Dina Giolitto asked:




Been reading up on SEO? If so, you know that there are one of two major strategies for bumping up your website on the search engines. One is onpage optimization, which involves plumping up your website’s headlines, subheads, alt image tags and content with popular keywords. The other is offpage optimization, which, although not talked about nearly as much, will drastically improve your rank if done the right way.

Offpage SEO works like this:

To improve your SEO rank and increase traffic to your site, you need to get more popular websites to link to you. This is called inbound linking.

Websites are ranked 1 to 10 for Page Rank; one being the least popular and 10 being the most popular. If you’re just starting out, you’re probably a 1 or a 2, but you want to be at least a 6 and who knows… maybe one day a “perfect 10!”

Just like real-life office hobnobbers, your little website is going to have to do some shmoozing with those big league websites to get noticed. How can you give your site some help? Just as you feared: you must first research whose site is ranking higher than you are for your selected keywords. Then you must email them and ask if they’ll place your website link on their site.

Now when you ask people with highly visible websites if they can add your URL to their list, what do you think they typically say? “Sure, for a small fee…” (But more likely a not-so-small fee). So now we’re talking about money, and nobody wants to lay out cash, especially if they’re just starting out.

For this reason, you may be interested to learn: there’s a new wave in offpage optimization that does not involve researching other people’s websites OR emailing people OR negotiating link placement fees.

It’s Article Marketing.

Simply stated, Article Marketing is distributing keyword-rich articles that include your name, professional author bio and URL link to other websites that display the articles as content. Then, publishers come by and pick up that content to place on THEIR websites.

Now, let that sink in for a moment and then remember the goal of offpage optimization: to get better ranking sites to link back to your URL. Article marketing covers this easily. How so?

As an article marketer, you can distribute hundreds of keyword-loaded articles to top ranking article content sites like EzineArticles.com. EACH TIME you post an article on a site like this, your article gets indexed in their content BY KEYWORD and your URL is listed along with it. That’s with EVERY article you write.

It’s also worth noting, that when you choose to showcase your work on a highly reputable, top ranking site like EzineArticles.com, you get the added advantage of their expertly designed and fully search engine optimized website template to help push you higher on the search engines.

A third point: EzineArticles.com is the number one choice for real live internet marketers to post their articles, pick up other authors’ articles to use in their emailed ezines, and generally affilate with for all things article marketing. So if you wanted to start getting your name out there and known by all the right people, posting your expert articles on EzineArticles.com might be a pretty good way to do it.

Still not convinced that article marketing with a top ranking site is an incredible offpage optimization tool for your site? Submit four articles and then do a Google search on your name. Tell me what comes up. Then… when you’re ready to take full advantage of this incredible opportunity: create a full-scale article marketing campaign that includes keywords and highly targeted copy… submit to the highest ranking article distribution sites… and watch your website rocket up the ranks!

Copyright 2005 Dina Giolitto. All rights reserved.

Stephen Kavita asked:




Despite the numerous debates on best online marketing strategies, SEO article writing has proved to be beyond reproach. The tricky part is to make sure that your target market finds your articles when they search the internet. This is what then brings me to my topic on best search engine optimization (SEO) article writing techniques.

In addition, the other thing to consider in SEO article writing is making sure your article is picked by publishers, thus helping you broadcast your articles on the internet. Here are some simple proven tactics to take up:-

• Choosing the appropriate keyword phrase is the first thing you need to get right before drafting an article. Research well using tools like “Google insight for search” and “Google keyword tool”. This ensures you pick keywords that have moderate competition and still have high search volume. Do not make a mistake of going for phrases that have very high competition otherwise your article may never be found.

• For example if you what to write about “making money”, I discovered this keyword has about “180,000,000″ search results which makes it very competitive. On further research using the tools I mentioned above you will notice that there are other highly searched and less competitive keywords like “money making opportunities”.

• You may ask me how I determine the competitiveness of a keyword since it is vital in SEO article writing success. All you need to do is, in the Google search box insert the words “allintitle:” followed by your keywords, in our case it will be “allintitle:money making opportunities”. This show other sites using the same keywords. You can still do more investigations and find other targetable keyword phrases that suit your article.

• The title plays a pivotal role in SEO article writing. The idea is to make sure that you include your keywords in your heading and preferably at the beginning.

• Throughout the body of your article ensure that you also use the keywords. But remember to be careful not to overuse keywords, online marketing experts recommend your keywords should be 3% of the article. Failing to use your opted keywords will mean that search engines will not know what your article is all about. While over using your keywords will make your article to be considered as spamming.

Use your keywords at the beginning and the end of the body of the article making sure they make sense to your readers. This will ensure your articles are picked by publishers and article directories. This are some simple rules to follow to make sure your articles appear on the first or second page of Google.

Follow the links below to get more insightful tips on SEO article writing techniques.

John Halasz asked:




With the rise of electronic commerce and Internet marketing, article marketing and ghostwriting has become most popular online. For traditional forms of media, marketing articles online provides publishers with what amounts to valuable and cost effective advertising.

The website where an author can publish an article for free is known as an article directory. The main reason an author can publish an article without cost is that the owner of the site directory advertises on every page of the content and collects the revenue generated by advertising. The article directory site gradually increases its own search engine popularity as more content is published, benefiting both the author and the owner of the directory with the largest number of targeted visitors.

However, unlike the off-line version, there are more dimensions to marketing online article. The most notable difference is the use of content for search engine optimization. The article ghostwriter writes the content based on target keywords that are niche specific. Then, the ghost writer of the article can impart it to the client for content tailored to their market. The ghostwriter can target your audience with information content, which appeals to their interested readers.

Many professional SEO content ghostwriters offer cheap article marketing. As a result, clients often hire professional article ghostwriting services to write hundreds and sometimes thousands of items. Some SEO ghostwriters have written 1000s of articles for clients. Those who hire prolific SEO ghostwriters enjoy the abundant backlinks (ie links pointing back to the company’s web site). When things are distributed via RSS, exposure to the business and number of backlinks is greater.

Another option available to the marketing through articles, which the author may choose to take control of, is the ad space on pages where you publish your article. With this option, authors or article ghostwriting clients have the possibility to advertise through Google AdWords, in addition to selling their own related products and services.

Darren K Chow asked:




SEO web copy is content that is generated with the search engines in mind. This is part of the on-site optimization process. You choose keywords with a decent amount of search volume, and then target those keywords in your article.

Of course, always bear in mind that you are writing for human readers. So the quality of the content is very important. When writing SEO web copy, simply sprinkle targeted keywords in the article. Use the keywords in the article title as well. Do not resort to keyword stuffing. You can use relevant keywords in your article.

For example, let’s say you are writing an article about golf equipment. Instead of repeating “golf equipment” like a gazillion times, just use them a couple of times in your article. If you are writing naturally for human readers, your article will also contain relevant keywords such as “golf club”, “golf course”, “handicap”, etc.

The search engines will be able to determine the content in your article. Don’t worry too much about how the search engines work. The algorithm is meant to analyze natural content. That means as the article writer, you only have to worry about generating quality content. Write in a natural manner – e.g. as if you are speaking to the reader. As for keyword density, just don’t go overboard. As a general rule, try to keep keyword phrases to below 2%. If you use synonyms in your writing, there is little chance of going over 2%. At the end of the day, relevancy is the most important thing to keep in mind.

Janet B Cole asked:




If you are a newbie online you probably need an explanation of what article marketing is and how it can benefit your online business.

Article marketing is the practice of writing articles on topics related to your web site niche and topic. The article should include several elements and these include a title to entice potential readers to click, the body of the article which contains the meat of the information and the resource box.

This resource box is vitally important because it is here you include your call to action – a sentence or two which will entice your potential subscriber to click a link to obtain additional information from you.

Once your article is created and submitted online it will be published on a variety of various websites. Initially your article will be published on an article directory. There are several available online but not all directories are equal. It is advisable to choose your directories wisely.

If your article is published on one of the popular directories, it will be picked up and published again on other web master’s sites. You see these web master are in search of well written, content rich articles to entice their personal readers to click onto their individual websites.

Over a process of time, your well written article will appear all over the internet giving readers vital information about how they can proceed in your current niche.

The other thing to note is that most articles appear online for months and months to in the future. Once you get started online you will begin to notice that you will continue to receive traffic from articles you wrote perhaps months and months ago.

Darren K Chow asked:




From the search engine point of view, a link to a website is considered a “vote”. In theory, the more “votes” a website gets from other external sites, the higher it will be ranked. But not all “votes” are created equal.

Always remember, when it comes to the search engines, relevancy means everything. That means your rankings ultimately depends on who link to you.

What you should avoid:

Avoid exchanging links with irrelevant websites.
Avoid submitting your URL to spammy websites with lots of irrelevant links.
Avoid participating in any link exchange network.
Avoid buying links solely with the intention of manipulating search engine rankings.

Such activities will do your sites more harm than good. What you want are one way links coming from highly relevant and authoritative websites.

There are many ways to build links to your website. You can submit guest blog posts to relevant blogs, participate in forums, sponsor a free template, submit URLs to social bookmarking sites, etc. But one of the fastest, easiest and cheapest way to build links is through article marketing.

Everyday, write at least 5 articles and publish them to the top article directories on the Internet. Each article allows you to embed 2 to 3 links that point to your own websites. These back links are very valuable because they come from authority sites. When you publish unique content, the search engines reward you by boosting the search rankings of your own website. Remember to insert your keyword phrases as anchor texts!

Justin Arnold asked:




The way that people are searching for information online is changing, and the way that people are marketing online is changing too. The clearest evidence for this is the way that longtail SEO is starting to take over as the main method used by article marketers to achieve success in the SERPS and achieve greater brand visibility and awareness.

Without doubt longtail SEO is now the most effective way for many marketers to achieve success through article marketing. Trying to achieve high visibility within the search listings for single keywords is now incredibly difficult, requiring an astonishing amount of time and effort. However, achieving reasonably high visibility through longtail SEO is much more possible within a reasonable time frame.

The problem for many marketers has been to decide whether it is more profitable to plough energy, time and resources into marketing a single main keyword which may receive a high volume of search queries each month, or instead focus on a longtail keyphrase which may receive only a small proportion of traffic each month, yet allows for the possibility of the business achieving a top listing, thereby taking the majority of the traffic.

Whilst a single keyword may be searched for a hundred thousand times a month, it could prove virtually impossible to achieve visibility within the first three pages of results. Unless you’re at least within the first three pages your business is going to struggle to receive any traffic at all. In this case it doesn’t really matter how much the keyword generates in search traffic, because you’re not going to see any of it.

On the other hand a longtail keyphrase might only generate a thousand queries a month, but by optimising your article marketing for that keyphrase you may well stand a very much better chance of achieving a very high position within the search results, meaning that you could be receiving the majority of that traffic each month. The difference is clear – choose between theoretical popularity and actual sales traffic.

So how do you choose a longtail keyphrase to use? This is a massive subject, and certainly not one that could be covered within a single article. A great deal has been written about how to select suitable longtail SEO keyphrases, but essentially what it boils down to is this. What would your customers be most likely to type into a search engine if they were looking for whatever it is you’re offering? Generally people are making their searches much more specific, so that rather than looking for cheesegraters they might instead be looking for left handed clockwork cheesegraters in the UK. This is likely to generate many fewer results, and so by optimising your article marketing for this keyphrase you stand a good chance of enjoying the lion’s share of the sales traffic.

Alexa Ross asked:




Are you writing articles for SEO? Is search engine optimization, your blog or website the REAL reason you are building up all of those back links? Are you careful constructing your anchor text for optimizing each and every article you submit…..JUST because someone told you that’s going to help your blog rank better?

Think AGAIN!

Here is the truth. Writing articles is a GREAT way to get your site indexed, and noticed by the search engines. Using high page trust directories that rank well and get tons of traffic is a SMART strategy for borrowing a bit of that trust…and funneling it over to your site, service or offer.

I’m a BIG fan of article marketing….and I’ve written and submitted thousands of my own…and have overseen the distribution of many thousands more by staff and partners.

But I don’t waste ONE second on worrying about my anchor text links for SEO. (especially today) And writing tons and tons of articles for the purpose of getting ADDITIONAL incoming links to your site, service or offer is a silly strategy at best….and a specious one at worst.

Here is why:

5 articles, on ONE directory, “pointing” back to your site is as effective, in my experience, as 500. The search engines are NOT stupid…….nor are they silly or easily fooled. They understand that some people submit 1000 articles a month, and that’s NOT going to benefit your blog, from the standpoint of SEO, more than having submitted 10.

What it WILL do, of course is drive more traffic, just because you have more articles out there! And if that’s your strategy…..it’s as good as many others. But remember, your content is being picked up on the directories, and NOT your blog or website, so long term….you may not be getting the most bang for your buck. (as ultimately, you ideally want YOUR site showing up for your content, and not the repositories that you distribute them to first)

My BEST advice is this…….

If you are an avid article marketer like I am, use them to build a list first. And re-purpose your stuff very creatively as well! Look at your content as an ASSET, because it is….and then decide how it best serves you strategically (and smartly) for the duration. (because hopefully you’re in it for a while..:-)

Tim Kennedy asked:




In this first part of an ongoing series we will take a look at some best practices marketers can follow when implementing article marketing campaigns. This second installment of the series will examine a method for ensuring that the author behind an article writing campaign is able to remain productive in the face of a depleted idea bank.

As most marketers are aware, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a crucial aspect of any Internet Marketing campaign. Developing a healthy set of backlinks gives your site more credibility with the various search engines, resulting in higher search engines result page (SERP) placement. While all marketers chase after the coveted top position on these SERPs, most are satisfied with page one results. One of the most effective ways to help generate the requisite backlinks for these results is through the use of article marketing. In this second in an ongoing series on article marketing tips, we will examine some best practices that marketers should follow when writing content and posting articles for the purposes of SEO.

Write An Ongoing Series – When taking on article marketing for a new client, the ideas typically come fast and furiously. Initial articles providing general information about the client’s offerings often turn into more in-depth looks at their specific aspects and unique strengths. However, it is not unnatural for the article writer to begin coming up short of ideas for topics to write about for their respective clients. In these instances, it is always a viable option to go with an ongoing series of articles that focus on a particular facet of the client’s products.

For example, let’s say your client’s specialty is manufacturing office chairs. You have already written countless articles touting the features and advantages of their office chairs. Your search engine result page (SERP) placement is steadily increasing, but you feel like you have exhausted all possible article topics. This is the perfect time to tackle an ongoing series. In looking back at your articles, you notice one that you wrote about how comfortable chairs can positively impact your workday. The article was fairly general and merely took a broad overview of the benefits of a comfortable chair. It made passive statements about how the comfort of a chair can translate to a better mood, increased performance, stronger stamina, etc. This is the ideal launching point for an ongoing series!

In this instance it should be fairly easy for the writer to extract some of the points made in the previous article and write new pieces that elaborate even more on these advantages. Rather than settle for a sentence or two on how a good office chair can increase stamina, write a couple of paragraphs that describe how and why they do so, what this stamina means for the workday and how an uncomfortable chair can have the opposite effect. The advantage here is twofold.

First, the writer will be able to overcome their lack of ideas and sink their teeth into creating this new content. The ideas are already there, created by the writer; all they need is a little expansion and possibly a bit of research to flesh them out. Second, when a reader stumbles on one of your articles and is able to relate to or extract some value from the content, they will be very likely to seek out the other parts of the series, further strengthening their relationship with the brand you are marketing. These clicks can not only inspire better SEO value for your backlinks and article dissemination; they can often lead to conversions, which is the absolute end goal for internet marketers everywhere.

Darren K Chow asked:




Article marketing can drive targeted traffic directly to your website. But do you know that you get a lot more traffic when you perform SEO on your own site? Here is how.

1) Generate quality one way back links. – At the end of each article, you are allowed to add up to 2 links in the author resource box. These links are valuable because search engines look at them to determine the relevancy of the content. For this reason, always use proper anchor texts in your links.

2) Use proper anchor texts. – Anchor texts are the words that go between your HTML links. For example, if your website is about “SEO courses”, then make sure your links say something like “SEO ecourse, SEO program, or SEO ebook”. Avoid using generic words like “click here”. Try to pick long tail keywords with lower search competition for higher rankings.

3) Use keyword rich titles and avoid keyword stuffing. – Once you have picked your keywords, use them in the article titles. Once in every paragraph, mention the target phrase or use synonyms. Don’t repeat the keywords multiple times in the same sentence or you may be penalized for keyword stuffing. Some article directories look out specifically for such issues and will reject your content right away.

4) Use search engine friendly URLs. – Article marketing is about off-site optimization. But don’t forget about on-site optimization as well. You have done all the hard work generating and publishing content. Just make some simple tweaks to your own sites (like having SE-friendly URLs) and your content will rank better.