The phrases you find using this technique occasionally throw up phrases with considerable competition. e.g. "how to bbq" currently has over 10,000 competing pages in Google.

Can you still use this phrase?

Sure you can, because you will be targeting other lower competition phrases in the same article, however, I would recommend a different use for it.

Many of the article directories that accept article submissions from authors, have high PR, and consequently rank well for competitive keywords.

I would suggest you take these high competition keywords, write an informative and well-optimized article, and submit it to one of these directories. There is a good chance you could rank in the top 10 for your chosen phrase.

OK, now those of you on the ball have noticed the problem. Your article ranks well, but at someone else’s site. How can this possibly be a benefit to your site?

Well, we will come to that when we look at off-page optimization later in the series. I will just say though that this strategy offers you MANY benefits, and your site will thank you for it.

OK, your task before you go any further is to sort through your keyword phrases, and select keywords that would good for using in articles.

I would suggest you try to find phrases for at least 30 articles to begin with, but the more the better. Concentrate on the “what”, “how”, “which” type search method to turn up real questions typed into the search engines.

If you find you have more than you need, I suggest changing your filtering criteria so that you either increase the number of daily searches, and/or reduce the number of competing pages, until you have the desired number of phrases for articles. This will maximise the number of visitors you get from your keyword selection. You can always go back and target the others at a later date if you wish to.

Target low competition phrases, even down to 2 or 3 searches a day at Google if necessary. We will look at themeing pages in the next chapter, and how this technique can mean that even pages built round low competition phrases can still bring significant traffic to your site.

Once you have mastered themeing, you will then start to create your main pages, and articles. Exciting times lay ahead…