If you’re going to succeed at earning money via SEO writing, you need to throw out almost everything you learned about writing in high school or college.
Back then, you might have been told things such as “when writing a paragraph, the first sentence should introduce the paragraph topic, the middle sentences should discuss the topic introduced in the first sentence, and the final sentence should sum up the entire paragraph.”
Yeah, well, that may have pleased your high school English teacher or college professor, but it’ll put impatient internet searchers to sleep. And cause you to lose clients.
Writing content for the internet is completely different ? and I’m going to show you the right way to do it. Here are the 7 secrets of being successful at writing a good SEO article.
1. Do Not Write Long Paragraphs
Remember those long flowing paragraphs that you were encouraged to create for your school essays? Never again. Do not, for the love of Pete, do that for your SEO articles.
Instead, aim to make each paragraph no more than four sentences 토토.
See? The first paragraph I wrote in this section had two sentences, while the second paragraph had only one sentence. That’s the style you ought to be aiming for in everything you produce for your SEO writing clients.
Your goal should be to make your SEO articles as easy to read as possible. And what’s easier to read? A few lines of text at a time? Or a paragraph that goes on and on like this one will? Paragraphs that are long tend to be skipped over, or readers give up on them part way through because they get tired of the effort required to continue on. In fact, I’ll be shocked if you’re still reading this paragraph right now. It’s just too long. Are you really still here? If so, you’re one hell of a trouper! Anyhow, these articles are not going to be read by your high school teacher or college professor, whose life mission is to turn you into a good scholar. No. These articles are going to be read by busy internet searchers who have a world of information at their fingertips, accessible in seconds. If your article is boring and rambles on and on and on, or if your article is difficult to read because of all the super long paragraphs you’ve included, those internet searchers will hit the back button on their
web browser so fast that it’ll make your head spin. Then they’ll go to some other website for their information ? a website with content that’s easier to read. And your client will not be pleased.
Got it? Ok, onwards then.
2. Use Sub-Headlines To Break Up the Text
According to a study by Jakob Nielson, most people who search for information online tend to just scan the articles that come up in search results, rather than read every word.
I know.
That’s depressing to hear when you’ve just gone and written 500 words of spectacularly useful information on your client’s topic.
But don’t despair.
Because one great way to draw fickle readers in is with magnetic sub-headlines that pull them deeper into the text. And at the very least, if you do it right, they’ll at least stick with the article to the end by skimming your sub-headlines.
Expert Tip: Remember those keywords we talked about back in the chapter about Insider’s Lingo? If you really want to impress your client, include the target keyword a few times in the article’s sub-headlines. Obviously, if for some reason your client doesn’t want you to do it, don’t. But most clients will love you for it!
3. Write Short Sentences
Most people find shorter sentences easier to understand and follow along with. Combine that with the short attention span of most internet searchers, and there’s a compelling case to be made for keeping it short and sweet.
Here is an example of what not to do:
“Many people all over the world enjoy having dogs, which happen to be magnificent creatures, as pets because they are incredibly loyal, very cute, and are fun to have around.”
And here is what you should do instead:
“Many people all over the world enjoy having dogs as pets. These magnificent creatures are loyal, very cute, and fun to have around.”
The second version is much easier to follow due to the shorter sentence length. Yet it still includes all of the information that the writer tried to incorporate in the first example. Try to emulate the shorter sentence length of the second example when you write for SEO clients.
4. Eliminate Unnecessary Words
This helps to keep your writing short and punchy. It also makes your writing easier for readers to follow.
For example, take a look at the following two sentences.
“It is commonly accepted as a fact that dogs are a man’s best friend in the whole wide world.”
“Dogs are man’s best friend.”
The first sentence is awkward and wordy. These are not desirable traits for online content.
The second sentence is much improved because I removed the extra words that were cluttering up the original.
Granted, if you eliminate excess words from your sentences, you’ll have to work harder to reach your minimum word counts. However, this extra time should more than be covered by the fact that your attention to providing clients with articles that are not padded with unnecessary words will lead to more repeat business (i.e., less time spent on your part hustling to find new clients).
5. Make Your Meaning Obvious ? This is Not the Time to be Clever
Don’t use obscure references in an attempt to show how clever you are ? it’s going to backfire because most people will be too impatient to try and figure out what you mean.
You see, the trick to writing effective online content is to make it easy for readers to get through it quickly without having to think too hard.
Generally speaking, you should use simple words that pretty much anyone will be familiar with. Here’s an example of the kind of choices you’ll face.
“Snow is ubiquitous in January,” versus, “Snow is everywhere in January.”
If you have a choice between using the word “ubiquitous” or “everywhere,” please choose everywhere. There are too many people who won’t know what ubiquitous means, so there’s no benefit to using it.
6. Write in the Active Voice
Whenever possible, write in the active voice. This will make your writing easier to understand and less boring. And let’s face it, submitting boring articles to your client won’t make them happy, right?
Take a look at the following two phrases:
“Sarah ate the whole cake.” (Active voice)
“The whole cake was eaten by Sarah.” (Passive voice)
Here’s another example.
“The boy loves clowns.” (Active voice)
“Clowns are loved by the boy.” (Passive voice)
Do you notice the differences between the active and passive voice in the above examples?
You can read more about the active versus passive voice here: http://www.towson.edu/ows/activepass.htm
Take some time and write out a few sentences in the active voice. Then write them out in the passive voice for comparison. Do you notice that the sentences written in the active voice not only sound better, but are easier to understand? Plus, they get the point across in fewer words, which is always a good thing for content that’ll be read online.
7. Put Your Keyword in the Right Places
Ok, so what is considered the “right place” and “right frequency” for keyword usage will vary from client to client. Some tend to be very aggressive with keyword usage, and others are less so. However, here are some rules of thumb to follow for a typical 500 word article. Make adjustments based on your client’s individual preferences.
* Always include the keyword in the article’s headline.
* Always include the keyword in the last sub-headline of the article.
* Use the keyword in one or two of the other sub-headlines of the article too, if you can do it without making the article read awkwardly.
* Write down some synonyms for the keyword and sprinkle those throughout the article.
* Use the keyword in the first sentence of the article.
