Technology Toolkit

If you like to write, you already have one of the greatest tools at your disposal to generate traffic to your online business website.

What was it the voice kept telling Robert Redford? “Build it and they will come.”

Well my friend, it’s not that easy. You have to point them in the right direction first. If Google doesn’t know your website exists, how will anyone else? Publishing an ezine article is by far the most effective way to get Google to stand up and take notice. A single article can accomplish miracles in the SEO arena.

There are several main objectives to writing an ezine article. The most important of which is obvious, creating the kind of keyword magic that will put Google in a tail spin wondering where you’ve been all its lonely cyber life.

It’s Not Just About Keyword Magic.

You want to write an article that people enjoy reading and deem informative. This is the key to developing a readership. The best approach is to write a strong enough article to make other article websites want to add your content to their sites. It is not at all uncommon to see a single author’s article plastered all over the web. This proliferation will establish a presence over and over again for your online business. With each new back link your website stands a better chance of higher rankings.

To get the biggest bang for your key strokes keep the following tips in mind. Follow these simple rules and you will be rewarded with an abundance of internet traffic.

Let Keywords Boost Your Ranking.

If a tree falls in the woods and there’s no one there to hear it, does it make a sound?

You can write the best article in your niche and it won’t matter if no one gets to read it. In order to read it, they have to be able to find it first. This isn’t rocket science here.

Before you sit down to write an ezine article, you must have a solid SEO strategy in place. You may not necessarily want to draft your article around the most sought after keywords in your market. Many authors choose to base their article around keywords that don’t generate as high a competition. In doing so, they zoom up to the top ranking using similar keywords. Pick your SEO strategy accordingly. If you don’t get the desired results, you can always write another article.

Be sure to write an article that is relevant to your key word terms. For instance, you don’t want “work at home business” listed in your keyword box if the phrase work at home business doesn’t appear any where in your article. Search engine spiders look at your keyword tags first. Then they go through your article searching for those same phrases. The more relevant your article is to its key word search parameters, the higher your article will be ranked once it is posted.

It is common practice to use the main keyword in the first paragraph and again in the last paragraph. Then strategically deploy four or five similar keywords throughout the article’s content.

Just make sure to compose your article is such a way as to not sound redundant to the reader. You don’t want to insert keywords just for the sake of inserting them. A word of caution, keyword stuffing can result in lower rankings with Google.

Once you determine the keywords your article will be based upon, focus on seamless implementation. You want your article to flow naturally. You don’t want your reader tripping over your keywords. You want to incorporate them in such a way that you retain the reader’s interest.

Get Them There and Keep Them There.

Why write an article to begin with?

Article Submission = Free Traffic. What a beautiful equation!

The more people that read your article, the better the chance you have of someone clicking over to your website from the author’s resource box. You are not allowed to use an ezine article as a glorified sales pitch. The resource box, however, can be used to promote your online business and actually get someone to your website. The ultimate goal in writing an article to begin with is to make a sale. Isn’t it? If you’re trying to find a way to make money online, you bet it is!

The more people who click over to your website from the resource box, the better the chance of you turning a profit off the time you’ve spent at your keyboard. Therefore, maintaining your reader’s interest is crucial. If they click away from your article before they make it down to the resource box, you’ve pretty much wasted your time.

You need to grab their attention immediately and keep it. If you have a good sense of humor, use it. Empathy is yet another approach. A reader that feels you relate to them, will take the time to hear what you have to say. If these don’t suite your style, you can never go wrong with good, solid content. Once you get them there, you want to keep them there.

Don’t make the mistake of writing a strong article just to have your reader disappointed when they get to your website. If they came in search of relevant information, it must be there for them. If it’s not, they’ll click off your site before Google even knew they were there. What was that? Did I hear a chuckle in the background?

Something you may not be aware of. Google’s algorithms take into account the average amount of time a person spends on your website when determining its ranking.

Let Your Article Build its Own Call to Action.

The ultimate goal is to make money online.

The purpose of an article is to pull the reader in. They are already interested in the subject matter or they would not be reading the article to begin with.

There is no real need to employ catch phrases or a call to action in what is meant to be an informative article. Many of your readers will see a sales pitch coming a mile away.

Your website undoubtedly already contains a call to action. Why should your article too?

Instead, let your article build the reader’s interest. Capture their attention with relevant content and allow that attention, that spark of interest, to guide them to the inevitable conclusion. An article supporting legitimate reasons for taking action will lead to action being taken.

Never Under Estimate the Power of Anchor Text.

If you read this article carefully, you were able to pick out the keywords I am optimizing for. In case you are the greenest of newbies, I’ll list them for you;

Online business, home based business, work at home business, make money online

These will all be listed in the keyword box for this article.

In case you’re not aware of this, these are highly competitive terms. But didn’t I say earlier that it may be in your best interest to write an article based around less competitive terms? As a matter of fact, I did!

Here in lies the mystical power of anchor text. What is anchor text? It is the magic formula that hides your website from your reader’s eye while inducing them to Click Here! All the reader sees is the hyper link that whisks them away on a magic carpet ride straight to your website or landing page.

If you’re not familiar with anchor text format, simply Google hypertext or anchor text. I tried repeatedly to provide the format for you, but the article editor kept insisting on converting my example into an actual hypertext link even without the proper http:// designation.

Make sure to include the http:// (and www designation if applicable). You want your entire domain name with no spaces in between the parenthesis. If your designated hyperlink words do not appear underlined and in typical hyperlink coloration (blue or purple) when you preview your article, then you have done something wrong.

Did you know that if you type the words Click Here into the Google search engine 1,360,000,000 results will pop up? And why is that? It might have something to do with the fact that for years webmasters used Click Here hyper links to induce a call to action to what was then a much less sophisticated internet user.

By placing the term Click Here there was no longer any doubt left as to what you were suppose to do.

Search engine spiders place serious emphasis on anchor text. If you look in my resource box, you will note that there are two Hyper links in the text;

Residual Income and Affiliate Marketing

Why is that, the newbie might ask. Because anchor text pulls much more weight with the search engines than regular text. Therefore, I have placed the utmost emphasis on the keywords residual income and affiliate marketing. These terms are much less competitive than terms such as make money on line.

Affiliate marketing appeals to the online marketer looking for the next big affiliate program to promote. Residual income appeals to anyone seeking to establish a long term income with an online business. This article will stand a much better chance of reaching a page one ranking in the search results for these keyword phrases then it will with the more competitive terms.

Here’s one final tip before you submit your article for publication:

Never submit your article the same day you write it! Come back refreshed and detached the next day. You will be amazed how many simple mistakes you read right over the day before. A fresh set of eyes will help you see how to finish shaping your article into the masterpiece you meant it to be.

Conclusion:

A well written SEO article is not just a string of sentences used to camouflage strategic keywords. An SEO article is a platform. It can be used to accomplish several goals; provide information, spark a reader’s interest, and ultimately bring them to your website. Your ezine article, when penned correctly, can generate internet traffic and sales without it costing you a dime. And that one submission that makes it to a page one ranking can continue to generate income for years to come.