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Article writing: importance of SEO vs readability

by Roell
13 replies
  • SEO
    • |
When you are doing article writing/marketing do the same rules of SEO apply compared to SEO for web pages?

What is more important? Having your keyword in the title, meta tags, body of article or making the article more reader-friendly and naturally flowing?
Do you need to have your keyword in your lead-in paragraph even though it might not naturally fit in?
#article #importance #readability #seo #writing
  • Profile picture of the author cashcow
    If you are trying to get your article ranked in the search engines, then doing some basic onpage SEO is important. But I think you can do SEO and still have an article that reads and flows well.

    When I first started writing articles it was pretty hard for me to do this - I felt like I was "stuffing" the keyword in where it wouldn't normally be. But over the years I've learned how to place the keywords in there so it still sounds good.

    So, what I usually do is use it in the title (Yeah, sometimes I could come up with a way better title if I didn't have to use the keywords) and then in the first or second sentence and then every other paragraph after that.

    Of course, I always stick to keyword phrases that make sense, none of those mixed up ones with the words in the wrong order because those would not sound good in an article at all!

    Lee
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    • Profile picture of the author Michael Shook
      You do not have to choose between these things. A well written article or any content can certainly be SEO friendly with no problem at all.

      I know this is true because I do it every day in my articles and in the content on my sites.

      I have pages on my sites that literally rank for hundreds of keyword phrase combinations, and they are easy to read in a friendly way while still being SEO friendly.

      It is not a hard thing to after you have done it a few times.
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  • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
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    Originally Posted by Roell View Post

    When you are doing article writing/marketing do the same rules of SEO apply compared to SEO for web pages?
    If your articles are going on web pages, then the SEO principles apply to them, just as for any other page, as much or as little as you choose.

    Originally Posted by Roell View Post

    What is more important? Having your keyword in the title, meta tags, body of article or making the article more reader-friendly and naturally flowing?
    It depends which model of article marketing you're using. Are you writing primarily for search engines or primarily for people? It's possible to combine the two, to a good extent, of course, as JMZ observes above.

    Are you trying to generate traffic to the articles themselves or to the site(s) linked to in the articles' resource boxes?
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    • Profile picture of the author Roell
      Originally Posted by Alexa Smith View Post

      If your articles are going on web pages, then the SEO principles apply to them, just as for any other page, as much or as little as you choose.



      It depends which model of article marketing you're using. Are you writing primarily for search engines or primarily for people? It's possible to combine the two, to a good extent, of course, as JMZ observes above.

      Are you trying to generate traffic to the articles themselves or to the site(s) linked to in the articles' resource boxes?
      I'm trying to, both, get the article ranked highly and to get people to click on my links in the resource box.
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      • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
        Banned
        I apologise ... I asked a silly question here, and you gave it a better answer than it deserved!

        What I was trying (and failing) to drive at is that the extent to which you might want to "shift the balance" between "pure readability" and "pure SEO" may depend on whether these are articles only on your own site, articles only elsewhere, or articles from your own site with subsequent copies placed in article directories with a view to drawing further traffic to your own site. I was just thinking (and should have said so in the first place) that if they're only or primarily on your site, you probably wouldn't want to sacrifice too much readibility for the sake of SEO when you can do your own site's SEO in other ways. Sorry for the confusion!
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  • Profile picture of the author MrDay
    It depends on what your content is for and what you want to get out of it. If you're looking for money traffic from the search engines, then seo is more important. If you're an awesome writer and money is not you're first priority, then keep doing what you're doing.

    Here's my 2cents.....

    Why not have the best of both worlds and combine seo and readability into your content. You really need to utilize both if you want to satisfy your readers and get traffic to your articles.

    You definitely want the main keywords somewhere in your title. If you want your article to do well in the serp's, then this is a must.

    Sprinkle your keywords throughout your article's content. However, make sure it looks and sounds natural. It may take a little practice at first, but you'll pick it up pretty quickly.

    I am still honing my skills at combing both in perfect harmony. But I have read what many online experts say about this exact matter. They pretty much all agree that you need both seo and killer content to survive and succeed online.
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  • Profile picture of the author Jordan Kovats
    Write your articles as natural as possible, almost without your keywords in mind. Use them 2-4 times in the article. Use anchor text once or twice on your keywords. A high school eqivalency reading level should also be kept in mind, as it will appeal to the greatest number of people. There are tools that will evaluate your articles readability level, however their name escapes me at the moment.
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  • Profile picture of the author dadamson
    Originally Posted by Roell View Post

    When you are doing article writing/marketing do the same rules of SEO apply compared to SEO for web pages?

    What is more important? Having your keyword in the title, meta tags, body of article or making the article more reader-friendly and naturally flowing?
    Do you need to have your keyword in your lead-in paragraph even though it might not naturally fit in?
    When writing articles for SEO, I hate to say it, but readablility isn't SUPER important, but it is worth trying.

    You need your article to make moderate sense at least so that the SEs don't suspect poor writing but also so you get a majority of them approved.

    I write very readable articles because I want to get the most possible number approved, rather that writing more articles.

    My technique regarding putting the keywords in, I research a keyword in my niche with very low competition and not much traffic, and I use that keyword in my articles.

    I don't stuff it in but I do make sure it appears in the title, keywords, and at least 1% of the body text.

    This allows me to rank the articles quite highly without backlinking and this gives more weight to the pages that I am trying to promote.

    Cheers,
    Dave
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  • Profile picture of the author jkthomas
    how much roll of content in seo to site promotion
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  • Profile picture of the author hillaryjohnson
    I rather suggest you to write an article with unique content considering both the factors that it should be reader-friendly as well as keywords oriented too. As if people will not find it interesting and informative it is of no use and the same if it is not keywords oriented, your effort and intention for article will not fulfill.
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  • Profile picture of the author seoservicescontract
    I am doing article marketing for a long time. I found that if I submit a article that have more unique words and realted to my keywords, my rank increased. But another, if I submit 5-6 spin article, I could not get more profit than unique article. I always add keyword in title but also I make a good scalable title.
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  • Profile picture of the author seoforu
    Both are important...keywords in the title and description and making it user friendly and readable.Another point to note is that you should have a catchy title.
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    Guest post links are effective when they are contextual and natural!!

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    • Profile picture of the author Devid Farah
      Hi Roell,

      SEO is for the benefit of search engines. Good writing is for the benefit of the readers.

      You need to decide which one is more important to you.

      SEO can bring you a lot of traffic, but what good will that do for you if the readers are chased away by the terrible writing on your site.

      As with most things in life, moderation is usually the best policy.

      Use SEO, but don't go overboard.

      That way you can please both the search engine gods and your readers.
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