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.

When considering article writing techniques, always remember that the article in its finished form must be “readable.” In other words, it must make sense, not be artificially contrived, not contain an excess number of keywords and should leave the reader satisfied that he or she has actually learned something new!

Different article writing techniques include a “how-to” approach, the popular “top 10″ style, a no-nonsense bulleted list or the conventional article. The webpage itself largely dictates whether an article should be formal or informal.

We are learning that the search engines value appropriate content. They use a process similar to latent semantic indexing to gauge whether the body of the article actually relates to the keywords found in its title. In other words, secondary keywords should appear throughout the article, which the search engine compares against its comprehensive database for relevancy.

Typically, an article will be between five and eight paragraphs long and be of 500 words duration. This is not set in stone, but is typical for articles found throughout the web. The opening paragraph of an article should summarize the total content and the following 3 to 5 paragraphs should each refer to a particular point, expanding as you proceed. The closing paragraph sums everything up.

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.”

When looking at structure from an SEO perspective, remember that secondary, LSI — type keywords must back up your prime words. Content experts will not need to worry about this element, as they will naturally form an article containing such content.

Search engines are sure to put ever more focus on quality content and webmasters who are just trying to optimize and not provide value will suffer. You must focus on your article writing techniques and realize that the demand for well written material is likely to grow exponentially.

Click on the underlined text to learn more about article marketing. Nigel Evans and Internet Marketing Future maintain a comprehensive, free information blog on this complex subject. Learn more about article writing techniques and why you should seriously consider the approach for your online marketing initiatives.