Articles Directory Strategies For The Best Impact

Using an articles directory is a web marketing must. If you are trying to run your own website or e-commerce site, then you spend your waking hours devising ways to drive web traffic to your website. You may have placed ads on the net, used Google adwords, or paid affiliates to help get some traffic to your site. But have you taken advantage of the free marketing tool available through directory submission?

An articles directory is available to anyone on the web. Articles directories are designed mainly as a resource for people who need content for their site. Since we all know that keyword rich, relevant content is what the search engines like, webmasters will browse through an articles directory looking for the kind of content that they think will help their search engine ranking. If you have designed an article that is full of of good content and is written to optimize search engine ranking, your articles will be chosen.

That sounds good for them, but what about you? There are two reasons you want to use directory submission to get your articles out there on other people's websites. First, when your article is selected, the links back to your site have to be included as well. So if someone likes what they read, they may click to visit your site and learn more, generating some natural traffic to your site. Second, and perhaps more importantly, you will have created a quality backlink to your site. Search engines look at how many and what kind of websites link to yours, and the more quality backlinks you have, the better ranking your site will get.

So how do you write a great article for directory submission? The answer is simple, give the reader what they want, but make sure that it's relevant to what you discuss on your website. For example, don't submit an article about jewelry making with a link to your site on dog training. The search engines will dismiss this link, and you will irritate anyone who follows that link expecting more information on how to make jewelry. Instead, you would want to write articles that give interesting and relevant information on dog training or related topics. So you could write articles on dog training techniques, problem dog behaviors, training tools and aids, the psychology of a happy and well-trained dog, or even general dog health and care articles.
Next, think about what information you can offer that might be unique or eye-catching. Use titles that grab the reader. So instead of Dog Training Tips, a good title would be 'Train Your Dog with Secrets the Professionals Use.' Those two articles could have the exact same information in them. But which one would you choose to read?

Once you've got your topics and you know what your titles and keywords are, writing the article is the easy step. You simply provide the information in a manner that is easy-to-read and logically organized. Here's one tip you should not ignore, check your article for spelling and grammar mistakes! There is no faster way to discredit your articles and your expertise than to have these types of mistakes in an article.

Finally, use the right kind of link in your article. No matter what, never use the words 'click here' for your link text. This is a complete waste of an opportunity to affect your site's search engine ranking! Use keywords in your article as the link text, making sure that the same keywords are used on your site. Doing so proves to the search engine that your backlink is relevant and will help to boost your ranking.