Can SEO Article Writing and Distribution enable you to achieve top ranking?

[whitehatseosuite]

A friend of mine called me and told me to read and article he forwarded me then i give him a call. The article was about how to use SEO article writing and distribution as the only strategy to achieve top ranking. Well, that is want i want to address here because i think people are misusing some of these strategies.

First, It's true that you can concentrate on article writing and distribution but that depend on a few things and does not depend on other facts as well.

Factors that can enable one to succeed in SEO using SEO Article writing and Distributions alone.

1. Unique content: You need to ensure that every article you write is unique and is interesting and informative. This rules out automated spun articles, so watch out for this when it comes to what you should not do.
2. Optimized SEO Article: Ensure every article you write is fully optimized, in terms of keywords used, keyword density, keywords position and various header tags as well as use of alternative texts for images.
3. Do not limit yourself to posting in article directories only: You can also post your articles to web 2.0 sites like squidoo, post in web directories, social media websites and many other places.
4. Ensure you post to dofollow pages only: There are some websites with good traffic but they are not dofollow and so google will not index your link. I know there are a lot of mix feeling here but i still stand for dofollow links. If you want to get the traffic alone from these nofollow sites through people who go to do searches there, then you can consider them.
5. Be consistent: SEO takes time so you need to write more quality articles and you distribute for a period as you monitor progress. Don't write thirty articles and then you wait for ranking to come, it will not happen.

Factors that will never make you succeed in SEO using article writing and distribution
1. Poor quality articles like spinned articles
2. Distributing articles to poor article directories.

That is my take on what you can do to achieve top ranking using SEO articles alone. What do you think guys?

[Stevie D]

The thing about posting articles on other sites is that every time you do that, you are giving lots of potential traffic to someone else's site, and a link of minimal consequence to your own site. Google is going to pay much more attention to the article itself, and that's what is going to get the rankings – why not just post the articles on your own site?

[whitehatseosuite]

How would you achieve ranking with just posting articles on your website given the value that comes from external links?

[kim86]

Thanks for the info
BUt other backlink tacts should also be used along with Article submissions

[Mikl]

How would you achieve ranking with just posting articles on your website given the value that comes from external links?

I'd put it the other way round. How can you achieve ranking without posting articles (or some other useful content) on your site?

Put another way, there's no point in having external links if there is nothing for them to link to. It's true that you need to encourage links, and writing articles for other sites might help you do that. But your highest priority should be to develop content for your own site. That's a much more cost-effective use of your time.

Mike

[daledupree]

article submission/marketing is not dead , but it is for sure nowhere near as effective as it was 4 years ago. article submission/marketing should be a part of your internet marketing plan but never in the top three..

[peterrulesrock]

Ofcourse it helps both in link building as well as increasing awareness about your websites.

[whitehatseosuite]

This is a quick question; You know this phrase "content is king" and after developing quality content for your website, where should you use quality content if article submission is not among top three strategies?As a buddy put it, let me reorganize the question and ask, what would be you three ideal SEO strategies?

[Mikl]

... fter developing quality content for your website, where should you use quality content if article submission is not among top three strategies?

You should put it on the site you are trying to promote. That's the whole point.

Mike

[whitehatseosuite]

Thanks Mike.

I know I am still a junior member here so i may not be allowed to post a url, I would have shown you the website, I am promoting.Please allow me to ask this question; In your opinion posting quality content on the website one is promoting is adequate to complete for ranking on major search engines?

[TechnoBear]

Off Topic:

I know I am still a junior member here so i may not be allowed to post a url, I would have shown you the website, I am promoting.

Posting the URL here would not have been appropriate, so thank you for not doing so.

The forum has strict rules on self-linking, which you can find here.

If you would like your site reviewed from an SEO perspective, the place to request that is in the Reviews & Critiques forum, in accordance with its guidelines.

You can request general advice and information in this forum, but not a review of a specific site.

[whitehatseosuite]

Thanks. Have taken note of that.

[Mikl]

Please allow me to ask this question; In your opinion posting quality content on the website one is promoting is adequate to complete for ranking on major search engines?

No, "adequate" isn't the term I'd use. You have to do more than that to promote the site, including encouraging backlinks from other quality sites.

What I - and others here - have been saying all along is that posting "quality content on the website one is promoting" is an essential first step. After all, the content is what you are promoting.

Your original question was whether it was worth posting articles on other sites as a way of encouraging interest in your site. The answer was that, if you were willing to go to the trouble of writing an article, it would be better to post it on your own site. That way, your site gets more content, and therefore is more likely to encourage links and to satisfy search queries. If you merely post it on some other site, those potential benefits are going to the other site.

As you know, you are not allowed to post the URL of your site here. But if you could explain the purpose of the site (in a couple of sentences), and also describe the article that you are proposing to write, we may be able to give you some firmer guidance.

Mike

[whitehatseosuite]

Again I am grateful for this advice. Here is my trouble; my username in this forum is one of my keywords and currently my blog sits in position 9 on google main. So far I have used article writing and posting to my blog and also some free web 2.0 and also doing social bookmarking and last week, a bit of blog commenting. My trouble is that I am wondering if i continue to write and post articles to various places will be adequate to take my keyword to position 1 or 2 or 3 or i need to change the strategy. That is my dilemma.

Thanks
Benard

No, "adequate" isn't the term I'd use. You have to do more than that to promote the site, including encouraging backlinks from other quality sites.

What I - and others here - have been saying all along is that posting "quality content on the website one is promoting" is an essential first step. After all, the content is what you are promoting.

Your original question was whether it was worth posting articles on other sites as a way of encouraging interest in your site. The answer was that, if you were willing to go to the trouble of writing an article, it would be better to post it on your own site. That way, your site gets more content, and therefore is more likely to encourage links and to satisfy search queries. If you merely post it on some other site, those potential benefits are going to the other site.

As you know, you are not allowed to post the URL of your site here. But if you could explain the purpose of the site (in a couple of sentences), and also describe the article that you are proposing to write, we may be able to give you some firmer guidance.

Mike

[domainerphd]

Has anyone tried myblogguest? They have blog writers that write unique articles all that are vetted by the moderator Ann Smarty. These bloggers are looking for publishers to get more exposure to their site .. So if you like an article you can ask (offer) to publish the article on your site/blog. I've found it's a good way to get new content for your blog. It's not easy creating new original content on your own.

[Mikl]

... My trouble is that I am wondering if i continue to write and post articles to various places will be adequate to take my keyword to position 1 or 2 or 3 or i need to change the strategy.

Nobody can answer that for sure, because there are simply too many factors involved in getting to those top positions. All I can do is to repeat the advice you've already been given. Posting articles on other sites won't do any harm, but it's an inefficient way of improving your rankings. It certainly won't be "adequate".

Mike

[whitehatseosuite]

wow! It seems I am not going to get a straight answer here. Anyway thanks for the insight, I guess is to dig deep into these many factors.

[Mikl]

wow! It seems I am not going to get a straight answer here. Anyway thanks for the insight, I guess is to dig deep into these many factors.

I'm sorry, but you've been asking the same question over and over again. Inevitably, you're going to get the same answer.

Mike

[ULTiMATE]

1. Unique content: You need to ensure that every article you write is unique and is interesting and informative. This rules out automated spun articles, so watch out for this when it comes to what you should not do.

While true, why would Google care about your unique article? Also, how would Google know if your article is of good quality or not?

The truth is that no software is capable of doing this. Your site reputation will live and die by its backlinks, and they'll need to be of good quality. Links from a content farm are not good quality.

2. Optimized SEO Article: Ensure every article you write is fully optimized, in terms of keywords used, keyword density, keywords position and various header tags as well as use of alternative texts for images.

No one has done this for years. Good content offline is no different to good content online.

3. Do not limit yourself to posting in article directories only: You can also post your articles to web 2.0 sites like squidoo, post in web directories, social media websites and many other places.

Again, these are largely content farms and will only give you low-quality links, so this is largely a waste of time too.

4. Ensure you post to dofollow pages only: There are some websites with good traffic but they are not dofollow and so google will not index your link. I know there are a lot of mix feeling here but i still stand for dofollow links. If you want to get the traffic alone from these nofollow sites through people who go to do searches there, then you can consider them.

You only need to look at a typical list of "dofollow blogs" and you'll see hundreds of comments from spammers. Even if there was any benefit gained from a blog post, these spammers have already posted a hundred links and have diluted anything you'll get from your link. Again, it's a low quality link and you'll get nothing from it.

5. Be consistent: SEO takes time so you need to write more quality articles and you distribute for a period as you monitor progress. Don't write thirty articles and then you wait for ranking to come, it will not happen.

As I've said before on here today, this is the "rain man" argument. Just because you've danced and its rained it doesn't mean that you can make it rain. The web is constantly changing, and fluctuations in ranking will happen regardless of what you do. A smart marketer will go with this and will spend their time ensuring that the brand is strong.

2. Distributing articles to any article directories.

FTFY.

[whitehatseosuite]

Incredible! You certainly distinguished yourself as very knowledgeable here and this is great. In just a few statements, what would be your SEO strategy involved for a website looking to rank with medium competitors keywords?

While true, why would Google care about your unique article? Also, how would Google know if your article is of good quality or not?

The truth is that no software is capable of doing this. Your site reputation will live and die by its backlinks, and they'll need to be of good quality. Links from a content farm are not good quality.



No one has done this for years. Good content offline is no different to good content online.



Again, these are largely content farms and will only give you low-quality links, so this is largely a waste of time too.



You only need to look at a typical list of "dofollow blogs" and you'll see hundreds of comments from spammers. Even if there was any benefit gained from a blog post, these spammers have already posted a hundred links and have diluted anything you'll get from your link. Again, it's a low quality link and you'll get nothing from it.



As I've said before on here today, this is the "rain man" argument. Just because you've danced and its rained it doesn't mean that you can make it rain. The web is constantly changing, and fluctuations in ranking will happen regardless of what you do. A smart marketer will go with this and will spend their time ensuring that the brand is strong.



FTFY.

[ULTiMATE]

Incredible! You certainly distinguished yourself as very knowledgeable here and this is great. In just a few statements, what would be your SEO strategy involved for a website looking to rank with medium competitors keywords?

If you look at the sticky threads on this forum you'll see a thread relating to Competitive Analysis. This is where I'd start because it provides a good basis to see what your competitors have done.

This is the approach I took for a travel website I worked on a few years ago. After a thorough analysis of the competition, I noticed that the ones that ranked really well had fantastic back links from an online newspaper column. The marketing department sent a quick email to a travel reporter for the Guardian newspaper about their business, and offered a free trip if they wished to write a review. A few weeks later, the reporter took the trip and wrote a great review, complete with back-links. This alone pushed a fair bit of traffic, resulted in more natural links coming from blogs that had written based on that newspaper column, and the Google love followed.

[whitehatseosuite]

Oh ok! I am going to check it out but that was a smart move for your travel website.

If you look at the sticky threads on this forum you'll see a thread relating to Competitive Analysis. This is where I'd start because it provides a good basis to see what your competitors have done.

This is the approach I took for a travel website I worked on a few years ago. After a thorough analysis of the competition, I noticed that the ones that ranked really well had fantastic back links from an online newspaper column. The marketing department sent a quick email to a travel reporter for the Guardian newspaper about their business, and offered a free trip if they wished to write a review. A few weeks later, the reporter took the trip and wrote a great review, complete with back-links. This alone pushed a fair bit of traffic, resulted in more natural links coming from blogs that had written based on that newspaper column, and the Google love followed.