How to Use Keyword Phrases and Keyword Placement to Improve Your Web Writing and Blogs

Keyword phrases and keyword placement are critical if you desire to earn money with your web writing or blogging. Good keyword selection improves your SEO (search engine optimization) and increases the chances of placing high in search engines like Google. Placing well in Google can make the difference between a website or blog that attracts dozens of people or one that attracts millions of people.

Difficulty: Challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Google Adwords Keyword Tool

1. Begin by deciding on a topic for your webpage or blog entry. Choosing a narrow, focused topic will allow you to choose competitive keywords and keyword phrases which will place well in the search engines if you write your web article or blog entry correctly.
   
   For instance, instead of writing about real estate, consider writing about local real estate. Even better would be local real estate short sales or local real estate sales figures. While the topic of real estate may have millions of competitors fighting over the top 10 to 20 search engine rankings, local real estate may only have tens of thousands. Narrowing the focus even more to local real estate short sales or local real estate sales figures may only generate a few thousand competitors to deal with.
   
   Choosing a tightly focused topic will narrow the competition seeking top search engine ratings.

2. Once you've decided on a topic, start thinking about how people would be likely to search for that topic in a search engine. Ask yourself what words or phrases a person would enter to search for your topic.
   
   As an example, if you were searching for a good recipe to make pot roast, you would probably enter something like "pot roast recipe" or "how to make pot roast". You wouldn't be likely to use a word like "food" or "cooking" because the focus isn't narrow enough and you would have to search forever through all the entries to find the pot roast recipe you wanted. But if you search for "pot roast recipe", you'll find exactly what you're looking for.

3. Now that you've come up with some potential keywords, put them through a keyword tool such as the Google Adwords keyword tool. This tool will tell you the search volume for the phrase you enter as well as how much competition there is for that keyword or keyword phrase. The Google Adword keyword tool will also suggest other keywords and keyword phrases which you might not have considered.

4. When choosing keywords, you want to look for keywords that have a significant number of people searching for them without a lot of competition for the keyword itself.
   
   If you are trying to make money with your online article writing, website or blogging, you'll also want to consider the CPC or cost-per-click. This will give you an idea of how well the keywords you've chosen will pay when someone clicks on one of the Google ads on your site.
   
   You'll need to find a balance that you are comfortable with between the search volume for the keywords or keyword phrases, the amount of competition for the keywords or keyword phrases, and the amount of money the keywords or keyword phrases might pay you.

5. Once you've decided what your keywords and keyword phrases are going to be, you need to consider keyword placement. Keyword placement is the key to effective SEO. Keyword phrases should be present in the title of your page or article, in the body of your web page or article and in any subtitles and lists present in your web page or article.

6. Keyword density is also important for effective SEO techniques. If your keywords are not present in high enough numbers, the search engines will not place your article or blog at the top of the search engines. But if the keyword density is too high, the search engines may think you are keyword stuffing and penalize you for that.
   
   The best advice is to write in a natural fashion but make sure your chosen keyword phrases are being used appropriately. Generally, a keyword density of 3-5% is considered adequate.

7. Once you've published your article, website page or blog entry, you need to analyze the traffic you are receiving. If you are receiving an adequate amount of traffic and don't need to increase the page views for your website or blog, congratulations. You've done your job well.
   
   On the other hand, if traffic is not as abundant as it should be, you should consider reviewing your keywords, keyword phrases and keyword placement. You may be able to improve your keywords to enhance your SEO and increase the page views for your website or blog by choosing new keyword phrases or new keyword placement.

Tips & Warnings

• Keyword phrases containing two to five words tend to do better in the search engines than single keywords, so try to find two or three short phrases that describe your topic and represent what people would type into the search engine to find you.

[jull14]

on 7/20/2009 Wonderful article, thanks for sharing with us.

[momtchr]

on 6/12/2009 Very helpful article. I am trying to improve my use of keywords. 5*

[bspandrio]

on 4/30/2009 Thanks for this article, Lorie. I am pretty new to the web world and didn't have a very clear understanding of key words. I didn't realize that it is "kosher" to use phrases instead of just single words! I need to rework some of my articles, website and blog using your tips!