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In the wonderful world of search engine optimization building backlinks is the backbone. No matter what type of website you have you’ll need to build backlinks to achieve any sort of search engine rankings. Some backlink building methods are better than others and this article is going to go into detailed depth about article marketing as a backlink building method. When executed properly articles can be an excellent way to build relevant backlinks and even get direct relevant traffic from the articles.

Nothing Done Easy is Done Right

 Let’s get one thing straight about article writing before we get started. Article writing is not easy and will require a lot of time, effort and research to be done properly. You can’t write 10 articles and submit them to hundreds of article directories and expect great results. Due to duplicate content issues each article you write needs to be unique and you should only submitted it to one article directory. Here is a better way to look at it, if you want 500 unique backlinks from writing articles you’ll need to write 500 unique articles. As you can tell this isn’t some secret weapon, it will take time and effort to achieve great results from article marketing. Rest assured, if you spend the time to write quality, unique articles you’ll reap the benefits in the near future.

How to Write Your Articles

As mentioned above you want to make sure each article you write is unique. You don’t want to copy content from other websites nor just change a few words in another article you wrote. Each article should have a clean slate and be written either from memory or a fact sheet. A lot of people like to also make short articles and this isn’t a good idea. Google loves content and that’s where the phrase ‘content is king’ came from. The more content you provide the better it will do in search results. I would say each article should have at least 600 words or one full page in Microsoft word. Personally I write articles until they are complete and usually also go over the 600 word count and I suggest you do the same.

Make sure your articles are complete and contain proper spelling and grammar. I’ve never seen proof that poor grammar or spelling has a negative effect on SEO. However, never have I seen proof to prove it doesn’t. Plus, people reading your articles might click on your links inside of the article and venture over to your website. Don’t you want to appear professional to these readers? I personally wouldn’t buy a product or service from someone who can’t even write or spell properly, would you?

To not fall into the pit of “I have nothing to write about” try to be a specific as possible with your articles. If, for example, you have a website on gardening you could write countless articles. You could write an article about each species of plants a back yard. At that rate you could probably write over  a thousand unique articles. So, you get the general idea when it comes to writing articles, make sure they are unique, use proper grammar/spelling and try to be a specific as possible about the target subject.

How to Add Your Backlink

All article directories are different and will have different rules regarding backlinks. Some will allow you to add links inside of your article while others will have an author’s resource or bio area to add the links. There is a method to properly adding your links in articles. You don’t ever want to use absolute URLS, you’ll always want to use hyperlinks with anchor text. There is a fine art to properly add links to your articles and doing it the correctly will achieve much better results.

Proper anchor text is crucial; you’ll always want to use the keyword or keyword phrase you’re trying to rank for as your anchor text. However, you don’t want to keep using the same one over and over again. Try to find 5 or 6 different variations that are very similar and the primary one should be used 50% of the time while the others mixed up between the remaining 50%. Not only does this give a more natural look to your links but will help you rank for other related keywords.

You also do not want to waste your links. If you can add more than one backlink in your article you should do so and then link to multiple web pages instead of the same one. I’ve seen so many articles where there will be 2 links and both are pointing to the homepage. This is such a waste; if you’re allowed more than one link then you’ll want to link to the homepage and to an internal web page. Google recommends that you build links to all your web pages and not just the homepage. This will also help your internal web pages rank better in search results. Again, follow the proper anchor text rules when linking to your internal web pages.

If you are able to link inside of your content just attach hyperlinks to the right keywords or phrases for your homepage and internal web pages. However, if you must use an author resource area or bio area then you’ll want to make a few sentences to add yours link in. Don’t just add “Please visit my website” or something nondescript. Use this area to add more information useful to the reader and just add your links inside this content as you would the content body.

The Right Article Directories

As I’ve stressed earlier in this article you should only submit your article to one directory. However, you’ll want to submit your articles to multiple article directories. Don’t keep submitting them to the same directory; instead try to find 15 to 20 article directories that you like. Make sure Google indexes the articles they provide and that the article directories have strict rules on duplicated and copyrighted content. I’ve provided below a list of article directories that I use and actual have articles that rank well for tons of keywords and phrases. In the list below you will find a few article directories to check out but keep in mind there are many more out there that are worth looking into.

·         Ezine Articles

·         Buzzle

·         Associated Content

·         eHow

·         Articles Base

·         Go Articles

Article Overview

As you’ve read above, articles can be an excellent way to build quality relevant backlinks when done correctly. Let’s review some of the primary highlights of this article to remember.

·         Write Unique Content (DO NOT DUPLICATE)

·         Write Content Rich Articles (600 Words or More)

·         Link to Multiple Web Pages (Not Just the Homepage)

·         Use Only High Quality Article Directories (Review my List)

These are 4 simple things to remember and in the long run will make your articles much more valuable in terms of backlinks. This might also allow your articles to appear at the top of search results and send traffic directly to your website. I’ve had it happen many times to myself, I write an article and submit it and it appears in the top 5 for some keywords and sends me a few hits to a hundred hits each day. If you follow my guidelines on article writing and submission you will achieve great results.