Article directories have been a great way to get backlinks and get more people to see your site. I'm writing this article because I've been running an article directory for a few years now, and I think this part of the web needs a lot of work. The following tips will help both the article directories and the people who submit articles.
- Does your site have the right cash? Check to see if Google has even indexed your last 50, 100, or 200 articles. When did Google's bot last check out your site? The main reason for this problem is that article directories don't add unique content. Because of this, search engines don't find anything useful on these sites and stop going there as often. So, I recommend that owners of article directories buy unique, high-quality articles every so often so that their sites are properly indexed.
- It's a good idea to keep adding content yourself. Just do some research to find high-interest, low-competition topics and add a few short articles you wrote yourself. This will give your site unique content and help you improve your writing skills, which will help you in the long run.
- Add some good back links to your article directory. If you want free back links, try social bookmarking. In this way, your site will become more authoritative, and your overall traffic will go up because you will be using better keywords than your competitors.
- Do you take all the articles that are sent to you? So far, I've seen a lot of submitters use software to rewrite articles and then send them to directories. This is why I say that you should at least read a few lines of the article before approving it.
- Do you accept articles that have links in them? If so, this could be risky because Google might see it as a paid post and punish your article directory. Even if it's not your fault—the article is free, so there are no paid links—you don't want to get penalised because Google's algorithm is bad and inefficient.
- Do some research on the keywords used in the submitted articles. Then, rewrite or at least change the title of the article to include a good keyword that isn't too popular. So, every article will send you a little bit of traffic now and then.
- Get your directories indexed and claimed on Technorati. This way, people who submit their articles will get votes and authority from Technorati.
The key is promotion. If you don't promote a good site with good content, people won't come to it. Do things like social bookmarking, submitting to directories, submitting and distributing press releases, forum signatures, blog posts, etc., and do them slowly and consistently. If you have a budget for advertising, things will go a lot smoother. If you don't, you'll have to do all the hard work yourself.
