Articles are the lifeblood of the information era. Bill Gates once said that “content is king,” referring to the ideal composition of a webpage. This is truer today than ever, as people turn to the Internet in increasing numbers.

Consider your article writing techniques — there are a variety. Fundamentally, the finished work must be “readable,” which means that it must make sense, not be composed just to incorporate a set number of key words, must be enjoyable to read and educational or entertaining.

There are a large variety of different article writing techniques and it is largely a matter of choice. The author could opt to write a “how-to” style, a “top 10″ approach, compose a piece around a bulleted list or write a straightforward article.

Google and the other search engines make no secret about the fact that they place great value on well composed content. When they electronically analyze a piece, they use a process called latent semantic indexing to check whether the article itself relates to the title. There should be a variety of secondary keywords contained within and the search engine will use its vast database to check for their presence. if these words are not present, the article will be marked down.

Fundamentally, an article should consist of 5 to 8 paragraphs and be about 500 words long. This is a standard format for articles found throughout the Internet. When composing an article, the lead paragraph should give the reader an idea of the overall content, the following 3 to 5 paragraphs should enlarge on a particular point — one point per paragraph - and the closing paragraph should sum up the entire piece.

Article writing techniques will tend to vary from author to author but good practice dictates that they should not represent a pure sales pitch. While it could be argued that every webpage has a commercial purpose and the content contained therein must be part of that view, competent authors will focus on the provision of education and information. There is a time and a right place for any “pitch.”

Structure is everything from an SEO perspective. Remember to include LSI type, secondary keywords to back up your prime keywords. Of course it is not necessary for you to worry or focus on this element if you are a subject expert, as you will naturally provide the most informative article and those technical words will appear automatically.

We are told that the major search engines are placing more and more emphasis on quality content and penalizing those webmasters who try and optimize first and provide quality second. As this scenario unfolds there will be a lot of focus on article writing techniques, as well as demand for the provision of great content.

Click on the link to learn more about article writing techniques, and how you should actively consider the idea for your online marketing initiatives.

Tags: Article Marketing