When content marketing experts talk about online marketing or link-building techniques, they will inevitably mention article marketing. If you’ve tried to publish articles on some of the popular article directories like eZine or Article Alley, you already know that it isn’t as easy as pushing ‘publish’ and waiting for the traffic to flow.
4 Article Marketing Must-do’s Before Publishing:
You don’t want to waste your time or your effort. That’s why we pulled together a list of 4 critical must-do’s that you can do before you publish to ensure that your hard work is working for you:
SEO Article Writing Tip #1: Keep Topics General & Informative
When you publish articles on online directories, the primary goal is for publishers to place your article on their blogs, newsletters and websites.
That’s because when your article is published on their site, you get a ‘shout out’ at the end in the form of an author bio and links back to your site. If the article is too sales-y or self-promotional, publishers are less likely to want to republish it as an informational resource on their blog or website.
Let’s assume that you operate an online children’s clothing store. Here are some effective — and not so effective — examples of article topics for the purpose of article marketing:
Not-so Effective Article Topics:
• XYZ Store Carries The Best Children’s Clothing On The Web
• Why XXX Brand Children’s Clothing Is Premium
Great Article Topics:
• Child Safety: When Non-Flammable Clothing is Required
• How to Order Children’s Clothing Online & Get the Right Fit
SEO Article Writing Tip #2: Optimize the Title and Summary
When publishing content online — whether on your website or on an article marketing site — it is always best to optimize your title and summary in an effort to get your content ranking for those terms.
Optimizing the title and the summary means your title should contain at least one of the keyword phrases you are targeting in your online marketing efforts while your summary should contain one to two additional terms.
SEO Article Writing Tip #3: Optimize the Author Section
The most important effect of article marketing, from an SEO perspective, are the links that point back to your site when your article is published. Whenever possible, make use of anchor text links in the author bio.
Anchor text links are links embedded into your site’s most important keywords that link back to relevant pages on your site. Most article directories will allow for two to three anchor text links. Make use of as many as you can!
SEO Article Writing Tip #4: Post on Authority Sites
Publishing content on authority sites is an excellent way to strengthen your visibility online. Examples of authority sites online include hubpages.com, slideshare.net, and Scribd.com.
An authority site is a website that already has excellent trust value and rankings in the search engines. Because of this authority, well-optimized content posted on these websites has a tendency to rank high as well.
BONUS SEO Tip: Publish a Press Release
Press releases distributed online often gain high visibility in Google organic and Google News search results — and quickly! Whenever you publish content online, whether it is a blog post, article, new section to your website, slideshow, etc., it is reason for an SEO press release! Don’t forget to let your customers know that you’ve published new content.
If you publish content online and would like to send out a press release, email support@onlineprmedia for 20% off one November distribution package!
4 Comments
Great post! I completely agree that keeping topics general and informative can produce better SEO results. Many companies (especially those in technical fields) feel the need to include extremely specific or even promotional details in their articles. However, by doing so they are actually limiting the number of outlets to which their article or other content piece can be distributed. Informative, general topics not only appeal to a much wider audience, but they also happen to benefit SEO, too.
Thorough overview! Definitely relate to Megan’s comment. Online article marketing isn’t all that much different than authoring for magazines and newspapers has always been — the author contributes an informative piece of content (not an advertisement) on their subject matter expertise. Then the author bio is a place to display credentials and to get a “plug” for the author’s business. The more useful the article to all, the more visibility it receives!
Thanks Megan! 🙂 You’re right — I’ve also found that those in highly-technical fields tend to struggle with writing for the masses. The key is remembering the goal — to get your article published in as many places as possible. Thanks for commenting! — Tara
Perfect example Christine! Yes — online article writing should be done exactly as you would if you were writing an article for a traditional publication. Of course a traditional publication wouldn’t publish an advertisement — and neither will an online one! — Tara