someone else do the writing, article writing has changed substantially following
the recent Google updates. Now, it's no longer about "perfectly optimized"
content; it's about quality, uniqueness and giving the reader the best possible
experience. Are you (or your content writer) still zeroed in on keyword
optimization? If you are, you may want to re-think the way you approach
writing content, whether it's articles, blog posts or website pages.
Sure, it's still important to use keywords. After all, without them the
search engines would not find your article or website page when a user searches
for the product or service you have to offer. Still, it's important today
that you don't overdo it or resort to "keyword stuffing," as this is frowned
upon by Google. Ideally, you want to use your keyword in your title and in
your first sentence. Truthfully, that is sufficient to let search engines
know what your content is about.
In past years, many writers have worried incessantly about keyword density,
and whether it should be 3%, 5% or even 10% (which I always thought was
excessive). Today, it's no longer important to worry about density.
Think more about delivering value and quality to your reader. When you're
writing about a certain topic, keywords tend to fall in naturally - and the
synonyms and derivatives of your keywords will only help your content rank
better with the search engines.
The context of your article should be such that it's easy for Google to
determine what you're content is about regardless of how many times your keyword
is in your article. Many words have multiple meanings, so it's important
that the story you tell around your keywords define what it is you're writing
about.
In the aftermath of Google's Panda and Penguin updates, those who write for
search engines instead of people are essentially penalized. What this
means is that content that is highly optimized along with meta keyword tags,
title tags, etc. may drop from the rankings, simply because they're designed not
to offer value to real people, but attract the attention of the search
engines.
To sum it all up, article writing today is all about delivering real value to
your reader, and not the same old information that has been rehashed a dozen
different ways on other websites and blogs. Write naturally, think along
the lines of what you would want to learn or know if you were the reader,
instead of the one writing the content. Do this, and your articles will be
a success every time!