Sell Your Writing Online NOW Blog

If you’re unfamiliar with SEO, it means Search Engine Optimization. You’ll often be asked to write “SEO articles” for clients, and of course, when you’re writing your own projects, you need to optimize them if you can.

With that out of the way, let’s get on with our topic, using your brain to discover the most effective keywords.

Web searches are keyword-based. This means that whether you’re writing your own projects, or are writing projects for clients, you need to pay attention to keywords.

But…

When I’m working with Web writing training students, I find that many of them rely too much on keyword tools, such as the Google AdWords Keyword tool. This is a mistake.

Here’s the problem with relying on a tool: all the data in a tool, no matter how wonderful the tool is, is historical. The tool shows you what terms people searched for in the past. It can’t show you what terms people will use today, or in the future. Since many keyword terms are new — they’ve never been used before — this presents you with a challenge, and an opportunity.

Here’s the challenge: some keywords are so popular that it’s almost impossible for your articles and sales copy to be found if you use them.

For example, take a term like “weight loss.” If you optimize for that keyword, and expect to be found, you’ll be disappointed. There are many millions of references to “weight loss” online, and without heavy promotion, which involves lots of money, NOTHING you write which is optimized on that keyword will be found. So writing that’s optimized for that keyword is a waste of time, right?

No… because every challenge also presents you with an opportunity.

Use your brain: it’s the best keyword tool ever

When you’re writing for the Web, your best keyword tool is your BRAIN.

Let’s imagine that a client asks you to write ten articles optimized for the “weight loss” keyword.

Use your head first.

Think about individuals who want to lose weight. They’re fat — or at least they perceive themselves as fat. A woman who’s ten pounds overweight can be even more upset about this than another woman (or man, let’s not be sexist) who’s 150 pounds overweight.

How do does a fat individual feel? Probably guilty, ashamed, perhaps even humiliated, if someone has looked at them with contempt, or has made an unkind remark.

It’s taken that individual time to gain weight. It will take them time to lose weight. However, something has triggered their desire to lose weight… So they want to lose it fast.

What might this overweight person think, and then type into a search engine?

Just make a list.

Some examples:

how do I lose weight by next week

I want to lose weight for my wedding

lose weight 50 pounds

lose weight with a good diet

a healthy way to lose weight

fat and lose weight

what should I weigh?

get rid of fat

And so on…

I haven’t spent any time thinking about this at all. I just typed whatever came into my head.

If I were really writing a series of articles based on the “weight loss” keyword, I’d type a list just like this, then I’d look in weight loss forums online, and I’d page through a couple of diet and/ or fitness magazines.

I have these magazines at home, but if I didn’t have paper magazines on hand, I’d Google “diet magazines” or “fitness magazines” to find them. These magazines would give me lots of ideas for additional keywords.

The bonus: using your brain to find keywords gives you ideas for your writing

The big bonus of mining your own brain for keywords is that you’re kick-starting your creativity.

Keyword lists that I create myself get me excited.

I could write articles titled “I Wanted to Lose Weight for My Wedding: I Did, Here’s How” and “Get Rid of Fat for Good: the Seven Simplest Ways to Lose Weight” very quickly. And so could you.

Not only is the competition you face much less (there are only 618,000 Google references to “get rid of fat”, compared to 55,000,000 for “weight loss” for example), you’ll find that you will write faster, and write more, when you mine your brain for keywords.

Want to write for the Web? Sell Your Writing Online NOW (SYWON) gives you all the information and practical training you need. You can go from zero income to making $250 per hour in just a year. Does this sound like a long time to you? Consider that you’ll be making money quickly, and that your income will build month by month. Writing for the Web, the SYWON way, is fun, and exciting, and you get personal coaching from me, Angela Booth, right throughout your training. Join us — you’ll love it, I promise.

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