How To Write Long-Tail Articles That Rank Well In Search Engines
Last week, I shared how anyone can drive targeted traffic to their website by targeting longtail keywords.
This week, I’m going to show you how to write effective long-tail articles that will rank well in search engines and drive you relevant and targeted visitors.
First, here’s proof that you can drive traffic using long-tail keywords.
I wrote a blog post on 26 January 2008 about the "chipmunk" sound problem in Camtasia videos and how to go about fixing the problem. Here’s the link to that article: Camtasia Chipmunk Audio Bug Fix.
As a result of the above blog post, I was able to drive several long-tail traffic to this blog. Here is a small list of actual long-tail keywords (extracted from my Google Analytics stats) that visitors typed in the search engines and found my blog via the organic listings:
While each long-tail keyword only attracted one visitor each to my blog, the interesting point to note is it took only ONE blog post to drive all these long-tail traffic!
The truth is that people search using all kinds of keywords and keyword variations (as seen above) – so it is important you keep this fact in mind when writing a blog post or article.
When I create a blog post, or any online content for that matter, I always write it with the aim of maximizing search engine traffic to my blog.
Writing content that rank well in the search engines is really one of the more important and effective "on-page" search engine optimization techniques you can employ.
(And for you geeks out there – yes, this has everything to do about Latent Semantic Indexing)
Important: If you want to measure the effectiveness of your article marketing efforts, ensure ALL your webpages have a Google Analytics tracking code installed.
Web analytics is an important tool because it tells you what’s working and what’s not. It provides you with critical data that will help you determine what you are doing right and the things you can improve on.
Here are 3 long-tail article writing tips you can use to help you write more effective online content:
Long-Tail Article Writing Tip #1: Include primary keyword phrase in the title of your article
When creating a title for your article, be sure to include your primary keyword phrase as far as possible. This will help increase the prominence of your primary keyword phrase in the search engines.
Don’t forget your title needs to be interesting and informative, so don’t try to stuff more than one keyword phrase in your title!
Long-Tail Article Writing Tip #2: Include as many related keywords and keyword variations in your content
While it is true that you should place your target primary long-tail keyword in the headline of your blog or article, it is also true (as seen in the above example) that you can target (whether intentionally or unintentionally) many other secondary long-tail keywords (and therefore drive more traffic to your website) by simply including as many related keywords and keyword variations as possible in your content.
For example, when I wrote the Camtasia Chipmunk Audio Bug Fix article, I included the following related keywords in the body of my article:
- Camtasia Studio
- Techsmith
- swf format
- Flash player (v9.0.115.0)
- fix to this problem
- Adobes (creators of Flash)
- Camtasia 5.0.2 update
Notice this sample list of keywords used in my article are not only very specific but also very relevant to the topic in question.
The more relevant keywords and keyword variations you include in the article, the higher the chance your article will be ‘seen’ by someone in the search engines. Another advantage is your article will be seen as more credible by the search engines.
Long-Tail Article Writing Tip #3: Write for the reader and not for the search engines!
A common mistake I see people make when it comes to writing SEO content is they repeat the primary keyword phrase in the article excessively (also known as keyword stuffing) in hope of achieving a higher "keyword density". The end result is an article that sounds "unnatural".
When writing online content, focus on the reader, not the search engines!
And forget about trying to achieve a "keyword density" target – In fact, the search engines are beginning to penalize web pages that are optimized too perfectly by imposing an Over Optimization Penalty (OOP) on such pages.
Be warned!
Follow the above long-tail article writing tips the next time you create online content and you’ll drive more search engine visitors to your website in no time!
Fabian Lim
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Fabian Lim is CEO of Asia Search Engine Academy and certified in Advanced Search Engine Optimization Strategies. He is Search Engine Workshop’s first International Search Engine Associate authorized to conduct SEO training outside the USA. Sign-up for our SEO Tips Newsletter and receive a FREE ebook ‘Wordtracker Magic’ along with valuable Free SEO Tips! For more information, visit: ttp://www.AsiaSearchEngineAcademy.com.
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Great tips. I found this software called rasof that’s suppose to help you rank well in the search engines. Do you think it’s worth investing in that kind of stuff or are the tips you’ve given (like using the keyword in the title, etc) enough to rank well?
Hi Neil.
Thank you for your compliments.
You can use software to help you automate collection of data, or even help you in analysis of ranking factors, but they will be of little use to you if your knowledge of SEO is lacking.
If you want to gain more free SEO tips, sign up for my Asia Search Engine Academy newsletter and you’ll receive valuable and actionable SEO tips delivered directly into your inbox.
And for a limited period, you’ll receive a copy of Wordtracker Magic ebook by leading SEO educator, John Alexander.
More details here:
http://www.AsiaSearchEngineAcademy.com
Regards,
Fabian
Hi Fabian,
Excellent informative post.
Not only do you cover the use of long tail keywords for ranking well but you also provided a much needed solution to the "chipmunk" effect in Camtasia videos.
Your point on using as many relevant keywords and keyword variations as possible in articles etc. is a very valid and important one.
Often people get bogged down in repetition of the "main" keyword or inclusion of all kinds of unrelated keywords, forgetting to get inside the mind of their target audience and include what they are actually searching for and how they might search for it.
How often have I entered a keyword or phrase in the search engine only to be presented with some total unrelated sites.
Why?
Because the site owners have included all kinds of unrelated keywords in the hope that you might buy what they’re selling, even though it wasn’t what you were looking for in the first place. I agree with your response to Neil.
The software tool he referred to RaSof (allows you to score your webpage against a built in database of over one houndred thousand sites for higher ranking in the selected search engine), and many others like MuVar, Nemeas etc., can go a long way to helping you achieve higher rankings, but as you so rightly pointed out Fabian, if you have no knowledge or basic understanding of SEO, then you most likely would not extract the maximum potential from these or any other products.
It is important to measure the effectiveness of all your online efforts, gain the edge over your competitors, but more importantly, deliver quality to your target audience.
My compliments on your site Fabian.
You have some wonderful nuggets of information on it. I have subscribed to your newsletter and look forward to visiting regularly.
Hi Fabian,
First time visitor to your blog but I’m glad I stopped by.
When I write articles, I don’t really pay attention to keywords, I just write the article as if I am explaining something to a friend. Often times my article gets bounced from the directories because they claimed I stuffed the article. For example, I wrote an article about how to check tire pressure step by step. Of course to wald someone through the process I had to use the word tire a lot.
They threw it out because of keyword stuffing. How do you write an article on tire pressure withour usiing the word tire alot?
I have heard about the software mentioned in the previous post, RaSof. It uses statistical analysis against a known database of web pages and scores the page against the database. The object is to keep modifying the page to beat the previous score.
As a beginning internet marketer I have to do everything myself. Copywriting, article writing, web creation and of course SEO. I’m always looking for shortcuts to help me out. Would software like that really work, because I certainly could use some help. I’m not sure I have the time and the money to take SEO courses.
Hi Neil.
I’ve had a look at RaSof. I personally think I would use it in this context to help build the template for a site. Because it provides lots of info about non-text elements, I’d use it to advise on the menus, images, etc that go around each article. Of course, this would only be able to focus on one or two of the common words you want to target, so I’m not sure it would help with this long-tail work, except for a “benefit by associatation” unless you wanted to work on each and every page.
Roger
Hi Mary,
Thank you for your kind comments!
I look forward to hearing your view points… so feel free to air your comments on my blog from time to time!
Fabian
Hi hssiegel and Roger,
Thank you for your comments.
The most important concept you want to study as far as on-page optimization is concerned, is that of Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI), as it has a huge influence on the ranking of web pages especially in Google.com
Fabian