Article marketing, a strategy known to many, is often misinterpreted. Its various definitions have created confusion, especially for newcomers. Initially, many SEO experts were late adopters, subsequently rushing to define article marketing to avoid appearing unaware of its potential. Article marketing involves crafting articles related to your website’s niche, focusing on informative content rather than direct promotion. These articles, optimized with relevant keywords, essentially function as web pages when republished.
The author bio section, typically at the end, includes information about you and links to your website. A best practice involves including a link to your main page and another to a relevant interior page. When these articles are submitted to directories offering free content to webmasters, reposting results in valuable backlinks to your site.
Let’s address common myths and realities surrounding article marketing:
MYTH: Article marketing provides minimal benefit.
FACT: Article marketing significantly boosts link popularity and generates targeted traffic.
MYTH: Republished articles are only indexed as supplemental content, diminishing their value.
FACT: Articles can achieve top search engine rankings, depending on the submission platform.
MYTH: Mass submission leads to duplicate content penalties.
FACT: Search engines do not penalize all instances of similar content. Syndicated content from reputable sources like The New York Times or CNN is not penalized. Duplicate content refers to webpages with over 70% similarity.
MYTH: Success requires submitting articles to thousands of directories.
FACT: Multiple effective strategies exist. Mass submission is one approach, helpful for building initial link popularity. Alternatively, targeted submissions to niche directories yield more relevant backlinks and traffic. A third method involves crafting high-quality, researched articles for exclusive publication on high-traffic, authoritative websites in your niche. This single placement can surpass the impact of mass submissions.
Finally, publishing unique, high-quality articles on your own website attracts direct links, boosting traffic and page rank, assuming you already have some existing traffic.
MYTH: Always publish articles on your website first.
FACT: Adding content to your site differs from article marketing. With article marketing, prioritize indexing on external sites. Your website SEO should already be attracting traffic. External publication provides an additional avenue for users to discover your website. Timely crawling of these external sites, with intact links, facilitates crawling of your own site.
Strong indexing on these external platforms can lead to top search engine rankings for your article, a feat potentially unachievable on a new or low-authority site.
This overview should dispel common misconceptions about article marketing, clarifying its mechanics and benefits.