How To Get Traffic To Your Site For Free Using SEO and Article Marketing
How to use SEO (Search Engine Optimization) to drive traffic to your website • Why Your Site Does Not Appear On Page One Of Google • Search Engine Optimization or SEO: The Basics What it is and how it works • Search Engine Optimization (SEO) methods • Keywords: Why They Are So Important and How to Use Them to Get Ranked Higher • How To Get Your Site Ranked Higher By Making It "Search Engine Friendly" • Indexing Your Site and Getting Found by Search Directories • PageRank, Linking and How to Get Links to your Website: The Right Way and The Wrong Way • A "Search Engine Friendly" Checklist • Using Syndication Services to Get Content for Your Site • How to Improve Your SEO Results • SEO Tools How to use Article Marketing to drive traffic to your website • Best practices in article marketing • The process and costs • The article itself: headlines, topics and resource box. • The article directories • Other places to post your articles • Repackaging your articles for additional revenue
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Why Your Site Does Not Appear On Page One Of Google Search Engine Reality: You've registered your domain name and have a web site. You go into Google and search for the category that is related to your product or service. For example, you sell antique Hamilton watches. You search "antique Hamilton watches" and Google delivers over 100,000 web page results. You check page one, and you are not there. You check the next page and then the next page, and then the next page. Finally you give up. This is not your local Yellow Pages, where all you have to do is get listed in a category and check your company name to make sure you are listed. On the net you are competing against hundreds, thousands, or millions of web page results. You may be tempted to follow one of those spam emails that promises they can get you on Page One of Google in minutes. Don't be. To get ranked higher on Google, follow the steps outlined on using SEO methods to build traffic. It takes time to build your rankings, but if you keep adding content on a regular basis along with links back to your site, your website will come up sooner on your keywords.
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Search Engine Optimization or SEO: The Basics What it is and how it works SEO or Search Engine Optimization is a way to get your site noticed by search engines so it is ranked higher and therefore is listed on an earlier page when a person conducts a search. This is important since the earlier in the results and the higher on a page a site appears, the more visitors it will get to the site. For example, let's say you want to buy a Hamilton watch from the early 1900's. You go to Google, a search engine, and conduct a search typing in the keywords, "Antique Hamilton watch." You will find that there are over 100,000 search results but only a dozen sites are listed on the first page. You may check out a few of the companies on the first few pages of the results, but you are not going to check out all 100,000+. This leads to the question, "How do I get my website listed on page one?" No one can guarantee your company will be on page one of a Google search. After all you are going to be competing against thousands of companies. And sites continually change adding new content, new pages and new methods to be noticed by the search engines. At the same time, the search engines continually crawl web pages to index what they find. Since no one reveals precisely how these search engines determine ranking, an entire industry has been built based on trying to figure out how search engines work. And based on the learning, the SEO experts use tactics to try to get a web site and the web pages to be indexed and ranked higher by search engines. It is constant challenge but one where you can succeed in being ranked higher by the search engines. Sound complicated? Everything new always sounds more complicated than it really is. The good news is that you can improve your site's ranking. As important as search optimization is, the fact is that most of your visitors will find your site from means other than search results. Most visitors to a
website come from outside links or typing in a specific web address. Of course, don't take this to mean that SEO is unimportant. In fact, it is crucial to your business, as it will drive significant numbers of visitors to your site. The key element in succeeding in SEO is your time. It takes time to follow through. If you don't have the time, consider getting help by a web expert. The more you do on your own, though, the more money you will save.
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Search Engine Optimization (SEO) methods Search Engine Optimization or SEO is a way to get your site ranked higher by search engines so it is listed on an earlier page of the search results. This is important since the sooner your site appears when someone conducts a search, the more visitors your site will get. Here is a step-by-step way to optimize your site for search engines. Step 1: Keywords. When you type in a word or phrase into the Google search bar, these words are called keywords. Knowing the best keywords for your site is a must in developing your website, and all your trafficgenerating marketing. Keywords are the foundation to getting traffic. Step 2: Search engine friendly. If you don't have a website yet, here is how to make it "search engine friendly from the start." If you already have a website make sure it's been designed right by using the search engine friendly checklist. Step 3: Indexing and Search Directories: Make sure the search engines index your web pages and your web site is listed in the search directories. You need to do both if you want to get the most traffic. Step 4: Links and PageRank: The more links into your site, the more highly your site is valued by the search engines. Google values a site based on PageRank and the links to it. Here are ways to get links back to your site.
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Step 1: Keywords: Why They Are So Important and How to Use Them to Get Ranked Higher When someone types words into the Google search bar they are typing keywords. The search engine looks into its index of all websites for those keywords, ranks every site and every page on the Internet that uses those words, and posts the results. It does all this in milliseconds. Amazing! When ranking the sites, the search engines take into account if you use these keywords in your site, how often they are used on a web page, and if these keywords are highlighted using formatting like Bold Text or Italicized Text. Therefore, you need to do an analysis of keywords; that is, you need to find out what keywords your visitors are searching to find products, services and information similar to your business. Here is the one way to identify potential keywords for your website: 1. List words or phrases you think your prospect would search when considering your business. 2. Go to the Google Keyword Tool or https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal and type in one keyword at a time to generate the most popular keywords searched similar to the one you typed in. The results will display a list of keywords and the search volume for each one for a Broad match. Change the setting to "Exact" match and review the list for each word. Save a list for the ones with the highest volume of visitors and that are relevant to your business. 3. Next, you want to optimize your site for exact keyword matches of over 1,000 per month. Do a Google search of each one of those keywords. If the keywords have search results that are under 1 million, you will have a better opportunity to rank higher using those keywords (less competition). 4. Decide on the top keywords for your site's optimization. Don't lose the other keywords since you can use them on your site and in your other marketing efforts (like article marketing) to drive traffic to your site. 5. For each page of your website, select one or two keywords. Make sure the words are prominent on your page by making them stand-out:
• make sure you bold or italicize the keywords. • use your keywords often enough to be between 7-10% of the total words on your page. • use your keywords more often on the top of your page than on the bottom of a web page If you already have a website, check to makes sure it is optimized for your keywords. If you don't have a website yet, design one using your keywords prominently. This step takes time. But the keywords you chose for your site, take you down that path of driving traffic to your site.
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Step 2: How To Get Your Site Ranked Higher By Making It "Search Engine Friendly." Search engines use a site's coding as a crucial part in the ranking of a site. Every website uses what's called an HTML Meta code. Fortunately, most companies that offer webpage templates automatically code your HTML. That is, they ask you for the descriptions and keywords and they do the rest. If not, you may have to do it yourself. There are companies that provide HTM coding for your site for free. Since I am not a programmer I used http://submitexpress.com. To find the HTML code for any website, all you need to do is look it up by going to your browser's "View" tab above, and scroll to "Source." As an example I will use a website I developed: www.pokerazz.com for the examples below. You can open up this siteâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s code to follow along; it may make the following information easier: 1. Title Tag: The title tag in your HTML code is what a browser displays at the very top of the screen (called the title bar). The title tag should use keywords that are relevant to that web page. Make sure that each one of your web pages uses keywords in the title tag since it will make it easier for the search engine to understand your page's content. You want to use hyphens between the words to make it easier for the search engine to understand the text. On the pokerazz homepage the HTML is: <TITLE>Play Razz Poker to Win/How to Win at Razz</TITLE> You can cut and past this HTML, and substitute your own title using your keywords. 2. Keyword Meta Tag: Using the keywords you decided upon earlier, list these for the keyword Meta tag, and separate each word with a comma or a space. On this page the keyword Meta tags are: <META NAME="Keywords" CONTENT="razz poker, how to win at Razz poker, razz, Razz poker book">
You can cut and past this code, so you can use it for your site with your keywords. 3. Description Tag: The description tag in your HTML code is what is displayed in the search engine results beneath the heading of your site. Write a description tag that is going to sell your website. It needs to be 250 characters or less (including spaces) and, if possible, you should start with your keywords and end with the same keywords. On this page the description tag is: <META NAME="Description" CONTENT="Discover how to win at Razz poker. Razz rules, razz tips, how to play razz."> You can cut and past this code, so you can use it for your site, again using your own description. There can also be additional heading tags: <H1>, <H2>, <H3>. Use your keywords in these heading tags and make sure they are consistent with the page content. I did not include additional heading tags for my site. (Note: My www.pokerazz.com is on page 2 when someone searches â&#x20AC;&#x153;Razz poker.â&#x20AC;?) You can also add a sitemap page your website. This can make it easier for the search engine to find all your pages if you have lots of pages. You may have noticed sitemaps on some of the larger websites. Besides the coding of your site, there are some other important ways to make your website search engine friendly: 1. Content is king in SEO. Well if it is not king, it is vital for better rankings by the search engines. Search engines recognize unique, quality content because that is really what it's all about. The search engines want to provide the person searching with the best and most useful results. Add pages to your site that add new content. The more useful content the better. 2. Keyword Density: For each web page on your site, you want to have 710% of the total words be your keywords for that page. It tells the search
engine what your web page is all about. A fast way to calculate total words on your page is to cut and paste the text in Word and check the total word count. Count the number of times you have the keywords and calculate the percentage. 3. Links between your pages: Create links between your pages using the keywords in your Title Tag. Links should use keywords rather than just "Click here." Of course, it is okay to have a link that uses both a click here and your keyword. 4. Linking: You want to get links back to your site. Getting links from highly ranked sites adds to your ranking since it indicates that your site has value. It is like another site voted for your site.
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Step 3: Indexing Your Site and Getting Found by Search Directories Once you've built your site, you need to make sure that your site is found: 1. Search Engines: Once your site is published, the top search engines will usually find it within days. And, if you have at least one link from another website, it may appear even faster. If you want to make sure your site is found, simply submit your site's home page url to the following addressesâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;yes, it's free: Google: www.google.com/addurl.html Yahoo: http://search.yahoo.com/info/submit.html MSN: http://search.msn.com/docs/submit.aspx 2. Search Directories Unlike search engines that seek out individual web pages, search directories seek out websites. And each site must be listed under a specific category (Similar to the Yellow Pages of your phone book). The directories are important (especially the top two: Yahoo! and Open Directory Project) because they get millions of users, and you want those visitors to find your website. There are two main directories with different ways of being listed in them: a) Yahoo! Directory: Go to: http://dir.yahoo.com/ The left column will be a list of categories. Select one and start to go through the process of entering your site. The cost is $299 per year for commercial sites and free for non-commercial sites. b) Open Directory Project: Go to http://www.dmoz.org/ Pick a category and follow the instructions. It is free. It can take months to be listed. Only if your site has not appeared for at least 6 weeks, should you resubmit your site. (They have over 50,000 human editors) There are hundreds of other directories that you may want to consider for your website, but only use them if they are in your niche and are free. If you need a web expert, go to www.AWebExpert.com or mcogert@gmail.com
Step 4: PageRank, Linking and How to Get Links to your Website: The Right Way and The Wrong Way A. The Right Way to Get Links Search engines assign a value to your site based on the links pointing to it. Google uses the term "PageRank" as the value a page has based on the number of links to that page. It is the page that it is being ranked and not the website. That's why page ranks within one website can differ so much. You can find the Google page rank in the Google Toolbar, where a page is ranked 0 to 10. To get the Google Toolbar is easy. Just go to the url address: toolbar.google.com and click on the download. The toolbar will appear at the top of your browser. PageRank is another part of the puzzle that Google uses to rank search results. All links to your site provide value to your site. It is a like a vote. That's why you want links. The more votes you get, the more popular your site is considered by Google. Try to get links from other websites with high PageRanks Try to get links from websites that have high PageRanks and have related content to your site. This will be a challenge since other sites want to know what's in it for them to put your link on their site. Even if you offer to exchange links, with a reciprocal link, the site may not be interested in a lower ranking site. One way to find sites, which may be more willing to link to your site, is to go to your competitors' sites. Check the links on their pages and ask for a backlink or a reciprocal link. Of course, it is best not to have many links out of your site since it reduces its value to the search engines. Importantly, as soon as you have a website, try to get a link from any website as it will help the search engines to find your site. As a rule: It is more valuable to your site to get links from websites with higher PageRank than those with lower PageRank. How to get links back to your site from other sources
1. Register with search directories: In addition to search engines, there are search directories. A search directory is similar to the Yellow Pages of your phone book. In the Yellow Pages, companies pay to have their names, addresses and phone numbers listed under categories. On the web, there are directories where you need to select a category and submit your business, url and a link to your site. There are the main directories, secondary directories and niche directories. You can search online and decide which ones are important to you. But make sure you are in both the Yahoo! Directory and the Open Directory Project. 2. Article marketing: Write articles, submit them to article directories, and add an anchor text link and your web address in the resource box. Article marketing is an excellent way to drive visitors to your site. Here is how to do article marketing for links and driving more traffic to your website. 3. Video marketing: Create videos, submit them to video directories and add an anchor text link and your web address in the description area. Video marketing is another excellent way to drive visitors to your site. Here is how to do video marketing for links and driving more traffic to your website. 4. Press Releases: Write press releases, submit them to press release directories and add an anchor text link and your web address in the release. Here is how to use press releases for links and driving more traffic to your website. 5. Blogs: Create one or more blogs and add links to your site. Search engines like blogs, so start one, and post often. Try to get other blogs that have related content to provide reciprocal linking. There are two main providers for free blogs: Google's Blogger and Worldpress. 6. Social Forums: There are forums on almost every topic on the net. Find ones where participants might be interested in your business and join the group. However, do not sell your company on a forum. Instead, when you make a comment in a forum, most forums allow you to link your website in the "signature" file. Therefore when you join a forum, make sure you find the signature area and add a line or two with your link. 7. Social Bookmarking Sites: These bookmarking sites rank high on search engines. Post on the top sites like Digg, Reddit and Stumble Upon.
Getting Links The Wrong Way B. The Wrong Way to Get Links There are link exchange services that charge you fees to put your backlink on many sites. You need to be careful in using any service since you may not know if they engage in spam or Black Hat SEO. Also, the more links that are shared the less value for those links. In general, sites that exist only to sell links are frowned upon by the search engines; it is seen as a trick to manipulate a site's ranking and not a true indication of the value of your site. Be careful in signing up with one of these link exchanges.
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A "Search Engine Friendly" Checklist 1. Have you selected keywords for your every page of your website? Keywords are the foundation to all your traffic generating activities. It takes time to select the right keywords for your site. 2. Does your site's title tag use keywords that are relevant to that web page? The title tag in your HTML code is what a browser displays at the very top of the screen (called the title bar). The title tag should use keywords that are relevant to that web page. Make sure that each one of your web pages uses a different set of keywords in the title tag since it will make it easier for the search engine to understand your page's content. You want to use hyphens between the words to make it easier for the search engine to understand the text. 3. Does your site have a description tag that sells your website? The description tag in your HTML code is what is displayed in the search engine results beneath the heading of your site. While it is believed that these description tags are not as useful as they used to be in search engine rankings, you should make a description tag sell for you. The reason is that the person reading about your site from the search results may use it to determine if he/she will click and visit. Write a description tag that is going to sell your website. It needs to be 250 characters or less (including spaces) and, if possible, you should start with your keywords and end with the same keywords. 4. Does your site have the keyword Meta tag? While the keyword Meta tag is not as important as it used to be, still do include keywords. Write in at most 10 to 12 keywords, separate each word with a comma or a space, and make sure that most of the keywords are used in the page text. 5. Does your site use heading tags? The heading or <H1>, <H2>, <H3> tags are important for SEO. Search engines use these tags more than the keywords in the body text. Use your keywords in these heading tags and make sure they are consistent with the page content. 6. Does your site have a sitemap page?
Make it easier for the search engine to find all your pages by adding a sitemap. You probably have noticed them on the bottom of some websites. Do the same thing. Add a sitemap link to the bottom of the page, and then have a sitemap page with links to your pages. 7. Does your site get updated with unique, quality content? Unique, quality content is vital for better rankings by the search engines. Refresh your content as often as possible. Add pages to your site that add new content. The more useful content the better. 8. Do the pages of your site use enough keywords so the search engines recognize their importance? For each web page on your site, you want to have 7-10% of the total words be your keywords for that page. It tells the search engine what your web page is all about. A fast way to calculate total words on your page is to cut and paste the text in Word and check the total word count. Count the number of times you have the keywords and calculate the percentage. 9. Do you have links between your pages? Create links between your pages using the keywords in your Title Tag. Links should use keywords rather than just "Click here." Of course, it is okay to have a link that uses both a click here and your keyword. 10. Do you have links back to your site from other sources? You want to get links back to your site. And getting links from highly ranked sites adds to your ranking since it indicates that your site has value. To understand linking and ways to get links, click here for PageRank and linking: how to get links to your site.
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Using Syndication Services to Get Content for Your Site There are syndicated services where you can access articles for free. These are the same article submission sites where you should submit your own articles. The article submission sites allow anyone to submit articles on almost any topic. One key reason to submit articles to these sites is to provide a backlink to your site. The more articles, the more links and the more links, the higher a site's rank. Article marketing is one of the most effective forms of generating traffic for a website. These same sites also syndicate these articles so other sites can pick them up and use them. The author of the article now has the benefit of another backlink in another location. Three top sites that provide syndicated content are: EZineArticles.com IdeaMarketers.com GoArticles.com And, while not a syndicated service, there is also Google Alert, which allows you to put in any keywords and be alerted when those words appear in any article or blog. This is a free service and you can get alerts daily or monthly.
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How to Improve Your SEO Results One of the great things about the web is that millions of people are constantly working on the same challenges you are facing in your business. Rather than start from search, learn from what works. 1. Add Useful Content Your website must provide value to visitors to get traffic. That value is recognized by search engines by adding new and useful content. Keep your site fresh by adding text and new pages. Make it original. You can write the content. You can hire someone to write it. You can find other related sites and ask to use their content. You can go to content syndication sources where authors post articles for free or the ones that charge for articles. There are also RSS feeds that aggregate information for you and email the latest content connected to your keywords. Even Google Alerts will search for the latest content on anything you request and provide it to your for free daily or weekly. 2. Reverse Engineer Whatever you are trying to accomplish in your web marketing, look to see what is working on the web and figure out why. If your competition is being ranked higher in search results, check their site. Go to their source code, and check out their keywords. Learn from what your competition is doing and try to improve upon it. Example: If you want to use pay per click advertising, do some searches on the web and check out the text ads on Google. Which ones have you been seeing for weeks or months? See what text these ads are using and learn from them. Don't copy what they are doing, but learn from what they are doing and improve upon it. 3. Test and test again Another great advantage of using the web is that you can test, learn, improve and test again. Whatever you are doing on the web, realize that you can improve upon it. That means you should be testing other ways of doing a marketing activity and determines if it gives you better results. Example: If you want to get more clicks back to your site using Article Marketing, test different headlines, topics and resource boxes. Find which combinations work best and repeat. 4. Ask For Help
People like to help others on the web. Don't hesitate to ask for help. There is no such thing as a stupid question. You will be amazed how many total strangers are willing to share their experiences and expertise. And it costs you nothing, but a post to ask the question and a second post to say thanks.
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SEO Tools Alexa Toolbar: Traffic information for websites download.alexa.com Blogs: for posting personal and business reason Google: www.blogger.com Wordpress: http://wordpress.com/ Codes: To check a site's code Any browser: Browser bar menu, select "View" and scroll down to select "Source." The code will pop up in a new window. Compete: Compete.com. Traffic information for websites. Considered more accurate than Alexa. Copyscape: to protect your content www.copyscape.com Google Analytics: to learn where visitors to your site come from and how they interact with your site http://www.google.com/analytics/ Google Keyword Tool: to help you select your keywords https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal Google Toolbar: to find PageRank and more toolbar.google.com Google Webmaster Guidelines: advice from Google for your site http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer= 35769 Keyword Discovery Tool: free keyword suggestions http://keyworddiscovery.com/search.html
Microsoft keyword commercial intent tool: Probability of purchase intent for keyword searches url: http://adlab.msn.com/Online-Commercial-Intention/Default.aspx Open Directory Project: to get listed in their free directory www.dmoz.org Wordtracker: to help you select your keywords, $329/year www.wordtracker.com Yahoo Directory: to get listed in their directory, $299/year dir.yahoo.com Yahoo Directory SEO resources: http://dir.yahoo.com/Computers_and_Internet/Internet/World_Wide_Web/Si te_Announcement _and_Promotion/Search_Engine_Optimization__SEO_/
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Article Marketing How article marketing can help you drive traffic to your site. Article marketing is a free way to drive traffic to your website, and the people it attracts are quality prospects who are interested in what you are providing. In addition, over time, your articles position you as an expert in your field. An article is at least 250 words and provides a benefit to the reader. The way a reader gets to your site is by using what is called the "resource box" at the bottom of the article. A "resource box" allows you to provide your name, bio, a brief sell on why the reader should visit your site, and links back to your site. Here is how you use article marketing to increase the number of visitors to your site: 1. Write more articles using keywords in the title. Keywords are the phrases you have selected that are connected to the product and benefits of your site. The more articles you write using these keywords in the headline and text, the more likely a visitor will find your article when they conduct a Google search. Google search results do favor recently posted articles with fresh content. 2. Submit your articles to more than one directory. There are many search directories online. You can use the biggest directories and/or niche directories. 3. The more links to your site, the higher your website is ranked on Google. As an additional bonus to article marketing is that the more articles you write and the more article directories you submit them to, the more links you will have back to your site. Google ranks sites higher when they have more backlinks, i.e., links back to a site. An additional benefit to article marketing is that visitors to your site are better qualified prospects than those who click after reading a pay per click ad. The reason is that a reader of an article has already shown an active interest in what you have to offer by committing the time to read your article. Pay per click visitors do not always share this same level of interest. If you need a web expert, go to www.AWebExpert.com or mcogert@gmail.com
Article Marketing Best practices in article marketing: 1. The most effective headlines and storylines Headlines: The most effective articles are ones that use a compelling headline to attract the reader's attention. For example, headlines that use "How to," "Free" "Secrets," and "Tips" attract high interest: "How To (Do Something for the Reader) In Only 20 Minutes Each Day." "How to Lose Weight in Only 20 Minutes Each Day." "5 Free Online Tools That Will (Do Something for the Reader)" "5 Free Online Tools That Will Save Money on Your Taxes." "10 Top Secrets To (Do Something for the Reader)" "10 Top Secrets To Getting a Better Night of Sleep" "7 Tips To (Do Something for the Reader)" "7 Tips To Saving Money on Your Car's Fuel Costs." Storylines: The storyline in an article follows through from these type of compelling headlines. Of course, the headlines and storyline needs to connect with your website offering. A way to quickly multiply the number of articles is to take an article with a number of ways in the headline, and write a more in-depth article focused on each one of those ways. For example, "10 Top Secrets..." can result in writing eleven articles. Another storyline that works are ones that are based on real case studies. These human interest articles capture attention and connect with people on an emotional basis. 2. Reverse engineering from the most popular articles and sites Use reverse engineering to find out if you can connect to the hot topics of the day. What this means is that you review a directory to determine articles that are the most popular and write an original story on that topic. You can also check out a site like Digg.com to find which stories are the most popular and determine if you can write an article on that topic that ties to your business.
The key to reverse engineering is to do some research on what is the most popular issues or topics for your prospects and write original content that can attract attention for your website. 3. Testing to improve results One of the great things about article writing is that you can determine which articles are the most viewed and which ones get the most click throughs. As a result you can test different resource boxes to see which gets the most click throughs to your site. You can also test to see which topics are getting more views.
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Article Marketing The process and costs. Process: Each article needs to be at least 250 words and provide a benefit to the reader. If you have an article that is 1,000 words try to break it down into 24 articles. Set a goal to write maybe 5 or 10 articles per week, or maybe 250 articles in a 12 month period. The article does not need to be perfect. You don't need to be a writer. Just write like you talk. Have a set period of time to write each article, perhaps 20 minutes for each article. Allocate half a day to just write and edit your articles. Once you start to write, you will find it easier to just get in a flow and keep writing. Plan on writing articles on a set pattern, like once per week or once per month. If you get an idea for an article while working on other projects, write it down before you forget. Make sure you spell check each article. Costs While submitting articles is free, you can get help by hiring freelancers to write articles for you. If you have audio recordings that need to be transcribed you can hire freelancers to handle this project. Cost for freelancers to ghostwrite or edit your articles can be as little as $5 per article. Make sure you review the freelancer's work before you hire him/her.
Important: Check that the article provided to you by a freelancer is original by selecting sentences or phrases from the article, put quotes around them, and do a search using Google, Yahoo and Microsoft. If the exact text comes up in the search engine, check to see if your article really is original.
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Article Marketing The article itself: headlines, topics and resource box. Topics: An article should provide a benefit to the reader. Remember, the reader is interested in your subject matter so you want to give them something of value. If the reader feels you offer value and expertise, they are more likely to click the link to your site. Articles are not effective when the topic is really an advertisement. Write what you know about and your area of expertise. Write what your customers and prospects are telling you they need or are interested in. Find out what visitors want by conducting basic research like online polls. Find out new topics by sending out emails to your opt-in list and ask what challenges they are having or what they are searching for. Repurpose content that you have written before, so that you only need reedit past work. Consider giving away some of the information you may have charged for in the past. It adds to your expertise and it works to attract more readers to your website. The Resource Box: The way a reader gets to your site is by using what is called the "resource box" at the bottom of the article. A "resource box" allows you to provide your name, bio, and a brief sell on why the reader should visit your site, perhaps a free offer, and links back to your site. How to use links in your article: To get the most value from an article you need to link back to your site; it is called a backlink. You want to have at least one backlink in your resource box. 1) You want to have your actual url address in the resource box. For example, the main url for marketingzone is http://www.marketingzone.com. The main reason for including your actual url is so readers can get back to
your website. The second reason is that someone else may decide to reprint your article and you want them to have your website address. 2) You should strongly consider adding in an anchor text link into your resource box. The reason for adding in one anchored text link is that it will help your site with search engine optimization. An anchored text link is used to link up a few words, often keywords, to your website address. For example: Let's say I was writing an article for www.MarketingZone.com. In the resource box, I will have the website address: http://www.marketingzone.com. In addition, I will add a second anchored text link for the keywords "article marketing." The text will be: "For more information go to Article Marketing." The text "Article marketing" is linked back to the site using HTML code. Fortunately it is easy to code an anchored text link: <a href="http;//www.marketingzone.com/article-marketing.html/">Article Marketing</a>. To make it easy for you to do, simply cut and past the following code-filling in your site info and anchored text as needed for each article: <a href="the specific url address you want the reader to visit/">The words you selected for the anchored text</a>. It's really that simple.
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Article Marketing The article directories. Once you've written articles, you need to submit them to an article directory. Submitting articles are free. You should submit your articles to the best article directories and any niche directories that are appropriate for your business. The leading article directory is ezinearticles.com. This directory reviews every article submitted to make sure it adheres to their guidelines. The guidelines are simple to follow. They reject articles that are not original in content or are advertisements. Other top directories include: ideamarketers.com goarticles.com, a1article.com, articlecity.com. There are niche directories that may be precisely in your area of expertise. You should consider these directories in addition to the top directory since they are so much smaller and will be getting less traffic. It is up to on how many of these directories you will use. My recommendation is to use ezinearticles.com since it is the biggest and most highly recognized.
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Article Marketing Other places to post your articles: In addition to using article directories, you can also post your articles in other venues to add more exposure: Your web site. Post the articles on your website. Just make sure that the article you pose Offer them to visitors to use on their site as long as they include your resource box and backlinks. Your blog: Post the articles on your blog. Your social network websites: Post the articles when appropriate on any social websites you belong to. Your newsletter: Articles should be included in your newsletter, as your readers may not be aware of the new information you have posted. Your opt-in list: Email your articles to those people who have signed up to receive free information. Consider using an auto responder to handle constant contact with prospects and customers.
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Article Marketing Repackaging your articles for additional revenue: You can also use your articles to develop new products like a newsletter, an pamphlet, an ebook, or a printed book. These products can be sold for additional revenue or offered free to potential customers. A marketing concept that is being used more and more is called moving the free line down. This means that you give away something that you normally charge for. So, you've moved the "free line" by giving away more of your expertise for free. This concept works since the reader is getting excellent value from your article, is impressed with your knowledge and wants to know more about you and your product offerings. This method is successful in both article marketing and video marketing. Finally, you can also use your articles as part of a printed promotional flyer or brochure, or a direct mail piece.
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