Article Submission For SEO
Article submission can be a great way to get back links and therefore help with both search engine results and Page Rank. Usually though by posting articles on websites such as ezines, you are wasting your time.
Why submit articles?
Backlinks
Backlinks, also known as incoming links are seen by search engines as ‘votes’. Each ‘vote’ has a value, for example a ‘vote’ from Facebook is much more valuable than a ‘vote’ from a small, new website. These ‘votes’ also carry relevance, depending on the name of the link and what it’s linking to, amongst other factors.
Valuable, relevant back links (votes) = Page Rank and Search Engine Results.
For example if 10,000 separate websites link to one particular article titled “how to change a light bulb”, that article is very likely to be at number one on Google when people search “how to change a light bulb”.
Page Rank?
Page Rank is a system Google came up with to give websites a value, which is expressed as a number between 0 and 10. It is named after Larry Page and is nothing to do with actual search engine results. The Page Rank is calculated mostly by the site’s backlinks, or ‘votes’. Facebook has around 50,000,000 backlinks so is of course 10, even the BBC website is only a 9. The difference between the numbers isn’t consistent. I.e. it’s more difficult to go from a 3 to a 4, than a 2 to a 3.
Why an article website?
Article websites all have high Page Rank, a link from a website with a high Page Rank is worth more than a link from a website with a low Page Rank. Page Rank is a ranking of power, that power can be given to other websites through links.
Articles are submitted in order to gain these back links. Take a fashion website for example:
The website publishes 10 articles to 10 different article websites, leaving a link at the bottom which says “Designer Clothing”. This means 100 links to a website that sells Designer Clothing, the website will then go higher in Google Results for the search term “Designer Clothing”.
But it’s not that simple
Google along with most of the search engines are well aware of article websites, they know that they aren’t natural links; they know you are basically linking to yourself. Search engines want to make it so the site owner has pretty much no power over results, the power should be left to other site owners. Ezine articles has a PR of 6, but because they hand out so many links and because search engines know about Ezine and how it’s exploited – the links hardly count for anything.
It gets worse
When the exact same article is published on ten different websites, plus on your website a search for the term is very likely to bring up an article website instead of yours. When searching for something online, you don’t want to see ten of the exact same articles but on different websites. To make sure ten of the same article don’t appear, Google and other search engines pick one of the ten and show that article. The problem being the article they choose might not be belong to your website, they are far more likely to choose one of the other, higher PR article websites.
So what can I do with articles?
Articles can still be used; but use them properly:
- For your very best articles, put them on your website and don’t publish them elsewhere. This will keep visitors on your website; they will appreciate the good content. If it’s really good people will link to it, this is the goal. You could also give this content a push by mentioning it in blogs and forums.
- For anything else, feel free to publish it on article websites. You want only the best on your website, for anything you whip up put the information on article websites and gain links.
By submitting articles on websites you gain links, if the article isn’t brilliant it doesn’t matter because you have the ever important back link. Now, very importantly - because you are also adding brilliant content on your website it earns links. A combination of article website links and natural links means you get results, search engine results.
A last word
Links aren’t all about earning back links, remember people click on them too!
If your information isn’t quality you don’t deserve the position, there are no magic ways to get to the top.
Sudden, mass back link production could, and probably will get your website penalised.
Like anything search engine optimisation is about working hard, you have to deserve the position. There is nothing wrong with giving you website a kick by posting it in blogs and creating links but it’s the quality content that will always prevail.
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