Article Backlinks

Submitting to article directories of page rank 4 and higher will help create stronger backlinks than those associated with less well known article directories.

Articles are one of the strongest weighting backlink strategies in the SEO game today.  The process does take longer than other methods but the rewards can be higher.  There are hundreds of article directories out there that are open for submissions of all types of content which you can build backlinks with targeted keywords and phrases.  Search engine spiders will crawl the best directories almost hourly, lower ranking ones may be a few days.  Top sites like EzineArticles and GoArticles will provide you with some direct traffic if your articles are written well.

SEO Tips for Article Backlinks:

• Never duplicate links; link to different pages of your site that relate
• Always write unique content – 300+ words preferred
• Keyword rich titles pay off
• Images help receive more traffic

General SEO Strategy

1. Write unique & quality 300+ word article that relates to a page you need traffic
2. Keep it keyword rich based off keyword research you’ve done
3. Smart anchor text backlink in the content – this link directly to webpage
4. Different anchor text for backlink in authors/bio area – this link directly to your main domain
5. Repeat process and write different articles, don’t spam

One problem many SEO’s have, is writing optimized content that does not look or read spammy. You spend a lot of time researching your keywords so it is only natural that you want to add them to your article as many times as possible. But don’t forget the article has to flow and read like a newspaper document. If you stuff too many keywords into your article it is possible that the majority of directories will not accept it. A safe rule of thumb regarding articles is that for every 400 words you should mention your keyword 10 times or 4% of the overall content. Also note that many article directory services only allow links in the author biography area, and not in the article body.

If they do allow links in the body of the articles, make sure the anchor text is directly related to your targeted keywords. Only place two links in the body if you are able. Any more than that could be detrimental to the credibility of the article. Potential readers are put off by the fact many of the words in your article are links to a particular domain. It is an obvious attempt at creating traffic to a site. You want to give the impression that the link is of value and you are recommending it because it is useful. Not because it is your site and you want more traffic. Although this is the overall goal in SEO, you don’t want to advertise this fact to readers who might follow a link to your site.

Don’t be afraid to submit an article to a directory that requires you to pay. Often times these directories have high page rank and provide high quality backlinks.

I know there are several free article submission websites, and I commonly use them all. It is just worth noting, that paying for a few article submissions to high page rank directories helps to diversify inbound links. You can only have so many backlinks from Ezinearticles, Goarticles etc. At some point you will need to find new directories to submit websites too, and paid directories are often the way to go. I am not advocating only using paid directories, on the contrary, I would only use them sparingly. Maybe submit 2 or 3 articles to different paid directories. Not only will the diversity of links help with overall SERP rankings, the more reputable sites that post your articles, the more authority your webpage will gain in whatever niche or keyword you have targeted.