Why Articles Are Not The Route To High Search Engine Rankings

If you have any interest in getting high search engine rankings for your website (and who doesn't) you've probably been sold the idea that writing and publishing your own articles will do it for you.

Here's why that's not entirely true.

Imagine the following scenario...

You write an article around a keyword or keyphrase you want to rank well for.

You submit that article to all the article submission sites and directories and ezines you can find.

Your article gets published in hundreds of places.

You now have hundreds of links pointing back to your main site...

But your own site never shows up in the top ten results for that particular keyword or keyphrase.

Instead you find that there are lots of other sites carrying your article that rank better than yours.

You've completely missed out on an excellent opportunity to get high rankings for your keyword or keyphrase.

Even worse... you just handed your precious keyword-rich content on a platter to possible competitors who happened to publish your article on their website, and may have lost some of your most targeted visitors and sales to them.

So where did you go wrong?

Your mistake lay in using your precious article - the keyword-rich content you toiled for hours to write - for entirely the wrong purpose.

You failed to use the power of the medium of article publishing to give your site an unbeatable advantage over others.

Here's how to use your articles the right way to boost your search engine rankings.

1. Publish Unique Content On Your Website

When you make an article available for reprint, the article, by virtue of it being published on hundreds of other sites, now no longer qualifies as unique content.

In the eyes of search engines, those pages with higher Pagerank (and hence greater importance) than yours will now rank better than you for the keywords your article is optimized for.

Instead of making your article the main course, use it as an appetizer to direct search engines and readers to a UNIQUE, keyword-rich, well-optimized report or white paper on your website, and you'll see dramatically different results.

2. Use Your Article As Spider Bait

Think of your articles as simply the conduit that leads search engines to your website.

Publishing your articles all over the web is like leaving scraps for a puppy (a.k.a. the search engines) that follows them all the way back to the kennel (a.k.a. your website) where it can feast on the main course - your UNIQUE content.

3. Use Keyword-Rich Anchor Text In Your Resource Box

Use your main keyword or keyphrase in the anchor text of the article resource box that contains a link pointing back to your unique content.

This will create hundreds of keyword-rich links pointing back to the well-optimized report on your website, and give your pages a powerful edge over other websites.

Often this factor alone is sufficient to take your website to the top of the search results, especially with search engines like Google and MSN.

The guidelines above include few of the steps you need to take to get high rankings for the keywords of your choice.

Copyright 2004 Priya Shah

Priya Shah is author of the search engine optimization ebook, Number One In Your Niche, that shows how to use your articles and content to get long-term, top ten rankings for your website.

---

7 Search Engine Optimization Strategy

Search engine optimization refers to the technique of making your... Read More

Link Popularity: Distribute Content, Not Just Links

You've spent many hours trying to increase your online traffic... Read More

Googles New SEO Rules

Google has recently made some pretty significant changes in its... Read More

The Matrix Help For Keyphrase Analysis

Keyword analysis is a major part of search engine marketing.... Read More

High Google Rankings: Frequency vs. Positioning

There's an assumption that the higher a ranking or positioning... Read More

What Makes The Perfect SEO Firm?

SEO companies come in all shapes and sizes. You've got... Read More

The Importance of Correct HTML Syntax in Search Engine Positoning

There is a lot of competition to get good spots... Read More

eMarketing Sabotage - Top 10 Steps To Kill Your Search Engine Marketing Practices

We at America Web Works find ourselves amazed at the... Read More

Keywords, Choose Them Wisely

By now you have likely heard that keywords and keyword... Read More

Why Fear? Now Change Your Filenames Without Disturbing Search Engines/Visitors And Rank Well

By now, you know that to rank well in the... Read More

Search Engine Traffic Domination - How to Turn the Search Engines into Your 24/7 Salesmen

Getting your website returned by the search engines as a... Read More

Pay-per-click ? the Ultimate Tool to Boost Affiliate Sales

The old ways are not always the best ways.The traditional... Read More

Six Reasons Why Your Alexa Rating Is Still Important

1. Additional Exposure For Your Site.At the end of 2003,... Read More

7 Steps to Highly Relevant, Search Engine Friendly, and People Useful Web Site Content

The task is to build a Content Rich Search Friendly... Read More

Search Engine Optimization Techniques

Search engine optimization is the process of increasing the amount... Read More

Search Engine Optimization Strategies To Drive More Targeted Traffic To Your Website

Want to drive more targeted traffic to your web site?Want... Read More

SEO Hints and Tips and Free SEO Tools

Do you realize that if you manage your website, SEO... Read More

The Google Strategy

Webmasters across the Internet were totally floored by what happened... Read More

2 Powerful Ways To Capitalize on Your Search Engine Traffic

Many marketers know that search engine marketing is among one... Read More

How MSN and Yahoo Sells Your Traffic

Yes, it really happens. Now you might find it hard... Read More

Five Short Quick Tips on Web Page Titles

By Catherine FranzSearch engine spiders read and record page titles... Read More

What is Search Engine Optimization?

It is no secret that search engines are the number... Read More

Being dumped by Google? Learn how to avoid becoming a victim next time around!

After Google latest update nicknamed "Florida", many webmasters discovered that... Read More

Press Release + PRWeb = Top Google Rank... True or False?

I've always been a big time press release aficionado.And up... Read More

Surviving the Search Wars ? Local Directories

The pursuit of online information has become an increasingly dynamic... Read More

Google Local Search And The Impact On Natural Optimization

With the advent of Google Local, a service that helps... Read More

What In The World Is This Google Sandbox Theory Thing? And How Do I Beat It?

Ok, so over the past month or so I've been... Read More

Why You Should NOT Submit Your Site On Search Engines

Before to answer to this question we have to know... Read More

Search Engine Marketing Simplified

All the great efforts made for making your own site,... Read More

The Secret To Getting Indexed In Yahoo

Getting indexed in Yahoo has become very difficult in the... Read More

Does Javascript Affect Ranking?

Almost all SEO's agree that using too much javascript can... Read More

How Ive Maintained 7 Top Ten Google Rankings For Nine Months

Back in November 2004 I discovered a way to get... Read More

Maximising Google?s PageRank of Your Website to Maximise Traffic

Google uses PageRank to rank your pages. To maximize your... Read More