What is SEO Article Writing? - SEO Copywriting Explained

Many freelancers have questions about what is SEO; what is SEO copywriting; what is SEO writing. This article explains - in detail - what this is. And, how to make money from it as a freelance writer.

What is SEO?

SEO is an acronym for the phrase "search engine optimization." Search engine optimization is all about doing specific things to your website to drive more traffic to it so that you can increase online sales - and traffic.

What are some of these "things?"

There are many, but here we will discuss what it is as it applies to freelance writers. And, this means writing text in a certain way so that web surfers (ie, internet users) can land on a particular site.

What is SEO As It Relates to Freelance Writers?

What freelance writers need to be concerned with is keywords. What are keywords? Keywords are the words and phrases that web surfers type in when they search for things online.

For example, let's say you were interested in starting a foreclosure cleanup business. You may not know anything about it other than foreclosures are hot in the news right now and you are interested in starting this kind of company.

So, you log onto your favorite search engine, (eg, Google, Yahoo! MSN, etc.) and type in the keywords "foreclosure cleaning business" or "foreclosure cleaning" or "foreclosure cleanup" or some other relevant keyword phrase.

Note: When you type words into a search engine to find something on the internet, the words you type in are called a keyword (one word) or a keyword phrase (two or more words with commas in between).

How Businesses Get to the Top of Search Engine Results

When you type in these words and hit "ENTER", a bunch of sites pop up and you start to surf (ie, click on the results) and start investigating the sites to see if they have the information you need.

The sites that pop up are the results that search engines like Google, Yahoo, MSN, et al think are the most relevant to the keyword phrase (aka search phrase) you typed in. Companies pay a lot of money to be among the first two or three pages in the results that search engines return.

Why SEO Copywriters are So In Demand and How They Make Their Money

One of the ways they get to pop up in the first two or three pages of results is to have relevant text that contains the proper keyword phrases. And, this is where you as an SEO copywriter can make a lot of money. You write the text that their site needs to pop up high in search engine results.

Many times, companies will simply give you a bunch of keyword phrases and let you write what you want -- as long as it's a certain length (usually 300-500 words).

There are many freelance writers - hundreds of thousands, if not a few million. BUT, only a tiny minority know what SEO is and how to write this type of copy. And, this is why they're so in demand.

SEO copywriters have an in-demand skill. And, as more and more companies move larger portions of their advertising budgets to internet marketing, there is an even greater demand for their skills.

In the SearcheEngineWatch article, The SEO Copywriter: Wordsmithing the Web, William Flaiz, underscores the importance of an SEO copywriter. He writes:

"The role of the agency SEO copywriter is unique because.... Suddenly, the writer must optimize press releases, craft articles for social news, monitor social network communications, and develop wiki content.... a strong SEO copywriter is adaptable and capable of internalizing a lot of new information extremely quickly. These unique individuals have fast become the backbone of many SEO engagements. If content is king, then they [SEO copywriters] are the kingmakers."

And this is why SEO copywriters can charge a premium for their services. If you're looking for a way to start or maximize your income as an online freelance writer, then SEO copywriting is they way to go.

About the Author: Yuwanda Black heads New Media Words, an SEO content writing and distribution firm. She is the author of the best-selling ebook, How to Make $250+/Day Writing Simple, 500-Word Articles. Ms. Black says, "You can work from home as a freelance writer in your PJs, getting assignments via the internet. I do it every day." Learn more about how to start a successful SEO writing career.

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

Get $100 Per SEO Article - How to Become a Highly Paid SEO Writer

SEO copywriting is an exploding niche. There are SEO writers routinely bill $25 to $100 per SEO article, or more. So then, why are there so many freelance writers who still struggle and take on $3 per article article writing gigs? Because they lack the following:

3 Keys to Becoming a $100 Per Article SEO Writer

1. Marketing Skills: Many SEO copywriters go to job boards that list poor-paying SEO article writing gigs because they don't know how to market. Going to job boards is easy. After all, it's where many of the jobs are. But, the lucrative SEO article writing gigs can't be found on job boards -- you have to ferret them out for yourself. This means learning how to marketing effectively.

2. Confidence: Many writers lack confidence in their skills. Thus, they find it hard to negotiate with clients. When you know that you're good at what you do -- and especially in a high-tech niche like SEO -- you negotiate from a position of power. This means you command higher rates -- because you know you're worth it.

3. Negotiating Skills: Speaking of negotiating skills, keep the following in mind: clients pay not for the 400-600 word SEO articles you write for them, but for what those SEO articles do for their bottom line.

They may be selling a product or service that is worth thousands -- and using your SEO copywriting skill to do it. Many who hire SEO writers either don't have the time or skill to do their own writing. This means they need you as much as you need them. They're not hiring you, they're partnering with you. Always tune into this info when you're negotiating rates.

Haven't a clue as to what SEO article writing is? Read on.

What Is SEO Article Writing?

Basically writing articles with specific phrases that clients give you. FYI, SEO stands for search engine optimization. For example, if you owned a website that sold carpet, you would want a lot of articles with phrases like "carpet cleaning"; "carpet stains"; "carpet stores"; etc. on your site.

So, the client will email me and say, "May I have 3 articles with the keyword phrases (that's what these phrases are called) "carpet cleaning"; "carpet stains"; and "carpet stores". Make each article 400-500 words each, please.

You would write then write the articles on anything you want around these keyword phrases, ensuring that you repeat the keyword phrase at least 7-10 times. This helps drive traffic to the webmaster's site (it's called keyword density).

That's SEO article writing in a nutshell. And, there are millions of websites that need this type of writing. The amazing thing for those who know how to write this kind of copy (SEO writers/copywriters) is that there is very little competition because the field is so new.

Becoming a $100 per article SEO writer is not hard, if you learn how to market, have confidence in your skills and learn do some research on SEO (it's not rocket science, I promise!).

About the Author: Yuwanda Black is a freelance SEO writer and the author of How to Make $250+/Day Writing Simple, 500-Word Articles. Ms. Black says, "You can work from home as a freelance writer in your PJs, getting assignments via the internet. I do it every day." Learn more about how to start a successful career as a freelance writer.

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

SEO Writing Rates - Why $100 Or More Per Article is Possible

Would you believe that getting $100 per article or more is possible for SEO content. When you consider that many SEO copywriters take on $3 per article writing gigs, you may be thinking, "How is this possible; what do I need to do to get even $50 for an SEO article?"

To answer this question, this article will detail some overall practices SEO copywriters should follow to get more for their writing expertise.

SEO Copywriters: 2 Things You Can Do to Break the $100/Article Mark

(I) Bottom Line Rate: Every freelance writer should have a floor beneath which they will not go, ie, a bottom-line rate. Making this a standard practice will make it easy to determine which jobs to accept and which jobs to turn down.

And, this is especially true when it comes to evaluating "bulk" job opportunities. In internet marketing, many clients present SEO copywriters with bulk projects (eg, 10 articles and 5 blog posts for client site "X").

Many SEO copywriters, especially new ones, salivate over these types of opportunities, but waver when it comes to how much to charge. Offering a discount for bulk projects is great, but don't work for slave wages.

(II) Know Your Stuff: SEO copywriting is a fairly new industry. As such, you'd think that SEO writers would be able to charge a premium. This is not the case.

However, SEO copywriters who know their stuff can charge a premium because clients can immediately sense that they know what they're talking about. In many cases, clients are unaware of all of the practices, rules and guidelines around SEO (eg, black hat tactics, keyword discovery, site navigation, keyword density, etc.).

If you're an SEO copywriter, it's incumbent upon you to study SEO so that you can not only offer your clients value for their money, but offer them a range of services. Becoming a one-stop, SEO shop can lead to more business than you can handle.

SEO Copywriters: Key Internet Marketing Services You Can Offer

What are some key internet marketing services you can offer as an SEO copywriter? SEO Article Writing, Meta Tag Writing, Blog Posting and Article Submission for starters. There are quite a few others.

Forward-thinking SEO copywriters know that getting paid $100 for an SEO article is less about the rate, and more about what it represents -- their expertise in internet marketing and SEO concepts.

About the Author: Yuwanda Black is a freelance SEO writer and the author of How to Make $250+/Day Writing Simple, 500-Word Articles. Ms. Black says, "You can work from home as a freelance SEO writer and make hundreds of dollars a day. I'm proof!" Learn more about how to start a successful freelance writing career as an SEO writer.

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

A Step By Step Guide To Effective Online Article Marketing

Online article marketing can effectively improve organic search results in a number of ways:

Improve visibility for your target keyword phrasesObtain traffic for additional (long tail) keyword searchesAssist in building awareness and reputationIncrease targeted traffic from other quality related websitesHelps attract more incoming links to your siteHelps make your website more unique and useful

Google’s Panda update showed once again, that it’s important to have high quality, unique content. We recently evaluated a large ecommerce website that was stung by the Panda update. They have a few issues that have probably hurt them, but one of the areas of concern included many articles they had written and placed on various websites, many of which had been devalued in Panda.

In this article, I’ll cover the steps we take with article marketing. These steps have been developed from years of examining what competitors of our clients have done to become the ranking and traffic leaders in their industries. Effective article marketing is a key strategy for many of them.

Let’s dispel a misconception right now. Submitting articles to article submission sites, especially low quality articles written primarily for search results, does little for you.

We examined the results of the work done for one of our clients, for example, by their prior SEO who was writing low quality articles and submitting them to article submission sites like ehow.com with links to their site. These articles where doing almost nothing for them (and this was prior to Panda). Checking their analytics, we saw that no traffic ever came from these article submission sites, ever! It’s very unlikely that these articles helped their search engine rankings at all.

Most article submission sites do not pass much, if any “link juice” (or PageRank or whatever you want to call it) to the sites the articles link to. We found none of these articles in any of the tools we use to identify strong links, those that may be helping improve search positions. Finally, none of the articles were ever picked up and run by any other site (no surprise as they’re not very good or useful articles).

Having your Web marketing company produce low quality articles is of little value to anybody (other than the marketing company that gets paid to write the articles).

Effective article marketing is about writing quality articles that are useful or interesting to your market, using some on your own website and getting some published on other related websites.

Here are our goals for online article marketing for our clients:

Improving Organic Search Results (Getting found for more keyword searches and helping to increase rankings).Help Attract Incoming Links To The Site.Building Awareness And Often Reputation Building.Increasing Targeted Traffic From Related Sites.To Help Make A Web Site More Unique And Useful (e.g. Help educate your readers, help them decide what products/services to buy, etc.).

Later, we’ll outline how to market articles to related websites but if you aren’t writing quality articles now, then get started by writing articles to use on your own website. You need some momentum and a critical mass of example articles before you can market articles to others.

Write articles that will be helpful to your website visitors and place summaries of the articles around your website where your site visitors will see them when they are interested in the topic. Don’t just put them in a blog or section of the site where most of your website visitors may never see them.

Crutchfield, the electronics reseller, for example, does an excellent job using articles on their website. Helpful articles (and more and more videos) are suggested as visitors examine product pages or browse product categories.

Browse to the Home Theater categories page, for example, and you’ll see articles and videos suggested such as those in the screen shot below.

Helpful Articles and Videos Suggested While Shopping

You want to make it easy for your article readers to get back to the location on your website they were looking at when they clicked to read the article.

For this reason, it’s best to host the articles on your website surrounded by the same or a very similar page template (banner, navigation sections etc) as that on the webpage they were looking at when they clicked through to the article.

It’s ok to host the articles in your blog, but it’s ideal if the blog has the same or similar page template too. We suggest that for most marketers your blog be a part of your main website, not a separate blog web site (See “Where to put your blog for best search engine results“). Put any articles that you do not use on your main website in your blog.

Include links in your articles to products and services

Add links within the article or at the end of the article (or both) to get people who read the article to click through the main website, ideally to product or service category or item pages related to the article. As you progress with article marketing and get more and more people linking or sharing your articles, these links will help pass additional PageRank to your product and service pages helping them to rank better.

Add social sharing buttons and announce your articles

Add social sharing buttons (such as Facebook, Twitter, etc) to your articles. Announce each of your useful articles through your social networks and other communication vehicles (like e-newsletters, etc) that you use. If they are truly useful articles some people will share them or link to them, which will help improve rankings and get more people to read them and learn what you have to offer.

Placing articles on your website helps entice visitors to read them why they are looking at related topics they are interested in. Useful articles help convey your expertise and make your webpages more unique (more important than ever after Panda).

In addition, these articles add content to the site that search engines should index and they’ll likely be found in searches. Finally, as you progress with article and social marketing, you’ll likely attract more and more incoming links to your articles from related websites bringing more targeted traffic and helping to increase rankings.

You should never be at a loss for ideas for useful articles. Here are some tips to come up with compelling content.

Keyword research

Use your favorite keyword research tool to search on your important product or service keywords and see what related information people are searching for. You can write articles that address some of these searches.

For example, if your site is all about luggage and you see a number of people searching on phrases such as “carryon luggage regulations”, “carryon luggage sizes” etc you might write an article about carryon luggage regulations and sizes and include links to relevant pages on your site.

In this manner not only will you be helping to make your site more useful to your visitors, these articles will probably be returned in search results for people searching on phrases such as “carryon luggage regulations” who may read your article and learn about what you have to offer.

FAQ’s

What questions are you often asked about your products or services? Think about writing articles that answer some of those questions.

Search for articles ideas

You’ll usually find many articles by searching on your primary topic, product or service keywords and appending “articles” or “blogs” to the query such as “travel articles” or “travel blogs”. Or, search on the keywords within some of the article submission sites (search on “articles” and you’ll find tons of submission sites) . Scan through the article headlines for ideas (Ideas = inspiration. Not plagiarism.)

Can’t write or don’t have the time to write articles? Here are some ways to get articles written.

Empower your people

Perhaps some of the people who sell or market your products would just love to write articles. See the Crutchfield site mentioned above. Most of those articles and videos were developed by their product marketing folks.

Ask your customers

Perhaps some of your customers can write articles such as case stories like “how we use xx” type of articles.

Hire writers

Ideally, most of your articles should be original, but you could hire writers who specialize in your topics to produce useful articles. There are networks of writers who specialize in many topics. You can find some of them while you are searching for article ideas (See the section above).

As you look for article ideas, search on the names of the authors. Many times you’ll discover the author is a freelance writer who specializes in a couple of fields. Contact them about writing for you. It’s best to be honest and include the writer’s name as the author.

Use ghost writers?

This is an ethical question that I’m on the fence about and have never used myself or for any client. I believe it may be ok to use a ghost writer (such as a freelance writer who specializes in your field/topic) if you work closely with them, outline your initial thoughts, let them do research for you if needed, oversee the development of the article, work with them to revise the article, and make sure the article is accurate and reflects your knowledge and opinions.

Opinions expressed in the article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land.

Related Topics: 100% Organic - Search Engine Optimization Tips | Beginner | How To | How To: SEO

View the original article here

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.