… but it’s not actually all that easy either! I’ve been thinking about this subject for a while now. After almost 9 years working online, writing content for SEO has become second nature.

It was only recently when I’ve been trying to show a couple of people how I do this that I’ve realised it’s not all that easy, or obvious. So whilst everyone in the know is banging on about content being king, lots of people have been saying “Yeah, alright but what kind of content does the king bloody well want to see?!”

So with that in mind… here is Kirsty’s basic guide to creating compelling content that will help drive relevant traffic to your site!

OK. So lets look at this in two parts. Firstly, how you should go about writing content for your site in general, and Secondly how to come up with ideas for creating additional, relevant content around your chosen niche.

1. How To Write Your Site Copy
Lets assume you’ve sorted out your merchant. Lets further assume that your shiny and new site is sitting there resplendent with exciting products for your potential customers. All you have to do now is learn the ins and outs of SEO in order that you may have a chance of anyone ever seeing them!

Now, simply copying whatever the merchant has on their site (or having nothing at all in there) just ain’t gonna cut it. The King of content has outlawed the copy and paste marketing method, so it’s time for y’all to get creative. What I’d recommend you do is something a little bit more than simply re-wording your merchant’s product or product group blurb.

Oh, and obviously I’m writing this guide with no idea of your site structure or how / where your products are situated, so its quite general. Swap “product section” for “product” in the below if you will - it’s still relevant! Don’t worry, I’ll be answering questions at the end as usual!

So for each of your product sections, do the following: -

- Sit down with notepad and pen and have a really good brainstorming session. Try to imagine you want to buy the products you are trying to push.

- Write down all the search terms you’d personally use if you wanted to buy something from each of your product sections. Get REALLY detailed with this. Think of every possible different way you can to describe the group of products you’re trying to sell.

- Check your search phrases out on your local friendly keyword tool such as the Google Keyword Sandbox, and work out which of your search phrases is likely to be most popular. Also, you may find some additional search term variations. Add these to your master list for each of your product pages.

- Now it’s time to write a product section description! To avoid accidental plagarism I suggest you read over the merchant copy, then read your own list of keywords which is talking about all the different ways you could search for your products. Then try to write something in your own words (WITHOUT looking at your keyword list or the merchant site) that talks about all the benefits of the product, and try to weave in as many of the search terms from the list you’ve compiled as possible. If you want to include specific information, you can go back and get the details after you’ve written the main copy.

NB I’m not telling you to stuff in as many keywords as possible here, its really important to have a completely natural style of writing. Just keep your search terms in the back of your mind and when you get the opportunity - mention them!

OK, so hopefully by now you have an original and keyword rich product section description.

- To put the icing on the cake, make sure you include a really relevant page title. I see so many sites with poor titles, and it’s a shame because it really, really, helps with your search engine positions. Make sure you use your page titles to their very best advantage. Don’t just settle for “Product Name”. Really make the most of the opportunity to mention as many of your keword variations as possible.

i.e. Buy Cheap Product Name UK : General Site Topic Term : Product Name

OK, now repeat the above until you’ve written original content for all of your site sections. Now it’s time for step…

2. Writing Content Around Your Product Sections
I thoroughly recommend that you do more than simply write a bit of content for each of your site sections. There’s no way you’ve been able to cover all those wonderful search terms in your list from earlier. What a waste of an opportunity for some good traffic!

So…

- Get that list back out! Now, identify the search term areas you weren’t able to include in your site section descriptions. I’d recommend looking at terms that are looking for specific product features that match those you are trying to promote.

i.e. if your page is about acne look out search terms such as “solutions to teen acne” “natural acne treatment”

- You can now create some really genuinely helpful articles designed to capture searches from people looking for solutions to questions, or a specific product feature. Link to your product section from each of them, or direct to merchant… the choice is yours. And guess what? It’ll bring in traffic that converts like mad!

It will be so much more relevant than general terms to do with your product area, getting people to your site who really know what they want but don’t know where to find it. It’s simply up to you to show them the way by creating good SEO content to capture their search.

Integrate your articles into the main navigation of your site, and even link to them from the relevant product section. Trust me, this simple system will create a site with great SEO and will increase your chances to rank for lots of different search terms.

If you want an example of where I’ve done this successfuly, you may refer to the Lingerie Brands site I’m always talking about here. In particular, check out one of my Lingerie Brand Sections and see how I’ve written my content. No, I don’t always follow the steps I’ve outlined above - but I find content and SEO intuitive and really love writing it.

I really hope this general guide has helped. I’ve now realised just how difficult it is to write good SEO copy for many affiliate marketers. I’m luck enough to be able to push it out without thinking about it, and can generally write 1,000 unique words per hour. Gives me numb fingers though!

For further reading in this area, check out Kieron’s guide to getting traffic to your new site. He mentions some areas I’ve not touched on in this article which I think a lot of people will find very helpful.