It's Tough Identifying an SEO Content Service That Really Knows the Right Way to Compose Articles

As a reliable article service I get a great many different requests from companies for search engine optimized articles, optimized content and successful press releases. But what strikes me most of all is the proportion of people who still demand keyword stuffing. Writing a professional article for submission to an article directory is one thing - but hurling every potential alternative of your keyword into every line is quite another.

Whether such people just have their own assumptions, or have used less reliable article writing services beforehand I don't know. But I just don't write articles for businesses knowing absolutely the damage that they could cause if not written correctly.

It's true that there once was a time when filling your websites full of keywords was effective. In fact, just adding as many permutations of related keywords and phrases as possible into the keywords meta tag was almost sufficient to get you to the top of the search results pages. But this was a brief time thank goodness, and the search engines picked up on it very quickly. Google immediately dismissed the keywords meta tag and has never paid it any attention since.

But even more than this, today search engines frown upon sites who overuse keywords, and creating what you think is an optimized article, but which is actually little more than a thesaurus entry, will be likely to cause great harm to your site. Demotion is the very least that you can expect, but you also run the risk of being blacklisted if you take it too far.

So how do you know how many keywords to include? There are theories that 5% is about right, but this is ludicrously dangerous. In a 500 word article, a keyphrase such as 'article writing service' would need to appear 25 times. If each sentence was about 20 words long, that would mean that every single sentence would have to include the phrase 'article writing service'. Quite apart from what the search engines would make of your writing, imagine how ludicrous it would seem to a human!

Even 2% density is taking a risk, since you'd still be talking about including your phrase in every third sentence or so, and the search engines will still pick up on this quite easily. It seems, therefore, quite difficult to know what sort of density to aim for. This is essentially the problem. Any article service that is still droning on about ideal keyword densities is stuck in the past. Today we are fortunate that such warped ways of writing are over, or at least being actively discouraged by the search engines.

So if it isn't keyword density anymore, what is it? There are two simple answers - quality and semantic language. The first of these is relatively easy to understand. Writing well, using good quality English, having something to say and saying it well will make sure that your work is seen, read and promoted.

At the end of the day it is not simply the search engines you should be aiming to please. If real people see your articles, and find them suitable, then you are more likely to find your articles syndicated, published elsewhere and linked to from more websites. The rules of most article directories are clear - syndication and reproduction is fine, as long as the author's resource box or links are kept intact. This allows people to use your article within their own websites, but as they must credit you, links to your web pages will also be included - generating more backlinks, more votes for your site and helping it rise up through the search results lists.

With reference to the other idea - semantic language, this is more misunderstood than keyword density, and will require a subsequent article at least to discuss and explain. But in brief, any article service that tells you that keyword density is necessary is stuck in the early part of this decade, and any article writing service that expounds writing semantically should also be avoided - since this is little more than keyword density by an alternate name.

Justin Arnold is a full-time freelance writer and SEO expert who has written many thousands of articles for a large number of companies and organizations around the world. For information on his article writing and SEO services please visit http://www.themightierpen.co.uk/article_services.html or for more information on other writing services available visit http://www.themightierpen.co.uk.

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