Articles for links
July 2, 2006
One of the more recent “crazes” is to write articles to generate links,
It’s not a new method for SEO – it’s as old as the internet. The difference being, as Google becomes more restrictive on ranking criteria, article submissions have become a latest desperate grab for rankings.
The problem here is that while links across a larger number of websites and IP ranges is welcome for link building, the duplicate content issue means that many SEO’s focused on article writing may be negating their own strategy.
This is especially if we presume that when it comes to duplicated content, Google is not going to allow much “juice” to be sent from such pages.
Even an argument that benefits may still exist with duplicated content, the bottom line is that it’s unwelcome.
To help circumvent this, here’s a couple of tips when it comes to writing and submitting articles to third-party websites:
1. Vary your article titles as much as possible
2. Vary the subheadings. You do use keywords subheading in your article, don’t you? If not, you should look to do so.
3. Vary the text where possible – you can even set up a simple script randomise the central paragraphs, so that many of your article submissions will be slightly but significantly different.
4. Vary resource boxes – the information and links they contain – as much as possible. Also ensure you add at least one good deep content link per resource
5. Submit to fewer article sites – less really can be more. By submitting to the best quality article sites out there, not only can you limit the extent of your duplicated content, but you can also ensure the best sites provide the strongest thrust for your links.
As with other linking methods, article writing and submission isn’t going to be an effective strategy all by itself.
However, I do use it to supplement other key SEO strategies in order to create a more stable platform for a SEO campaign.
And also don’t forget that article submissions timed with new content on your own site, could be a way to help improve how fast that is indexed – a key concern in more competitive markets.