Wednesday 25 February 2009

Link Building With Article Submission Sites

Article submission is still an extremely popular method for building links. The process is very simple; all you need to do is produce a piece of content (normally between 300-500 words) and submit to an article directory. Within the article you are allowed to include a pre-defined number of links that point back to pages on your own website.

Article submission sites allow you to submit content to their site in return for placing advertising around the pages you create. This will usually take the form of banners, buttons and adsense. Some article directories allow publishers the opportunity of a revenue share. While this may be attractive to some the focus of this post is how you can use article submission to boost your link building campaigns.

How To Build Links With Article Directories

The first step is to find a selection of sites to which you will submit your articles. To make this easier there’s a list at the end of this post to get you started. Once you’ve signed up to these sites and taken advantage of any profile links on offer it is time to go through their submission guidelines. Each site will have different guidelines and familiarising yourself with these will make it much easier to get your articles published at the first time of asking.

Now you need to produce an article, 300-500 words on your chosen topic will usually suffice (check the submission guidelines to be absolutely sure). An important point to remember here is to produce good content. Submitting articles of a good standard increases the likelihood that they will be published and reflect well on your site. While good content is necessary always reserve great content for your own site.

Once your have your article ready it’s time to start submitting. Again being familiar with the guidelines and processes is important here. Depending on the article directory you’re using you can at this point add keyword rich anchor text links within either the article body or author bio (or in some cases both). Make sure these links appear naturally within the article and are relevant to your content.

After hitting the publish button you’ll need to wait a short time for your article to be reviewed and approved; time periods vary from one site to another but 3-4 days is fairly standard. It is worth submitting each piece of content to around 4-5 different article directories to increase the direct link benefit of your articles. Check back regularly to see whether or not your articles are approved (addressing any issues as they occur) and keep an eye on your back link volumes with Yahoo Site Explorer as the links start to roll in.

Five Benefits of Link Building With Articles
  1. Quick and simple to implement.
  2. Cost effective, important if you are link building on a budget.
  3. You have total control over the destination URL and anchor text of your links.
  4. Potential for additional links if your article is picked up and republished by other sites.
  5. Great for anyone who is new to link building and looking to build up their skill-set.
A Few More Tips

When link building with article sites be sure to vary your destination URL and anchor text. This link building technique can be used to target longtail keywords as well as large generics so take advantage by mixing up your URLs and keywords.

Track which sites republish your articles through the use of Google Alerts, networking with these sites could open up opportunities in the future.

Don’t spam; only submit relevant content that is written to an acceptable standard, stick to the submission guidelines and use links correctly.

Where To Submit Your Articles

As promised here is a selection of article submission sites to get you started:
Footnote: some people may say that article submission is no longer a worthwhile link building technique. While everyone is of course entitled to there opinion I genuinely believe that article directories still have an important role to play in any link building strategy.

Article links might not be as powerful as in days gone by, but done correctly they can still help improve and support your rankings; especially if you are just starting out in the world of link building or looking to target longtail keywords where the competition is not as intense.

Happy Link Building!

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