Does Seo Really Matter?

Many people who write articles don't learn anything about SEO (Search Engine Optimization), and they give up, thinking that writing articles is not a good way to earn money.

The truth is that SEO does matter, and it is not just keyword content and links. SEO covers a wide range of things on and off your site. Google has many different algorithms that favor sites with certain qualities.

Does SEO really matter? Some companies spend thousands, or even hundreds of thousands of dollars optimizing their site to compete for certain high value keywords, so I am pretty sure SEO does matter.

Here are some basic tips on SEO, so you have some idea of what to aim for. I am not an expert, but I learned from people who do it for a living: successful article writers.

Title Choice

This is probably the most important SEO tip I can give you. The first thing Google looks at when choosing a site to include in a Google search is the title. You will want to choose a title that is specific, but not too specific. You want it to be something that many people would type into a Google search every day around the world.

You include the most important keywords at the start of your title, unless the whole title is the keyword phrase you are competing for. For example, my most successful article is: What are the most googled words on Google? In this case the whole title is my main tagged keyword phrase.

Keyword Content

The best advice I have is to include your two or three main tagged keywords or keyword phrases as 2-5% of the text all through your article. It is better if they appear evenly in every paragraph, but you don't want to sacrifice readability for SEO, you just want to keep this algorithm in mind.

You can also include complimentary keywords, which are keywords or keyword phrases that are related to the subject matter of your main keywords. Google has a keyword tool for coming up with relevant complimentary keywords. Keywords are the second most important part of SEO.

Meta Description

This is the short description under the title that you see in a Google search. Keywords are kind of important here as well, but most important is how well it entices a searcher to click on the link. If you do everything else right, but don't have a good meta description, all of your SEO strategies may not pay off with views.

Backlinks

If you get an article on the first page of a Google search, or on the second page, you will want to make lots of backlinks to it from different domain names. There are many different ways you can do this, and I reccommend getting the free download Add This for a start.

This browser add-on makes it easy to make links from many different social bookmarking and social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, Digg, StumbleUpon, etc.

You can also submit your articles to different search engines, article directories, and make links from relevant link text in relevant articles on other paid article writing sites like Triond. You can submit your RSS feed to multiple sites at once on feedping.com

If you are writing articles on Bukisa, make links to your profile page gradually, because the link weight will flow back to all of your articles. Get lots of friends and followers on all of these sites, but don't forget to write articles.

Regular Updates

Google prefers a site that is updated regularly, so all of these other things need to be done when you have run out of ideas for things to write that day. The more you write, the more money you make, regardless of SEO.

This is actually the most important part of making money from article writing, if not the most important part of SEO, because if you don't have articles to use these SEO tips on, you don't have articles.

I try to write at least one article every day. I could perceivably write twenty a day, but I like to spend some time getting them just right.

Traffic

Traffic is another part of SEO that Google finds very important. If nobody is visiting a site, they will move it down the list in favor of one that people are visiting. Never use a traffic exchange or traffic generating software on your articles, or you may get thrown out of Bukisa. It must be targeted traffic.

You can get some extra traffic from your Bukisa friends, or your Twitter followers, or you can post your articles in your Facebook news feed. I have one referral who has four websites that get heaps of traffic, and he advertises his articles on them, which makes me a hundred times more than any of my other referrals put together.

I think I have covered most areas of SEO that you should be aware of. It takes time to learn SEO through experience, gain followers and friends, and build links etc. Even so, Google favors locally written content, so you should be able to get most of your articles on the first page of a Google search if you follow these SEO tips.

If you haven't joined Bukisa, it is a great way to promote your site, and if you already have a good knowledge of SEO and website design, you could make a lot of money here. Join below.

Bukisa is a free to join article writing site with a three level referral program. 25%, 5%, and 1% of your referral's article earnings. $3.22 US per thousand clicks.