If you’re doing business online then you have no doubt heard about the power of submitting your article to article directories. With the advent of article submission software, the job of distributing your content across the web is easier than ever. There are a number of guidelines you should follow to ensure that you get the most from article marketing.

In this article, I will provide article writing and submission guidelines that I’ve used to improve the overall effectiveness of my submissions and virtually guarantee that articles are placed on pages with a high Google page rank.

The advantage of article marketing is that your article content has a life well beyond a single listing. Website owners visit article aggregation websites to find relevant content for their website, blog, or ezine. Your article can be published for quite some time after it’s submitted and posted. The real value of article submission is when third party sites provide a link back to your website in exchange for the content you have provided them.

Timely And Valuable Content Is King. When creating an article, spend more time on the planning phase than the actual writing of the article. You want to make sure that the information you provide is related to something current and of interest to your potential market segment. By doing so, other website owners find true value in the content and post it to their website or blog.

Construct Your Article Around A Specific Keyword Phrase. When you write an article about a particular subject, select a keyword phrase that helps to promote your website or service. The result is that search engines find your content easily based on the keywords you’ve used.

Create A Strong Headline. By developing a compelling headline, readers are pulled into your content and take notice. Even though your primary purpose is content distribution and building in-bound links to your web site or blog, don’t lose sight of promoting your content in a valuable way. Article submission works best when your headline requires individuals to stop and take notice. This leads to greater awareness and action among webmasters seeking content.

Submit Your Articles To Top Article Directories. In order to get the most from your article marketing efforts, find top ranked article websites using an article submission tool, software, or application that can provide an indication of a web sites age or Google PR. By doing so, you’ll be able to spend more time submitting to web sites that can provide value to your online marketing efforts.

Focus On The Author Section. The most valuable aspect of article marketing is the link placed in the article content itself or in the author section. Links provide valuable link value for search engine purposes and can drive users back to your website. Article links can be provided in two ways. The first is through a link back to your website. This is a link to your website presented in the actual body of the article. The second is in the author section. The first type of link is almost never accepted by article directories. The second, which provides information about the author of the article, is usually less than a couple hundred words and usually accepts an html link back to your website. Choose your link text carefully and include with each article.

Submit Your Articles To Top Sites. Don’t waste your time submitting your article to sites that are brand new or only have a low Google PR. Find top ranked article sites using some type of article submission tool, software, or application that can give you indication of site age or Google PR. This helps you to spend your precious time submitting to websites that can truly provide value to your article marketing efforts.

Using article marketing is simply a great way to improve your websites ranking. With the help of distributed content and links back to your website, search engines like Yahoo! take notice and assign your website a good amount of value. This comes back to you in higher rankings and Google PR.

Anyone doing business via the Internet, then you must consider article marketing as a key search engine optimization strategy. Not only can article marketing help you promote your website, but distributed content is viral in nature and builds your traffic significantly over time.