Entry

Do Article Submissions Help Improve SEO?

Sep 21st, 2007 12:02
David Cowgill, http://blog.davidcowgill.com/seo/seo/

There are many schools of thought on how to build strong backlinks to 
a Web site. Some webmasters build reciprocal links, while others 
register their site in many directories. Still others do both of 
those, and rent links as well. But one method used by a growing number 
of webmasters is that of building link popularity through the 
syndication of original articles. Syndicated articles are becoming 
increasingly popular because article syndication builds permanent 
links from many different, topically related, keyword rich pages. 
There are several steps one can take in order to ensure that an 
article is syndicated as much as possible, and that the links from 
those syndications are of the highest quality.
1) Write High Quality Articles
The amount of syndication an article receives is directly proportional 
to the demand for that type of article. Higher quality articles will 
prove more valuable to webmasters looking to reprint articles. Perfect 
spelling and grammar are requisite in order to ensure the widest 
syndication possible. Webmasters will be more inclined to reprint well-
researched and well-written articles. Most articles are not of the 
highest quality, so a higher quality article will stand out 
significantly.
Articles should be more than simply a place to put a link in a 
resource box. The goal of article writing should be to make the 
article itself interesting. An interesting article can be syndicated 
on websites with high traffic and PageRank. Increasing article 
syndication will cause the link in the resource box to be copied by 
many Web sites.
In addition to building more links with higher quality articles, 
webmasters will find that quality content articles will result in an 
immediate traffic increase to a site. An article that is appealing to 
readers will naturally attract a large readership. The more readers an 
article has, the more likely those readers are to click on the link in 
the resource box.
2) Manually Submit to Related Sites
Another technique used by many webmasters to increase an article’s 
syndication is to submit articles to related sites. The best 
syndications and links come from quality sites in a specific niche, 
not simply article banks. For example, there are many Web sites that 
will only accept business-related articles. Any webmaster of a 
business-related website looking to build link popularity should write 
an article concerning business and submit it to these sites. 
Potentially, other business sites could take note of a high quality 
business article and syndicate it on their sites (which are all 
related under the unique subject of business). Doing this will build 
topically related links which can improve a Web site’s search engine 
rankings dramatically.
3) Write a Compelling Title
Articles have to be interesting in order to get the readers to scroll 
down to the resource box, or inspire webmasters to reprint the article 
on their Web site. The best way to draw a wide variety of readers is 
to have a compelling title. Catchy titles and sometimes even 
controversial titles can draw more readers. Coupling a compelling 
title with a high quality article is an excellent way to attract 
readers specifically looking for articles to syndicate.
Article topics should also be interesting. If a website is focused on 
a specific subject, an article about an interesting element of that 
subject will be syndicated more than a general article. For example, 
there may be hundreds of available articles about mortgage 
refinancing, but how many articles focus on ways financial advisors 
will try to manipulate someone seeking to refinance?
4) Stay Organized
Time should be taken when finding article sites to submit to. There 
are many Web sites that have large lists of article sites that accept 
submissions. A good technique is to submit articles to all of the 
article sites in a list and check later to see if those articles have 
been syndicated. Searching for the title of the article submitted in 
quotations on Google will show where exactly it has been reprinted. 
Backlink searches on MSN and Yahoo! can also be helpful. Building a 
solid list of verified article sites can help maximize article 
syndication and also time efficiency.
Some article sites only accept submissions via e-mail. Some SEOs shy 
away from e-mailing articles because it is more time consuming and 
often involves the creation of a biography and picture submission. E-
mail submission article sites however are often more inclined to only 
reprint articles of high quality, and thus these types of sites’ 
articles are often widely syndicated.
5) Write a Killer Resource Box
The heart and soul of a syndicated article is its resource box. The 
anchor text and link destination of the links in the articles should 
be varied. Varying anchor text will help avoid penalties in search 
engine rankings and create higher-value links. Often changing the 
resource box after submitting to each site proves beneficial. An 
article about dogs with the anchor text “dogs” should be varied with 
anchor text like “puppies” for the other article submissions. Using 
technology such as latent semantic analysis, search engines will 
notice “dog” and “puppy” as related words, but will not penalize the 
site for having unnatural links (e.g., if all of the links used “dog” 
as anchor text). This same effect can be achieved by varying the link 
target. Linking the first half of the article submissions to page A, 
and the second half to page B will avoid penalties from search engines 
like Google. Articles are a proven way to get links, but if a new site 
suddenly acquires 100 links to the same place in a short time, search 
engines might penalize it.
Article submission is a great way to get high quality links from 
topically related sites. The more effort and care given to an article 
that is submitted, the more syndication potential an article has. 
Compelling titles, high-quality content, and interesting topics will 
all improve the syndication of an article. Varying backlink text and 
destinations can also help avoid heavy penalties from search engines. 
Some SEOs believe that only traditional directory submissions and link 
swapping are effective methods of building links. I, however, am a 
firm believer in the power of a well-written article to deliver a 
large number of topically related links to any fledgling site. 
http://blog.davidcowgill.com/