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How_to_Top_Google_with_Article_PR
| How to Top Google with Article PR
Search engines determine their rankings based on two things:
Is your site relevant? (Optimized for certain
keywords) Is your site important? (Many links back to
your site from other sites)
Only when you address both of these considerations are you
guaranteed of making an impact. Your degree of success depends
on how hard you try and how many other people you're competing
against (and how hard they're trying).
Optimizing your site for keywords is the easy part. (See Writing SEO Copy for more information on SEO
copy.) Generating links back to your site is much more
challenging - and time consuming (especially considering
Google's dampening link filter - see Beat Google's Dampening Link Filter with SEO
Articles). But it can be done; and you don't need a huge
budget.
The key to topping Google on a budget is article PR.
Here's how article PR works...
STEP 1) You're an expert in your field so you possess
knowledge that other people want.
STEP 2) You write a helpful article - sharing your
hard-earned knowledge and expertise.
STEP 3) You submit your article to recognized "Article
Submit" sites on the Internet.
STEP 4) Publishers of online newsletters, ezines, etc.
gather content from these sites for free.
STEP 5) Helpful, well written articles are snapped up by
thousands of publishers from all around the world.
STEP 6) The only condition is that they must publish the
article with a functioning link to your site.
STEP 7) 300 people publish your article - you get 300
links back to your site.
Below are some FAQs about article PR writing that will help you
write your articles and manage your article PR campaign.
Q) What should I write about?
A) Write about what you know. Make sure it's related to
your business (so you can use the keywords you want to rank
with) and helpful (so it gets published). For example, if you're
a manufacturer of industrial plastics, you might write an
article - or series of articles - on how best to handle teflon
tubing prior to installation. Once you get thinking about it,
you'll probably find there are hundreds of articles you could
write that are helpful. You may even have some of them partly
written already in your instruction manuals or installation
guides, etc. Another good idea is to think of all the questions
you get asked by customers and potential customers. These
questions show you what people are interested in. If you write
an article answering every one of these questions, you'll get
published, and you'll also show yourself to be a credible
expert. (You may even cut down phone support time!)
Q) How long should my article be?
A) The best articles are only as long as they need to be.
Keep it short and sweet - there's nothing wrong with a 400 word
article. By the same token, if you need 1500 words to say all
you need to say, that's fine as well.
Q) What kind of writing should I use?
A) Simply write in a style that your audience will be
comfortable with. If they're from the old school, don't write
like I am. Don't use contractions, don't end sentences with
prepositions, and don't start sentences with "and" or "but". But
if they're not old school, just use conversational English. In
fact, the more of yourself you include in the article, the more
engaging it will be. The key is to make it readable.
Q) Should I focus on keywords?
A) Yes! Yes! Yes! Any SEO website copywriter will tell
you that just as you need to optimize your website for specific
keywords, so too should you optimize your articles. If possible,
turn keywords into links back to your site. And always try to
include keywords in the headline and byline of your article. And
don't worry about being seen as Spam; if your article provides
good quality information and guidance, it won't be seen as spam
by the search engines even when it's very keyword rich.
Q) Where should I submit my article?
A) There are hundreds, if not thousands, of submit sites
on the Internet. Too many to include here. Do a search for
"article submit" and just find the ones that are most applicable
to your industry and offer the most subscribers. Alternatively,
you can purchase a list.
Q) Who will publish my article?
A) Generally people publish pre-written articles because
they want "eyes on paper". In other words, they want to generate
traffic to their site. Helpful articles are one way of doing
that. It also sets them up as credible authorities on a
particular subject. And it develops customer loyalty. There are
hundreds of thousands of companies (maybe even millions)
publishing online newsletters, ezines, and article pages. No
matter what your industry, you're bound to find quite a few who
are interested in what you have to say. In fact, once a few
publishers recognise you as a good source of content, they keep
coming back looking for more (and even email you asking if you
can send them directly).
Q) How will I know when my article has been
published?
A) As one of the conditions of publications, you can
request that the publisher notifies you when they use your
article. Of course, most don't bother to do this, so it's a good
idea to set up a Google Alert which notifies you when your
URL has been published on a web page. Google doesn't pick them
all up, but it picks up a lot. Whenever you receive an alert,
you make sure the article in unchanged and the link back to your
site is functioning.
Q) Will the publisher change my article?
A) No, generally not. Changing articles is just extra
work. In fact, that's why publishers like good articles and
consistent content providers - because that means they don't
have to do any extra work. I've had many articles published, and
don't recall a single instance of an article being changed
without my permission. If you're worried about it, you can
include an instruction not to change the article in your
conditions of publication.
Q) Can I get an SEO copywriter to do my article PR?
A) Yes. Any SEO copywriter should be able to write
keyword rich articles and submit them to a number of high
traffic article submit sites.
Q) What kind of information would I need to supply an SEO
copywriter to write my article?
A) You'd need to tell your SEO copywriter something like,
"We want to write an article which helps people install teflon
tubing. The kinds of people who'd be doing it are... They'd be
doing it because... The benefits of our tubing are... The
difficulties they'd face are... Here are the key steps to
successful installation..." Using this information, your SEO
copywriter should be able to put together a very readable
article which would be bound to get published.
Q) Will my reputation suffer if my article appears on a dodgy
site?
A) It shouldn't. Most dodgy sites will be either
unrelated or have very low traffic. If the site is unrelated,
the publisher won't go to the effort of publishing your article.
If it's related but has very low traffic, very few people will
see your article there anyway. And besides, even if your article
appears on a dodgy site, it probably won't be changed because -
dodgy or not - publishers don't create extra work for
themselves. So your original presentation, content, and intent
will be unaffected. Write a good article, and it always reflects
well on you, no matter where it's published.
Q) How long will it take for my ranking to increase?
A) There are no guarantees in SEO. It all takes time. For
a start, the search engines can take up to 2 months to update
their index of pages. And a single inbound link generally won't
have much impact. Depending on how much competition you're
facing for keywords, and where the links are coming from, 100
inbound links may not make much of a difference. (Links from
high PageRank sites are more beneficial to your ranking - see SEO Trade Secrets for more information on
PR.) So don't expect anything to happen too quickly. But if
you're dedicated, and you're prepared to write quite a few
articles, you'll definitely see results within a few months.
Happy writing!
About the author:
* Glenn Murray is an SEO copywriter and article
submission specialist. He is a director of article PR
company Article PR and also of copywriting studio Divine
Write.
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