Every time I speak at an SEO seminar, I’m amazed to see the amount of people who think that the five links they have coming from other websites is enough. They are pretty surprised when I tell them that they need to have a link: count in the hundreds, thousands or even more.
One of the easiest ways to get links is by publishing articles.
Article Directories
All around the web, there are article directories, or repositories. These websites, such as EzineArticles, provide thousands of webmasters, newsletter writers and content-grabbers with free content that they can republish on their websites (with some restrictions). Writers submit their content to these sites, and are oft times these articles are republished across hundreds of websites yearly.
Article Anatomy
Each article you write should be between 450-600 words or so. You can go over a bit, but I wouldn’t go much lower than the 450 mark. The article should be about something related to your industry, of course.
The Summary
Each article should have a 2-3 sentence summary, and you should also go ahead think up some keywords that are related to the article content.
The Content
The article you are going to publish should contain what I like to call ‘generic content’; in other words, nothing special, ground-breaking or even terribly exciting.
The purpose of publishing this article is to help you build links, not show the world how great of a writer you are. In fact, if you are a good writer, you may want to consider putting your writings on your own website in a blog format. Remember, we are providing content to literally thousands of publishers, and our goal is more one-way links. Quality content (in this case) is not the focus here.
The Byline
Herein lies the beauty of article publishing. Get this right and you’ll be on your way to link heaven. The byline is an area on each article website where you get to put a few sentences about yourself, your company, etc. Most people get this wrong, because that’s just what they use it for.
Example: Will Hanke is an Internet marketer residing just south of St. Louis Missouri. Get tips, ideas and SEO tricks from his blog at willhanke.com
Bad, bad, bad. Sure, I got a link in there, but I’ve really missed the boat on what I could have done.
Think about this. This article is going to go out on hundreds or thousands of other websites. When the Googlebot (or any bot) spiders that site, they’ll see that one-way link to your site, and they’ll take that into consideration when they rank your website. So if someone types in ‘willhanke.com’ in the Google search box, chances are I’ll be the first result. But I really don’t care to rank for that, because no one is going to type that in. What I’m after is terms like ‘St. Louis SEO’ or ‘Missouri SEO Services’. These terms explain what I do, and a person typing those terms into Google is my target audience. So let’s rewrite the article and keyword-target the byline.
Example Two: Will Hanke is an Internet marketer providing Missouri SEO Services. If you are looking for a way to get your business to the top of the SERPS, Will can help you get there.
Now what I’ve done is provide a decent byline, that’s keyword targeted to my domain name. When the Googlebot visits whatever website this link is on, I’m credited for another link to my site and I get the advantage of having the words “Missouri SEO Services” as the link. So I’m essentially teaching the search engines that those words equal my domain. If someone types that phrase into Google, Yahoo, MSN or any other search engine, I want them to equate that phrase to willhanke.com.
Your Good Content
If you are a good writer, or have access to some original content that is industry related, I highly suggest you write posts on your own website. Content is still king, and good content can make you an authority in your niche. If this is your case, you’d be better off hiring a writer to write you some ‘ok’ articles as described above.
Finding Writers
I’ve found the majority or writers I employ on Craigslist. There’s an entire section on there devoted to people looking for writing gigs.
When putting up a request for writers, ask for some sample work they’ve done. Look it over and make sure they can writer better than the average high school senior. Usually one request on Craigslist nets me at least 25 decent submissions, which I then weed down and choose a few good ones.
Personally, I don’t pay a lot for these articles, either. $10 or so bucks each is about my max. Once again, I’m not after great content, just content that relates to my industry.
Distribution
Besides posting to EzineArticles, there are plenty of other article directories out there. I suggest you post to EzineArticles first, as they are the predominant directory, and then filter your submissions out to the hundreds of others.
If you’re pressed for time, or just want someone else to do the work, you can always hire an article submission service. Some of these will even have the articles written for you and will have them submitted to thousands of directories in a relatively short amount of time.
