The Importance Of Using Keywords In Articles

By Terry Philpott

How To Use Keywords In Articles

Using keywords in articles that are submitted for the purpose of promoting online is the best way to maximize the desired exposure of the article itself. By correctly optimizing any content you publish on the internet, thru the proper use of keywords, your article will rank higher in the search engine rankings.

Fact is a poorly optimized article, no matter how well written, will quickly fade into obscurity since search engines will not as easily recognize the content. Thru the correct use of keywords, you are in effect leaving 'obvious clues' for the search engines to notice when looking for content similar to yours.

So how do you correctly use keywords to optimize any content you want to be easily found? Let's break it down.

Identifying Keywords

Keywords, simply put, are short phrases or even just one word that can describe the overall theme of a piece of content such as an article, website, or blog post. Search engines send out 'spiders' that 'crawl' thru content on the internet. Keywords properly utilized, should accurately reflect the theme of an entire piece of content. Thus by focusing on just the keywords spiders can quickly pick up the 'gist' of the content.

Most Web Designers Don't Know How TO Really Use Keywords In Articles   Improper Keyword Use   When writers place keywords into their content they should be careful not to overuse these words or phrases.   This is referred to as 'keyword stuffing' and

search engines will penalize you for this by their refusal to list your content in the search results. True as it may be that proper keyword placement is vital if you want to be found by the search engines to earn a higher search ranking, however deliberate overuse can get the writer penalized disallowing your content to be shown at all in the search results.

How to Recognize Keyword Misuse

Keyword density is a measurement or percent that reflects the use of a keyword within a piece of content. For instance, if you have a piece of content that is 300 words in length and you use a certain keyword 9 times the 'keyword density' is 3%.

Search engines use keyword density to score keyword use within content and generally dislike any percentages that approach or exceed 5%. In fact, as a writer, aiming for the mid-range of 3% or so should keep you in good standings while still maintaining a good search ranking.

A handy tool you can use to measure the density of keyword usage in your content is live-keyword-analysis.com. Just copy and paste your content at this site to check your keyword density.

Proper Keyword Placement

Now that we've already discussed the acceptable percent range for our keyword use let's focus on the optimal placement of them within the content itself. In general, a higher concentration of keyword use at the beginning of an article as an immediate notification of their use, and at the end as a closing reminder is the most effective placement for keywords.

In closing, as you can see, properly using keywords in articles can boost your search engine rankings. The higher you rank the more exposure you'll receive making your promotional efforts all the more effective.

Editor's Note: I have been using articles with keywords for many years to improve my search engine rankings and, in some cases, along with Google Adwords to promote certain web pages to get more traffic. I can say that I am a firm believer and, once you get started with keyword marketing, you'll be hooked on this little secret too! - Bob, WebmasterCourse.Com

T.J. Philpott is an author and Internet entrepreneur based out of North Carolina. For more information on succeeding in affiliate marketing and to receive a free guide that demonstrates how to find both profitable markets and products, visit http://affiliatequickstart.com