Friday, April 18, 2008

Article Submission As A Search Engine Optimization Option

Article submission can be a great means of obtaining free advertising and gaining good one way links back into your web site. One way links are considered one of the most important search engine optimization goals for any webmaster.

To get the most mileage out of article submissions, you need to follow a fairly standard set of guidelines. Follow these guidelines and your search engine optimization program will get a boost, your reputation within genre is likely to rise and the amount of traffic may increase over time. Article submission guidelines include:

  • Niche Selection: use your web site as the basis for establishing the niche you are going to write in. If your web site is promoting car alarms, use a niche related such as motor vehicle security. You may find that being more specific and using motor vehicle alarms is even more appropriate.
  • Submission Site: many sites that offer article submission tips leave this to last, I find it can be important to look at first. Determine where you are going to submit the article, what categories they have and what they allow/forbid within the content. Follow their guidelines. When selecting a site check on whether or not you are going to get a link back from the site itself - search engine optimization relies on inbound links so start with submission sites that may offer link juice.
  • Select a Topic: select a topic that you have specific knowledge of, or are familiar with and that you know you can easily research. Selecting a topic makes research difficult as you often don’t know what to actually research. Stick to what your know.
  • Research Keywords: do a little research looking for appropriate keywords for your topic and niche. Remember one of the reasons you are undertaking this project is to aid in your search engine optimization program.
  • Write a Good Title: actually, make it a great title. You are looking to attract readers and, more importantly, other webmasters to your article. Sell the article using a great title.
  • Content: as with all articles, content is highly important. Your content needs to be relevant to the title and niche and must provide value to the reader. It must the kind of article that other webmasters would want to have on their sites.
  • Resource Box: create a resource box that has a short bio and that links back to your pages. This is the section that provides the link structure for your search engine optimization program. If you can optimize your links then all the better.
  • Submit: submit your article following the article submission sites guidelines.

This is a basic list of steps to follow. Other important areas to note are things like spelling and grammar and using a good paragraph structure. Sometimes it is a good idea to get a third party to review the article. Failing that, leave the article for a day or so then come back and read and edit where required. You are trying to get a near perfect article that other webmasters will want to grab and republish on their sites. This is where the real search engine optimization boost comes from.

Every time your article is used, your resource box should be published with it. This provides the inbound links that you are looking for. If the submission site allows you to customize the link in the resource box, consider rotating through a couple of different resource boxes, each with different link structures. Your search engine optimization program will get a bigger boost if you can use different links with each submission.

Article submission is a smart way to gain extra traffic, extra credibility and of course, a huge boost to your search engine optimization program.


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