The Anatomy of an SEO Friendly Article

Eric Brantner

Article distribution is a great way to help your business improve its online visibility. It also builds authority and gains you valuable inbound links. But you can’t just throw any old article on an article directory and expect it to work wonders for your brand.

That’s why I’ve come up with the anatomy of an SEO friendly article. This will help serve as a guide for creating content for article directories.
 
Title

It all starts with the title. Since content on article directories tends to rank well, you need to make sure your title is keyword rich. However, don’t commit the mistake of sacrificing an engaging title for the sake of keyword optimization. The key is to have a title that is both intriguing and keyword rich.

List titles seem to be the most effective at garnering attention. Titles that start with “5 Ways to…” or “11 tips for…” make users interested in reading the list you’ve created. The other reason lists are so effective is that they’re easy to scan quickly. Online users tend to scan content rather than read it; so, they are naturally attracted to lists.

Opening Paragraph

With online articles, it’s usually best to get to the point as quickly as possible. Readers tend to have a short attention span online, and you only have a few seconds to grab their attention. For this reason, the beginning of your article needs to give a strong, compelling overview of the topic at hand.  Before posting your article online, read through the first paragraph asking yourself “Does this make me want to keep reading this article?” If the answer is no, rewrite the opening paragraph until it does make you want to keep reading.

Additionally, try to work your main keyword into the first paragraph. Again, don’t do it at the expense of the paragraph’s flow, but if you can get the keyword in early, it’s beneficial for keyword placement.

Body

The body of your text needs to be easy for readers to scan through. Since you’ll probably be using the list format, you need to start each point with a bold, descriptive heading. This way, your reader can quickly scan through the list to understand your main points. Then, if they find your list interesting, they’ll read through your support for each point on the list. On a side note, make your bolded headings keyword-rich if possible.

As well as properly placing keywords throughout the body of your article, you also want to use short paragraphs. This goes back to the point of internet readers scanning through content. If someone lands on an article that’s just one long paragraph, you can rest assured they won’t be reading that article. Keep the body of your content focused, and take advantage of white space.

Conclusion

The conclusion of you article needs to wrap everything up in the article neatly. Additionally, it should entice readers to click on your website to learn more about you. Make sure the link back to your website has keyword-rich anchor text. This is one of the few times you’ll get to control your anchor text, so take full advantage of the opportunity.