Keywords are the essence of an article. Keywords are single words, or even short phrases, which occur in a text more often. Keywords are the main source of Search Engine Optimization (S.E.O.) and combined with links to your site form an incredibly important part of how it will appear in the Search Engine Results Pages (S.E.R.P.).

Keywords are important for SEO as they actually describe the overall theme of any piece of published content such as an article, website or blog post. Key words help the Search Engines (Google, Yahoo!) “decide” how to categorize your website.

If you properly allocate the keywords into the content of the article, it will be tracked out by the Search Engines who are on the job day and night to cater to the internet users on the look out for information. Even if the article is not having great content , the incorporated keywords in your article will enable you surface out in top searches.

By correctly optimizing any content you publish on the Internet your article will rank higher in the search engine rankings through the proper use of keywords.

Beyond the importance of shooting for a page-one ranking, there are at least three additional reasons why the target keyword phrase is so critical.

1. It will make up a significant portion of your headline and meta title — usually the first part of your article a potential reader will see. It’s in those nanoseconds when you’re most likely to hook or miss a potential reader.
2. The research you put into choosing the target keyword phrase can trickle down to the rest of the article. What you don’t choose for the main phrase can become secondary keyword phrases that will enrich the article’s deck, intro, subheads, etc., further enhancing the article’s clout in search engines’ indexes.
3. Studying the keyword phrases people search for will make you a better writer and/or editor. Simply put, the research gives you insight into how your potential audience thinks about and looks for information.

How to correctly use keywords to optimize any content you want to be easily found

• Learn the happening words. Every industry has its own jargon. If you’re well-versed in a particular subject, it’s likely that you already know the “buzzwords” and you don’t need to read up on them too much. If it’s a relatively new topic for you, do some research; read four or five different articles to get an idea of the lingo used and the most popular sub-categories of the industry. Reading is a great way to load up on catch-phrases and terminology. You can discover the keywords you need without even trying by reading lots of articles !
• Write the article without paying any attention to keywords. The first time you write an article, do not bother trying to plug keywords into an article. Just write it… Keep the flow going, make your sentences without paying particular mind to word selection and be creative. It’s likely that, if you know what you’re talking about, keywords will very naturally fall into place as you write. Those critical keywords… they tend to just slip right in without you even knowing it happened!
• Select your keywords. Once your first draft is written, you can concentrate on building a list of keywords to insert throughout your text. Sit down with a pen and paper (or a blank document if you prefer) and write down words that you frequently come across in the industry you’re covering. Imagine if someone were doing a search on the web for your topic. What words and phrases might they key in to the search box? Don’t forget search terms that contain two or more words. Such words work together and would be placed in quotes if someone were typing them into a search engine box. Suppose you were writing an article on email marketing. You would include terms like “drip list” and “email newsletter” to name just two.
• Assess the popularity of your keywords. Find out how many times Internet users searched the web using specific keywords, with the free Google AdWords Keyword Tool. Just type in the word, fill in the Captcha and hit enter. The more global or local searches, the more popular the keyword, and the more likely you’ll want to use it in your article.
• Select keywords that are specific rather than general. Let’s say I’m writing an article about negotiating fees with a freelance copy-writer. My goal should be to include popular words related to that particular topic, and not just the general category of copy-writing. “Freelance copy-writing rates” is a much better keyword phrase to use because that’s probably something a user would actually type in when searching for such information. “Freelance copy-writing,” on the other hand, is more general and therefore might bring up thousands of higher-ranked sites than yours. Burying your article is no way to be found… so, keep it specific if you can!
• Scan your existing text for keywords. Your article draft is complete and your keywords have been selected. Now, just put them together. Scan the article copy for the first keyword. Did you find it? Great! If you know your stuff, you probably slipped the keyword into a few places without even realizing it.
• Edit your content: Suppose in your article about copy-writing, you included the word “writing” several times throughout the content. That’s no serious problem by any means, but “copy-writing” is the term of choice among marketers and advertisers. Consequently, it should be one of your keywords. Find and make the following changes in your content. Check where you’ve used the word “writing” or “writer“, and replace with “copy-writing” or “copywriter.” Do this for each of your keywords and keyword phrases. After changes made you have to check and reframe some of the sentences, but this shouldn’t be a big deal.
• Your article needs proofreading. Now that you’ve added keywords, the article is probably somewhat different from its original form. Do a thorough read-through for mistakes, correcting as needed. Check for spelling errors, grammatical inconsistencies and repeated words. You need to watch out for repeated words, even in keyword articles. A good writer should try to vary his vocabulary. I said your article should be keyword-rich, not dull and repetitive!
• Keyword article headlines:You must always keyword article headlines! Get right to the point with a headline that uses your three or four most popular keywords at the beginning, not at the end. Allow me to critique an article. The headline: How to Negotiate Rates with a Freelance Copywriting Expert. This headline could have been better. Why? “Negotiate rates” is not a keyword term that someone might type into a search engine. “Freelance Copywriting,” however, is. The better version of this headline: “Freelance Copywriting: How to Negotiate Rates.” If the words were reordered, this headline would have been that much more powerful and achieved a higher web search ranking.

Avoid Using Keywords the Wrong Way

When you place keywords into your content you should be careful not to overuse these words or phrases. This is referred to as ‘keyword stuffing‘ and the Search Engines will penalize you for this by their refusal to list your content in the search results. True as it may be that proper keyword placement is vital if you want to be found by the Search Engines to earn a higher search ranking, deliberate overuse can get the writer penalized disallowing your content to be shown at all in the search results.

Keyword Density

Keyword density is a measurement or percent that reflects the use of a keyword within a piece of content. For instance, if you have a piece of content that is 300 words in length and you use a certain keyword 9 times the ‘keyword density’ is 3%.

Search engines use keyword density to score keyword use within content and generally dislike any percentages that approach or exceed 5%. In fact, as a writer, aiming for the mid-range of 3% or so should keep you in good standings while still maintaining a good search ranking.

A very handy tool you can use to measure the density of keyword usage in your content is http://www.live-keyword-analysis.com/. Just copy and paste your content into this site to check your keyword density.

Ideal Usage of Keywords

Now that we’ve discussed the acceptable percent range for our keyword use let’s focus on the optimal placement of them within the content itself. In general, a higher concentration of keyword use at the beginning of an article as an immediate notification of their use and at the end as a closing reminder is the most effective placement for keywords.

Properly using keywords in articles can boost your search engine rankings. The higher you rank the more exposure you’ll receive making your promotional efforts all the more effective.

Are you ready to prepare keyword article?

Many companies are using keyword articles to help their exposure on the Internet. Whether you’re a entrepreneur marketing a product or a writer seeking freelance work, odds are you can benefit tremendously from keyword articles.

Never written a keyword article before? Have no fear. The process isn’t much different from writing regular articles. Don’t let lack of experience stop you from profiting through keyword-rich content. Just follow these easy keyword-writing guidelines and get ready to key in some great article copy!

A Warning On Keywords!

Remember that while the optimization of your website is almost a science, you should never let the statistics of keywords get in the way of the art and quality of your content! If your content reads badly as a result of the keywords that you have added to it, then you have done the wrong thing. No one will link to content that does not read too well and this is the other half of S.E.O. You’re giving your visitors the keywords so that they can find your content to link to and it’ll be those links that pack massive S.E.O. punch.

To write keyword articles that get noticed, you must strike a balance between using keywords and useful content to increase Internet user knowledge about the information your company wishes to pass along. That is why you must always write your excellent content first before you consider the keywords.

You may have a good understanding on how to select keywords for your website and the appropriate usage. Go ahead, write keyword article and watch out how SEO is going to rank you.