SEO Article Writing How To Use The Power Of Content To Attract Customers
by
INBOUND MARKETING AGENCY
TABLE OF CONTENTS
TABLE OF CONTENTS ................................................................... 1 INTRODUCTION .......................................................................... 2 1. THE SHIFT FROM TRADITIONAL MARKETING ................................ 3 2. BENEFITS OF SEO ARTICLE WRITING .......................................... 4 3. MARKETING WITH SEO ARTICLES............................................... 6 4. ESTABLISHING AUTHORITY WITH SEO ARTICLES ......................... 8 5. OUTSOURCING SEO ARTICLE WRITING ....................................... 9 6. CONCLUSION ........................................................................ 11 7. 98TOGO SOLUTIONS............................................................... 12 BLOGGING RESOURCES ........................................................ 12
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INTRODUCTION
SEO article writing is a form of Internet marketing that combines the principles of search engine optimization with the power of useful, informative content. Through the creation of SEO articles, businesses and individuals can promote themselves online and increase their exposure with both humans and search engines. Today's marketing landscape is changing rapidly. As budgets tighten, marketers are looking for better returns for dollars spent. Recent surveys indicate that marketing departments are shifting their budgets to online methods (blogs, articles, podcasts and RSS advertising), and away from traditional marketing (cold calls, direct mail and print media). For minimal cost, companies of all sizes can create informative articles that demonstrate their expertise to a targeted audience. This increases the effectiveness of their marketing efforts and offers a greater return on investment. SEO article writing, as part of a content marketing strategy, can transform a website into a true authority and convert leads into sales. This paper will discuss why SEO article writing is an effective online marketing tool. The cost-effective nature of articles, and their popularity with consumers looking for trustworthy information, makes them a viable alternative to traditional marketing methods.
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1. THE SHIFT FROM TRADITIONAL MARKETING SEO article writing is one of many online marketing tools being used by businesses to replace, or augment, traditional marketing methods. A recent study by Forrester Research found that 60% of marketers surveyed are increasing their online marketing budgets by shifting funds from traditional media (Forrester Research. (2008). The reasons for this shift reflect the changing nature of marketing in general.
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More and more people are turning to the Internet to get their information and make purchases. In this new consumer environment, traditional marketing methods, such as cold calling, direct mail and print ads, have three main disadvantages: 1. Expensive - the cost of print, radio and TV ads, the personnel needed to make cold calls and the subsequent lower ROI of traditional methods make them less effective per marketing dollars spent. 2. Non-targeted - these methods do not target specific niche markets, where interested consumers are most likely to be 3. Interruptive - since the search for the product or service is not sought for by the consumer, but rather pushed on him, he is less likely to make a purchase and more likely to block these methods Studies have shown that 75% of people on the Internet use search engines with the intention of buying a product. Since traditional marketing methods are becoming increasingly ineffective, and online search has become a powerful avenue to increased sales, businesses are turning to SEO article writing to gain a greater share of the huge worldwide online market.
2. BENEFITS OF SEO ARTICLE WRITING SEO article writing offers a cost-effective alternative to traditional marketing. It also has a host of other benefits for business that will ultimately help to increase sales. The top benefits of SEO article writing impact the following areas of your online performance:
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1. Demonstrates Knowledge - Well-written SEO articles showcase a company's expertise to potential customers, as well as consumers looking for a knowledgeable source of reliable answers and solutions to their problems. 2. Builds Trust - Once people read the articles and see that they were produced by an expert, they will start to trust that the company that produced them is the best source for information. 3. Increases Site Stickiness - The stickiness of a site is determined by how long it can hold visitors. Informative, credible articles not only bring people to a site, they help to keep those people there longer. 4. Increases Repeat Traffic - SEO articles encourage repeat traffic from previous visitors. Once those seeking information come to trust the company's expertise, they will return to it again and again. 5. Establishes Authority - SEO article writing is one of the best ways to establish the authority of a site. Informative, content-rich articles, well-written and updated frequently, will quickly position a company as the leading expert in its field. 6. Increases Search Engine Ranking - Since SEO articles are optimized for relevant keywords, they create greater visibility for a site on the web, which ultimately increases rankings. 7. Encourages Link-Building - The value of the information contained in SEO articles encourages consumers to share it with others in the form of back links. Articles can be linked to from another website or social media and bookmarking sites. This is another strategy that increases search engine rankings. 8. Expands Ranking Keywords - Each article placed on the site can include a different keyword that offers an opportunity to place the site higher in search engine rankings for that keyword.
SEO article writing provides fresh, high-quality content for a site, improving the value of the site for consumers and giving search engines a way to more easily find it. The above benefits will ultimately increase leads which are more likely to convert into sales.
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3. MARKETING WITH SEO ARTICLES SEO article writing is a specialized kind of copywriting that focuses on optimizing content for both search engines and humans. Marketing with SEO articles requires 3 main conditions: • • •
Relevant keywords Proper keyword density Well-written, updated content
A business that wishes to market its products and services with SEO articles should first do keyword research to determine which keywords are most relevant to the topic or industry it represents. What words will consumers type into the search engines in order to find the company? How competitive are they? Finding the best keywords is foundational to SEO success. Keywords can be determined by the company or individual, or through research using tools such as Google AdWords or Word Tracker. These resources also show how competitive each potential keyword is, allowing the user to choose ones that may be easier to rank for. Once the most relevant keywords are established, SEO article writing needs to include the proper keyword density. When the keyword appears too often, it causes the content to sound awkward and diminishes its value to the reader. A density of approximately 1% allows the keyword to capture the attention of search engines without sounding forced. Ultimately, the success of SEO article writing depends upon the quality of the content. When an SEO article fulfills its promise to the reader by providing useful, authoritative content, it will naturally build links and increase a site's search engine rankings. Updating the content on one's site is also essential to marketing with SEO articles. Search engines (and humans) place high value on fresh, updated content. It indicates that the business is interested in staying upto-date and engaged with potential and existing customers. Articles are informational by nature- they are intended to educate, answer questions and solve problems. Online articles are useful resources for consumers. A search engine optimized article also has the distinct advantage of being easier for search engines to find. This, in turn, makes it easier for humans to find.
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Case Study: Tribune Company Tribune Company is America's largest employee-owned media company. It publishes the Chicago Tribune and the LA Times, operates ten daily papers and tabloids and owns 23 television stations. In December 2008, however, this media giant became another victim of an economy that has not been kind to traditional print media. The company filed for bankruptcy, citing a debt load of 13 billion dollars. Like many print media companies, Tribune turned to its online editions for salvation. The company hired an SEO expert to increase traffic to these editions, in the hope that they could cut costs while increasing revenue. The result? Within two years, traffic to the Tribune sites increased by 20 million visitors per month. SEO traffic increased by 14% within that time. How did they do it? By educating journalists in SEO practices, and demonstrating tangible results, the Tribune's expert was able to convince 75% of journalists that SEO writing was working for them and for the papers. Simply by using relevant keywords in the headlines and at the proper density within the text of each news story, Tribune Company was able to dramatically increase traffic to its sites and increase its online revenue.
Turning Visitors into Customers Compelling visitors to action is another function of SEO article writing. Well-written SEO articles will first provide the information consumers need to make purchasing decisions. This naturally compels them to take the requested action, which might be to make a purchase, sign up for an email newsletter or subscribe to an RSS feed. Updated SEO articles appear automatically in RSS feeds and email newsletters, ensuring that, when customers are ready to purchase (or purchase again) they have that company in mind.
*Case Study: Girls Learn to Ride Laguna Beach, CA.-based extreme sports instructors Girls Learn To Ride teaches women and girls how to surf, snowboard, skateboard, ride BMX bikes and more. Their challenge was to keep in touch with customers and potential customers who were located all across the country, to remind them of upcoming events and fill
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enrollment for camps and clinics. The company needed to be able to communicate with different age groups and demographics, all of whom had varying interest in certain types of extreme sports. Customized marketing content, therefore, became the focus of an email marketing campaign designed to reach a wide customer base. SEO content in the form of educational articles and blog posts keep customers in the loop, and encourage them to sign up for classes. Five years after implementing an email newsletter campaign, Girls Learn To Ride increased its list of subscribers from 250 to 10,000. A survey of customers revealed that 53% of them found out about the company's services through their email newsletters and website. Through the use of SEO content, a business can compel readers and customers to act, and establish itself as a trusted resource for information about its specialty.
4. ESTABLISHING AUTHORITY WITH SEO ARTICLES Establishing that trust clearly starts with SEO content. Why? As we have demonstrated, SEO article writing makes a site more visible to search engines and readers, who will then be able to more easily access that site for information. Once a site's SEO content starts garnering attention from other sites, its ranking will improve through the back links it gets from these sites. According to SEOmoz in their 2009 survey "Search Engine Ranking Factors", top SEO experts cited "Trust/Authority of the Host Domain" as the overall top ranking factor used by search engine algorithms to determine the value of a site. The same survey revealed that 66% of experts in the field of SEO cite "Trustworthiness of the Domain Based on Link Distance from Trusted Domains" as a factor of high importance for search engine rankings. Search engines measure authority primarily by looking at the quality and quantity of other sites that link back to a particular site. This "link popularity" determines a site's importance and, ultimately, its rank. SEO article writing increases link popularity by providing high-quality,
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frequently updated content that allows people to see the site as a trusted source of information. They will then link back to the site from their own sites, or from social media accounts and bookmarking sites. Linking is an important part of the authority-building equation. Just as in face-to-face networking, it offers a form of recommendation or referral that consumers can use to make purchasing decisions. In this way, the content on a site's pages extends beyond just conveying information to your customers; it can also impact influential editors. These links tell the search engines that this site is relevant and important. Thus, establishing authority with SEO articles is a process that requires the following conditions: • • •
High-quality, optimized content Deep and wide distribution throughout the Internet Back links from credible, trustworthy sites
By providing a site with relevant, updated SEO content that offers useful information, SEO article writing positions that site as an authority in its field. Through the distribution of that content, more people, as well as other sites, will see it and start to trust the source of the content.
5. OUTSOURCING SEO ARTICLE WRITING SEO articles have many advantages over traditional marketing methods; however, they require knowledge of SEO, good writing skills and the time to frequently research and update the content. There are basically two options for creating and maintaining SEO articles. A company can handle it in-house, using employees who can write articles on a daily or weekly basis, then post them on the site. Or, a business can outsource the SEO article writing to a professional SEO content service.
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SEO copywriters are specialists in the field of content marketing, and can provide high-quality content for a reasonable cost. They are available as freelancers, or as part of a service that can implement a content marketing strategy and handle SEO marketing projects from beginning to end. Outsourcing SEO article writing offers companies the advantage of being able to put their content marketing campaigns in the hands of those who specialize in SEO. In addition, outsourcing offers the following benefits: •
Lower cost
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Time savings
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Content management system
Lower Cost According to the 2003 AIGA/Aquent Survey of Design Salaries, the cost to hire an in house copywriter (including salary and overhead) is between $55,000 and $65,000 a year. By utilizing the services of a professional SEO copywriting firm, companies can pay per project without incurring the additional expenses that come with hiring, such as health and retirement benefits.
Time Savings Outsourcing SEO article writing can save time in a couple of key ways. First, current employees and management do not have to take their valuable time to write and update content. SEO articles need to be constantly created and maintained in order to be truly effective for search engine rankings. Many companies don't have the time or personnel to handle this job on a regular basis.
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Hiring a service also streamlines a content marketing campaign by eliminating dependencies. In-house projects often involve teams of designers, copywriters and programmers who need to make requests and issue approvals. This often leads to scenarios wherein a simple change may take weeks to implement.
Content Management System A professional SEO content service will be able to use a content management system to handle projects from beginning to end. The advantage to a good CMS lies in the fact that it requires no technical skill of its users, and this allows anyone to make changes, view content and check on the progress of a project quickly and easily. In some cases a good CMS can entirely replace an in-house web team.
6. CONCLUSION The benefits of SEO article writing for businesses looking to market their products and services are many. SEO articles are cost-effective and proven successful in drawing and retaining visitors. They offer valuable information for those ready to make a purchasing decision. A business that engages in SEO article writing will build links that increase its page rank and its online visibility with consumers.
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7. 98TOGO SOLUTIONS
The creation of effective SEO articles requires knowledge of search optimization, careful research and the skill it takes to maintain fresh, high-quality content that attracts visitors and converts leads into sales. Interact Media is a content marketing service that provides SEO article writing to businesses for a fraction of the cost of traditional marketing methods. Our team of copywriters, SEO specialists, optimizers, and account project managers will handle the optimization of your online performance from beginning to end. Our expertise ensures that your site becomes a magnet for potential and return customers. Maximize your online visibility with optimized content, backed by a team of experts in the field of content marketing. 98toGo puts the power of SEO article writing to work for you.
BLOGGING RESOURCES Want to learn more? Schedule a complimentary consultation with 98toGo to learn to learn: • • •
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how you can start driving more traffic and leads from your website how to turn more leads into paying customers what you can immediately do to improve your online results what 98toGo can do to boost your web performance