You want your website to be hot. REALLY hot! You want people knocking down the doors to get in, pushing the red line on blowing up the servers. You want web traffic to roll into your website at 500mph, get-out-of-the-way, up-on-the-sidewalk, 8-lanes-wide traffic.
One of the best ways to do this is by taking advantage of content you probably already have on your website. If you don't have content, make some, and if you do have content, make it work for you.
I will be discussing the value of posting article content to various sites and the effects of posting content. I will also address myths and pitfalls about posting content and show you strategies for surmounting any downsides. I will also give you plenty of resources for presenting your content and what kind of content you can use for articles.
Tie yourself in and open the floodgates!
One of the best ways to do this is by taking advantage of content you probably already have on your website. If you don't have content, make some, and if you do have content, make it work for you.
I will be discussing the value of posting article content to various sites and the effects of posting content. I will also address myths and pitfalls about posting content and show you strategies for surmounting any downsides. I will also give you plenty of resources for presenting your content and what kind of content you can use for articles.
Tie yourself in and open the floodgates!
Contents at a Glance
- Website Content - The Concept of Stationary and Mobile Content
- What Mobile Content Does For You
- "I've Heard Bad Things About Article Marketing - What About...?"
Website Content - The Concept of Stationary and Mobile Content
First and foremost, let's look at your website's content.
There are really two kinds of content - Stationary and Mobile content. Permanent content is all the stuff you use to describe your site including pictures - generally all the content that defines your site. It's the personalized boiler plate that makes your site different from some other site on the same topic or with the same products.
You might change it occasionally, but it's a fixture, it IS your site. You wouldn't use that content elsewhere, because it's the content that makes your site what it is.
Mobile content is everything else, but specifically, it is content that could just as easily be posted someplace else, and SHOULD be posted someplace else.
A short list of mobile content includes:
Press Releases
Case Studies
How-To Guides
Menus
Whitepapers
Newsletters
Top 10 Lists
Articles on Any Topic
Analyses
Responses to Statements or Results
Reviews
Back and Forth Correspondence
Anecdotes
Recipes
You might think up a lot more things. Some of these elements fall into the realm of Stationary content, too. For example, if you run a movie review site, your reviews are stationary content, but you could also write a parallel article about the review itself which is an article.
Or you might have a cooking website that features recipes (stationary) but you could write an article about a funny incident when gathering the ingredients or creating the dish, or of how you acquired the recipe (anecdote, mobile).
Most websites draw a strict line between stationary and mobile content, and those sites have the opportunity to take advantage of their content to improve their website's rankings.
There are really two kinds of content - Stationary and Mobile content. Permanent content is all the stuff you use to describe your site including pictures - generally all the content that defines your site. It's the personalized boiler plate that makes your site different from some other site on the same topic or with the same products.
You might change it occasionally, but it's a fixture, it IS your site. You wouldn't use that content elsewhere, because it's the content that makes your site what it is.
Mobile content is everything else, but specifically, it is content that could just as easily be posted someplace else, and SHOULD be posted someplace else.
A short list of mobile content includes:
Press Releases
Case Studies
How-To Guides
Menus
Whitepapers
Newsletters
Top 10 Lists
Articles on Any Topic
Analyses
Responses to Statements or Results
Reviews
Back and Forth Correspondence
Anecdotes
Recipes
You might think up a lot more things. Some of these elements fall into the realm of Stationary content, too. For example, if you run a movie review site, your reviews are stationary content, but you could also write a parallel article about the review itself which is an article.
Or you might have a cooking website that features recipes (stationary) but you could write an article about a funny incident when gathering the ingredients or creating the dish, or of how you acquired the recipe (anecdote, mobile).
Most websites draw a strict line between stationary and mobile content, and those sites have the opportunity to take advantage of their content to improve their website's rankings.
What Mobile Content Does For You
Mobile Content serves several purposes both on page for human readers and electronic readers (spiders, search engines) and off page for human and electric readers.
On Page Effects
Primarily, mobile content displays:
Knowledge, that you know what you are talking about. Being able to convey ideas clearly builds confidence in those that find your site because they know you are knowledgeable on the subject.
Problem Solving, that you can be a proper instructor or consultant. Many people conducting searches on the internet are looking for answers. If your content answers their questions or solves their problem, then they will return for more good information in the future.
Purpose, that there's a reason to come to your site, and keep coming back. If your information is helpful and coherent, then it makes your website a habit for your traffic, and they will come back frequently to hear more of what you have to say.
As far as the search engines are concerned, finding new content on your site also encourages them to come back more frequently to see what you're doing, especially if you're getting a lot of hits.
Frequent quality content means that you're building a quality website, and as your site matures and the content builds, you get better rankings for your site.
Off Page Effects
The real powerhouse of mobile content is linkbuilding and bookmarking.
You want as many people to find your website as possible by making the content you are creating mesh with the searches users are conducting.
Bookmarking, using social websites, allows you to post a link to your content that readers will find interesting, and hopefully vote for it positively, using Digg for example, so that the bookmark will become popular by itself and encourage others to visit the content, thus driving more traffic. I will outline the many bookmarking sites a little later.
The other avenue for mobile content is through article submission. There are a many article sites as well, and each one allows people to search for content that interests them, allowing them to read your articles and go to your site, or recognize you as an authority and make content right there on the site.
Both bookmarking sites and article sites provide backlinks, which are noticed by search engine spiders, and give your site more credit. The more high quality backlinks you have, the better your site will be ranked by search engines as they work to determine rankings of millions of sites.
On Page Effects
Primarily, mobile content displays:
Knowledge, that you know what you are talking about. Being able to convey ideas clearly builds confidence in those that find your site because they know you are knowledgeable on the subject.
Problem Solving, that you can be a proper instructor or consultant. Many people conducting searches on the internet are looking for answers. If your content answers their questions or solves their problem, then they will return for more good information in the future.
Purpose, that there's a reason to come to your site, and keep coming back. If your information is helpful and coherent, then it makes your website a habit for your traffic, and they will come back frequently to hear more of what you have to say.
As far as the search engines are concerned, finding new content on your site also encourages them to come back more frequently to see what you're doing, especially if you're getting a lot of hits.
Frequent quality content means that you're building a quality website, and as your site matures and the content builds, you get better rankings for your site.
Off Page Effects
The real powerhouse of mobile content is linkbuilding and bookmarking.
You want as many people to find your website as possible by making the content you are creating mesh with the searches users are conducting.
Bookmarking, using social websites, allows you to post a link to your content that readers will find interesting, and hopefully vote for it positively, using Digg for example, so that the bookmark will become popular by itself and encourage others to visit the content, thus driving more traffic. I will outline the many bookmarking sites a little later.
The other avenue for mobile content is through article submission. There are a many article sites as well, and each one allows people to search for content that interests them, allowing them to read your articles and go to your site, or recognize you as an authority and make content right there on the site.
Both bookmarking sites and article sites provide backlinks, which are noticed by search engine spiders, and give your site more credit. The more high quality backlinks you have, the better your site will be ranked by search engines as they work to determine rankings of millions of sites.
"I've Heard Bad Things About Article Marketing - What About...?"
Stop right there.
One of the reasons I created this lens was to address all of the concerns that people have about website content, mobile or otherwise.
Do a Google search for article submissions or article content, and you'll see arguments pro and con from "article directories are the cure-all for traffic woes" to "article directories are the duplicate content devil".
The truth is, search algorithms, the programs that determine SERPs (search engine results pages) for every keyword and combination of keywords are complex. REALLY complex! No one person, even the people who work for Google, for example, know how it all works exactly. There's no magic bullet, no one right way to do things.
We do know a few things for certain, and these are basic rules.
1. The days of spamming keywords with no content are over - you might get a brief boost but you will eventually be slapped down for not having content in context. Therefore, good content is a necessity. The more well-rounded and robust the content is, the better the acknowledgment by search engines.
Also, updated sites with new, fresh content catch the attention of search engines and get them spidered more often. Pinging sites that consistently upgrade and update their content are seen as fresh and more valuable.
2. Backlinks to your site tell search engines that the linking sites give respect to the linkee, so gathering backlinks is critical. The more powerful the linking site, the better the backlink, and the sweeter the linkjuice (the authority that's given to the link).
3. Links from higher traffic, higher PR sites are more respectable than links from any other site. Although this is true, it has also been found that a sudden influx of many links from high PR sites is suspect and likely to put your site in the sandbox until it ages and mellows. A range of links from high and low PR sites, blended in over time turns out to be the most valuable.
4. We also know that Google and other search engines love article directories. They rank well because they have tons of content, most of it duplicate content, and they get tons of traffic.
5. The longer this content is on your site, and the longer the site itself exists, the better search engines see your site. Longevity as a whole is better than sudden newness. This also applies to backlinks. The older the links, the stronger they are.
Recap
You want new content on an old site. You want to focus on producing fresh quality content at a good rate (an article or more each week), notify sites when your page is updated, use that content both to impress your human and electronic visitors and to gather backlinks to your site from other more powerful sites, and do this consistently over the lifetime of the site to encourage search engines to see your site as a positive resource that keeps getting better.
Armed with this understanding, we see that article directories and other resources make for excellent opportunities to get more traffic.
One of the reasons I created this lens was to address all of the concerns that people have about website content, mobile or otherwise.
Do a Google search for article submissions or article content, and you'll see arguments pro and con from "article directories are the cure-all for traffic woes" to "article directories are the duplicate content devil".
The truth is, search algorithms, the programs that determine SERPs (search engine results pages) for every keyword and combination of keywords are complex. REALLY complex! No one person, even the people who work for Google, for example, know how it all works exactly. There's no magic bullet, no one right way to do things.
We do know a few things for certain, and these are basic rules.
1. The days of spamming keywords with no content are over - you might get a brief boost but you will eventually be slapped down for not having content in context. Therefore, good content is a necessity. The more well-rounded and robust the content is, the better the acknowledgment by search engines.
Also, updated sites with new, fresh content catch the attention of search engines and get them spidered more often. Pinging sites that consistently upgrade and update their content are seen as fresh and more valuable.
2. Backlinks to your site tell search engines that the linking sites give respect to the linkee, so gathering backlinks is critical. The more powerful the linking site, the better the backlink, and the sweeter the linkjuice (the authority that's given to the link).
3. Links from higher traffic, higher PR sites are more respectable than links from any other site. Although this is true, it has also been found that a sudden influx of many links from high PR sites is suspect and likely to put your site in the sandbox until it ages and mellows. A range of links from high and low PR sites, blended in over time turns out to be the most valuable.
4. We also know that Google and other search engines love article directories. They rank well because they have tons of content, most of it duplicate content, and they get tons of traffic.
5. The longer this content is on your site, and the longer the site itself exists, the better search engines see your site. Longevity as a whole is better than sudden newness. This also applies to backlinks. The older the links, the stronger they are.
Recap
You want new content on an old site. You want to focus on producing fresh quality content at a good rate (an article or more each week), notify sites when your page is updated, use that content both to impress your human and electronic visitors and to gather backlinks to your site from other more powerful sites, and do this consistently over the lifetime of the site to encourage search engines to see your site as a positive resource that keeps getting better.
Armed with this understanding, we see that article directories and other resources make for excellent opportunities to get more traffic.
Article Strategies and Duplicate Content Concerns
So duplicate content isn't a problem?
Duplicate content CAN be a problem, but not as much as you may think.
In the past, Google cracked down on duplicate content offenders and sites disappeared. Now, Google simply takes a different attitude to duplicate content issues.
Duplicate content is often dealt with by placing the offending site in the supplemental index, at least for Google. This is bad because that page doesn't get spidered as often, if at all. The only way to fix that is to change or remove the offending content, ping the site or submit a new sitemap.
Even so, Google is more lenient now than ever before because they KNOW that content gets swiped, moved around, etc. They KNOW people use article directories and recognize them to be valid sources of content, even though they get cannibalized frequently. As a result, Google does the best it can, and ranks certain content based on the the sites that are displaying it. Being first isn't necessarily a defense, but is a good one against sites that are spidered more frequently due to their traffic and PR.
As a result, providing your content to directories should be thought of like this: You are trading authority for backlinks.
If you write an article, and it sits on your website, it doesn't generate any valuable backlinks and article directories, which more likely get more traffic than your site, don't introduce others to your work.
In this case, you have the authority of the article, but no traffic and no linkjuice. On one or more article directories, you trade authority, which Google and other SEs will transfer to the sites you submit to, for backlinks, which use the article directories' power to your advantage.
Now, if you have the original article on your site, and on an article site, word for word, you have duplicate content. Your article page will probably rank beneath the article directory for that particular content, if at all. That's ok, because you're trading authority for backlinks. The more sites you submit the content to, the lower your ranking for that particular piece of content, not necessarily the home page or domain to which that content is attached (although if your entire site is basically duplicate content, you can kiss your site goodbye).
There are some defenses against duplicate content.
Be First
First, for the page on which the content appears, make sure that the page is indexed before you submit the content to a directory. If Google, Yahoo and MSN already have it archived/cached, then you can point to it as an existing version of the content. This may protect you against average sites that copy and paste your content (blogs, disreputable article sites and the like). This will have far less effect if you submit the same article to 50 directories.
Even so, that's ok, you're trading content authority for backlinks to your home page, and it's a good trade.
Multiple Versions
Another strategy to consider is writing two versions of the same article, one for humans and spiders on your site, and one for all submissions on the Internet. This is a little more time consuming, but yields two distinct versions of the same information, and allows you to still have sizable content on your site, while providing a worthwhile article on the article directory sites.
Dissected Articles
Another strategy is the dissected article. Have you ever been reading an article on a site, and sometimes you have to click a link to see the rest? This is usually done to subject you to two pages of different banner or side ads. You can do the same thing on article sites to drive traffic and maintain authority on (part of) your content.
You can put the first half of an article on the article sites, and the second half on your site. This can be disorienting for users on your site who will only see half an article, and may very well confuse users on the article site who are suddenly on your site, but there is no danger of duplicate content.
This should only be done with very large articles that when split in half yield 800-1000 words minimum for each site. Some sites will not tolerate this, and this should only be done if each half of the article definitely stands on it's own.
Non-Readable Formats and Synopses
Finally, and perhaps the best strategy of all, is to turn your content into a .PDF. Case Studies, Articles and Whitepapers make for great archival documents, and you can place them right on your site for opening or downloading. Deliver content through a synopsis that describes the content of the document without being a word for word duplicate.
Do NOT just slap a .pdf onto your site. People won't know enough about it to check it out, and if you set it up wrong, search engines will think the page has no content, which puts you back in supplemental listings or worse, is unsearchable because there's no content.
Submit the actual content of the document to article directories and as a bonus, you can submit the .pdfs to Scribd.
In the past, Google cracked down on duplicate content offenders and sites disappeared. Now, Google simply takes a different attitude to duplicate content issues.
Duplicate content is often dealt with by placing the offending site in the supplemental index, at least for Google. This is bad because that page doesn't get spidered as often, if at all. The only way to fix that is to change or remove the offending content, ping the site or submit a new sitemap.
Even so, Google is more lenient now than ever before because they KNOW that content gets swiped, moved around, etc. They KNOW people use article directories and recognize them to be valid sources of content, even though they get cannibalized frequently. As a result, Google does the best it can, and ranks certain content based on the the sites that are displaying it. Being first isn't necessarily a defense, but is a good one against sites that are spidered more frequently due to their traffic and PR.
As a result, providing your content to directories should be thought of like this: You are trading authority for backlinks.
If you write an article, and it sits on your website, it doesn't generate any valuable backlinks and article directories, which more likely get more traffic than your site, don't introduce others to your work.
In this case, you have the authority of the article, but no traffic and no linkjuice. On one or more article directories, you trade authority, which Google and other SEs will transfer to the sites you submit to, for backlinks, which use the article directories' power to your advantage.
Now, if you have the original article on your site, and on an article site, word for word, you have duplicate content. Your article page will probably rank beneath the article directory for that particular content, if at all. That's ok, because you're trading authority for backlinks. The more sites you submit the content to, the lower your ranking for that particular piece of content, not necessarily the home page or domain to which that content is attached (although if your entire site is basically duplicate content, you can kiss your site goodbye).
There are some defenses against duplicate content.
Be First
First, for the page on which the content appears, make sure that the page is indexed before you submit the content to a directory. If Google, Yahoo and MSN already have it archived/cached, then you can point to it as an existing version of the content. This may protect you against average sites that copy and paste your content (blogs, disreputable article sites and the like). This will have far less effect if you submit the same article to 50 directories.
Even so, that's ok, you're trading content authority for backlinks to your home page, and it's a good trade.
Multiple Versions
Another strategy to consider is writing two versions of the same article, one for humans and spiders on your site, and one for all submissions on the Internet. This is a little more time consuming, but yields two distinct versions of the same information, and allows you to still have sizable content on your site, while providing a worthwhile article on the article directory sites.
Dissected Articles
Another strategy is the dissected article. Have you ever been reading an article on a site, and sometimes you have to click a link to see the rest? This is usually done to subject you to two pages of different banner or side ads. You can do the same thing on article sites to drive traffic and maintain authority on (part of) your content.
You can put the first half of an article on the article sites, and the second half on your site. This can be disorienting for users on your site who will only see half an article, and may very well confuse users on the article site who are suddenly on your site, but there is no danger of duplicate content.
This should only be done with very large articles that when split in half yield 800-1000 words minimum for each site. Some sites will not tolerate this, and this should only be done if each half of the article definitely stands on it's own.
Non-Readable Formats and Synopses
Finally, and perhaps the best strategy of all, is to turn your content into a .PDF. Case Studies, Articles and Whitepapers make for great archival documents, and you can place them right on your site for opening or downloading. Deliver content through a synopsis that describes the content of the document without being a word for word duplicate.
Do NOT just slap a .pdf onto your site. People won't know enough about it to check it out, and if you set it up wrong, search engines will think the page has no content, which puts you back in supplemental listings or worse, is unsearchable because there's no content.
Submit the actual content of the document to article directories and as a bonus, you can submit the .pdfs to Scribd.
Article Directories - Starting with Article
Due to the flexibility of what an article is (see mobile content above), there is a lot of content you can submit to directories for links. They can be complicated like whitepapers or simple and fun like top 10 lists.
Articles should not be time specific, like press releases. There are entirely different resources for them.
The directories listed here include their Google PR and Alexa Ranking to give an indication of how well regarded they are and how much traffic they get, respectively.
More directories are being added and updated constantly.
Note that this list contains only directories that start with Article (not surprisingly this is a popular title). All other As through Z are in the next sections.
PageRank gathered from PR Checker and Alexa Rankings gathered from Alexa.
Articles should not be time specific, like press releases. There are entirely different resources for them.
The directories listed here include their Google PR and Alexa Ranking to give an indication of how well regarded they are and how much traffic they get, respectively.
More directories are being added and updated constantly.
Note that this list contains only directories that start with Article (not surprisingly this is a popular title). All other As through Z are in the next sections.
PageRank gathered from PR Checker and Alexa Rankings gathered from Alexa.
Directory
PR
Alexa Ranking
Article Dashboard
6
x
Article Directory
2
x
Article Pros
4
x
Article Compilation
2
x
Articles 888
3
x
Articles Alley
5
x
Article Basement
4
x
Article Zap
2
x
Article Fast Track
3
x
Articles Base
5
x
Article Rich
4
x
Article Planets
4
x
Article Pool
6
x
Articlesss (3 Esses)
3
x
Article Ink
3
x
Article Circle
2
x
Article-Buzz
3
x
Article99
4
x
Article Click
5
x
Article Online Directory
3
x
Articles World Online
2
x
Articlexplosion
4
x
Article City
6
x
Article Geek
4
x
Articles Base
5
x
Article Alley
5
x
Article Trader
3
x
Articlesphere
0
x
Articles Factory
5
x
Article Cube
4
x
Article Biz
3
x
Article Cache
2
x
Article Circulation
4
x
Article Directories - Rest of As through L
Directory
PR
Alexa Ranking
A1 Articles
4
59,667
ABC Article Directory
0
48,168
Amazines
3
29,759
Associated Content
6
975
Blog Skinny
6
53,500
Buzzle
6
3,468
e-articles.info
3
48,851
e-topic
4
221,474
earticle Press Release
3
741,796
Easy Articles
4
92,048
Everyones Articles
3
139,129
Excellent Guide
0
104,613
ezinearticles
6
299
ezine Article Directory.net
0
2,121,260
Gator Articles
2
228,777
Goarticles
6
26,932
Idea Marketers
3
48,536
Info Crystals
3
565,054
isnare
6
45,924
Isysi
2
263,177
Linkroo
2
316,678
Article Directories - M through Z
Directory
PR
Alexa Ranking
Niche-Article Directory
3
x
Ok Articles
4
x
Pandoras-Archive
3
x
Searchwarp
4
x
Selfseo
6
x
Softensive
0
x
Stvq
3
x
Submit Your Article
3
x
Talkinmince
3
x
That's My Niche
3
x
TNT Articles
2
x
Web-Articles.info
2
x
Website-Articles.net
3
x
More Useful Backlink and Traffic Lenses
-
Squidoo Lens Link and Article Content Directory - Article Troll
-
Ok, maybe you won't dominate the Internet, but you CAN leverage ArticleTroll.com's unique system to drive traffic to your website by submitting your Squidoo lenses, bios, lensographies and groups. Promote your own lenses or someone elses, and get a...
-
Linking Squidoo Lenses
-
The first hurdle for new Squidoodlers is to create a quality lens that generates steady traffic, but once you've successfully created one lens, you want to make more, promote them, generate traffic and build even more lenses to educate, entertain, ma...
-
How To Submit Articles for Backlinks and Traffic
-
You've created your website, you've become an authority on whatever you are selling, promoting, blogging or simply enjoying. You've optimized your site, written plenty of great content...now what? Every article you write, every how-to guide, every s...
-
My Favorite Squidoo Backlink Sites - Status and Info
-
Creating your lens is only the first step. Once you've created a quality lens, you want to make sure people find it and that is done through good use of tags, keywords and quality content. Good writing only goes so far, and once your lens is as tigh...
-
Squidoo Show and Tell Modules - How To Guide for Presenting Info and Links
-
Hi! I wanted to help my fellow Squidoodlers by creating a lens that outlines some other ways to show links and hype lenses besides just setting up a link list. Oh sure, link lists are easy, useful and have their place, and text modules are the workho...
Article Submission, SEO and Traffic Feedback
Any more tips? Know about a site I missed? Let me know!
If this lens was helpful to you, rate it at the top and favorite on the side - Thanks!
submit
-
Reply
- malawoo malawoo Nov 17, 2009 @ 5:58 am
- Great lens thanks for the info :)
-
Reply
- grace_antoinette grace_antoinette May 8, 2009 @ 6:19 am
- Thanks for your article traffic lens! You are my great Guru!
-
Reply
- jimb12345 jimb12345 Apr 27, 2009 @ 8:53 pm
- i love to add articles. this is a great source.
best website directory add url
-
Reply
- bbug bbug Aug 31, 2008 @ 12:30 pm
- Lots of info, I will be back again.
-
Reply
- tdove tdove Aug 26, 2008 @ 10:43 pm
- Thanks for joining G Rated Lense Factory!
Explore related pages
How to Submit website to Google, Alexa and Bing- It is common knowledge that without traffic we have no business. Like any busine...
Dogpile- Let's face it, Dogpile.com is an excellent tool for searching the Web. What is D...
link referral- I've used a few different sites for driving traffic to my site, but the only one...
How To Submit Articles for Backlinks and Traffic
- You've created your website, you've become an authority on whatever you are sell...
Using SquidKnol - A How-To Guide For Developing SquidKnol Lenses- In response to Google Knol, the brand new information gathering portion of Googl...
Squidoo Show and Tell Modules - How To Guide for Presenting Info and Links- Hi! I wanted to help my fellow Squidoodlers by creating a lens that outlines som...
