Focused Keywords and Your Content

[Karen Cioffi]

Most of us think of keywords as something a marketer or affiliate marketer needs to be aware of. It’s their area of business and their problem to find these mysterious words that help increase the ranking on search engines.

But, that’s not really the case.

Today, if you are promoting yourself, your book, service, business, or product, you need readers to know who you are, where you are, what you have to offer, why what you’re offering is what they need, and why you’re qualified to be offering this product/service. Yes, there are a lot of requirements that need to be met in order to be successful in this ever expanding and competitive internet arena.

One of the basic strategies used to get noticed is writing or providing content. I’m sure you’ve read or heard a hundred times that “content is king.” It is absolutely true. Imagine being a spec in the sky . . . so tiny and far
away that you are invisible to the human eye. Well, that’s you in the internet universe. So, how do you get a flickering light going and build it into a steady strong beam?

Valuable Content and Keywords

The only way to get on the internet radar is to create valuable content, provide it regularly, and make sure it is keyword rich. As I mentioned, content is essential, without it you do not have a chance. But, even with it, you need to fine tune your ‘must read information’ with keywords.

Don’t fret though, it’s not that difficult to do. Most of it is common sense. I’m not one to search for keywords for every article I write, instead I think of what query words I would use to find a topic. While using a keyword tool would afford a much larger pond to fish from, I’m not a marketer, I’m a writer. If I don’t have the time to do
a keyword search I don’t go crazy.

For this article I took the time and plugged in the word “keywords” at freekeywords.wordtraker.com (a free tool). The number one phrase for this keyword is “keyword research,” number two is “keyword analysis,” and number
three is “keyword.” I really didn’t have to do a search to realize the word “keyword” would be there, I didn’t know, however, that “research” would be part of the number one phrase. Knowing the number one keyword phrase provides valuable information; this also means it is a highly competitive keyword.

The Long Tail Keywords

To make your keyword rich content even more effective look for what’s called long tail keywords. These are words that will move you away from the general querying crowd—and the heavy
competition.

For example, if your niche is children’s writing your key words would be: writing, children’s writing, and possibly children’s fiction and/or children’s nonfiction.

To elaborate on these keywords—to get more specific and narrow your target audience—you might use: writing for kids, children’s fantasy chapter books, picture books, middle grade fiction books, or kids’ nonfiction magazine articles. You get the idea; you need to focus in on your niche. Instead of aiming at the outer rim of a bull’s eye, go dead center.

To get started try these free keyword search tools:

http://wordstream.com/keywords/

http://keyworddiscovery.com

http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com/

[Karen Cioffi]

Hi, Bill,

Thanks! And, I agree, the title can make all the difference.

[Bill Cady]

So true. I find the readership volume on my blog is very often based simply on the title, followed by that 1st paragraph. Excellent article. Thank you.

Bill