Writing articles is essential if you want to promote your products and services online. It allows you to insert the links to your website somewhere in the article. When people find the article enticing, they might decide to click the link and find out more about the products and services offered. The good thing is that you can work with a Virginia SEO Company if you need help in this regard. Even if you’re an excellent writer, it won’t guarantee that you can do SEO articles correctly. These tips are worth considering so you can come up with an article that’s easy to read, and will rank high in search engines.
Start with keyword research
The goal of SEO writing is that when people type a keyword in Google, your website will appear on the first pages. No one views sites appearing several pages back. Apart from exhausting to dig through those pages, they’re probably irrelevant. When writing an SEO article, you have to optimize the right keyword. It shouldn’t be too popular that you have to compete with authority websites, but not too unpopular that no one is searching for that keyword anymore.
Don’t flood the article with keywords
Make sure you place the keyword naturally within the article. If it appears several times, it will look weird. Search engines will also look at it as an attempt to rig the system. Instead of ranking high, you end up getting penalized. It means that your article could get pushed back farther behind. In a 500-word article, the keyword or a variation of it should appear twice.
Write something that benefits your readers
SEO writing isn’t a promotional article. You don’t talk about your products all the time. It’s not an opportunity to discuss every detail. There are other platforms where you can do it. On your website or social media pages, you can have a post providing details regarding the specifics of what you’re selling. SEO articles must contain information people care about. You have to write about the benefits, pros and cons, tips, and other useful details. They will appeal to general audiences. You also increase the chances of people seeing the link you embedded within your article. Seeing ads everywhere can be annoying. If you include them in the articles written, you might lose potential customers.
Make sure the article is perfect
Before you publish an article, it has to go through a lengthy process. It’s the same as any other publication. You have to check if the grammar is perfect. You also need to double-check the spelling of words, use of punctuation, and other details. Factual accuracy needs to be a priority. In the age of fake news, one inaccurate or misleading information could make people distrust everything you write. They will automatically discredit anything that comes from you. The article has to go through several editors first for verification before going live.
Acknowledge mistakes
Although you have edited the article several times, it doesn’t mean it’s perfect. There could still be some mistakes. Some of them are major problems that could mislead or even offend a certain group of people. As soon as you’ve learned about these complaints, you have to take the article down and conduct an investigation. Find out how such a mistake happened. Publicly apologize and promise that the same mistake won’t happen again.
Be consistent
When you use article marketing as a strategy, you have to be consistent. You can’t put out one article this week, and the next one will be released the following month. You’re not running a magazine publishing company. You also don’t need to spend money to hit send and publish the article. You can do it as often as possible across different platforms, including article directories. You need to keep everyone engaged. If your target audience loses interest, it’s hard to win them back. However, be careful not to rush the process for the sake of doing it. It would help if you still went through the usual steps before publishing the article.
Engage with your audience
Once the article has been published, the next step is to engage with the readers. Make sure they keep reading other posts in the future. You should also respond to comments and suggestions. If there are private messages and inquiries, you have to reply to them. These are positive signs. It shows that people liked what they read and would want to know more.
Monitor your posts
Find out if the articles you wrote became a hit. If they do, you need to analyze them further. Determine the qualities that made the article popular and try to replicate them in the future. If you committed mistakes, identify them to prevent a repeat.
Make headlines interesting
The first thing people would see upon typing the keyword in search engines is the headline. Make sure it’s interesting enough so that anyone would click the link and read more. If it’s too boring or irrelevant, your page’s appearance on search engines wouldn’t matter. However, be careful not to use click baits. People are becoming more aware of click baits. They also remember the sites using this strategy. In the future, they won’t trust you again. They will skip your website and look for other trustworthy pages. You will regret that you even used this strategy at all.
Keep trying
You can’t expect your strategies to work overnight. It takes time to rank high in search engines, and you might have to wait for months or even years to compete against top websites. It entails several articles and constant monitoring. You shouldn’t give up if you believe your efforts aren’t bearing fruits. After some time, you will get the hang of it. You can do a better job, and your articles will rank higher in search engines.
Ranking high in search engines is just the first step. There are plenty more steps to take before you get to the top. Wait until these clicks become actual sales. Don’t hesitate to let experts take the lead and help out.