Constant Content

After visiting Elance I see how many buyers are looking mostly for keyword specific articles--mostly to generate income.

Is it important to write keyword rich items at CC, or are there a variety of clients who may not care about that?

Well, there are at least three customers who do not care about keywords, because I sold three articles a while ago and don't write with keywords in mind. I have seen a few public requests that mention SEO, which I think has to do with keyword density (or something), but other than that it's not something I've come across often.

It's a mixed bag. Some do, some don't. For general submissions, I don't worry about keywords too much. Public requesters will usually say if they have a particular phrase in mind. Some even tell you exactly what phrases to use and how often to use them. I think a lot of webmasters are fine with "organic" keywords. In other words, what comes naturally.

I am so new here and have so much to learn. I really don't understand Keywords too well. I think they are the words that most commonly come up when doing a query on a subject. Is there a resource that would explain keywords and how to use them? Thanks

Keywords are the words that people use when they enter a search into Google or some other search engine. For example, if I'm looking for information about the best tax software for doing my taxes, I'd go to Google and enter "best tax software" or "do it yourself tax software." Google would then search its index for Web sites that appear to be a good match based on those terms. One way that Web sites ensure that they are listed for certain keyword phrases is by using those phrases in articles.

Now, if I were writing an article that incorporated those two phrases, I'd need to include the phrases several times such as in the title, intro paragraph, headings, and naturally within the text. The outline might look something like this:

Title: Where to Find the Best Tax Software

Intro: If you're looking for the best tax software, you'll find plenty of choices ranging from online forms to do-it-yourself tax software. . .

Heading: Best Tax Software for Business Filers

Heading: Best Tax Software for Individual Filers

Heading: Best Tax Software for Retirees

Hope this helps demystify keywords.

Here are a couple of more bits of advice on keywords:

1. Use exact matches, close matches, related words, and key phrases to add variety.
2. Search engines really only care about the first 1/3 of the article when they index pages. Human readers care about the whole article, so write well first and optimize later.
3. Write your article naturally. During your first edit, look at your verbs and adjectives/adverbs to see if you can change them to be keyword rich. For instance, if you're writing about creating great store window displays in retail, change the verb "show" to "display" and if you accidentally said "fabulous store window display" change it to "great". On the second edit, include key phrases where appropriate.
4. It's an unfortunate myth that keyword density matters. Having a 5 percent keyword density on a particular web page will NOT, I repeat NOT raise its ranking in the search engine. Having a fully optimized website (the whole site), relevant information, relevant backlinks, long click-through rates (meaning humans spend time on a page) and fresh content are FAR more important. Again, keyword density is a myth. (Did I say that strongly enough?)
5. If you're writing spec articles or ones where the requester does not specify keywords or density, use "long tail" keywords/phrases. These are the words and phrases that are searched less often but receive much higher quality hits. For instance, writing an article about "home business" is OK but will get lost in the SEO shuffle. Optimize instead for "stay at home mom", "easy online business", "marketing for small business" or some other more specific terms.
6. Search engines are smarter than the keyword-density folks think. The content is more important than a particular word, and search engines rank according to RELEVANCY. Say you're selling cats online. (I love cats.) Your keywords are "cat" and "cats" but just loading the article with those two words isn't as effective as also including feline, fur, meow, kitten, kittens, cat food, calico, mouser, etc. etc. etc. These other words make the article seem more relevant to the search engine, and also to the poor human who's reading about buying cats online.

Yeah, I know, I should write an article about using keywords... Not today. I have to clean the kitchen to get ready for a dinner party.

Evelyn, I wrote an article containing many of those points, and it sold here. So yes articles about SEO DO sell.