Basics of writing for the web

hamid_awais

i am interested in making money by writing articles for SEO purpose. can any one suggest any tips for that

pickarooney

What is SEO and what kind of articles are you interested in writing?

ToasterSparks

Hey pickarooney, Wikipedia has this if it helps:


Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the volume or quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via "natural" or un-paid ("organic" or "algorithmic") search results as opposed to search engine marketing (SEM) which deals with paid inclusion.


But I assume the OP is looking for tips on article writing in general?

pickarooney

I'm still not sure what SEO means in this context, but any tips would only be relevant to specific cases, or very vague.

LauraOrlagh

I suppose the articles will depend on which websites you will be doing SEO work for specifically. But in general, I think you need to be careful not to be stuffing the article with keywords or links - I know this is an important aspect of SEO work but if an article is full of keywords or links it isn't interesting and therefore people won't be interested in reading it, therefore people wouldn't be seeing all of the keywords or links, therefore it would be a pointless exercise; I think you see where I'm going with this.

On the other hand, I do think you would have to research the Industry or area the site belongs to i.e. if it's an oil company - research recent trends in oil, recent articles, announcement on prices etc. and then compile a very current, and topical article to get people interested in what you are saying; because if someone loves your article they'll tell a friend who'll tell another friend etc.

I'm not sure how much you know about SEO, but an article I have found very handy for simple tips is http://freelancefolder.com/10-top-seo-techniques/ if you want to check that out. I hope some of this has helped

banquo

''The Elements of Style'', by Strunk. Get it. Available in Waterstones, Hodges Figgis and Eason.

hamid_awais

Most businesses need articles for the web written to help their company make more money. One of the ways their business makes money is by directing relevant and targeted traffic to their website.
What is Relevant and Targeted Traffic?
There are millions if not billions of people surfing the net, actively searching for content online. They typically use a search engine to find the information they seek. Not every internet users wants what a particular company has to sell. And businesses don’t necessarily want uninterested people coming to their site. Instead businesses want to attract only those people who are already interested and have a need for that business’s products or services. In other words, they only want to attract relevant and targeted users to their website who are genuinely interested in their offer.
For example, a company selling lawn mowers is not interested in having apartment dwellers reach its website. Most people looking to buy lawn mowers live in their own house, not a rented apartment, and have a lawn which needs to be mowed. Geographically, lawn mower firms will be targeting suburbia more compared to city dwellers.
Therefore it’s important for the business to get those customers to its site who are interested in the products it is selling. It will want all those people who type in search queries like “need to buy lawn mower” or “which is the best lawn mower to buy” to reach its website.
Here is where keywords come in.
What are Keywords?
Keywords may be a single word or a phrase typed into a search engine to yield search results. Typically a web user clicks on a search result (or many results) to find out more information about the issue he is concerned about.
Since you use the web, you already know that you typically click links only on the first page of search engine results. Every company wants to appear on the first page search results to maximize visibility and clicks.
In order to do this, they use a strategy called “search engine optimization” or SEO.

dawvee

Um... and? SEO is more of a marketing and/or web design thing than anything to do with writing articles for content-based sites. An article is not the same thing as ad copy. If it is, then you're doing something drastically wrong. Online article content is meant to engage and entertain the reader like any newspaper or magazine article, not just pitch a given product or service. There's nothing wrong with ad copy, but if you thinly disguise it as news or article content, you better hope your SEO is good, because you're not likely to see much repeat traffic to your site.

pickarooney

Merged with the previous thread you started on this hamid.

FarrellC

I used to do this. I have to warn you it's not a great time to get started in seo articles. A lot of (paying) companies that used to deal with bulk articles and therefore employed lots of writers have gone out of business in the last two years. They were experienced companies with experienced writers so you will get pittance right now if you have no experience. The work isn't there any more. At least decent paying work isn't, compared to how things were when I was working.

There are lots of writers prepared to work for very little because they have little or no experience OR they live in a country that has a much lower cost of living than somewhere like Ireland. They can afford to churn out articles at the rates that a lot of employers are willing to pay.

There aren't many interesting seo opportunities right now. I see a lot of jobs that involve writing articles with the exact same keywords 50 times. That's pretty hard to do. Trying to write the same thing 50 times without repeating yourself. I made the mistake of taking up a truly horrible assignment on my first dip into seo and it literally made me cry with frustration That's not even mentioning all the dodgy people and scams out there. I've never come across a freelancer who hadn't been burned at least once.