We all hear how important articles are - especially when
used as a tool to help boost search engine rankings. We
often read many articles a day about our industry or about
something we are trying to learn. However, when it comes
time to write articles to promote our own business - we are
stumped.
Let's break down articles and look at everything you need
to know about why they work, how to properly write and
syndicate articles and all the other fun details.
Why Articles?
1. It is an opportunity to share information and establish
yourself as an expert
2. It creates an opportunity for new traffic to come to
your site (when your article gets distributed to various
sites on the internet, people can read your article and
click on a link within the article to get to your site.)
3. It creates one-way links into your site. Every time one
of your articles is posted, each link in your article
counts as a one-way link to your site.
4. When you write an article and post it on your site, you
are creating new relevant text for your site visitors and
for the search engines (which can result in a boost in
rankings).
How Does Article Syndication Work?
--Write an article (keep reading for more specifics on how
to format your article)
--Find a company that will handle your article syndication
for you, OR locate sources you can syndicate your article
to on your own.
--Post your article on your site and wait about a week to
make sure the spiders index your site (making sure you get
credit for the unique content as your own).
--Create accounts at the Article Sources you identified and
submit your article.
--Pay close attention to their guidelines - do they allow
HTML, do they require that your article not be published
anywhere else, do they require your article be on your
site, do they allow multiple submissions in a month? Etc,
etc. It helps to keep a file with all the relevant details
about the source so that all future submissions go smoothly.
--Notify all your clients, friends and family about the
article and send them to it. In some sources you get
credit (which means more exposure for your article) if it
is popular and read often or searched for.
Article Guidelines:
1. You want links from the article to different pages on
your site - however not all sources allow hyperlinks in the
content (they only allow a link within your bio) so make
sure your article still makes sense even if it is a version
that doesn't have the links active.
2. Because the search engines look at the text within the
"hot" or clickable part of the link - it is really good to
use a keyword in that area. As an extra bonus, if you can
change the keyword within the link on your article at
different sources you get more of a benefit. In other
words, take the time to create different versions of your
article. Vary the text used as the anchor text in the
links, and vary the pages that you link to within your site
in the various versions. This will give Google what they
are looking for - varying anchor text and links going to
many pages on your site, not just one. This is one of the
most important, and overlooked steps out there. This alone
can increase the value you get from article syndication.
3. Link to relevant pages on your site, not just your
homepage. It helps the reader get more information and it
helps you with the search engines (they don't like to see
all the links going to one page only). Eventually you have
articles out there going to all of your site pages. Just
remember, when you link to a page you need to tie it into
the content of an article. Ex: If you are talking about
dog collars, don't link to a page about bird cages.
4. Wait one week after you post it on your site before you
syndicate it.
5. Always write a short, compelling bio with a link to your
most important site page.
6. Include a "Reprint Rights" statement at the bottom of
your article, allowing people to use and republish the
article as long as they don't alter it and they include a
link to you.
7. Prepare a short, medium and long summary for your
article. Many sources will ask for a summary in various
lengths and you want to have it ready and have it be
compelling so that if people read the summary they want to
read the article and ultimately go to your site.
8. Don't forget in addition to submitting to article
websites, you can also submit to newsletters that are
relevant in your industry.
9. Write the article in plain terms, don't use too much
jargon.
10. Make sure your article is informational and don't be
too salesy or self-promotional or people will be turned off
and some sources may reject the article. Links to your
site within the article and Author Bio is all you need to
guide traffic to your site.
11. Don't use a lot of formatting, keep the layout simple.
For sources that don't allow HTML you will end up losing
the formatting anyway.
12. Check out your sources to be sure, but typically you
want to aim for 600 - 800 words.
13. Write a very compelling headline. Tip: Take a look at
Cosmo and other magazines out there; they have the best
headlines on the cover. Try playing with headlines like
that.
14. Make sure your article provides value and answers a
question or solves a problem for your reader.
15. Don't use long blocks of text, people like shorter
paragraphs and bullet point lists.
16. Date each article with the date it was written (when
posting it on your site, so that people will know if they
are reading current information or not.
17. Update your SiteMap when you add articles to your site.
18. Link to your article from your Blog. Don't post the
article on your Blog and on your site - that is duplicating
content and can be considered spam.
19. Create an Article Syndication Plan so that you have a
clear plan to consistently release quality articles out to
the public. Often people go crazy getting a couple
articles out there, but then never do it again. Constant
syndication, at a natural rate will get you the most
benefit.
20. Consider the "keyword weight" of your article; aim for
a good keyword density (about 3 - 4% density) using 1 - 2
keywords per article. Don't stuff the article with
keywords, creating something that is not an easy flowing
read for your audience.
21. Look for a unique viewpoint or angle when writing your
article. Rehashing the same old topics, sharing the same
old opinions won't get you as much mileage out of the
article.
22. Have fun with it. Let your personality shine through
in your writing. Articles should not be stiff and stilted.
Let your readers connect with you through your writing.
23. Consider breaking longer articles into a 2 or 3 part
series. This will vary how the engines see the content out
there, and it creates suspense and anticipation as readers
wait to see what the next article in the series will say.
24. Stay on top of the latest talk, news and buzz in your
industry and be prepared to quickly pump out a great
article to take advantage of some hot buzz or breaking news
in your industry.
25. Most importantly, pay attention to detail. Articles
are a great way to drive traffic and boost search engine
rankings, but there are many details that you must pay
attention to in order to get maximum benefit from your
article syndication campaign.
----------------------------------------------------
Jennifer Horowitz is the Director of Marketing and co-owner
of http://www.EcomBuffet.com . Since 1998, her expertise
in online marketing and Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
has helped clients increase revenue and achieve their
business goals. Jennifer has written a downloadable book on
Search Engine Optimization and has been published in many
SEO and marketing publications. Jennifer can be reached at
Jennifer@ecombuffet.com
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