You don’t read much about article marketing anymore. A lot of people look down on article marketing. They think it’s an outdated technique that just doesn’t get results. They think it’s a marketing technique only used by spammers.
And they’re wrong.
The truth is article marketing still works. Sure, there are a lot of people out there who do it all wrong, but you don’t have to be one of them. If you do it right, article marketing can still help you build your online presence and drive traffic to your website.
Here are the keys to effective article marketing.
- Optimize your content—Keyword optimization plays an important role in writing your articles. Stick to the basics: Make sure to include your target keyword in the title, description, and throughout the body of the article. Just remember that keyword stuffing will cause your article to look spammy, and it could even make it get flagged and rejected by the article directory. Focus on using keywords naturally. Never force them in.
- Include keyword-rich back links—Article marketing is a powerful link building tool. The rules for including links in your article vary from directory to directory, but most directories let you include 2 or 3 back links. Take advantage of this opportunity by using keyword-rich back links pointed at targeted pages on your website. For example, if you’re linking back to a page on your website that’s about “red ABC widgets”, the anchor text in the link should read “red ABC widgets.” This helps the search engines classify your website more accurately, leading to increased search engine rankings.
- Focus on quality—Article marketing has a bad reputation because there are some people who publish high volumes of really poorly-written content. These articles are usually either written for pennies on the dollar by amateurs in another country or they’re auto-written with the help of bad article writing software. Remember, your name is going to be on these articles, so quality counts. Make sure you’re putting out great content that you can be proud of.
- Quantity matters too—To be successful with article marketing, you can’t just publish one article every few months. You need to be committed to it. Article marketing requires a combination of quality and quantity. In other words, you need to publish a high volume of well-written articles to truly see the full benefits of article marketing. So, when you don’t see results right away, don’t get discouraged. You have to stick with it if you want to see it work.
- Take advantage of the author’s resource box—At the end of your article, you get an author’s resource box. Here, you can let readers know who you are and what you do. This is a great way to get your name out there, increase your credibility, and build more back links to your website. You can usually include one or two links in this box, so take advantage of the opportunity by using keyword-rich anchor text on links pointing to your landing pages.
If you follow these helpful tips, your article marketing campaign will start getting results, and you’ll stop wasting your time. Just let me say one more time: Quality counts. Focus on creating quality content above all else and everything will be fine.
What are your thoughts on article marketing? Do you still use it?
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