Content Management - Article Preparation

Part 2 of a 3 part SEO Article Strategy

In part one of our SEO Article Creation Lesson we talked about preparing seo articles for your product or service relative to your website. Once you have created the SEO articles in the previous lesson, there are a few things that we need to dress up on each of articles created to prepare them for submission. As part of a SEO Article Preparation Strategy, it is important to follow the guidelines below for all SEO articles written.


SEO Article Preparation Strategy 1 - Ever seen an article with nothing but just text? BORING! Before placing any article on a website or ezine directory we need to properly prepare your seo article. Article Preparation is a very important step and if missed can seriously hurt your SEO Article Campaign.

Start by adding simple imagery to your page content that represents your topic and illustrates your overall goal of the article. This brings your article together in a professional manner that says "you spent some time and energy to produce your search engine optimization article". It also lends credibility and ads flair. People are drawn into things visually! Capitalize on that...

SEO Article Preparation Strategy 2 - Use bullet points to help emphasize your key points.

• Creating quick points to a paragraphs topic lets the readers know exactly what they are getting or what that paragraph is about.

• Bullet points bring a different degree of visual curiosity that grabs readers attention.

• Bulleting can add a certain hype to a product if each bullet point lists out all the products functionality.

• Bulleting can add a certain hype to a service if each bullet point lists out all the advantages to that service.

SEO Article Preparation Strategy 3 - Use H-Tags, Colors, Bold, Italics and underline features. Using these practices correctly can really make an article stand out

Lets talk about the layout of your SEO article real quick. The title of your article needs to use your H1 Tag. Search Engines place relevance to these tags. As you get to different sections you will use your H2 - H3 - H4 and so on. Its important that you do not skip or get your h-tags out of order.

Second, your title to your Intro can use the H2 Tag and then a 2-3 sentence introduction as to what your article is about. To follow up, use a title to represent your body and conclusion paragraphs and use your remaing h-tags. You can use multiple h-tags as long as you dont get them out of order. For example, you can use your H1, then your H2, then H3, another H3 and then your H4. Use what you want, just keep them in order.

The third item is the body of your content. The actual article itself. As explained above we will be using images, bullet points, bold text, color, italics, and underline features to grab your target audiences attention. These strategies help to ensure your article is getting read.

The final step of your writing your article is the conclusion/resource box.

If you want to really make your article "SELL" and or to "DRIVE TRAFFIC" then you've got to create a simple RESOURCE BOX that will be placed at the bottom of each article. This is the "author bio and conclusion" that is below your article body and it's also known as your "SIG" (short for SIGnature).

Here are the essential items that should be in your RESOURCE BOX:

• Your Name: You'd be amazed at how many folks forget to include their name in the RESOURCE BOX. Your name and optional title should be the first thing in your resource box.

• Your Website Address: use a valid URL form. Example: http://www.your-website.com/ or the correct link to the specific product or service you are writing about. Example: http://www.your-website.com/makeup.html

• Article Resources: provide links to the resources (websites or other articles on the web) that you used in the creation of your article. Its always important to give credit where credit is do.

• Your Final Conclusion/Pitch: This is 1 to 3 sentences that encapsulates the essence of what makes you and your offering unique. Also known as your USP (Unique Selling Proposition).

• Your Call To Action: You've got them warmed up and now it's time to lead them to BUY from you or visit your website. This is where you "Ask For The Sale." Best to only give (1) specific call to action.

Here are some optional items you could include in your RESOURCE BOX:

• Your Ezine Subscription Address: While getting your interested visitor to surf your website is nice, capturing their email address can help you begin the confidence/trust process. If you're going to do this strategy, include a URL for your ezine subscription address and do not use an email address for the "join" address.

• Your Contact Information: Such as your business phone number or how to reach you for interviews or your press/media kit. Keep in mind that article marketing is a timeless strategy and you may not have an easy ability to retract what you put in your article once it hits major distribution.

• A Free Report: This could also be part of your call to action or your free bonus report that further enhances your credibility as the expert on the topic of your article.

• An anchor URL that is related to one keyword or keyword phrase that you want to build SEO strength for. Example: if I wanted to build search engine relevance/strength for the term "SEO Article Marketing," I'd link up that term in my resource box to my website. This is an intermediate to advanced level strategy and should not be abused by over-doing it. Keep it simple.

What NOT to include in your RESOURCE BOX:

• A listing of every website you own. There is no faster way to dilute your credibility than by posting a half dozen irrelevant URLs that have nothing to do with each other. Best to only post ONE URL that is related to the topic of your article.

• A listing of every accomplishment you've achieved to date. No one cares. Keep your resource box brief and to the point. Yes, your resource box should be benefit oriented so that the reader finds value in reading it rather than your ego being justified.

• Advertisements or pitches for products that are not relevant to the topic of your article.

• Keep the size of your resource box so that it's no larger than 15% of your total article size. Too often I see resource boxes that are 50% of the size of the total article and this is abusive.

Your Perfect Resource Box Conclusion:

The BODY of your article is where you "GIVE" and the RESOURCE BOX is where you get to "TAKE" for your article marketing gift of information. The resource box is the "currency of payment" you receive for giving away your article. Be sure to include your name, website address, your unique selling proposition as briefly as possible and a simple call to action.

Example Resource Box of Mine:

<----------Start of Resource/Signature Box------------>

<----------End of Resource Box----------->
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Keyword Ratio, Density - This is the formula (words in article x 5-7 %). Its a common practice to have between 5-7% keyword ratio. So if your SEO article is 500 words long then you would want your keyword phrases or phrases repeated approximately 6-8 times. You want to make sure that you do not exceed 8-9% keyword density. The article needs to flow and be easily read and understood.

Lets recap before we explain the next two steps. 1) you have created your unique internet article.
2) you have checked your keyword ratio to make sure you have just the right amount of keyword phrases within it. 3) You have added your images, bullets, bolded text, underlined key phrases, inserted your h-tags and have completed your resource box. Now lets add the last two final touches.

Anchor Text - There are two ways to create links on your page. With a visible direct link like this (SEO Lessons) which takes you to another page or website and there there is anchor linking. Anchor linking allows the ability for another website to link to a keyword on your article. Here is an invisible anchor link (SEO Internet Articles) and if we looked at the code it would look like this: <a name="SEO_Internet_Articles">SEO Internet Articles</a>

Here is a normal link: <a href="http://www.xtremeseo.com">SEO Lessons</a>

So here is how the anchor text link would work: You have a website about cars, you create an SEO Article about cars. On your website you have created an anchor link of one of your keywords on the home page (Fast Cars). In your SEO article you are writing about fast cars. So you would link from your article the word "fast cars" to your anchor text on your website. So in this case you would link FROM your SEO article to your website like this. <a name="Fast_Cars">Fast Cars</a>.

Here is a link with an anchor tag: <a href="http://www.xtremeseo.com#SEO_Lessons">SEO Lessons</a>

What does anchor linking do for you? Well it brings weight to your keywords you are trying to rank for. If you had time or the money, I would tell you to either create or have someone create 500 articles related to your field and within each article you would anchor link from ALL articles to your anchor text on your website for every keyword you are wanting to rank for. This will bring relevance and drive traffic like you have never imagined and almost immediately put you on the top 10 page if not number one for your keywords.

Final Step Meta Tag Creation - Now that you are done preparing your seo article its time to wrap this lesson up with the creation of your meta-tags. You have several options (which you will find out in the next lesson) for your article placement. You can place these articles on your website, another persons blog, ezine directories etc. Anytime I create an article I always produce meta tags because I am never quite sure where I will place them when I have finished.

Meta Tags - The use of meta tags in web pages or SEO Articles are often required by search engines as a source of information to help them to decide how to list and rank your website or article.

First, create the title of your article: This needs to be about once sentence long using your prime keywords and shouldn't be any longer than approximately 80 characters.

Second, create your description tag: This is about 2 sentences long giving a more in depth description on what your entire article is about. Try not to repeat your keywords in this section but instead try different variations. The title tag, description and the first paragraph of your article all need to flow, without allot of keyword duplication. This should be longer than about 160 characters.

Third and final, create your keyword/tags: Stick to about 12 of your most important keywords that represent your article. Not all search engines use this tag, however, when placing your articles throughout the internet, you might be asked for your keywords or your tags you would like to use to represent your article. Either way, I always come up with about 10-15.

If you have any questions about this article, you may post your question on our blog or you may contact us for a FREE SEO Article Quote.

Day 5 Lesson - SEO Article Placement