A Guide to Writing for the Web and Keyword Density

Writing for the web is all about keyword density. Just what IS keyword density? Keyword density is the level of frequency in an article of a certain keyword or key phrase. These days, there are several online companies that pay average people to write web articles on just about any subject imaginable. Some of these companies include www.associatedcontent.com, www.lifetips.com, www.howtodothings.com, and www.constant-content.com. Some writers actually make a living writing for the web but even for the ones who don’t, these websites can offer a nice supplement to your current income and are often a stepping stone to bigger markets. If an unknown writer wishes to apply to write for a print publication for example, article that they may have published on one of these sites can serve as a prime example of their writing ability and style. It’s also very possible to make enough money writing for the web to make your car payment (depending on what you drive of course) or little bills like your cell phone or daily lunch budget. The money one makes from writing for the web DOES indeed come in handy. However, unless you can develop your writing skills specifically for writing for the web, and are able to submit a quality article, that has a strong keyword density, the amount of the money you make on any of these sites will be VERY minimal. The following article will discuss just HOW to write a keyword density rich article for the web, thus maximizing your potential income.

Approach

First thing is to try to put your keyword or keyword phrase in the title of your article. Pay close attention to THIS article for example. As you read it, take note of how many times you’ll see the words, Keyword, Keyword Density and Writing for the web throughout the article. Your goal is to be able to mention your keyword or keyword phrase as often as possible without sounding redundant. There is such a thing as TOO MANY keywords. How discoverable your article is on the web means nothing. If it’s a pain in the rear to read, very few people will read the entire article.

It helps to check a certain keyword or keyword phrase’s search frequency with a website like http://www.nichebot.com/. That site will show you just how often a certain keyword is searched for on the web. Sometimes, it may be just as simple as revising your keyword or keyword phrase. Example, I recently wrote a product review for a “Behringer GMX212 V-Tone Combo Guitar Amp”. Now not only is that a long keyword phrase, it would be a pain in the rear to read an article that has that entire keyword phrase mentioned frequently. Now I’m a musician so I put myself in the searcher’s shoes. What is he or she going to be be searching for when they search for that amp on the web? They will likely (as I would) search for the Brand and model number. My keyword phrase for that particular product review was “Behringer GMX212”.

MY Method

Now each writer has their very own method of writing for the web that works for him or her. It took me a while to grasp it but once I did, writing for the web an article that had a strong keyword density became pretty easy.

Your goal is to get a keyword density of about 2.5% to about 3% in any article that you are writing for the web.. Most sites want you to have a minimum of at least 1% but go for the 2.5% keyword density as a 2.5% keyword density will get you a higher bid in most cases.

How I use my keyword in my article depends on what the article is about. If I’m writing an article called, “Choosing a Beginner Guitar”, I’ll do my best to mention the keyword phrase, “beginner guitar” frequently with sentences like, “It’s best to choose an acoustic guitar for a beginner guitar” or “A Squire Stratocaster offers and economic and decent quality beginner guitar”. Keep in mind though, when using this approach, you need to be careful not to over do your keyword or keyword phrase. There IS such a thing as over kill when it comes to keyword density.

After I complete the article that I’ve been writing for the web, I spell check and then I go to http://www.textalyser.net/. I copy the title of my article and paste it in the the proper box on the site. I then copy the entire text of the article and paste it in the same box. On “minimum characters per word”, I change it to “1” as a habit because part of my keyword phrase may contain an “a”. I uncheck where it says to “ignore numbers”, then I click on the “analyze the text” button. I will immediately see just how many words my article contains but as I scroll down, I will see the keyword density of certain words as well as 2 word, 3 word, and 4 word keyword phrases. I don’t pay much attention to anything above 3. Ideally, you want your articles to have a 2 or 3 word keyword density and at about 2.5% to 3%.

Don’t Get Frustrated

Yeah, I know that it’s easier said than done. It was only recently that I discovered what a difference a decent keyword density makes when writing for the web. It took me a while to grasp the method of writing for the web effectively and use proper keyword density. I would take time to research information and write what I believed was a great article but I wasn’t using any of the online keyword density and search stat tools available to me. I would be expecting a decent bid and would end up getting a VERY low bid. I felt like perhaps the editors had it in for me. I would attempt to mention my keyword or keyword phrase frequently but without using the keyword density tools, my attempts were weak. I write well (or so I’m told) and the stuff I write is of common interest in most cases. I couldn’t understand why my bids were so low. Then one day I got a $5 offer on a article that I thought was decent. ( I had become quite used to this) The content manager wrote me a note with the offer saying that she couldn’t offer me more than that because of the low keyword density. She suggested that I edit the article, mention my keyword more frequently, use the site http://www.textalyser.net/, attempt to get about a 2.5% keyword density but at least a 1% keyword density, and re-submit it. She then made a suggestion on how to approach it. I was temped to just settle for the $5 but instead I made some changes and managed to get the keyword density up to an acceptable level. I re-submitted and my offer went from $5 to $12. That was more than a 50% increase all due to a decent keyword density!! (the average pay per article on this particular site is $10). I recall thinking, “I guess keyword density DOES indeed MATTER”. It had been a while since I got an article that was that much and that was mainly because of my weak keyword density. Most had been UNDER $10 or WELL under $10. I kick myself for not taking note of this earlier. I feel that I could have doubled the money I’ve made so far had I learned how to use proper keyword density when writing for the web.