Is article marketing for SEO a smart strategy? Can I really improve the rankings of my website or blog by submitting content to the article directories? Doe the search engines "reward" anchor text links from article submissions? If not ... WHY not? In this article we are going to take a quick and easy look at one of the largest MYTHS about creating content for off site SEO that there is, as well as answer some common questions many neophyte article marketing entrepreneurs have as well. Curious to know more? Continue reading as we take a closer look below!
Will submitting articles help my OWN website or blog rank higher in the search engines?
Good question! (and a very common one as well) The truth is, it will not, and if you are creating content for syndication for the purpose of building back links to boost your blog or website in the search results, you will be sorely disappointed in the results.
Remember, the primary purpose of the search engines is to provide relevant content to the questions of their users.
They understand that publishers like you and I can "contrive" whatever anchor text we want when we write these articles, and therefore .... it's NOT really a natural or authoritative metric to measure how relevant our site really is. With that in mind, and from my own experience, they tend to simply place very low priority on these types of incoming links, and have for many years.
(And I've submitted more than 5000 unique articles that have demonstrated this fact in my own business to boot!)
Does that mean that content syndication is dead?
Absolutely NOT. As a matter of fact, I still spend at least 60 minutes a day writing articles very much like the one you are reading right now, and it's still my favorite way to build my brand, my blog, my business and my bank account to boot ! The truth is, you have to have a STRATEGY when it comes to article marketing that is supportive of a bigger and bolder goal. For me, that goal is always to use my content to build my community. So I really do not care about SEO, or incoming links, or anything like that.
I ONLY want to get traffic to my landing page, which is almost always a simple form that allows folks to sign up for my list, and allows me to build a real relationship with my friendship.
Remember, people who are telling you that article marketing is an effective way of optimizing your blog for specific keywords are a bit behind the times.
(And if you put yourself in Google's "mind" for a minute, it makes perfect sense WHY they stopped rewarding this approach years ago as well)
But, there is still no better way than content creation to move a stranger into a subscriber, and a subscriber into a fan, friend, follower, and absolutely a new client and customer for your business as well.
(And that's the BIGGEST reason why I still write articles everyday ... and so TOO should you!)