There’s little doubt that using article marketing to advertise your website is one of the most productive advertising techniques you can use online – if you know how to write articles. It beats Google AdWords because it’s free and it gets results, and it can be used to turn around a failing online business. We will discuss here the essential components of a good article that draws traffic like moths to a light bulb.
1. The Title
The title should start with the main keyword of the article and end with another keyword related to the topic. In fact, the title of this article contains three keywords, each of which can catch the eye of a search engine or article directory user looking for information. These are: ‘article marketing’, ‘advertising your website’ and ‘how to write articles’. Your article could appear on Google or any other search engine for each of these keywords.
2. The opening paragraph
The opening paragraph could make or break your campaign: is it compelling enough to keep the reader on the page, or will they shrug it off and move on? The opening paragraph of this article tells you that writing articles is cheaper than AdWords and can improve your business. The opening paragraph of an article should offer a benefit to the reader if they continue reading, and this is true regardless of the topic. You must give them a reason not to click.
3. The body of the article
The body of the article should deliver what you promise. The promise made here was to discuss the essential components of an article: that will get you a lot of traffic because your readers want to learn more. That means you have to prove that you are an authority on your topic or in your niche. It’s not enough to just regurgitate what others say: you have to show that you know what you’re writing about, and you can do it through good writing that continues the good work of the opening paragraph: keep the reader reading!
4. The final paragraph
The final paragraph should be designed to draw the reader into your resource. The author resource usually appears at the end of the article and allows you to provide a link to any page on your website that you choose. You have to literally force the reader to read your resource. You should expand on the benefits promised in the body of your article and promise more to come. If you’ve done your job right, you’ll get that all-important click that gets you one more visitor. That’s not the end of it though, as once they get to your site you need to keep them there, but that’s another topic entirely.
5. The resource
Most article directories give you a section where you can say something about yourself and also provide a link to your website. Sometimes you can use HTML anchor text, although other directories only allow text, so your link will be in the form of a URL. To design your resource, you must first provide more information, and then link or URL to a page on your website that provides just that – more information on the topic of your article. Don’t just provide a link to your home page – your readers will leave immediately if the landing page doesn’t directly reflect and expand on the topic of the article.
Naturally, that is not the end. Now you should submit your article to as many directories as you can. I’ve read a lot of nonsense about Google’s duplicate content penalty: in fact there is no such thing, and Google confirms it. Google will tend to serve the content that its algorithms calculate to best meet the needs of a Google user who is looking for information using a specific search term (ie keyword). Initially, all versions of a published article will be posted to various directories, but over time, some will be removed until finally only one version remains; if all the versions have been the same, the one that remains at the end will be published. in the directory that best suits the needs of the Google user.
It’s a bit more complex than that in theory, but the result is that even though your article will eventually appear in a single directory, it will take a long time, and in that time you can write several more articles using the same keywords and thus increase your net presence on Google by continuing to submit your articles to as many directories and ezines as you can. That is what brings success. What hasn’t been explained yet are the four ways an article gives you the hype and publicity you’re looking for, but that’s not the topic of this article. However, using article marketing and knowing how to write articles can advertise your website much better than AdWords, or any other advertising technique, and provide a massive boost to listings for any online business.