Web Writing, SEO and Keywords

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. SEO and keywords are important when writing for the web, because you want your articles to be read, otherwise, what's the point of writing them.

By effectively using SEO techniques and keywording you can find your content surfacing to the top of all the murky Internet waters. It's not always the cream that rises to the top of search results, it's the articles (and web sites) which use SEO and keyword density without overdoing it.

What follows is a step-by-step guide to writing web content and using the web site Texatalyser to make your writing have just the right density of keywords, ensuring successful SEO.

A Step-by-Step Guide to Using Textalyser

1. Open the Programs
Start by opening the program used to create word documents. Open a browser and go to Texatalyser. Be sure to bookmark Textalyser. I always have these programs open, but I did not want to skip this step in the instructions.

2. Write the Text
Use a word processing program to write the content. Spell check and proof your article before submitting it to Textalyser. It won't do any good to check content that has a major word misspelled or mistyped.

3. Make a List of Keywords
After writing the content, make a short list of keywords and phrases that most accurately represents the text. For example, for this article, I wrote down keyword density, Textalyser, SEO, web writing and web content. The list could have just one or two words or one key phrase.

4. Copy the Text Only
Copy the text of the content only. Do not include the headline or the subhead for the SEO analysis. To get a jump on the number of keywords that are used in the article, which will determine density, re-copy the headline into the text, as in this article, after the introduction.

5. Go to Textalyser and Paste the Text
On the front page of Textalyzer there is a box. Above the box is reads, "Enter your text to analyze here." The simplest and quickest way to analyze the keywords in the text is to use the existing Textalyzer defaults and continue on to click "Analyze the Text."

6. View the Results
Textalyze will provide some interesting results, including a word count and a readability number. Scroll down past these numbers to the box titled "Frequency and Top Words."

The words are listed in order of "keyword density." Are the words on your list match up with the words on the Textaylzer list? If they are, then you are on the right track.

The next important aspect to check out is the Frequency column. Unless you've been directed otherwise by an editor or a publication, the ideal range for successful SEO is to have the keyword density fall between 2 and 3 percent. Not all of the words on the list you made will be in this range.

Too Low? If the keywords from your list are less than 2 percent you will need to increase their density. Go to step seven, the next step.

Too High? If one of the keywords is 4.5 percent or higher, and it is an important word, it will need to be changed in order to increase its density. If keyword density is too high, the search engines may view it as spamming, and will not bring your article to the top of the search results page. Go to step nine below.

7. Add more Keywords to the Article
One of the two ways to increase keyword density is simply to add the word strategically through the article. Read the text from the beginning, typing in the keyword where it fits, without seeming awkward.

8. Remove Unnecessary Words and Tighten the Text
The other way to increase keyword density in an article is to remove other words and sentences. This one is tough for some writers, but it's also an effective way of increasing keyword density without making sentences unreadable by adding in the same keyword to every sentence. Editing and paring down words and sentences will result in a tighter article.

9. Remove Extra Keywords
One of the two ways to decrease keyword density is to simply remove some examples of the keywords. Try not to remove any keywords from the first sentence, or even the first paragraph. Read through the content and find where the keyword can be easily removed or replaced with a synonym. One benefit of replacing a keyword that is too frequent with a synonym, is that you may end up creating another keyword that web searchers may be typing into the search engines, increasing your chances of more page views.

10. Add More Content
If you absolutely cannot part with any of the keywords, and the web content is under 800 words long, go ahead and add more sentences here and there, without using the keywords. Think of this as kind of diluting your article. Instead of being orange juice concentrate, it will be more like Sunny D. As long as the information you add is still specific and relevant, it will not affect the quality of the web content.

SEO and Your Web Content

11. Follow Steps 1-4 Again

Once all the steps have been followed, go back and start again, to re-analyze the text. The whole process does not take as long as it will to read this article, once you've checked your web content with textalyzer a few times.

Check the results in Textalyzer again to see if you are any closer to the 2-3% range. It may take a couple of tries, and some creative editing, either adding or subtracting keywords or non-keyword text, and soon you will have web content with ideal keyword density.

Once you get the hang of using Textalyser for every piece of web content you write, it will not take you long to learn how to use it quickly and effectively.