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There’s a thin line between appropriately using your keywords in your titles and being obnoxious about it. You may look at some titles and think,

“That title barely makes sense,” or “All this person’s titles look the same, and they don’t really give me any idea of what their article is about.”

If someone is looking at your title and saying either of those two things, you haven’t used keywords appropriately.

If you’re wondering how to effectively incorporate your keywords into your article titles–look no further! This article will show you 7 keyword integrating title tips that’ll help you catch Google’s eye (and your reader’s too!):

1) Your title should reflect what the article is about.

That tip may sound obvious, but folks who are super-focused on inserting their keywords into their titles sometimes end up with titles that don’t reflect specifically what their article is about. First and foremost, remember that the purpose of your title is to lure a reader in with a taste of what the article is about.

2) Your title should be attention-grabbing and stand out from all the other articles on the same topic.

When a reader is looking at an article directory or search results on Google, they will be looking at a list of titles all on the same topic. In order to get the click-through, your title needs to stand apart from the pack and make the reader say,

“That article looks like it would answer my question in an interesting way!”

There is little benefit to having your keywords in your article title if your title is BO-RING!

Your article won’t be the only article on the article directory it’s published on, and it will not be the only search result on Google. Your title is competing against tons of other titles, so be compelling, have a hook, grab your reader’s attention and lure them into your article.

3) Don’t force your keywords to be in your title if you cannot meet the first two criteria here.

Yes–these first two criteria are more important than getting your keywords in your title. Above all, craft an attention-grabbing title that tells specifically what your article is about.

4) Don’t stuff your keywords.

There are some folks who are not really interested in writing an educational article–they just see the article as a vehicle for their keywords, and they create a makeshift article and insert their keywords throughout it.

Don’t do that!

That is not what article marketing is about, and you will totally miss out on the wonderful benefits you can achieve if you overlook the main purpose of your article–to educate the reader.

Put yourself in the shoes of your reader–from looking at your article title amid a sea of other article titles on the same topic, would your title draw a reader in and cause them to click through to the rest of your article?

5) Consider making your title the remedy that your article offers.

We need to sort of twist our thinking–when someone is doing a Google search, they are most often looking for the solution to a problem.

Think like your target market–if they were to find your article, what would they be typing into Google to reach it?

This could mean having a title that is a question. For example: “Can I bake my own wedding cake?” or “How can I stop my dog from jumping on people?”.

6) Keep it natural.

Lots of times folks establish keywords, and they think they need to use those exact keywords in their article title and in their article, with a result that sounds contrived and forced.

Keep in mind that Google will acknowledge variations of your keywords too. For example, if your keyword is “sail boats”, you can also use “sailing boats”, “sail boat” or “how to sail a boat”–any words that are semantically related to the original keywords.

7) If you write on the topic of your website (which you should definitely be doing!), there is a good chance that your keywords will naturally appear in your article without even trying.

We’re going for a natural sounding article that serves our readers, and the truth is that as long as you’re writing about the topic of your website, your keywords and their variations will likely appear in the article naturally.

The big lesson here–don’t over-think the keyword issue. Yes, you can mention your keywords in your article titles, but only IF your article title also indicates what your article is about and is compelling enough to catch a reader’s attention.

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Sharon is an article marketing expert who loves to teach folks how to drive traffic to their websites. Now you know how to use keywords in your articles–would you like to submit articles to a very large distribution network of quality publishers who really want to receive your articles? Of course you would! Learn how to leverage your articles so that you get maximum results and reach hundreds of publishers with the click of a button.

Tags: article titles, keywords, Writing

As more websites compete for valuable search engine “real estate,” Search Engine Optimization is becoming much more complex.

And *keyword selection* remains one of the most important (yet least understood) pieces of the puzzle.

“Why keyword selection is so important and how to select the best keywords for your website”

To clear up the mystery, let’s break it down into bite-sized pieces by answering our most frequently asked questions about keyword selection:

“What’s the difference between a keyword and a keyword phrase? And which should I use?”

Put simply, a keyword is a single word, like “Maui.” But a keyword phrase is a more descriptive string of two or more words, like “Maui vacations.” Your approach to keyword selection will vary, depending on your industry. For certain niche markets, using single words can be a good strategy (as long as they are specific to your product or service). But regardless of your industry…

Well-researched keyword phrases will attract quality, targeted visitors to your website who *specifically* want what you are selling.

Let’s assume you sell Maui vacations, and your website is listed at the top of the search results for the keywords “Maui” and “Maui vacations.” Let’s look at the characteristics of two groups of visitors you’d attract.

Those who perform a search on “Maui” are searching for a wide variety of topics. Such as Maui’s history and culture, snorkeling, botanic gardens, hiking trails, sailing, golfing, and yes - some will be looking for Maui vacations. But only a small percentage of the people who perform a search on the keyword “Maui” are qualified prospect for your vacation packages.

Now think about the prospects who find you by searching for “Maui vacations.” Every prospect who performs this search is a qualified prospect for you. And by getting a top ranking with this more descriptive keyword phrase, you attract people who are more likely to become paying customers!

You see, someone who wants to take a vacation to Maui is not likely to search for “Maui.” They’re not going to search for “Vacations.” And they’re not going to search for “Hawaii” either. They’re much more likely to enter a keyword phrase like “Maui vacations.”

Today, more than ever, your ideal prospects are going to enter precisely what they want to find, rather than general, open-ended terms. Which means your keyword selection must target your ideal customer with laser-beam focus.

At the same time, the search engines and directories themselves are also becoming much more strict with the pages that they’ll accept and index. They’ll be watching your submissions like a hawk to make sure that they’re completely relevant to the topic reflected by your keyword phrase.

In a previous article, we weighed the pros and cons of doing your search engine positioning yourself versus hiring a reputable company to handle this time consuming task for you. Many of you have wisely realized that it can be much more time-effective and cost-effective to leave your search engine placement in the hands of experts, so you van focus on your core business.

So the most important question of all now becomes:

“If I hire a company to do my search engine placement for me, should I be expected to provide my own keywords and keyword phrases, or do they have a responsibility to advise me?”

Frankly, any company that doesn’t provide hands on consultation in this area is not helping you to maximize your search engine rankings. Keyword selection is the entire foundation on which your search engine campaign is built. Can you imagine hiring a contractor to build your house… only to have him say, “Okay, YOU lay all the bricks and pour the concrete - then I’ll do the rest?”

It’s senseless.

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Jennifer Horowitz is the Director of Marketing for EcomBuffet.com. Over the past 10 years Jennifer’s expertise in marketing and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) has helped clients increase revenue. Jennifer has written a downloadable book on SEO and has been published in many SEO and marketing publications. Jennifer is the editor of the popular Spotlight on Success: SEO and Marketing newsletter. Follow Jennifer and stay current on SEO, marketing, social media and more. http://twitter.com/EcomBuffet

Tags: keywords, Writing

Since no two people think or surf alike, the keywords each employ are susceptible returning search results and click triggers that can either promote impulse surfing (much like impulse shopping) or settle in to a relevant result that encourages conversion.

Since you never really know where you will end up when you use a search engine, as a site owner, the daunting task of second guessing to identifying keywords that convert can be like trying to find a needle in a haystack, unless you know where to look or where and how to focus your research.Since there are no rules of search, prospective customers can type in the most obscure long-tail terms to identify an objective query. As a result, considering how to position your pages, either laser like and precise for competitive keywords or broad and nebulous to funnel and convert broad match or related traffic.

Regardless of your best effort, semantic word stemming occurs over time when you create enough content about a topic. As a result your site starts to appear for numerous related phrases (where potentially any two words on your pages are keywords). The more supporting information you have on a topic, the higher you can rank for other semantic variations.

Keep in mind that over 30% of all searches are unique (which means that even search engines have never seen the combination before) so broad match and keyword stemming are excellent tools to find keywords that hang in the balance. Not to mention a prospect used to finding results through PPC (pay per click) sponsored advertisements searches differently than someone who understands search engine semantics and is used to being specific enough to evoke the appropriate keywords in a query for organic search.

The distinction between those who type in “search engine optimization company” than those who try to find the same result using “make my site rank higher” are two different personalities. Both have subjective mindsets that cognize and perceive context, words and concepts differently and each is unique to their own comfort zone, exposure and life experiences and as a result. Just as no two people are alike, no two people search alike which is a good thing if you take that in consideration when optimizing your pages.

Both individuals are susceptible to their own unique emotional triggers that could occur at any time as a result of skimming the returned search result snippets. Just like impulse shopping when you go into a store with one purpose in mind and come out with 40 additional items that mysteriously jumped into your shopping cart, much in the same way impulse surfing can take you to the most obscure pages and websites as a result of an inkling of an impulse or search.

The snippet for those unfamiliar with the term, are the 255 characters under the main link of the returned search result. This information is consistent “if you use the meta description tag” or if you opt not to, search engines will piece together a description of their own extracting content from the page or the site to match the query.

Surfing prospects can be hooked by any one of the keywords or associated “call to action” from the search results, that alone may be enough for a prospect to abort the original intention long enough to investigate your page to determine if it is a relevant result.

If enough of the factors they seek are present, or you have clearly delineated a clear path to a target that does chime in with their intent, then chances are you will have one more visitor perusing about with the intention to purchase (if that is your objective).

On a side-note, where they are in the sales cycle also can influence which modifiers you should focus on (using gap analysis) to find related searches you may not have considered. Keywords like pricing, rates, on sale, discount, affordable or other modifiers all come into play under this premise.

Now for the application:

If you have an analytics program, check your server logs or keywords that delivered traffic to your pages for the past 90 days, look at keyword instead of key phrase. From there, look at the highest combination of broad match terms to find the keywords delivering the most traffic to your site.

For example we created a post called “Using Related Search to find Google’s Most Searched Keywords”, and prior to that one month before we did a tandem two part post for called “Optimizing your Site for the Most Search Keywords” and the same title with a slight variation “Optimizing the Most Searched Keywords to Target your Niche” (using pages in tandem is an excellent SEO strategy).

As a result we gained more “broad match” traffic than most competitive keywords day and night from the links and keywords arching across the semantic bridge to create relevance (not to mention a double listing in search results for a 200% increase in conversion).

Using another post as an example about “Action Words” titled; “How to Use Action Words To Increase Traffic and Reader Response” created to work in tandem with another post about “Creating a Clear Call to Action for Conversion” had the same effect, topical relevance which is a precursor to website authority for those keywords.

The fact they are linked through the blog and have an RSS feed are enough to push it through for the first 30-60 days, after that you should go back to your server logs or analytics software and look for the phrases or pages that are dropping back a page or so, create a related post and freshen up the keywords again to set off a chain reaction / traffic stampede for anything remotely related in your website.

This is a process based on virtual theming, the process of using related keywords to deep link to pages specifically about the keyword. When used properly not only can you squeeze more traffic from a page than ever thought imaginable, but you can keep content lively and active in search engines while creating multiple double listings along the way to dominate search results. The good thing about it, you control the content, depending on what your write about.

So it is through the process of analysis, such as the basic technique outlined above that puts you in the driver’s seat of how you target competitive keywords and everything in between.

Jeffrey Smith is an active internet marketing optimization strategist, consultant and the founder of Seo Design Solutions Seo Company http://www.seodesignsolutions.com. He has actively been involved in internet marketing since 1995 and brings a wealth of collective experiences and fresh marketing strategies to individuals involved in online business.

Tags: click triggers, keywords, Website Promotion

You have to admit, at no time in the past has it been easier to earn money from writing than it is today… thanks to the power of the internet!

I’m not talking about being paid to write, which (unless you’re Stephen King or J. K. Rowling) is pretty much perceived as a minimum pay service. I’m talking about leveraging your written words to draw readers (like a magnet) to a website that you own, from where you can market, sell and resell numerous information products for profit.

Like everything online, success depends on one thing and one thing only… volume of traffic (ie: the number of people who see your site).

It has emerged that one of the most proven and cost effective traffic generation methods available to website owners also happens to be the one task that most website owners try to avoid… that is writing articles.

Yet, writing articles is one of the very best ways to create a constant flow of targeted traffic to your website. With a little effort and a sound, repeatable formula, you can easily write articles that are guaranteed to:

A: Draw traffic to your website

B: Create Ad copy to sell you products

C: Strengthen your presence and credibility on the internet

Using the following techniques can gain the attention of the search engines and get your products and ideas noticed by real people at the same time.

There’s no mystery about the basic structure for writing articles. Each one should have a beginning (the lead), a middle (the content) and an end (the conclusion)… not too difficult is it?

There is however one added ingredient you need to ensure that your writing is picked up by the search engines and subsequently attract a steady flow of traffic. That extra ingredient is ‘Targeted Keywords’.

Please don’t be put off by the idea of writing an article structured around keywords. The process is very straight forward… you can click on the link in the resource box at the end of this article to view a short video which explains the step by step process in more detail.

Once you’ve done your keyword research and have a final list of words or phrases you want to use throughout your piece, do the following:

1. Use your keyword (or keyword phrase) once in the title

2. Use your keyword (or keyword phrase) once in the lead

3. Use your keyword (or keyword phrase) a couple of times in the first paragraph

4. Use your keyword (or keyword phrase) in a scatter pattern throughout the content of the piece

5. Use your keyword (or keyword phrase) once in the conclusion

Using this basic structure (keyword-focussed title, lead, content and conclusion) will guarantee that your article gets the attention of search engines and also human readers.

This sure-fire structure is your most effective traffic generator yet, but wait, there’s one more thing! A secret weapon which almost no one else on the internet is using… it’s your local library.

A visit to your library to find material you can use within your article structure gives you a massive offline advantage over just about every other internet marketer or writer.

You see, if people are writing articles which include the keywords “japanese garden” for example, and conduct research purely online, they are highly likely to see other very similar articles written by people doing exactly the same research.

Taking your research offline, using books, newspapers and magazines for your source information, provides a totally new perspective which is far less likely to be seen in other online articles, putting you way ahead of the competition.

Use that research material together with your keyword-focussed article writing structure to produce something in the range of 400-600 words and you have your article.

Now, don’t panic, writing 400-600 words is no big deal. Think of it like this. One double-spaced page with a one-inch margin all around will hold about 200-250 words. If you’ve done your research and taken notes, the chances are that you have more than enough ideas and information to fill a minimum of two such pages.

Using the previous example “japanese garden”, you could then title your article “Seven Steps to Japanese Garden Heaven”. Okay, maybe not the sharpest title, but it would certainly tell human readers (and the search engines) what your article is about.

Take the research you’ve done and split it into seven major benefits for people searching online for information to help them create their own Japanese Garden.

Your lead might be something like this: “Imagine the calm and simple serenity you could enjoy strolling through your very own Japanese Garden…”

Then take each of the seven steps you mentioned in the title and turn each one into a section for your article. If you want a short piece, make each section one paragraph long. If you want something more substantial, make each section two or three paragraphs long.

When you reach the conclusion do these two things:

1. Sum up your article’s lead or title in your final paragraph (including the keyword or keyword phrase)

2. Quit!

Use this basic structure for writing articles and you’ll find it amazingly easy to create very successful, keyword-focussed material that will bring visitors flocking to your website — even if you don’t think of yourself as a writer!

Find out more about how articles can turbo charge your website traffic by clicking on the FREE video link in the resource box below.

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Dave Foster owns and operates the “Solo Profits” blog and podcast, helping to guide individual entrepreneurs and home-based business owners to online success. Draw upon the wealth of solo business information at the “Solo Profits” blog - Here ==> http://www.soloprofits.comDiscover more about turning your words into traffic right here: ==> http://www.soloprofits.com/turnwordsvideo.html

Tags: article writing, keywords, Writing

The importance of evaluating the effects of SEO over time using analytics is imperative for your optimization efforts.

For example, it is a well known fact that the modifier “How To” is a great hook. Both for the reader and for search engines. This was inspired by a post I wrote approximately 9 months ago entitled “How to Optimize New Web Pages”, shortly thereafter it hit the #1 spot and remained to this day.That’s great, if that were the case “all of the time”, but in reality, you have to go back and reassess each of your contributing keywords to ensure that they are properly nourished and don’t just drop out of sight.

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Tags: keywords

Should your SEO strategy (1) tackle the most competitive vertical keywords (2) pluck the low hanging fruit of the long-tail or (3) employ a combination of both? after deciding which strategy suits your sites ultimate objective, the mental model of the target client and amount of time and content required to accomplish the goal, what are the pros and cons of each tactic?

The Advantages and Disadvantages of Competitive Keywords

Pros: Stable traffic which eventually stems into the long-tail (semantically related phrases). Cons: The process could take up to a year to achieve saturation due to competition and search engine trust.

Also, the results you struggle to maintain are in constant flux (due to high demand), so a defensive strategy is required to maintain your position from scrolling out of the top 10 results.

Isn’t Targeting More Competitive Keywords More Difficult?

Before you get discouraged and give up before even getting started, yes the process for bagging a competitive phrase is challenging. But then again, if it were easy, everyone would be doing it and top 10 search engine placement would not be a crowning achievement, but rather a rotating free for all of inconsistency. For this reason, getting into the top 10 search results is more stringent than less competitive positions for ranking. The bar is raised, but so are the rewards, which is why relevance should not be an afterthought, but rather a central theme that consolidates your pages.

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Tags: keywords, long tail keywords, search engine optimization

Taking advantage of organic keywords rock - showing up on page 1 on Google or Yahoo for key terms is a great way to build traffic and is the dream of many webmasters. Lets look at how you can use organic keywords coupled with a little PPC to generate your site some amazing search results.

So, what is ‘organic keywords’? Organic keywords are those that appear naturally on your web site and contribute to the search engine ranking of the page. By taking advantage of those keywords, you can improve your site rankings without putting out additional budget dollars. The problem, however, is that gaining organic ranking alone can take four to six months or longer. To help speed the time it takes to achieve good rankings, many organizations (or individuals) will use organic keywords in addition to some type of PPC or pay for inclusion service.

To take advantage of organic keywords, you first need to know what those keywords are. One way to find out is to us a web-site metric application, like the one that Google provides. Some of these services track the keywords that push users to your site. When viewing the reports associated with keywords, you can quickly see how your PPC keywords draw traffic, and also what keywords in which you’re not investing still draw traffic.

Another way to discover what could possibly be organic keywords is to consider the words that would be associated with your web site, product, or business name. For example, a writer might include various keywords about the area in which she specializes, but one keyword she won’t necessarily want to purchase is the word “writer,” which should be naturally occurring on the site.

The word won’t necessarily garner high traffic for you, but when that word is combined with more specific keywords, perhaps keywords that you acquire through a PPC service, the organic words can help to push traffic to your site. Going back to our writer example, if the writer specializes in writing about AJAX, the word writer might be an organic keyword, and AJAX might be a keyword that the writer bids for in a PPC service.

Now, when potential visitors use a search engine to search for AJAX writer, the writer’s site has a better chance of being listed higher in the results rankings. Of course, by using more specific terms related to AJAX in addition to “writer,” the chance is pretty good that the organic keyword combined with the PPC keywords will improve search rankings.

So when you come to consider organic keywords, think of words that you might not be willing to spend your budget on, but which could help improve your search rankings, either alone or when combined with keywords that you are willing to invest in.

Guest post by Andy MacDonald, author of The SEO & Marketing Tips for Webmasters Blog.

Tags: keywords, SE Optimization

Search engine optimization has been around almost as long as search engines have. It probably started about five minutes after someone realized there was money to be made on the Web, but only if your site could be found easily enough.

The reason for optimizing a Web page is the same today as it was a decade ago but the methods have changed quite a bit. Actually the methods seem to change every few months but a lot of this is just hype and fads. The three things that will get you to number 1 on Google are the same today as they were in 1998; keywords, content and links. And the thing that keeps you at the top is constant monitoring.

Keywords are easy to find with the right tool. But please don’t go buying any fancy keyword software just yet. We’ll use Google’s free keyword research tool in just a minute and that’s more than good enough to do the trick. Before we do that though there’s one very important thing to consider; good keywords are only half the battle. We want to find the best keywords with the least competition.

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Tags: keywords, links, strategies