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Posts in category Article Marketing

SEO Headlines – Is Your Hook Baited to Catch Your Prey?

Feb24
2012 Written by Tess

Content MarketingIn writing web pages, blog posts, articles and other content, your headling or title is your hook, so to speak.  Is the bait you’re setting catching its prey?  By prey, we’re talking about your target audience, those who are in need of your product or service.  Without an attention-grabbing headline, your content is bound to fall flat.  Who wants to go any farther, when the title (or headline) itself is enough to put the reader to sleep?

Your titles and headings should be provocative, compelling, sometimes even a little sexy.  If you write your own content for your online business, you must learn how to create words that draw the reader a little farther.  First, you want a great title that compels a prospective customer to read further.  Once the reader is enticed by your headline, the job of the first few sentences is to keep the reader “hooked,” so that he/she will continue reading to learn more.

Consumers are hungry for information about and solutions to their pain/problem.  Always keep in mind while writing website pages, articles or blog posts that you must appeal to the reader, not go on about yourself or your business.  As hurtful as it may be, people want to know what you can do to help them; they’re really not at all interested in what YOU want.  Provide solutions and value to your reader in a way that convinces him or her that you know exactly how he/she feels, and that you can solve that need.

Now to the SEO aspect of writing content.  Do you really need to utilize SEO concepts in your writing, or is that old news, something that is no longer necessary?  The truth is, you DO need to use targeted keywords and phrases in your writing, but your first priority should be to write for your readers, not search engines.  Typically, you will find that when you’re writing about a certain topic, keywords naturally fall into place without you focusing your efforts in that direction.  Write naturally, always with the needs of the reader in mind – and you’ll succeed every time.

Sure, it can be tough to use keywords in your title or headline when you’re trying to write a sizzling, attention-grabbing title – but it can be done!  Here is a quick example:

SEO Content Writing, and Why Your Business Needs It

SEO Content Writing Takes Your Business From Fizzle to Sizzle!

It’s easy to discern what the keywords are, but which headline would capture your attention?  With a little creativity, you can come up with killer titles.

Whether you write your own content or hire SEO copywriting services to do it for you, always remember that content is what sells – and if your “hook” (headline) isn’t catching your prey, the rest is really a non-issue, isn’t it?

Posted in Blogging, SEO Copywriting

Still Using Article Directories to Build Traffic and Page Rank? Why You May Want to Re-Think Your Strategy

Feb17
2012 Written by Tess

Article MarketingUntil recently with the Google Panda update, several article directories ranked highly with the search engines.  Prior to the algorithm changes, many marketers were using article directories to drive instant traffic to their websites and help increase page rank.  When you think about it, this wasn’t really a very smart move for marketers.  Why?  Because in doing so, article directories were getting all of the Google love, while the marketers’ own sites still floundered by the wayside.

Posting original articles to directories before you post them on your own website is a huge mistake – here’s why

By submitting your articles to directories first, they essentially “get credit” for that article; the directory is the first place that search engines detect the article, instead of your website.  Always place your article on your own website first, then wait until it has been indexed by the search engines before submitting to directories.  This way, search engines “see” fresh, unique content on your website when they crawl it, content that is original and not already posted on another site.

Here’s another little tidbit of information that may come as a surprise to you if you are an article marketer who relies on directories for backlinks:  Because a directory has a page rank of 6 (for their home page) does NOT mean you will have a strong PR6 link pointing to your website!  The page on the directory where your article gets posted (and where your keyword text link points back to your site) will have a page rank of 0!  Now THAT’S food for thought . . .

Article directories are for syndication purposes, not article marketing

Originally, article directories were meant to be a place where other website owners could go to find new content for their websites that was relevant to their niche.  Nowadays, marketers use directories for all the wrong reasons.  Many work themselves into a frenzy trying to write 5 or even 10 articles each day, hoping to drive hordes of traffic to their blogs and websites via articles.  This is all wrong!  If marketers were to work as hard writing quality content that is well-optimized for their own websites, they would enjoy much greater success.

Not to say that submitting articles to directories is all wrong, but place your content on your own website first.  When you do place an article on a directory such as Ezine Articles, make sure it is your best work – only so that other website owners will want to pick it up for their own site, which will essentially drive traffic to YOUR website from theirs.

If you’re still using article directories to drive “instant” traffic, re-think your strategy.  Work smarter, not harder!  And also, think long-term success instead of instant gratification.  Use article directories for their intended use (syndication), and propel your own website to a whole new level by adding fresh, original content often.  Think of it this way; by placing your articles on your own website, you’re building your own real estate in cyberspace rather than the real estate of the directories.

Posted in Article Directories

Article Marketing & SEO: Why What You’re Doing May Be Sabotaging Your Success

Feb12
2012 Written by Tess

Article marketing & SEOWhat is article marketing, really?  In recent years, many new (and not so new) online  marketers have relied on article marketing for SEO purposes, to drive targeted traffic and increase page rank.  However, many people have a misconception about how and why article marketing works.  Much of this confusion is due to information found on marketing forums and blogs related to SEO and internet marketing.  If you think you’re doing it right, you may actually have it all wrong!  Why?

Article Directories and Their Intended Purpose

Many online marketers believe that writing as many articles as possible and submitting them to top article directories will help improve page ranking and drive targeted traffic – and that’s true, to some extent.  Most article directories allow you to place a text link in your author signature box; this text is usually a keyword or keyword phrase to help a particular page of your website rank for that keyword.  So, what’s wrong with this picture?

Article directories should be used to post your best work, so that your content is syndicated.  This simply means that other website owners will want to use your articles on their own sites, because of their quality and informational value.  When other websites post your articles, you gain one-way incoming links to your website coming from many other sources, and not just the directory itself.  If you’re posting articles to various article directories simply to get links from the directory, you’re shooting yourself in the foot, so to speak.  Why?

SEO Involves Building Your Own Real Estate, Not The Article Directories’

Posting your articles to the directories for syndication purposes is fine; however, if you’re simply using the directories to build thousands of back links you’re making a mistake.  Many marketers mistakenly assume that placing an article on a page rank 6 article directory will give them a PR6 link coming into their site.  This is not true!  You’re article will be posted on a page of its own, within the article directory – and the page rank will likely be a 0, perhaps a 1 at most.

For search engine optimization purposes, you should be building your own real estate.  This means that the articles you write should be posted on your own website first, and indexed before you submit them to the directories.  By posting your articles to the directories first, search engines give credit to the article directory.  Essentially, you are helping the directories expand their real estate and increase their standings with the search engines!

Article marketing is one huge aspect of SEO, but make sure you’re doing it right.  Instead of focusing on writing all of the articles you can for submission to directories, strategically plan for the best way to put your content in front of your target audience.  Offer an article to relevant blogs in your niche for posting, as long as the owner will allow you to link back to your site.  Always put your articles on your own blogs and websites first.  Make sure that you write high-quality content so that when you do submit to directories (after the article has been indexed on your own site), other website owners will pick them up for their own websites.

When it comes to article marketing, be smart.  Don’t let the directories get the credit for all of your hard work!  Search engines love content, so keep building your own website out with exceptional quality, informative and original articles.

Posted in SEO content writing