If you rely on getting organic traffic to your article, then the first thing you'll want to do before you even write a word is to do some research to find out what exactly people are searching for.

Of course, [location] car rental (for example "Florida car rental") is always a popular keyword. But it's also an extremely competitive one — you'll be hard-pressed to rank highly for it.

So you'll likely want to research what informative topics people search about a particular location you want to write about. When it comes to topics related to car rental, this could be everything they need to know about renting a car in a location, but it could also be traffic rules in the location, parking, road trip ideas, and so forth.

Of course, the best content to create is that which you have personal experience with or a lot of knowledge about.

The title of your article and the first paragraph are key to getting people hooked into reading it. If they aren't compelling and leave the reader not understanding what the article is about, then they're likely to go right back to where they came from without reading the rest.

Your title should be just long enough to clearly summarize what the article is about. You don't need to worry about having the exact keyword you're targeting in it, though.

Here are some examples of great titles for articles about car rental in a certain location:

1. "Everything You Need to Know About Renting a Car in [Location]"
2. "Ultimate Guide to Car Rentals in [Location] – Tips, Tricks, and Insights"
3. "Navigating Car Rental in [Location] – A Traveler's Complete Handbook"
4. "[Location] Car Rental Made Easy – Your Essential Guide"
5. "Renting a Car in [Location] – Insider Tips for a Smooth Journey"
6. "Mastering Car Rentals in [Location] – Your Roadmap to Success"
7. "Driving Through [Location] – The Ultimate Car Rental Guide for Travelers"
8. "Unlocking the Secrets of Car Rental in [Location] – A Comprehensive Travel Guide"
9. "Explore [Location] with Ease – The Smart Traveler's Guide to Car Rentals"
10. "Your Essential Guide to Car Rentals in [Location] – Tips for a Hassle-Free Experience"

The first paragraph of your article is also very important — it should let the reader know what they'll find in the article and why they should take the time to read it. If you don't have a great paragraph that tells them this, then they'll likely try to find another article to answer their questions and never even see your affiliate link.

The more information you give, the better your results will be. This is for two different, but related, reasons:

• You'll rank better in search engines
• Your readers will be more inclined to use the services you recommend

Search engines prefer content that answers all of a user's questions for a particular search query. You don't want a reader to click on your article and then go back to the search engine since you didn't answer their question.

Likewise, readers will both stick around and trust the services you recommend if you answer all the questions they have. So do your research to find out what readers want to know, and then be sure to answer every question they may have about the topic.

The longer your article, the better, up until you run out of useful information to provide. Don't try to hit certain word counts, instead try to answer every question a reader may have about the topic. Adding words just to add words will make your content dry, repetitive, and not as engaging.

Trust is a very important part of affiliate marketing. In addition to providing thorough information, make sure to include personal anecdotes when you can. If readers see that your conclusions come from your personal experience, they'll be more inclined to see the information you provide as legitimate — and they'll also trust the services you recommend more.

Another aspect of this is that including personal stories will make your content more engaging to the reader. They'll be more likely to read it all and to find and use your affiliate links to book a rental car.

And finally, if your readers connect with you personally through your content, they'll likely stick around and read more of what you put out — and potentially use the affiliate services you recommend.

How and where you put your affiliate links can drastically affect how well your post will convert into sales.

Make sure that you specifically send people to your affiliate links. Here are two examples of how to place your affiliate link in content — which do you think would lead readers to click and book?

It should be pretty obvious that the second will lead to more people clicking the link and following through with booking their rental car through it.

You can, and in many cases should, include your affiliate link in different parts of an article. Perhaps your readers are only looking for a specific piece of information and go straight to that section. In that case, you wouldn't want them to miss your link. Just be careful that you don't overdo it and make it seem like spam.

If readers arrive on your site only to find huge walls of text in a hard-to-read font, they won't be sticking around very long. You need to pay attention to make sure they can easily digest all the great information you want to provide them with.

First, choose a font that is easy to read — don't get fancy and choose some cursive font that will cause a reader's eyes to strain to read it. Also, choose a font size that isn't too small.

Next, structure your content so readers can easily browse it to find the info they need. Use section headings (and subheadings, if necessary) and make a table of contents at the top. These will make it easy for both your readers and search engines to digest your content.

Break up your content into small paragraphs to make it easier to scan and avoid the "big wall of text" effect that will alienate readers. Likewise, use bullet points when it makes sense — these are even easier to scan.

Finally, you can make use of mobile-friendly tests to make sure your text is readable on mobile devices.

Odds are, you're aiming to get traffic via search engines. You can write the most informative article out there, but if search engines (read Google) can't find your content or understand it (via meta and HTML tags) then you'll get exactly zero organic traffic.

The topic of SEO is very complex, and all there is to know in the field could cover multiple courses. There are many things you should do for your entire blog to increase your search engine ranking. But there are also some things you should make sure are done for every post.

Make sure your posts include a meta title and meta description. These do two things: help search engines understand what your content is about and get users to click through to your article. You'll, therefore, want to make sure that they both do a good job of targeting the keyword(s) you want to (though you certainly don't need to include the specific keyword word for word) and that they are compelling enough to make readers want to click on it to read your article.

HTML tags on the page are also important, particularly the header tags (h1, h2, etc.). You'll want to have one h1, that being the headline of your article on your page (this could match the meta title or could be different). You'll also need h2's (and maybe h3's) for the different sections of your article.

This is obviously just the tip of the SEO iceberg. If you sign up for the DiscoverCars.com affiliate program, our affiliate marketing managers will be thrilled to give you more SEO tips.

Many people prefer visual elements rather than text, and even more so when it comes to online content. So you'll want to include many images in your content. Keep in mind though not to use so many that reading the informative content becomes difficult. As with all things, it's best to keep a balance.

The best images to use are your own just like the best way to write about traveling is by using your own experience. This will both help your search engine ranking and build a better connection with your audience.

If you don't have pictures of your own from a particular location you want to write about, don't fret. You can still include stock photos. When you travel there, though, especially if you rent a car, make sure to take pictures to show your audience.

Make sure to take pictures of things that will be informative, not just great travel photos of gorgeous places. For example, you may want to give your audience tips about the driving rules in the locations, so taking pictures of road signs there would be very useful.

Important: Make sure that the photos you use are not copyrighted (or that you have permission to use them if they are). Also, be sure to give credit to where you got the images from.

The job isn't done once you've finished with the content. You'll also need to learn from it — what worked and what didn't. This will make your future content even better.

Though you could use a service to a/b test things, you can also do it more simply — do one thing in one article and another in another and see which works best.

And make sure to keep your content up to date. Not only will regular updates help your search engine rankings, but keeping your content updated with the latest information will be more helpful to readers — and they'll be even more likely to trust the services you recommend.

Finally, if you're an affiliate of DiscoverCars.com, we'll be glad to help you in any way we can!