How To Fast Track Your Article Marketing Program: Keywords That Count

The use of keywords is one of the most important aspects of writing killer articles that an author must master. You can write the most interesting and informative piece ever written on your topic and destroy it with improper keyword practices. The rules for keyword usage are neither difficult to learn nor hard to put into action.

"Rules of the Road" for the Cyber Highway

The only thing that remains constant in the universe is that everything constantly changes. If you ever doubt that, you need go no further than Google for proof. They are the poster child for change.

Their ever vigilant quest for the perfect search algorithm keeps the internet marketer and other producers of web content in a constant state of flux. Sometimes, I swear, late at night I can hear sinister laughter coming down from Mount Google as they change a variable in line 16 gazillion of search algorithm 666. I better be quiet, I suppose, lest I get struck down by a lightening ban.

But seriously, the way that searchers use the Internet changes as they become more sophisticated and knowledgeable surfers. The search engines simply cater to the needs of their customers; the end users, to give them the most meaningful mechanism possible to find what they want. That is the operative phrase: to find what they want.

It's Not What You Think That Counts

As the inventor, author or programmer of the Blue Fuzzy Widget, you know what it is capable of doing. You did, after all, give birth to it and understand its purpose clearly: it razzles, dazzles and whistles while it walks. Rumors are even beginning to circulate that it may, in fact, make motherhood obsolete and replace the need for air. There's not anything else like it on earth!

Somehow though, sales just aren't happening. You can't even get potential buyers into the store to have a look at one of them. You're stumped and can't figure it out. You search "razzle," "dazzle" and "motherhood obsolete." There they are; your articles show up in the top five positions on the page. So, what's the problem here?

Odds are good that if you went a step further and checked those keywords out with a good keyword research tool, you would be shocked by what you found. The words showing as relevant to your keywords have absolutely nothing in common with Blue Fuzzy Widgets. The problem becomes crystal clear to you at that moment.

Searcher Intent Is The New Order Of The Day

As the search engines endeavor to provide ever better service to end users, the rules systematically change. What worked last year, or even six months ago, probably won't hit as close to the bull's eye as it once did. The focus of search marketing is moving farther away from what you think is relevant and more to the intent of the searcher's query.

What does that mean to you as a content provider? It means that search engines expect to find what you tell them they will find in the page's content. If the meta tags for a page cite "spot removal tool" and "bathtub ring remover" and all they find is "razzle," "dazzle" and "whistles while it walks," in the body of content, it offends them. They don't like being lied to and will not index the page based on the meta tags, but rather what they actually find in the body of the content.

People looking for a spot removal tool or bathtub ring remover will not be shown your Blue Fuzzy Widget in search results. Now, someone surfing for circus acts may be directed to your results since they are probably looking for something dazzling and razzling that whistles while it walks.

The short of the long is this: know your target audience inside and out. Know the terminology they use to search for your topic, not what you and other experts in the field might use. These terms give you a jumping off point for highly targeted research to define the most relevant keywords.

Web searchers come to the table with one intention: to find a solution to some situation that either makes them feel better or hurt less. It's that simple. If your solution razzles and dazzles in the process, well, that's just icing on the cake.

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