Article directories are a great way to submit high quality articles that get picked up by webmasters, and you can get great backlinks for your website. However, all directories have limitations, and these limitations can restrict the number of quality links you include in the text of your article or exclude them altogether.
If you run your own website, these rules have no bearing on how you manage your website. Below are some strategies I've used that have not only given my website a Google page rank of 6, but have also helped me maximise the presence of my articles on the internet.
Many links.
My articles have a similar resource box to the articles in article directories, but that's not all. In the body of an article I often add additional links, sometimes lots of links to other websites. These don't have to be websites that I run, but other quality websites. If I write an article about Ford cars, you can expect me to have links to sites for the Ford Mustang, Explorer, and any other vehicles I mention. Google seems to like these types of pages because some of my articles are also ranked highly. One article has already reached a page rank of 4!
Add images.
A picture is worth a thousand words... A picture can give your article a more professional look. I also use a company logo if I have explicit permission to do so. For some of my links and images, I hyperlink to other pages on my website or to other websites altogether.
Welcome the robots.
I mentioned in another article that the Googlebot is my friend. Do everything possible to keep your site clear, clean and uncluttered and throw away anything that looks spammy. Most of my articles also include the obligatory AdSense adverts, partly to generate revenue, but also to see if the adverts placed are related to the article I've written. This is almost invariably the case, but you need to double check.
So why go to all this trouble? Hopefully to get you some extra business. Most of the orders I receive come directly from my website, which I only launched on 31 May 2005! Not a bad track record, wouldn't you say? If I can do it, so can you! What are you waiting for? Get started today.
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