Article Submission and Website Optimisation

Does article submission help in the optimisation of your website? The answer to this question can be both yes and no, depending on where your articles are posted. When you write an article and post it in article directories, make sure that you do not post the same write-up in your website. Once you submit something in a directory and the page gets cached by a search engine, it is considered to be the original source of the content.

If your website is crawled after the directory, and the search engine finds exactly the same content on your pages, it will consider it as duplicate. Therefore, it is always advisable to post content in your site first. Wait for your pages to get cached, and then submit the write-ups in directories. By doing so, you can ensure that your site's articles will be considered original.

Also, when you write articles for submission, pay attention to their titles and summary. The former should be appealing and should incorporate your main keyword. Whereas, the latter should be a gist of your article and should be able to lure readers on to going through the whole content.

When it comes to providing links in your article, you have two options – body of the write-up and resource section. Here, you should remember that one keyword should link to only one URL of your site. If you happen to target two keywords through an article, make sure that they link to different URLs.

These basic tips will help you formulate a well-targeted link building campaign for your site. Article submission can be extremely effective; but only when dealt with in the right manner.

How to Write a Press Release that can bring in Links

As discussed in the previous post, Press Release submission can be an effective means of getting links back to your site. As a marketer, you should the basics of a PR so as to reach out to your target audiences. Press Releases can be of many types – news release, event release, product release, etc. However, most of them usually contain the same kind of features.

Some of the common elements of a PR are as follows:
Headline – A brief summary of the news item. It is meant to grab the readers' attention straightaway.

Dateline – Mentions the release date and name of the city where the news has originated.

Introduction – Based on the journalistic principle of five Ws and one H, the intro paragraph should answer the basic questions that readers might want to ask.

Body – Complete information on the news or event, including background and statistical data. It should comprise as many details as possible.

Boilerplate – This is the 'About Us' section, wherein you can give background info about the organisation or company releasing the news.

Close – It is just to indicate that the release is about to end. To be put before the media contact information, the close can be indicated by using universally-accepted signs like '###' or 'text ends', etc.

Media Contact Info – This will be the contact address, phone numbers or email ids of the person or organisation submitting the PR. This will help media persons in getting in touch with you if need be.

When you write a PR for your website, make sure incorporate the aforementioned elements. By doing so, you will be able to appeal your potential visitors. Also, the site wherein you submit the PR will give a link to your site, thus strengthening your link building campaign.

Are Search Engines Scrutinising your Links?

As optimisers, we often tend to underestimate search engines. We believe we can get away with all sorts of smart techniques without getting noticed. Unfortunately, this is not the case. Search engines have, in due course, devised algorithms that can easily track back your links to their source of origination.

Most SEOs practice article and directory submissions so as to get links back from various free and paid directories available online. Articles are ideally meant for web users' interests and benefits. You write on subjects related to your business so as to inform readers about your industry at large.

In the eyes of search engines, such means of link building are unacceptable. They can follow your link's anchor text and easily figure out if they are artificial. For them, links are original only if other websites willingly point towards your pages.

What does an optimiser do then? First of all, make sure that anchor text of all your links are as different as possible. By doing so, you'll be able to create an illusion of these links being original. Secondly, do not go begging for link backs from directories. Make your site so appealing that webmasters are lured to link to it. Let them consider you as a resourceful website that deserves to be linked to.

Try these simple tactics, and you can save your link building campaign from the intense scrutiny that search engines might subject it to.

Enhance Web Popularity by Establishing Links

When we discuss link building as a search engine optimisation tool, it is but essential to talk about Link Popularity. This term refers to a site's popularity with regard to the number (and quality) of links pointing to it from other websites.

One of the most effective means of procuring high search engine rankings, link building will be successful only if other 'entities' in the online marketplace cast a 'vote' for your website. When a site points at one of your web pages, it means that it wants its users to visit that page. In doing so, it automatically enhances the popularity of your site.

As discussed in the previous post, links should be established with sites that have some relevance to your content, or business in general. For example, if you run an online movie shop, it will be extremely beneficial if you are linked to sites related to movies (studios, magazines, film sites, etc.).

Apart from giving a boost to your web traffic, link popularity will save a lot of your time and money that would have otherwise been spent on promotional tactics. As more and more sites link to you, search engine spiders will be able to crawl and index your web pages with minimal efforts.

A word of caution here! Do not encourage links coming from link farms or banned sites/networks. Although it is not possible for you to stop people from linking to your site, you can always take certain precautionary measures to control the situation.