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Jo Turnbull is an SEO strategist who began her career in marketing for SMEs. A keen interest in web development and marketing, she taught herself SEO and has been blogging ever since. In addition to her blog, which centres around mobile and SEO (of course) she enjoys travelling the world and is currently learning her fourth language. Here she gives Publishers some advice for optimising SEO. Check out her site at SeoJoBlogs. |
“If you have an article that you want to publish, you want to make sure that your article is seen by as many unique visitors as possible. Here are a few ways to do this:
1. Be different
There is a lot of competition out there on the web. If you are writing an article, make it stand out. Make sure it has a catchy and informative header that encourages visitors to read on. Try being controversial or provocative to grab reader interest and attention. For example if you are writing about the increase of social networking sites, I suggest you use the title “Facebook’s user base has topped 300 million” instead of “There are lots of social networking sites”.
2. Share
If you are hosting the post on your own website, install social bookmarks such as Digg and StumbleUpon so that if someone likes what they see, they can bookmark the information and tell their online friends. You are encouraging your visitors to take part in viral marketing – spreading the word about your article.
3. Links
Don’t be afraid to link to the source of your article. Readers will appreciate you giving them more information and they will like going to the source and finding out more. If they liked your article they will come back.
4. Short and sweet
Internet articles tend to be shorter – keep the article between 200 - 400 words and make sure the paragraphs are clearly spaced and easy to read. A lot of your visitors will be scanning the articles to take the best information so make sure these parts stand out.
5. Keywords
Make sure your article is centred around keywords. You can use keyword tools to help you find the best terms for your site. Google keyword tool is very popular and will let you know the competition for a particular term and give you suggestions of other keywords to use. Having a keyword rich header is always a great start, and use your first paragraph to get across your article’s key message. Your text shouldn’t look too “stuffed” full of keywords so ensure that you find various synonyms to include throughout, a technique very important for SEO. An acceptable keyword density percentage is 3 to 4%.
6. Optimise social media
To increase visibility of the article, you need to promote it. If you already have an online presence in social media, make sure there are links from your social networking sites. If you have followers on twitter, tweet about the new article you wrote with a link to the url. If you have a linkedin account, post a link to the article on your profile page.
7. Topical
Make sure your article is topical. If you are writing about mobile phones, talk about the latest mobile phones, the Palm Pre on O2, or the iPhone on Orange. You want your readers to know that you are aware of the latest news and they can come to you to find it.
8. Expertise
Build on the topical information and you can become an expert in their area. Once you find a topic that you are interested in and write about that is relevant news, stick to it. You may even find people wanting to link to you. Perhaps write a series of posts on the same topic, or start a blog carnival with other bloggers.
9. Give away information
Don’t try and sell your products or service in the article. If you are going to write a lot of articles, people will value your opinions and when they are ready will buy from your site because they trust and value your articles.
10. Interact with your audience
Throw up questions, start debates, polls. If you receive comments, make sure you respond to them. Visitors like to see their comments are well received. Comments are also a great way to add additional content to your site.
By following these tips you should be able to increase interest and traffic to your articles”
Some great advice there, a big thanks to Jo Turnbull from seojoblogs.com!
