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Article Marketing – Grabbing Links With Content

When you ask about getting links for your organic SEO marketing, you’re often told to start article writing – but is it an easy way

When you ask about getting links for your organic SEO marketing, you’re often told to start article writing – but is it an easy way to get links? Well, sure – but is it an easy way to get traffic? Yes, if you’re good at it. No, if you churn out poorly written articles with the same information as thousands of other articles out there.

First of all, back links in the right places can give your website great exposure. Article marketing is certainly one of the easiest ways to gain viable links… if you’re good at writing articles or are prepared to pay a ghostwriter to write them for you.

The concept of article marketing goes like this:

  1. You write an article and put a compelling resource box with your website link at the end of the content.
  2. You submit your article to an article site, gaining a back link.
  3. Depending on which site you submitted to, that site passes your article on to other sites, which provide you with more back links.
  4. People read your article and pass it on to others so your site gets exposure.
  5. Some of those people publish your article on their websites or blogs – more links, more exposure.
  6. Other people publish your article in their newsletters – more links, more exposure.
  7. Still others may publish your article in an eZine or eBook – more links, more exposure.

Now, the hope is your article will go from 1 to 7. It might… if it’s interesting and/or unusual. Another hope is at step 2, where you submit your article to a very topic relevant site, such as a health site (instead of article directory) for a health article. You then get a very relevant back link, as well as relevant traffic.

Here are a few reasons why some articles never get to #7:

  • Many articles currently available on the web are… well, blah. They’re boring, with standard (or sub-standard) information that’s been shared several times before in exactly the same way.
  • Many articles are written using poor English or poor structure. They’re difficult to read, difficult to understand and so, are destined to lay on the cutting room floor. These articles are the wallflowers of content at the copywriting dance, never to be taken out and shown to the world.
  • Some articles are well written, with great English, perfect grammar and excellent flow, but so full of industry terms the average layperson can’t understand them. They might be seen, but often, you want the layperson coming to your site, right? After all, if you have a business to consumer (B2C) company, you want the consumer – not your competition – to understand what you’re saying.

Many think the answer to not reaching #7 is to just add volume to their article marketing. If two articles don’t perform well, maybe putting out twenty would help. It seems reasonable; it’ll bring twenty beautiful links.

Yet, what are links without traffic? In addition, it’s probably helpful to realize that, while Yahoo may count ten links from the same site as ten links, Google generally only counts it once. To Google: 500 links from the same site = 1 link from the site. If you’re going for quantity rather than quality, you’d better find a few hundred article sites.

Before your next article marketing campaign, ask yourself what article marketing is for, and look at the sites you’ve previously used. You see, although article marketing brings back links, it’s really recognition you want. You want to garner enough positive attention that people start coming to you as an industry expert.

Rather than submit, submit, submit, be the industry expert you are. Consider the information you’ve gathered through the years as a high commodity. Don’t share it with the world; be picky (or precise, if you’d like a more professional word) about the sites you put that information on. If you carefully consider each site in terms of relevance, traffic and interested visitors – and carefully write your articles in terms of quality, tone and information – your article marketing will be a grand success. Would love to hear your input.

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7 Responses

  1. This is all good and well but in reality rarely has a business owner got time to do this. At least not any on scale.

    You might be lucky enough to get a brief for an article once in a while but you’re going to need more content than that if you need to build more than a handful of links.

    I tend to research a few topics, present them to the client and then source a copywriter who specialises in that field. It’s a significant cost so make sure you factor this in from the beginning but makes the whole process a lot smoother..

    1. This is all good and well but in reality rarely has a business owner got time to do this. At least not any on scale.

      True – rarely is there enough time in a day, week, month, year. Yet, it’s been our experience that one well-written article can do more than several crappy articles ever did. While it’s true the occasional article won’t bring in as strong a result or as fast as several articles, it WILL bring results.

      I tend to research a few topics, present them to the client and then source a copywriter who specialises in that field. It’s a significant cost so make sure you factor this in from the beginning but makes the whole process a lot smoother..

      You have a good process, and being upfront about the cost is always a good thing. Having said that, we always keep in mind that some of our readers are low on funds and trying to do these things themselves – which is why we always try to preach “Do what you can, when you can.” Again, the results are slower if you can’t just delve into a full campaign, but they will show.

      Thanks for your comment, Kes!

  2. Re: “if you have a business to consumer (B2C) company, you want the consumer – not your competition – to understand what you’re saying.”

    See this all the time. Website content that might impress a contemporary but means nothing to the average joe who they are trying to attract…

  3. That pic is too much!! Did that actually happen?

    Coming up with something more compelling than that is going to be tough 😉

    1. lolol err…I really thought the “flash” news idea would go over well 😉 In response to your question I’m not sure. I wouldn’t think so, considering this is “FOX” News. But, it would be fun to find out.

  4. Pedro, how could I have missed your visit? That’s what I get for not approving our comments. 🙂 As always Pedro you are kind and generous with your compliments. As much as I would love to embrace all there is in SEO I have to admit a mix of everything online and Web2.0 is the best approach. Education, information, sharing, valuable knowledge is part of our journey. Thanks for visiting, see you again, soon :*

  5. Here I am as promised 🙂

    Great easy read as usual, I really like the “you want the layperson coming to your site, right?” it sums it up.
    SEO’s in particular seem to be very good at dishing out plenty of articles that are of little use to anyone else but SEO’s themselves, perpetuating the “mysticism” within the industry. User empowerment and education is the way forward!

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When you ask about getting links for your organic SEO marketing, you’re often told to start article writing – but is it an easy way

Today's Author

WHAT’S NEXT?

SUPPORT OUR AUTHOR AND SHARE
Interested in Guest Posting?
Read our guest posting guidelines.

7 Responses

  1. This is all good and well but in reality rarely has a business owner got time to do this. At least not any on scale.

    You might be lucky enough to get a brief for an article once in a while but you’re going to need more content than that if you need to build more than a handful of links.

    I tend to research a few topics, present them to the client and then source a copywriter who specialises in that field. It’s a significant cost so make sure you factor this in from the beginning but makes the whole process a lot smoother..

    1. This is all good and well but in reality rarely has a business owner got time to do this. At least not any on scale.

      True – rarely is there enough time in a day, week, month, year. Yet, it’s been our experience that one well-written article can do more than several crappy articles ever did. While it’s true the occasional article won’t bring in as strong a result or as fast as several articles, it WILL bring results.

      I tend to research a few topics, present them to the client and then source a copywriter who specialises in that field. It’s a significant cost so make sure you factor this in from the beginning but makes the whole process a lot smoother..

      You have a good process, and being upfront about the cost is always a good thing. Having said that, we always keep in mind that some of our readers are low on funds and trying to do these things themselves – which is why we always try to preach “Do what you can, when you can.” Again, the results are slower if you can’t just delve into a full campaign, but they will show.

      Thanks for your comment, Kes!

  2. Re: “if you have a business to consumer (B2C) company, you want the consumer – not your competition – to understand what you’re saying.”

    See this all the time. Website content that might impress a contemporary but means nothing to the average joe who they are trying to attract…

  3. That pic is too much!! Did that actually happen?

    Coming up with something more compelling than that is going to be tough 😉

    1. lolol err…I really thought the “flash” news idea would go over well 😉 In response to your question I’m not sure. I wouldn’t think so, considering this is “FOX” News. But, it would be fun to find out.

  4. Pedro, how could I have missed your visit? That’s what I get for not approving our comments. 🙂 As always Pedro you are kind and generous with your compliments. As much as I would love to embrace all there is in SEO I have to admit a mix of everything online and Web2.0 is the best approach. Education, information, sharing, valuable knowledge is part of our journey. Thanks for visiting, see you again, soon :*

  5. Here I am as promised 🙂

    Great easy read as usual, I really like the “you want the layperson coming to your site, right?” it sums it up.
    SEO’s in particular seem to be very good at dishing out plenty of articles that are of little use to anyone else but SEO’s themselves, perpetuating the “mysticism” within the industry. User empowerment and education is the way forward!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

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