By Michelle Strait
Article marketing research involves more than finding reliable sources of information.  Anyone who markets a product or service online should understand the importance of keywords.

Unless you’re a household name (like UPS or Microsoft), you’ll have to work hard to get website visitors. There are plenty of useful article marketing tips available online, but you also have to attract the search engines.

Articles focusing on one or two keywords provide a legitimate way to fill your website or blog with relevant content and provide search engine bait.

One of your jobs as an online business owner is to learn which keyword phrases are most relevant to your site. You then incorporate them into the copy on your page. The easiest way to accomplish this, while also providing relevant information, is to use keyword articles.

How to Create Keyword Articles

Keyword articles don’t have to be prize-winning material (although it would be nice). And you don’t have to write like Toni Morrison or Stephen King to put one together. The articles should make sense, be enjoyable to read, provide relevant information, and contain decent spelling and grammar.

You can’t simply repeat one word continuously and expect good results. This practice is known as keyword spamming, and produces crappy articles no one wants to read.

Each keyword phrase should appear naturally within the article. It’s also wise to use phrases that make sense.

Many website owners rely on keyword software or websites to find relevant keywords. These programs are time savers, but often provide keyword phrases that make no sense. I recently saw a software generated list that included “how do i make sudoku in spreadsheet” and “car hydraulics how to install”. It’s obvious that some keyword phrases are not made for articles.

Is there a Formula?

When keyword articles first became popular, webmasters tried to figure out a formula that would guarantee good results.  Some said the keyword had to appear at least 15 times within a 500 word article.

Others said it had to appear once in the first paragraph and once in the last paragraph. But these arbitrary rules are slipping away as more people focus on natural keyword density.

What is natural keyword density? This means you write the article without worrying about how many times the keyword appears. Articles written this way sound natural, unlike some keyword articles that sounds like a robot created them.

Do you focus on keywords when you write for the web? Do you think they’re important?