As I explained in an earlier blog post – “Want More Traffic To Your Site? Write Articles!”, writing and submitting articles about your niche can push your rankings up in the search engines, and drive more prospects to your website.
Today I wanted to cover the parts of an article, and how to craft a good article for search engine optimization (SEO), and lead generation.
The Title (Headline)
When writing your articles, it’s important to really take time to consider the title of your article. This really is going to be a headline when it pulls up online. When you craft your article title properly, and include keywords relevant to the subject, it is possible for your article to rank highly on the search engines for the keyword. This can bring you a lot of traffic to your site.
It’s important to use the primary keyword phrase within the title of your article because when someone goes to a site like Google and searches on that keyword phrase, it will show up as a clickable link. It also gives you a boost in the search engines for that keyword phrase.
You also want to make the link appealing with the words you are using in the title of your article. There are different types of headlines – ask questions, do a “top 5” list, be controversial, give the “top 10 reason why . . . “, etc. You want the article to grab them by the eyes and be of interest. You really need to take time to make the title as interesting as possible so prospects will click on the link and take a look.
The Body
Now that you have a great title, or headline, you will need to take time to write a quality article that will keep your prospect’s interest. The body can be broken down into 3 sections: Introduction, Main Body, and Conclusion. If you work with this outline, you will be able to write a quality article that is easy for your prospect to follow.
You want to maintain their interest, and provide quality information, so that the prospect is intrigued and will be interested in clicking your link, which doesn’t appear until the end of the article. If it doesn’t hold their interest, they will click away before they get to the end. You will see a great click-through rate if you take the time to give quality information in the article.
It’s also very important to keep your articles short. For article approval with EZineArticles, you will need at least 250 words, but you really shouldn’t go much more beyond that if you want to hold your reader’s attention. Give them great information, but make them want to click your link to find out more.
You should try to connect with the prospect by addressing a fear or concern, or describing a feeling that they may have. This allows your prospect to feel that you know what they need or what they are going through. The first few lines of your article is your greatest opportunity to establish credibility and trust. If you get this trust, it will lead them through the remainder of the article.
Try to focus the middle of the article on the keyword phrase that you are targeting. Be sure to have that keyword phrase within the body of the article. Don’t pad the article with the keyword, just for the sake of having the phrase there multiple times, though. If it doesn’t flow well, the article is not going to be of interest, and you’ll lose your prospect.
Be on topic, and specific. You may think that your article is not long enough, but you want to give enough information to show your knowledge, and give the prospect a want to click your link and go to your site.
Finally, we come to the conclusion of the article, which ties all things together. If you want to include a conclusion in the body of your article, you can do so by reiterating what was already stated. If you do it in this way, keep the concluding paragraph short enough so that they can see the link below it easily.
With the conclusion of the article, you want to tie everything together. You can re-state what was already said, summarizing. Keep your paragraph short enough, and including just enough information, so they will see the link below (that is located in the author’s box).
Your Biography
Most article directories allow you to link back to your website, inside of the author’s box. It’s really important to create a bio properly, so you get a high click-through rate.
You may have seen others tell you that when you write a biography, you need to talk about yourself and give the reader all your credentials. The problem is – Nobody really cares. What the prospect really wants to know is what’s in it for them! This is where you need to tell them to get more information, they can go to your site.
Don’t spend a lot of time talking about yourself. Tell the reader what they can receive if they go to your site.
For example, if you are teaching them about the best way to find a home, you could write something like this...
If you would like a copy of my Buyer’s Guide to the home buying process, Check out my free report at http://www.yoursite.info/
You could also include the conclusion paragraph in your authors box, instead of at the end of the article, because most article directories don’t separate the bottom of the article from the author’s information. Write a short conclusion that attracts attention to your URL and use that as your bio. You might also want to consider breaking the author box into two separate sentences, each with a link.
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