Constant Content

Does anyone have any tips or insight into the process of choosing and listing keywords on submissions? I don't think I'm very good at it, because I don't know how searchers think and have an unimpressive understanding of search engines.

If someone wanted information on bubble gum, what are some words they would use to search?

Try this tool:
Go here: https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

(It's currently down for maintenance though)

Enter the basic keyword phrase. Try it with the “Use Synonyms” box checked. You can sort the results by popularity. You'll see which related keywords are used and how popular they are. You might see words like:
bubblegum, chewing gum, bubblegum flavor, sugarfree bubblegum, sugar-free bubble gum, etc...

I try and consider some of the words I might enter in a search engine too. After all, the people searching are just like you and me.

You can use this tool to figure out popular topics too along with niches that might be attractive.

As always, THANKS, CELESTE!

I'm going to educate myself now, and watch my articles fly off the shelf.

I like to do keywords that also relate to the article in a way. For the article that was snapped up quickly, I think my keywords were: HD DVD, Blu Ray, DVD wars, DVD player, second generation DVD, HD DVD player, Toshiba.

That way if anyone was looking for an article on something similar, my article would also come up. But some of those words weren't used but maybe once or twice in the article.

And also, you can't really go wrong just writing naturally. You'd be surprised how the keywords seem to work their way in all on their own. Try and be mindful of the keywords of course but don't stress over them either.

Oh, I don't write with keywords in mind at all - I just have trouble knowing what to include on the submission form. knowwhatimean?

ah, gotcha.

That link will be useful for your purposes. Keep it mind too when you need ideas for articles - it will show you how popular your topic is and give you ideas for even more articles.

For example, if you're thinking of writing about bubblegum but when you run it, you might find out that very few people are searching for bubblegum causing you to reconsider. In that same report you might find that people are searching for nicotine gum like crazy. The obvious choice would be to write about nicotine gum instead.

You could also use the info as a selling point in the short summary so your customers will know that the article fills a popular keyword search term.

Great tips, Mama Celeste. Thanks again.

Very good question, grouchy. Great tip on the link, Celeste. I'll try that. I also do not think about keywords as I write. Hmmmm.

Aariana

I think keywords are a fine line to walk. I have customers who give me specific words and specific numbers of times to use them. You don't want to overdo them but yet it's advantageous to have them. If you can pull it off where the article still reads well and the search engine loves the article - well then you did it.

I've also heard that some search engines look for synonyms as well. So if your keyword is "bubble gum," throwing in similar words like "chewing gum" might be part of the strategy. Most of my customers have already done the keyword research and tell me exactly what they want - how many times to repeat each word, secondary words to use etc...

So, keep your phrases in mind, use them as much as you can but try to maintain a natural flow if possible. I believe if you have them in mind, you'll use them but won't go crazy with them.

Please also consider that "SEO (keywords) happens naturally":
http://constant-content.com/blog/?p=40

. . . especially if you write clearly with few vague pronouns. The Google algorithm is beginning to lean more towards more natural writing (or so the experts say), so it follows that customers will lean this way eventually, too.

Ed

Hi!

Just my two-cents: remember that search engines ignore punctuation! That little tidbit can really make the writing flow more.

For example, if you've already repeated "bubble gum" a couple of times and don't want to say it again you can do something like...

.....always make a great bubble! Gum has been around since....

In this example, Google would still recognize "bubble gum" as it ignores the exclamation point.

Allows you to mix it up a bit.

AThompson

Another site you might try just to see how many times your article words occur is:

tagcrowd.com

This site gives you a count of each of the words in your article through a visual image display. The more frequently occurring words are larger and all other words are smaller according to their usage frequency.

I use it to determine if the keywords I have selected match with how many times I have placed them in my article.

Another excellent tool to use for writing if it hasn't been mentioned anywhere else is the following site:

http://textalyser.net/index.php

When you copy and paste an article in the text box and click, you will see an analysis including total word count, number of different words, the readability, sentence count, average sentence length, and other statistics including word frequencies and word lengths.