Pretty much we all know that content is the most important factor in SEO, there can be few people who would disagree, and the ones that do are probably not worth listening to!
Problem is, even if you have great content it can be a struggle to get anyone to read it or link to it, and this is just as important as the content itself. Even if your website is full of brilliantly written, articulate and intelligent content, that is updated regularly with more fresh content being added all the time, if nobody knows about it, then its value is just about zero.
So what to do once you have all your nice shiny content on your site, how do you get folks to read it, how do you get them to link to it, and how can you make them come back for more?
Target Keywords
First of all you need to make sure your content is targeting appropriate keywords, if you write the greatest article and fail to include the best keywords to draw traffic then you are missing a trick. You should use keyword tools such as Google Trends to find good keywords for your content, this tool allows you to see what people have been looking for recently on Google and therefore gives you the most up-to-date information on what keywords you should be targeting for your new content.
Next thing is to make sure you are including several keywords to cover the subject of your content. The Google Adwods tool is great for this, it allows you to enter a keyword and then see other related keywords that people are searching for along with estimated search numbers and other information.
Keyword Inclusion
Once you start to create your content, you need to keep at the front of your mind the various keywords you are targeting, it maybe a good idea to write down the keywords on a sticky or notepad and put it in front of you as you type, this will remind you to keep focus on the keywords you are targeting and make sure you include those words at regular intervals throughout your text.
Don’t over do the number of times you include your keywords, probably 1-2 times every 100 words would be optimum, so if you write a 500 word article you can include each of your keywords 5 to 10 times. Don’t forget to include them in the title of your content too, but make sure it reads correctly, do not include keywords that make the title grammatically poor.
While your at it, make sure your meta tags are optimized for the same keywords, get your Title, Description and Keywords tags to compliment your keyword targeted content.
Tell ‘Em About It!
Once your article is written and supremely optimized, you need to get the word out. Have a ‘Latest Posts’ or similar section on your homepage that shows the latest 3 or items you have written.
Give users the opportunity to subscribe to your content, use Feedburner for this so you have stats on he number of people subscribe and trends in usage.
Use the ‘Latest Blog’ feature found on many forums to have a link to your newest post, and post on related forums regularly.
By crafting your content carefully, targeting appropriate keywords, and making sure the word slowly spreads of your great posts and articles, you will, over time, ensure the success of your site. Folks will find your content, read it, link to it and then come back for more, what more could you ask for!
