subject: Article Marketing Strategies: How Can I Maximize My Potential For Backlinks? [print this page] If you're wondering if you're submitting articles in a way that optimizes your potential for links, I've got a short checklist for you:
1 - Have you done research for your keywords?
This step is crucial in your article marketing strategy, and it's really not that hard. You can use Google's free keyword tool to research some phrases associated with your niche. From the keyword tool, you can gather how many people are searching for this particular phrase (that's the demand).
Then, take the phrase and do a Google search on it, putting the phrase in quotes. The number of results is the supply--that's how many web pages are competing for that particular phrase.
You're looking for phrases that have high demand and relatively low supply. Some of the more popular phrases associated with your niche may already have high competition--just know that it may take longer to make headway with those words.
2 - Have you developed a list of main keywords that you'd like your website to rank highly for, and are you hyperlinking those phrases in your resource box?
When writing your articles, you should be working from two different lists of keywords. The main keyphrases are shorter--usually 2-3 words long. They have more competition, but the payoff for ranking highly for them is greater.
These are the words that you would like your website to rank high for. In your article submissions, target these words in your resource box, as opposed to the article.
3 - Also, have you put together a list of longer keyword phrases (long-tail keywords) that you focus on in your articles and titles?
The long-tail key phrases are usually 3-8 words long. They have less competition, but also less reward. Still, they can be attractive because with relatively little effort you can get your article to rank for that term.
It's the article that you want to rank for the long-tail term, whereas it's your website that you want to rank for the main keywords.
4 - Does your resource box (author bio) hyperlink your main keyword phrases?
The resource box links that use key phrases as anchor text are very powerful--these are the phrases that you want your website to rank highly for. To do this properly, be sure that you alternate the keywords you use (hyperlinking the same words each time can have some negative SEO consequences).
For the second link in your resource box, you can link your written out URL. Having this spelled out website address helps readers to remember where your site is located (maybe they'll think about visiting it when they no longer have your article in front of them).
5 - Do you submit articles regularly, month in and month out?
"The secret to success is constancy of purpose." That's true about just about everything in life, and it's true of article marketing too. A key component to your article marketing success is just submitting articles on a regular basis.
It can take a few months for the first impact to show up in the search engines--it takes Google several months to calculate your links and the various other factors that go into determining where your website will show up in the rankings. Just be steady in your article submissions, and you'll see better results.
Submitting articles is very user friendly--you don't need to be an SEO expert or any sort of technical wizard to do this. It is a big help, however, to take a little preparation and have a strategy that maximizes your potential for backlinks and the quality of the links. Even if you're a beginner, you can do these 5 steps listed here and make a big difference in your success.
