For those who offer Article Marketing, where do you place your keywords so as to maximize relevance in the searches?

In the title, the body, the conclusion, the summary?

And how many keywords do you incorporate into your article?

Some people use three keywords; others state that they use four or five or six. Some keyword the entire title while others use one keyword in the title.

Where do you place keywords in article and how many do you use?

Thank you.
Janine

__________________
New VAs: I personally recommend Become A Virtual Assistant to Get Started!

Janine, I really don't think it's an exact science. I don't think there's a recipe that will definitely produce the results you seek. It's more that if your keywords are clearly reflected in your article, that's evidence to Google that the article really is relevant to the keywords and thus deserves higher placement.

Yes, ideally, you might have keywords in the title, the body, the conclusion, and the summary. Actually, I'd make sure they appear in the body, conclusion, and summary; and then use them in the title if it sounds right. Subtitles are good places for keywords, too. Using them in headings is effective, and in image alt tags.

How many? Just a few. I wouldn't obsess about it at all. Clear, concise writing, with well-placed keywords is all that's required.

__________________
Mary H. Ruth/Virtual Writing & Communications
http://www.writingVA.com

Hi Janine, Mary gave you some great tips here - I would only add that keywords in the title are an absolute necessity. There are also 'theories' about keyword density in the content itself, but because no one really can ever know a search engines algorithm, they remain as mere theories.

The average recommendation is anywhere between 5 and 20% - but my personal recommendation is just what Mary said: clear, concise writing, with well-placed keywords.

As to the where of your keywords, I'd put them in wherever they fit *naturally*.

All in all, if you write with your human users in mind first with a nod to the search spiders, you'll be doing just fine.

If it's possible to BOLD a few of your keywords in the article, that's a potential plus.

__________________
Stuck in startup? Stop dreaming. Start DOING!
Get the Become a Virtual Assistant eBook for just $29

Thank you Mary and Tess. This is great information. I'm trying to be more aware of keyword placement and I'm doing a little experiment with my posts to see if I can 'push' those posts a little better into the searches.

I hadn't thought about the subtitles as a useful area either.

I'll give bolding a try as well.

Thank you.

Janine

__________________
New VAs: I personally recommend Become A Virtual Assistant to Get Started!

Hi

Article marketing is such a big part of my business. I just love it. Here are a few recommendations. Also, I just went to a teleseminar on Friday for EzineArticles. I'm not sure if it's archived or not, but if it is, I highly recommend listening to it. It was awesome. I learned a great deal.

For keywords, I totally totally agree on the title. To me it's the most important thing to consider. I normally try and get them in the first few words of the title too. I'll also do a keyword tool analysis before. It's amazing how even adding an "s" can make a difference in how many people search on that term. It usually only takes 1/2 hour to do this too, so it's well worth it.

I also try and get keywords at the top of the article. I'm not sure why, but I do find I get better results when I do. I'll put them throughout, but try and get the heavy hitters up top. Definitely in the summary too. Just make sure you don't make the summary all keyword driven. Have you ever seen those, where it's all one big keyword after another. YIKES!

Chris from EzineArtlcles talked about bolding in the articles. He recommended bolding the topic headings. Like if you give 5 tips, you can bold the title of the tips. That might be a good place to squeeze in a keyword.

One thing I didn't know was that with articles you submit through EzineArticles, you can check out the keywords that drove people to your article from your article account settings. That should be really a handy tool.

Hope this helps!

Diana Ennen
Virtual Word Publishing
www.virtualwordpublishing.com

Great tips, Diana. EzineArticles is certainly one of the best but I know I haven't played with it as much as I could to find out all the ins and outs.

__________________
Kimberly
Facebook Marketing Magic!

Hi

Thanks!! I did discover that they did archive that teleseminar. You should be able to go to their site and get it. Also, I'd sign up for their newsletter and blog postings and follow him on Twitter. He just sent out his last month's postings on Twitter and boy was the tips good.

Thanks!

Diana Ennen
Virtual Word Publishing
www.virtualwordpublishing.com

I am going to agree with what has been said here, as well as add a few tidbits.

Supposedly Google can only read your keywords if they are the first ones in the title. So if you wanted more of a complete sentence, you would need to reword it. For example: Say your keywords were "parenting tips for raising autistic children" you would need to put that up first then do a dash and add something like "5 Key Elements for Helping Your Child Interact with Others"

It used to be a rule of thumb to put your keywords in every 100 words for the proper density. Normally placing keywords in the title, first paragraph, middle paragraph and end paragraph are about right for a 400-500 word article.

Long tail keywords like the example I used above are becoming the idea of choice these days with so many people writing with keywords, the more you can drill down to get close to the exact wording someone might type in to search is good.

At least these are the practices that I use when doing my article marketing.

__________________
Melanie Bremner
Ecommerce Setup and Writing Specialist

Hi

Wow, I totally agree with that so much. The more you can add what people are typing in to find you the better.

That's also a great tip with the dash too. Definitely going to add that to what I do.

Thanks!

Diana Ennen
Virtual Word Publishing
www.virtualwordpublishing.com

I second that! Excellent point to add there Melanie, about the long tail keywords...

__________________
Stuck in startup? Stop dreaming. Start DOING!
Get the Become a Virtual Assistant eBook for just $29

I've read about having your keywords closer to the beginning of your article is also relevant. Some article directories restrict on the keyword density to only 8% of the article.

__________________
Joey Wong - Virtual Assistant Service - Your Partner in Achieving Business Success
Facebook

This thread is very helpful.

Although when I do write, I don't specifically look for keywords, then plan on putting them where. It's too...rigid...for me.

It's hard enough for me to get myself going. Once I'm in the zone, I just type.

What I do is, albeit rarely, when I'm done with the entire article, then I look for the good, related keywords, and check on their placement and frequents in the article.

If I can squeeze some good keywords within the article, then I'd do it. Without ruining the phrases. But if by trying to put in keywords, or replacing normal words with keywords just because they're keywords, I won't do it.

Personally, I write because I want my reader to have enjoyment in reading. If at the same time, I can satisfy the web spiders, then it's good. Otherwise, I write more with human readers in mind.

But then, again, it depends on the purpose of your writing. So this really is just my humble opinion. ... Still, very useful info to know for those who need to know it. Thanks everyone

__________________
-Jean
Simplify it, delegate it.