Quick Guide to Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for Articles

Search engine optimization (SEO) is a way of molding your online content so a search engine will rank it favorably in search results. The higher you rank in search results, the more likely you are to attract visitors to your content. As a result, it's important to make sure your content is search engine friendly, and SEO is one way to do so.

The following is a quick guide to SEO for articles (500-800 words in length). These guidelines can also apply to other types of written content, but the focus here is on articles. As you read through them, keep in mind, though, that the "right way" to optimize any online content is heavily debated and involves at least a little guesswork. This is a compilation of the guidelines I've gathered over the past year when writing articles for a web environment. These guidelines and those offered by others will continue to evolve. It's also important to remember that optimizing an article's content for search engines is not a guaranteed way to garner you a top ranking--think of it instead as one way to potentially improve your ranking.

1. Keyword meta tag: Approximately 10-12 keywords.

The keyword meta tag is located in the "head" of a webpage. Web users won't see the keywords you type in the tag unless they view the source code. The keywords you choose will only affect your placement in search engine results if web users are using a search engine that supports keyword meta tags. Not all search engines support keyword meta tags.

2. Title tag: Approximately 8 words maximum in length. High keyword density.

The title tag is located in the "head" of a webpage. The text you place within this tag appears in the web user's browser bar. For example, the text in the title tag for Associated Content's website is: "Associated Content - associatedcontent.com."

3. Description meta tag: Approximately 12-20 words in length. High keyword density.

Like the keyword meta tag, the description meta tag is located in the "head" of a webpage. Web users won't see the text you type in the tag unless they're using a search engine that supports description meta tags. Not all search engines support description meta tags.

4. Article title: Approximately 8-10 words maximum in length. High keyword density.

5. Article subtitle: Approximately 14 words maximum in length. High keyword density.

6. Body headings: Bold. High keyword density.

7. Body copy: Approximately 10-15 keyword instances per Microsoft Word page. High keyword density, especially in the first 200-300 words (or 2-4 paragraphs) or the first 300-500 words, depending on who you ask.

8. Hyperlinks: Approximately 3-5 anchor text hyperlinks.

Anchor text hyperlinks are a type of hyperlink where a word (or words) within a sentence are turned into a clickable link. The URL is not displayed in the sentence. In the following example, "Associated Content" is anchor text. "Associated Content is a website that allows users to publish different forms of content to the web, including articles, videos, and slide shows." It's thought that search engines are more likely to rank you favorably if you use anchor text hyperlinks, especially if those links contain keywords.