Directory Submissions & Article Marketing
Directory submissions and article marketing are touted as two of the top ways to develop a slew of links, raise your traffic and get those conversions. Many who pick up knowledge of SEO around the Net jump on directory submissions because it sounds like an easy form of SEO.

It is, but it’s also time consuming, and the same can be said for article marketing. In fact, if you’re doing your own website SEO with these two tactics and it’s not taking a long time, you’re probably doing it wrong.

Article Marketing
Article marketing works something like this:

1. You write an article (or two, or three) on your chosen topic.
2. You submit this article to an article site, such as ezinearticles.com.
3. People find this article through keyword search and read it.
4. People then follow the link back to your site.

It sounds easy, but it’s a little more complicated than that.

Many beginning Do-It-Yourselfers (and SEOs, for that matter), use one article and submit it to several sites. Others take an article already on their website and submit it. The problem with these two methods is duplicate content.

A lot of article sites will now deny an article once it’s been posted elsewhere. Those that don’t (with some exceptions) are probably not worth your time anyway. The second method generally ends up with the article site ranking for your article and keyword, rather than your website. Leave the articles on your website where they’ll do the most good by increasing the amount of information available to your visitors.

Briefly, let’s also touch on article marketing software. The sales hype for this software says you can submit 100s of articles to over 50 different sites in a short amount of time. It’s true; you can. However, there is no specific way to submit an article that crosses all article sites. Some require a little bit of coding knowledge to get the article looking right, such as paragraph and heading marks. Because of this, you have no idea what the article will look like until it’s live. Often, it’s an absolute mess.

Article Marketing The Right Way
If you’re going to spend the time, you might as well do it right, right?

1. Selectively choose ten article sites that look like they might get high traffic.
2. Write an article on your chosen topic for each site.
3. Submit one article per site, with a call to action in the bio box.
4. Watch your traffic statistics over the next month or so to see which sites bring you the most traffic.

a) If none bring you traffic, build another list of ten.

b) If you get traffic, narrow the list down to the top five traffic providers.

While watching your traffic…
Instead of waiting to gather information, go ahead and write another ten articles, as well as build your second list of chosen sites. This way, you’ll be ready for either eventuality. If you have five sites that bring you good traffic numbers, submit two articles to each of the five and so on. It may take you a few tries to get that top five, but your traffic will rise once you get them. The rest is then up to your website, content and product/services.

Directory Submissions
Directory submissions work something like this:

1. Submit your website to a directory with key terms
2. People find your link with said key terms
3. Traffic comes to your site.

Again, it’s a little more complicated than that.

With any directory submission, there are two key points to remember: themed directories and Page Rank. Now, Page Rank doesn’t seem to mean much anymore, but a directory with a strong PR provides better basis for link building than one without.

As with article submissions, let’s touch on submission software. Submission software works like so:

1. You get (or choose) a list of directories
2. You put in your meta information (URL, page title, keywords, description)
3. You push enter, start or go

Yes, it’s easy. However, you aren’t just looking for links. You’re looking for quality links. Directory submission software does not distinguish between the two.

Directory Submissions, The Right Way
When submitting to directories for link building purposes, go to directories that have a PR of 3 or above. You can use a program like SEO Quake (plug in for Mozilla Firefox) to get an idea of the PageRank. Now, here’s the catch. Find the most relevant area for your services and check the PR.

See, most directories will have a PageRank of 3 or above on the home page, unless they’re a new directory. What many don’t have, however, is any kind of PR on the pages where your actual link will be, and that’s what you need. Why is this so important if PR doesn’t matter anymore? Because it’s still positive link juice.

Added Jan, 6, 2010: We came across a wonderful blog post at the DailySEOTip http://dailyseotip.com/google-pagerank-how-much-have-things-changed/491/ with an explanation of how PageRank works when pointed at your website. The information is a great addendum to our own post, and one we strongly encourage you to read!

The largest part of SEO is finding relevance: relevance in content and relevance in linking sites. Keep your directory submissions as relevant to your site as possible. Instead of a section called “Business”, delve down until you find something that matches your services or products, such as “Category: Business, Sub-category: Internet, Sub-category: Website Design”.

A final note on directory submissions: the number of directories with a PR on interior pages is relatively low unless you pay for it. Set a reasonable budget to put into your link building. Some sites may cost $2.00 for submissions while places like Yahoo! Directory costs around $300.00. If you’re careful about the places you approach, however, the results – in traffic – are well worth the cost.

Added March, 10, 2010: What are some effective techniques for building links? By Matt Cutts

As a writer of SEO articles, I’ve been asked several times what keywords are and what SEO means. The meaning is easy: Search Engine Optimization. The explanation is difficult; there are so many SEO tools for on-page optimization, the information would fill a thick book. However, I can give a brief explanation of how the articles are done and how they work.

When building a web presence, the main consideration is how to bring quality views, known as clicks, to your website. One of the ways to do this is by creating optimized articles using key words and phrases. Why would you want to do this? Because it’s also one of the top ways to get Google Ranking.

Briefly, here’s how it works:
Keyword Research – Keywords are words or phrases that users search for. Though any word or phrase can be used for this purpose, you want to ensure that those you choose would be used in a search. You may want to use professional SEO service providers for this. They will provide you with a Keywords analysis and a competitors analysis. These vary in prices, but are well worth the time and money spent.

The Articles – When writing SEO articles, the main element is how the keywords are used and how often. Those knowledgeable in writing SEO articles recommend that you choose two or three keywords, or one key phrase, and use them in strategic places.

The Finished Product – Once you have your SEO articles, it’s time to do your own internet search. What you’re looking for are places that allow article submission or directory submission.

Article and directory submission sites allow you to submit your article along with a Meta tag description – which, by the way, will also hold your keywords. Once your article is submitted, anyone who types in that search term will now see your article, which has links to your website.

A tip: Ensure that your keywords won’t stand out in the copy. Most Internet users understand they’re being manipulated; they don’t want to see the actual manipulation. This could be detrimental to what you’re trying to achieve – clicks to your website.

Finally, do your research, stay informed, and good luck on your future SEO articles!