This guest post is by Bill Achola of SeoArticleWriteService.com.
It would be great if the only purpose of your copywriting was to sell your products. Unfortunately your copy often has to serve two purposes: attracting visitors to your site, and then selling to them.
Attracting traffic using copy requires using search engine optimizing techniques, and adding keywords. Using the topic of baby food, in this post we will look at a few ways to include keywords in your copy.
Keep it natural
The key to successful keyword optimizing in your copy is to keep it natural. As Greg McFarlane points out in his post Why Bieber SEO Copywriting Sex Doesn’t iPad Work Minecraft, people often make the mistake of overloading the text with keywords, and replacing every generic key term with the keyword or phrase. This will not give you high-quality persuasive copy, as you can see in the following example.
Keyword = baby foods
As new mothers we all want our babies to have the best baby foods; we spend a lot of time researching good baby foods recipes and making sure we buy high-quality baby foods. Giving your child a good start in life with healthy baby foods ad not giving them baby foods that they are not ready for, is one of the major concerns of new parents.
The above example is not only annoying to read, parts of it have been made grammatically incorrect in an attempt to use the keyword as often as possible. While you might get a lot of traffic to your website from parents searching for the keyword “baby foods,” they will quickly move onto another site when they start reading.
Make sure you select your keywords carefully so that they fit in easily with the subject of your copywriting. This will improve the flow of your copy, increasing your sales conversions.
Here are three ways to include keywords naturally.
1. Break up keywords phrases
It can be hard to fit a long keyword phrase into your copywriting. I was once asked to use the key phrase “baby food recipes 6 months.” This is an awkward phrase to use altogether, but it works well when split up by punctuation. Search engines read straight punctuation marks such as full stops, commas and colons so think how you can use these to split your keyword phrase.
Keyword phrase = baby food recipes 6 months
Look no further for tasty and healthy baby food recipes. 6 months is the perfect time to start introducing your bay to new tastes and textures.
The above example keeps the keyword phrase intact so it will be recognized by the search engines, but does not seem out of place or awkward.
2. Lengthen the keyword phrase
Some phrases are difficult to include because they are singular when you would usually use a plural or vice versa. Adding words to the end of the phrase can help you overcome this problem as well as giving you inspiration for your writing.
Keyword = food for baby
- Food for bay weaning
- Food for baby meals
- Food for baby taste buds
Adding a word or two to the end of this phrase makes it less grammatically awkward and helps you to fit it into your copy writing sounding repetitive.
3. Use a keyword phrase that describes what your product is not
Take the example of the keyword “cheap baby food.” When a parent enters this search term they are looking for good value, high-quality baby food that they do not have to pay very much for.
However, if you describe your product as cheap baby food, it will give the impression that it is poor quality, and therefore not great for their precious child. Avoid this by using the keyword to describe what your product is not.
Keyword = cheap baby food
Try out one of our healthy, easy-to-make recipes as an alternative cheap baby food. Once you’ve tasted one of these nutritious homemade meals, you’ll never want to feed your little one cheap baby food again.
Using the above techniques will ensure your copywriting remains natural and that you don’t have to sacrifice quality to keyword density.
A final tip: write your copy first and then go back with your keywords in mind and place them where appropriate. This will make your copy flow more naturally, and will appeal both to your readers and the search engines.
Visit the blog at SeoArticleWriteService.com to learn how Bill Achola can write high conventional marketing content for bloggers and affiliate marketers.
I was just about to delete this article from my reader as yet another keyword article that restates the same information. I’m so glad I read it though. I didn’t realize you could break up key phrases with punctuation! Brilliant. All three tips are worth bookmarking!
Excellent post about keyword density and organic search realtions. Your examples are so clear and good, thanks for writing this article.
Thanks Tony for appreciating my content i hope it will help marketers in keyword research.
Hi Bill,
I enjoyed this post because I am gaining a greater appreciation for proper keyword usage each day.
I’ve done SEO overhauls on both of my blogs. All posts are keyword optimized now. I also like to write the post and work the keyword or phrase in after my first draft.
The keyword mantra: easy does it. Do not stuff your article with keywords. Do not write awkward sounding articles. A good practice is to read the post back to yourself, out loud, after writing. If the post sounds bad, you need to rework those keywords.
Another thing I’ve learned is to take the time to write 1 good SEO’ed out post instead of 10. No numbers game here, no matter what anybody tells you. Practice like a champion and write consistently but forget trying to write anything that is not properly optimized. This is a waste of time unless you can care less about targeting your marketing campaign, and few readers of PB are in this crowd.
You want to speak to your audience. Using the right keyword density can accomplish this task for you.
Perhaps the most satisfying aspect of getting your keywords down is seeing your articles or posts sprint up google, bing and yahoo. I’ve had more than 1 of my cash gifting articles do this on each search engine over the past few weeks. Really cool stuff which helps motivate me to keep on keywording the right way.
Thanks for sharing your insight Bill.
Ryan
Hello Ryan thanks for adding great insights on keyword reasearch. The good with keyword research is that, if done well it can really expose your article or blog to potential visitors.
I was having an issue with keyword density on a few of my niche sites and this has DEFINITELY helped out especially with the examples. Really great info, Bill.
I agree. I was just writing an article and wondering about how to insert keywords. This is a timely post!
Bill,
Some great lessons here on the “right: way to build keyword density. Your lessons here are a great way to balance the need for getting your keywords in and still having a great user/reader experience.
I always shake my head when I read those articles that are obviously simply written to force the use (and overuse) of keywords.
Great post and really very helpful. So many people miss it and end up creating sites with high bounce rates. Thanks for putting it the right way.
Really helpful info. I usually just get frustrated trying to make sure I use my keywords and give up entirely. I think referring back to this will help me find a more natural way to boost density.
Thanks!
Yes, Argree with you, the best SEO approach is the content, we write for readers,not google bot,so we had better use a small percentage of keyword in post and let it be natural and meaningful.
Pretty good ideas. I am still in the process of developing my own site; will use your advice.
Thank you for the article and keep’em going!
Hey Bill
I didn’t realize that you could separate long phrases with punctuation marks and still keep the efficacy of the longer phrase in tact. Very helpful tip
Cheers
Mark
Hi There,
Great Post, I don’t know how many times I have visited a blog to think i’m reading something foreign because it’s been stuffed with keywords, I use market samurai to help when carrying out Keyword research definitely a must.
Thanks Again
Joe
As the search engines get more sophisticated I think the key becomes not worrying about keyword density at all. I used to be obsessive about it, but now I pay it no attention whatsoever. My results haven’t worsened – in fact, in almost all ways my results have improved since I stopped caring.
If you just write naturally about your topic, your keyword density should handle itself. Plus your content will be easier and more fun to consume, since naturally written content trumps anything that’s had even a hint of keyword-density-tampering.
This is really great. I have to admit SEO really makes me crabby but I know it’s a necessary component to any blog’s success. I appreciate tips like these, easy, quick and with examples. Appreciate it.
I appreciate the idea of braking the keywords with full stops. It’s so easy but I’ve never had this idea before. Thank you so much, it will help me a lot!
It is essential to focus on readability first, then try to incorporate the keywords in such a way that they are still readable. When that happens, you can definitely see the traffic and more of the customer retention. That is essentially what you’ve outlined here.
Brilliant! Of course, people hear “keyword density” and they jump off the deep end; throwing keywords into the mix every other word. The problem is that they don’t realize that they are alienating their target market or potential customers. All it takes is one frustrating read that cause people to refuse to come back to your website.
Keyword density is an art as well as a science. Know your keywords for an article or page and then weave them in every once in a while. Make sure to diversify those keywords and throw in plurals. For example, if you are writing about dogs you can use dogs, puppy, puppies, pets, animals, doggies, canine companion and so on. This sprinkling of keywords increases better rankings because it diversifies the target search patterns.
Write for humans first, then edit slightly for the search engines.
I live mostly the 3rd point.
Targeting on a certain keyword doesn’t mean that we’ve to give up on the quality of our product.
Absolutely true, with the great example given!
Excellent examples. The same principle can be applied to the use of anchor text for SEO. Its always a good practice to mix up the anchor text between exact and partial match to keep things natural and you will be rewarded by search engines accordingly.
Hello there,
Keeping it natural is probably the hardest thing for me. Your post is definitely a great resource. Thank you.
-Bhavik
Thanks for the tips Bill, didn’t think of putting punctuation in the middle of my keywords.
I actually just stumbled on to your blog by accident. I am looking forward to reading more of your blogs, I can use all the help on SEO that I can!
Thanks again!
That’s a really need idea. Break up keywords using punctuation. I’ll certainly take note and apply it to my next article. Never thought of that.
Am happy that the content has helped you and i hope it will be of good value to your marketing effort. Thanks
Thanks for the fantastic posts.Your blog has turn into component of my everyday routine, I am thrilled when I come across a new post of yours on my rss reader, just thought I would let you know. Thanks
Well written article, Bill.
I do tend to become a little compulsive with keyword research, especially in regards to ranking for certain Keywords.
I often wonder if all the negative talk about overdoing the amount of Keywords we add, really causes any issues with Google or not.
I do like the examples you have given of poor choices of keyword usage “Cheap Baby Food”
Had they somehow included a word or two that also promotes the “high quality” or ” Brand respect” to balance the use of the word “Cheap” it would have seems a better choice.
An Alternative would be ” Low cost —–Top Quality, or Low price—-top quality—-or Top brand Baby Food at a great price.
There are literally hundreds of ways to change(improve) the keywords to add more punch, and keep them in a positive mode.
Thanks Bill.
Great tip to use punctuation to make the keyword phrase work. I think it’s best to write for humans and then add in the keywords later, but keeping an eye on keyword density – don’t overdo it, even if it reads properly.
Thanks Mr. Varinder for subscribing to my RSS, definately you will enjoy content that comes through
Great post, thank you! I didn’t realize it’s possible (mean – working) to break up keywords with punctuation. I was wondering what to do with some key phrase that doesn’t look naturally. Actually, just to check my rss reader :)
Great post as usual! Number 3 is very creative in a subtle sneaky way. Love it!
Guys, i just loved this post. You made it sound so simple! :-)
You gave me some new ideas when writing my articles to “hide” my keywords better. More of this stuff!
/Per-Erik
You’re welcome and thanks for taking into consideration for my blog post. The concept of using punctuation really works well and effective.
Great post.
This has given me some simple idea’s on how to add to keywords but still keep those keywords working.
Great stuff !!
Cool! Will test these tips out.