Linkbacks and SEO

Everybody by now is aware that the key to making money online depends almost entirely on your ability to get targeted traffic to your website. This is where article marketing can help you get started. Article marketing is simple to understand, cheap and effective if it is done right. There are however a simple set of guidelines you need to follow if you want your article marketing campaign to be a success. It involves writing relevant and informative articles, or having them written for you, and submitting them to various article directories. To be successful at article marketing you need to have a longer term approach to your internet marketing and submit articles on a regular basis.

You then need to submit your articles to article directories on the web. For example let’s say you have a site on weightloss products and your keywords are:

Lose Weight Weight Loss Programs Lose 20 pounds in one month Diet programs Weight Loss Food

The articles you write need to be based on these keywords in order to maximize the likelihood of being indexed by the search engines. Try to use so called “longtail” keywords as these will also help to increase the chances of being indexed in the search engines. Remember that search engine technology such as Google has become very advanced so using tired, rehashed articles, duplicate or simply irrelevant junk content is a futile exercise and will do nothing for your search engine ranking or your online credibility. Also try to connect with your reader by providing valuable information and address the problem that they are seeking to find answers to. These are the types of visitors you can turn into paying customers.

Your articles can vary in length but aim for 350 to 650 words. Make certain to read the submission guidelines for the site in question as they vary considerably from one directory to another. They may have a minimum and maximum number of words allowed for example. At the bottom of each article you will have a Resource Box or Author Signature where you have the chance to add a few lines about yourself. Use this space wisely to sell yourself by offering more information and advice via a link to your website. Someone reads your article, likes the information and wants to know more. They click on the link to your website so they can find more interesting, relevant information. You have an extra visitor to your site. If you want this method of marketing to be as effective as possible then we would suggest submitting 5 to 10 articles per week, relating to as many of your keywords as possible.

Well crafted and informative articles that capture the attention of your readers are what you need to aim for. It is unlikely that a few articles are going to deliver an income for life but as you continue to submit articles to directories, over time you will increase the volume of traffic arriving to your website. Successful article marketers regularly and consistently submit articles and realize that it is a longer term plan to conquer their specific niche. Another valuable purpose of article marketing is to use for so called “offsite” SEO. Internet Marketers and SEO experts universally recognize the value of “backlinks”, that is links that lead back to your own web site. It is probably best to submit your articles to the top 10 or 20 article directories initially.

Below is a list of the top ranking article directories:

http://www.ezinearticles.com http://www.articlesfactory.com http://www.goarticles.com http://www.articledashboard.com http://www.articlebase.com http://www.buzzle.com http://www.articlewheel.com http://www.articlecity.com http://www.planetarticle.com http://www.helium.com

It is probably best to concentrate on submitting your articles regularly to these top directories. With good quality articles on sites such as EzineArticles. Search engines such as Google also like to index relevant articles. If you look through the listings when you search on Google, you’ll quite often see articles listed alongside other websites. That’s because Google will search the top ranking article directories and list relevant articles in the results. You’ll mostly see articles appearing for so called longer tail and less competitive keyword searches.