Constant Content

Firstly, I was wondering how important seo optimization is in gaining more sales. I have a rudimentary knowledge of the basics - find a keyword/key phrase and use it naturally throughout the article. Does there seem to be a trend that seo optimized articles sell more often or more quickly and is it worth the time to learn how to optimize the article in this fashion?

Secondly, if the phrase "gain a better night's sleep" appeared throughout the article would that mean it was seo optimized for multiple key phrases such as "gain a better night's sleep", "better night's sleep", and "sleep" if all of these phrases appeared in a keyword tool's results?

I should also note that one day I may try my hand at affiliate marketing online and I know that seo is a huge part of the article marketing aspect of that business. I'm not entirely sure about this, however, so it is still up in the air whether I would actually use seo at some future time.

I have many opinions about SEO, and few of those opinions are positive. Repeatedly repeating a word or phrase does NOT trick the search engines into ranking a page high for very long. The subject is much more complex--all pages in a site must be optimized; the surrounding words matter to search engines; keyword density is a poor way to write and a poor way to gain organic search results.

That being said, you can optimize articles for certain keywords or phrases in a natural way. Think of how someone would google the subject and choose words that fit with that. In your example, "better night's sleep" would have fewer searches than, say, "insomnia" or the phrase "sleep well" or "how to sleep". Even "how to get to sleep" is ranked higher by Google. (I'll tell you how to check this yourself in a minute.)

So, unless you're optimizing an article specifically for that mattress manufacturer that uses that exact phrase, you can choose better phrases for SEO purposes.

OK. Google has a keyword finder tool under its Adwords tool. You need to sign up with Google Adwords even if you never intend to use pay per click advertising, so you can access the tool. Here's the address for the Keyword Tool after you've signed up for Adwords (it's long but copy the whole address):

https://adwords.google.com/o/Targeting/ ... earch.none

If you want to learn about SEO, there's plenty to study. Just Google it! The most important thing for us at C-C is to write well first, about interesting topics that inspire. Worry about SEO later, if at all.

My two cents!

Here's another two cents.

SEO, in my opinion, is over-rated.

Search Google for anything and you can get literally millions of results, 99% of which is rubbish. Very often, even the top three results are trash. That is actually not SEO at work but rather the result of people writing articles while thinking that SEO works. No one reads an article because it is SEO-friendly. People read an article which is entertaining or informative or both. People pay for articles which other people would read. No one in their right mind will pay for an article which other people would navigate away from, after reading, say, the first ten words.

Now, it might be useful to have a look at LSA (Latent Semantic Analysis) and LSI (Latent Semantic Indexing). Plenty of articulate articles on the subject, so you will have to read it up yourself. LSA and LSI are just big words for what our English teachers - my English teachers did anyway - have been telling us all this while. Write about the same thing without repeating the same words. Repetition is boring. Variation adds interest. Google does use LSA and LSI but the actual weighting is a closely-guarded secret. Going by what I see from Google search results, I would think that they give more weight to SAP (Sponsored Advertisement Placement).

One man told a news reporter how he made his speeches.
"First, I tell them what I am going to tell them. Then I tell them. After that, I tell them what I have told them."

Simple formula, isn't it? I was told that that man's name was Abraham Lincoln. Something to think about, isn't it?

Even two cents isn't worth much when it comes from
Hallelujah Lovelight
My hearts trips lightly over the lyrics of your love.

I have used the keyword tool before but never really applied it to anything. I agree with Oldman and many of my English teachers have told me to keep an eye out for repetition. What I was wondering though, was instead of picking one phrase and constantly repeating it throughout was if I could take a few of the more frequently searched phrases and use them as replacements for each other, meaning that I would have several keyword phrases naturally, organically throughout my article. I don't intend to just spam my articles with keyword phrases but rather use similar keyword phrases interchangeably in areas where I would have used them anyway. To me this seems like a good way to optimize the article while making sure it still sounds natural and pleasing to the ear. Would this be an acceptable way of optimizing the articles?

Yep, absolutely.

I submitted my first article a couple of days ago, and I was wondering exactly the same thing. My keyword analysis for the article was horrible. The wrong keywords scored a little over 1%, and the keywords I wanted to emphasize hardly registered at all. Oddly enough, someone bought the article after only 15 views.

If I had to draw some conclusion from that, I would guess that it depends entirely on who's buying the article and what the person wants it for. If the buyer is interested in the content, for content's sake alone, then SEO won't matter. If the buyer is trying to attract traffic, then SEO optimization is important. Maybe. I readily admit to being just as confused as you are.

Often buyers will specifically mention if they want SEO articles in their public requests. I usually don't bother too much with SEO when writing on spec, although I do keep it in mind. CC seems to be slanted more towards people who want well-written copy for their sites, rather than internet marketers (who are typically looking to pay far less for articles anyway).

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I agree that people want to read good articles, but people won't even find the article through a search engine if it doesn't rank highly for their search term. I do a lot of seo writing for my own web sites, and I think that keywords do matter for certain sites. With seo writing, sometimes the wording sounds a little awkward, which is the cost of working keywords into your writing. Seo is not only about putting keywords in your articles, it also has to do with title, the domain name, links and link value to your site, anchor text for the link, etc.

I agree that most CC articles aren't meant to be used for seo purposes. CC seems to want good writing and quality articles. I do affiliate marketing as well, and low-cost articles are key, so most people get those elsewhere or write their own.