Any more than that will probably look unnatural and make the writing flow poorly. Even though we are trying to rank high in the search engines, it won’t do any good if our visitors won’t read it. lol

Incorporating the Keywords Into Your Writing

If you choose the correct keywords it shouldn’t be very difficult to make them fit into your copy. The easiest way to do so is to write the copy as you normally would remembering to use the specific keyword you’re targeting instead of any synonyms you might otherwise use. When you’re done go through and see how many times you used the keywords. If they don’t make up about 3-5% of the total number of words used go back and add them in a few more times where appropriate.

Try to use keywords in headings where appropriate. The search engines look favorably on keywords used in this manner and may consider the page more relevant when found there. Using them as linking text is also thought to earn brownie points with the search engines.

Using the right keywords is essential if you are looking for good placement in the search engines. Working these keywords into your copy should be fairly easy. If you have chosen terms that fit with the subject at hand you will be able to incorporate them into your writing without much effort.

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