Article marketing - Why it's Important for SEO

Article Marketing is one of the oldest technique of traffic generation. Despite that, it has not lost out to newer techniques adopted by Internet Marketers such as social bookmarking or blogging as it is also by far one of the most effective methods of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) to generate targeted traffic.

To summarize, Article Marketing is the act of writing articles about a niche topic you are passionate or knowledgeable about. It is also what many people refer to as content marketing.

Article Marketing is essential for the following reasons:

1. It drives massive!quality traffic to your website

When you submit your articles to article directories, you can include links to your website or affiliate products in a resource box. This is an area where you promote the services or products which your website is selling. If you are able to write an interesting article to attract the reader's interest, then he or she would naturally click on the links in your resource box for more information.

2. It establishes your authority status

Article Marketing establishes you as an authority when you write a few articles on a niche topic. This is especially so if you provide helpful information that people in that niche are looking for and engage them through the interesting articles you have provided.

3. It strengthens your brand image

Through Article Marketing, it establishes your brand image. It gives readers valuable information of the services and products that your company is selling, hence creating a positive perception. It helps too, if you could sell the benefits of your products and services and what your customers could expect from you. A good example here would be your good after-sales service or freebies.

4. It enhances your SEO efforts

The most important benefit of Article Marketing is the ability to create backlinks to your websites, which is essential for your SEO efforts. Most article sites do not allow you to include your links in the article body, but you could do so in the resource box. You should put in efforts to submit your articles to as many article sites as possible (or at least five of the top article syndication sites) to increase the number of backlinks to your websites. However, do ensure that you vary the contents for submission to different sites, to help in the approval process. With the creation of more backlinks, it would eventually move your website's ranking higher in the various search engines.

If you are a beginner in Article Marketing, you might find the following tips useful:

i) Identify your niche and do keyword research

For a start, you might want to write something you are passionate about or knowledgeable in, as it's definitely easier compared to another popular niche subject which you have absolutely no knowledge about. Doing keyword research is of utmost importance as it enables you to identify the highly targeted keywords which you could include in your article to drive traffic. The Google Adwords keyword research tool is a good start. Do try to include long-tail keywords compared to a 2-word phrase. For example, "wedding photography for newbies" would bring you more targeted traffic as compared to "digital photography". In addition, try to identify keywords with less competition. A keyword with 5,000 pages in Google would definitely be a better choice as compared to another one with 30,000 hits.

ii)Establish an article submission plan

For effective Article Marketing, you can't just stop at one and expect to bring millions of people to your website. Try to decide on a writing plan, two articles per week would probably be a good start. As far as possible, write a few articles on the same niche, then move on to another niche, to ensure that you keep people in your niche engaged. Once you decide on your writing schedule, be disciplined and stick to it. This is because more articles written equals to more traffic to your website.

iii)Focus on writing a a catchy title

Effective Article Marketing starts with the ability to write a catchy title. This is the first thing that catches people's attention. If you are able to write a good title that arouses curiousity, it entices more people to click on it and read what you have to provide. On the other hand, a plain and boring title usually sees very low click-through rate. A a catchy title is also one which includes the main keyword you are targeting at.

iv)Spin a few versions of your article for submission to different article sites

Another important rule in Article Marketing is to spin various versions of the original article for submission to various article directories. Although it is very tempting to write just one article and submit it to 50 article sites, such a move might not rank you well in the search engines. The search engine spiders have a way to detect duplicated contents and having similar articles in 50 article directories would be seen as spam, thus affecting your ranking in the search engines in the long run.

Most beginners feel daunted about writing articles. As a general guideline, keep your articles to between 500 to 800 words and spend no more than two hours in writing one. Take note too, that most article syndication sites have a minimum words limit of 500 words. Writing less than 500 words somehow might also rank you lower in the search engines.

v)Leave your links and information about your website in the resource box

The resource box is the most important place where you could leave your links and information about your affiliate pages. This is also the very last point of contact with your reader before he or she moves on to another article. It is also the place where you include your call to action and encourage people to click your links. For the benefit of SEO, it is advisable to include two different kinds of links. One is the direct link to your website and the other is an anchor link using your main targeted keyword which people can click.

Article Source: http://www.articlecontentprovider.com/articlesubmit

Article Marketing is by far one of the most effective methods of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) to drive great traffic to your websites. It is the act of writing articles about a niche topic you are passionate or knowledgeable about. It is also what many people refer to as content marketing.

Article marketing is a very important SEO tool which every Internet Marketer should include in his or her marketing plan. With careful planning, it would bring highly targeted traffic to your websites in the long run. Vivien Tan is a part-time Internet Marketer who sells high quality ebooks on the internet and a professional photographer. For more information on article marketing, please visit http://www.GetYourFreeProducts.com/optin/articlemarketingsecretsreport.

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