Here’s exactly what you need to do if you want to position an article that you have written to rise to the top of the search engine results page for particular keyword. This process is typically referred to as search engine optimization. Our goal is to essentially create an article that is optimized to rank well within the search engines and to do a variety of other things that we will talk about in a moment that will help persuade the search engines to realize that your article “should” be prominently featured at the top of the results for whatever keywords you happen to be targeting.

The very first step is to pick a keyword. It’s beyond the scope of what we are talking about to go into the process of keyword research, but make sure that you pick a keyword that does not have a gazillion competitors all vying for top listing in the search engines. The next step is to create an article that includes the keywords you’re targeting within the title as well as numerous times within the article itself. Don’t overdo this, and make sure that you create an article that would be appealing to human reader.

Next, submit this article to a high-ranking article directory such as EzineArticles.com or GoArticles.com. After your article is submitted and accepted by the article directory, you will receive a direct link to the article you have just submitted. So far so good? You may have to read all of this a few times for it to fully make sense. The next step will be to create backlinks that point to the link you were given by the article directory after you submitted your article. Backlinks are essentially regular web links, except that they come from websites that are held in high regard by the search engines. It is very important that the anchor text of these backlinks contain the keyword you are targeting.

Following this process will enable you to create article content that has a very high likelihood of reaching the very top of the search engine results page for the keyword that you happen to be targeting. If you don’t notice that you are at the very top, keep working on building those backlinks. That’s the big “secret” to helping persuade the search engines to feature your article near the top of the results page.