This How to Write an Article Guide is a short and sweet manual for writing compelling professional grade SEO articles.  This article will be built using the techniques described within.  For this How to Write an Article project, we’ll use the following plan:

*Topic

*Keywords

*Outline

*Title

*Subtitle

*Introduction

*Body

*Conclusion

*Resource Box

Topic: Don’t bother writing SEO articles about topics that no one will read.  Focus on what’s hot, whether you’re interested in that topic or not.  I’m a writer and web developer so I know that article marketing is hot right now.  Other topics that are popular: weight loss, muscle building, penis enlargement, breast enhancement, financial aid, affiliate marketing, and a ton of others.  Do some research.

Keywords: Always choose long tail keywords.  General keywords- even those with lots of traffic and little competition- should only be a minor part of your SEO article writing strategy.  For this or any other article, you need to understand how your target reader is going to search for your article.  That’s why I chose How to Write an Article as my primary keyword.  That and the fact that the term gets 60,500 global searches each month.

Outline: Use an outline like the one above.  Under each heading, jot down specific notes that you’ll discuss for that particular section.  When your outline is complete, write the article directly from the outline and cross out items as you cover them.  When everything is crossed out on the outline, you’ll know you covered it all in a logical order.  This makes SEO article writing incredibly organized and therefore fast and effective.

Title: The title is probably the most important part of the article from a SERP standpoint.  Use your primary keyword as close to the beginning of the title as you can.  Include a secondary keyword like we have done here.  (Article Writing Tips gets 1,900 searches each month with very low competition)  Whatever your keyword, the title needs to be instantly intriguing and memorable and tell the reader exactly what the article is all about.

How to Write an Article: Writing the Article Body

Subtitle: See that subtitle?  It’s another excellent article writing tip.  Using a subtitle helps to organize your content for the reader and helps the bots understand what your article is all about.

Introduction: It doesn’t matter what style you write in; your introduction will only be effective if it gets right to the point and tells the reader precisely what to expect and why in as few words as possible. Strive for 70 words or less with absolutely zero “fluff.”  Your primary keyword should be as close as possible to the beginning of the first sentence.

Body: Follow these rules for writing the article body:

*Keep paragraphs focused on one topic at a time and never more than 100 words

*Use primary keyword once every 100 words

*Don’t use clichés or slang.  Avoid conjunctions with professional audiences

*Follow your outline!  SEO articles that are written using an outline are far more organized and compelling than those that are not

Conclusion: Writing an SEO article that converts requires a direct call to action within sight of the reader at all times; usually every other paragraph.  The body should flow in a logical pattern and funnel the reader to the conclusion, which should remind the reader in a powerful and compact summary what the article has offered and that action must be taken.

Resource Box: While the conclusion would mark the end of a traditional article, those who need to know how to write an article for article marketing purposes must understand that the conclusion cannot be written as the end: instead it must push the reader with a sense of urgency to the resource box.  The resource box should be written as a continuation of the article- as if the article never ended at all.  Don’t forget to include proper anchor text!

If you’ve written an article that is direct, asks for the sale repeatedly and provides at least two opportunities for the reader to convert, then you’ll have a strong grasp of how to write an article that converts.  Better yet, leave your conversions to the professionals and order our powerful article marketing package now.

For more article writing tips, check out our Blog Articles.