How To Write SEO Optimized Articles

Articles are powerful content pieces that serve many purposes, such as establishing you as an expert, pre-selling products and even helping to build relationships with your prospects.

But you can also use them to drive traffic to your site when you optimize them for the search engines.

Today, I’ll be sharing with you what I call the 3S Strategy for creating and distributing optimized articles:

Here’s a summary of the framework:

S – Search

S – Sprinkle

S – Share

Read on for the details…

Step #1: Search

Your first step is to search for the keywords your market is already using to find information in your niche.

You do this by using a keyword.

All you have to do is enter in a broad niche-relevant search term like “homeschooling,” “organic gardening” or “golf.”

The tool will then offer you suggestions for related search terms which you can use to expand your list of keywords.

In most cases, you’ll generate a list of hundreds if not thousands of possible keywords.

What you’re searching for are Longtail keywords, these are phrases that are typically four or more words long.

The key is that they have very little competition in the search engines, which means you can rank well for them, but also have a decent amount of monthly searches.

There are no magic number counts for what constitutes as the ideal Search Volume and Competition level, as each niche is different.

Paid keyword tools are more powerful and provide in-depth analysis on the niches you research.

Tip: Before you commit to any paid solution, I recommend taking advantage of the trial offers on the best keyword tools to see which ones you like the best.  Try one at a time so that you can really get a feel for the features and also to prevent overwhelm, because these applications are feature-rich.

Step #2: Sprinkle

Once you’ve compiled a list of Longtail keywords, your next step is to create content around these keywords.

You can optimize each article for two keyword phrases if you like, but generally it’s easier to optimize for just one.

The key is to not stuff your article with your keywords, otherwise the search engines may rank it lower (rather than higher).

As such, include your keyword in the title of your article as well as about two to three times for every 100 words of content.

Example: Let’s say your keyword is “hydroponic vegetable gardening indoors.” Your article might look like this:

Title: “Tips and Tricks for Hydroponic Vegetable Gardening Indoors”

Intro: include keyword at least once.

Hydroponic Vegetable Gardening Indoors Tip #1: explain tip and include keyword once more.

Hydroponic Vegetable Gardening Indoors Tip #2: explain tip and include keyword once more.

Hydroponic Vegetable Gardening Indoors Tip #3: explain tip and include keyword once more.

In short, summarize article and include keyword once more.

Step #3: Share

Once your article is complete, it’s time to share it by distributing it as widely as possible.

You do this by:

• Posting the article on your blog so that it gets indexed by the search engines.
• Offering it as a guest post on your JV partner’s blog (or newsletter).
• Post it on social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, etc.
• Create a Video Version and post it on your YouTube Channel.
• Create Images for Instagram and Pinterest.
• Share it on Q&A sites such as Quora, Yahoo Answers, etc.
• Submit it to article directories such as EzineArticles.com.

Conclusion

You just discovered the 3S Strategy for creating and distributing SEO optimized articles that are sure to pull in search engine traffic.

The key is to strike a balance between making your articles readable for your audience and sprinkling in your focused keywords throughout so that it reads natural.

You’ll get better over time with practice.

That’s it! You too can get your articles ranking in the search engine when you consistently implement the Search, Sprinkle and Share system.

Your next step is easy – take action by searching for your keywords!