Maximizing Keyword Research For Article Writers

If you write articles, you probably know how important it is to use keywords in helping to get them indexed by search engines, and in getting the attention of publishers who might want to use your content.

Most people submit articles to directories while maintaining a copy on their website, often creating two nearly identical copies on the web. But is this really an effective approach? When a web user is looking for an article to read - do you want them to read it from your website, or from the article directory?

Here are some considerations:

- You want to get maximum exposure in article directories so that publishers will pick up the content.

- You want to get top ranking in search engines to pull in traffic.

- You don't want the article directory's copy of your article to have a higher ranking in search engines than the copy on your website. When this happens, they get all the benefits of having their Adsense ads clicked on among other links on the site. Considering your link in the article is often at the bottom of the page, your chances of the visitor going to your site is cut dramatically.

You essentially have 2 kinds of traffic: general web users looking for information & publishers looking for content. The goal is to find a strategy where you can direct web users to your site, and let article directories be the targeting source for publishers.

So, what is the solution?

In my own experiments, I learned that by creating two sets of keywords (one set for the directory copy, another set for the copy on my site), I could not only tackle these issues - it actually gave me the advantage of creating a much wider reach in the search engines.

The Strategy:

1. Keywords For Articles In Directories My goal is to get the interest of publishers who will want to distribute my content so I'm going to focus on keywords and keyphrases which are most likely to be used. For example, the publisher might be interested in articles about "Adsense". Unlike the average web surfer, publishers aren't using long phrases, likely not making typos and will use more specific terms so that they have the best results. Publishers aren't looking for the information to benefit them, they are looking for content which benefits their own readers. This sets them apart from the general web surfing population.

My article keywords start off with the top priority keywords, followed by less used ones.

Example: "adsense, google, google adsense, adsense tips, adsense google, adsense tricks, adsense articles, adsense article, articles about adsense"

If in doubt, think about what kinds of keywords you would use (or do use) when searching for articles to republish.

2. Keywords for articles on your website This is where it gets good. I use this method for articles I write on another website and it's very powerful. You can find some free and low-cost keyword tools here: http://www.carolenickerson.com/post/index/19/10-Free-Keyword-Analysis--Search-Tools

You're looking for targeted low-competing keywords. Basically, this means keywords and keyphrases which have little competition in the search engines. Anything with less than 600,000 competing websites is a worthy target. Here are some examples along with competition stats (as of the writing of this article & based on Google competition stats) :

- "google adsense tips techniques start" has 0 sites competing for this phrase

- "where to place goggle adsense" has 1 site competing for this phrase

- "What are the best web sites for making money with AdSense" has 0 sites competing

- "sites making a lot with adsense" has 0 sites competing

- "free adsense research tools" has 19 sites competing

There are many, many more you can find and different ways of analyzing their potential with just a few minutes of work, but you get the point.

Now you want to put them to use. Just like in an article directory, you're going to put your low-competition keywords at the bottom of the article. I put mine underneath my resource box. 10-15 keywords or keyphrases works good. But something else is happening here too - more instances of the keyword "Adsense" are appearing on the page, thus enhancing keyword density.

Really, you're killing 4 birds with one stone:

- You're giving yourself a unique advantage over article directories which have copies of your content. No need to worry about them getting all the search engine traffic (general users) and stealing it away from you.

- You're increasing your search engine rank through greater keyword density and getting a larger reach through keyphrases actually used by web surfers.

- You're reaching article publishers more effectively by mainly focusing on the keywords and keyphrases they are using - not what the general user population uses.

- You're also getting a major advantage over other websites listed in the search engines, allowing you to compete not just with low-competing keywords and keyphrases, but with higher-competing terms as well. You might be surprised how a single page on your site will jump to the top 1-10 results among 100,000's of other websites.

Good Luck!