by Melissa Austin

Created on: September 20, 2010

Search Engine Optimization or SEO is an extremely important tool that ANY writer, whether new or not, should have in their tool-box. Proper SEO will help push your articles to the top of the search engines and garner you more page views. In addition to improving the ratings of your articles, SEO copywriting is an in demand skill. Meaning, learn the proper techniques for SEO and you could land some very lucrative contracts.

Key Word Density

I can’t stress enough how important Key word density is in articles. Many people fall into the trap of either not using a keyword enough, or using it too much. Both of which can mean certain death.

Use a keyword too little, and chances are your link will never land a first page spot on the search engines. Use a key word too much and search engines will flag your page as spam.

A good keyword density is between 2 and 6 percent. Meaning that 2 to 6 % of your total word count is keyword related.

How is Keyword figured

Calculating keyword density is tricky if you try to do it by hand or even with a  calculator. Keyword density is found by dividing the number of times a keyword is used by the total word count.

A good site to calculate keyword density and word count is Textalyser This site also detects readabilty and a number of other things as well.

What Keywords Should I Use

Choosing the right keywords is extremely important when it comes to writing. The last thing that you want to do is to put time into writing an article and then fill it with the wrong keyword combinations.

If you have a topic in mind, but are not sure what keywords to use, check out Googles Ad Sense Keyword tool. You can type in the title of your article or topic idea and it will populate a list of the most popular keyword searches. Avoid using the most popular of keyword searches as it is fairly difficult to get your page listed on the front page of a search engine if you are using keywords that everyone else is using.

Using Keywords Effectively

Once you have chosen what keywords you want to use, you now need to figure out how to use them effectively. As mentioned above, over use of keywords can cause your blog to be flagged for spam. If you don't use enough, then you risk not landing on the first page or two of the search engine. Studies have shown that most people who search only look through the first one to two pages.

One of the best ways to determine if you are using your chosen keywords effectively is to write a few posts for your blog. After about 24 hours, to give the search engines time to get your data, search for the keywords in your blog.

You can also log into Google and install a tracking code on your blog that keeps track of what keywords are driving people to your blog.

When it comes to using SEO effectively, it really is a lot of trial and error. Once you get the formula down you can count on your blog showing up in more and more searches.

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