Publishing Articles- A Winning Way To Help Your Web Site Succeed!

One of the primary ways to draw traffic to your website is to indicate you are an expert in your field. The best way to do this is to write articles related to your field of business and provide pertinent information. For example, if your are an electrician then writing an article regarding the proper installation of a ceiling fan would increase your expertise and credibility amongst those searching out a good electrical contractor.

How to Structure An Article

One of the primary features of credibility is writing an article that is articulate and easy to understand. If you are directing your article towards an English speaking audience and English is not your primary language then find someone who speaks English very well to proof read your article. In addition, you want your article to be grammatically correct. Once again it is vital your article be properly written with the correct tense, spelling and use of words. For example, using the word “ain’t” instead of “is not” will surely classify you as an illiterate. Keep in mind the following lessons when writing an article:

• Plan your article. Decide before writing the article what you want to say and how you want to say it.
• Develop an outline of your article. Consider how you are going to discuss the pertinent points in your article and in what order you want them to appear.
• Use short sentences and short explanations. The longer a sentence is, the more confusing it is.
• Include real life examples in your article. Readers prefer to read about the real world and not theories.
• Do not use contractions. Use “is not” instead of “isn’t”.
• Do not use the same word repeatedly in an article. For example, if you are a landscaper and have several flowers that are pretty, do not use the word “pretty” over and over to describe your flowers. Check out the thesaurus online to find different words with the same meaning. For example, alternate uses of the word pretty could include, lovely or beautiful.
• Write in the same tense. Do not begin an article in the present tense and end the article in the past or future tense.

Good vs. Bad Content

We all remember our grammar classes from the 6^th grade. One of the concepts that was instilled in us is the proper way to write a paper. The following items must be included when writing your article:

• The first paragraph should include a sentence stating the purpose of the article and what the article will accomplish. For example, when writing an article on how to decorate a cake your first paragraph should include your purpose, “This article will teach you to decorate a cake” as well as how this will be accomplished, “The following steps will walk you through the process of how to decorate a cake”.
• The next few paragraphs should outline how to accomplish the task set forth in the first paragraph. For example, when learning how to decorate a cake the first article will speak of tools needed to complete the decorations. The second paragraph will talk about preparing the cake for decorating. The next paragraph(s) will go through the step-by-step process of decorating the cake.
• The last paragraph is a summation and validation of the previous paragraphs. The last paragraph should emphasize the purpose of the article and how the article satisfactorily completed that purpose.
• Keep in mind that throughout your article, you should include no more than 2 keywords. This keeps your article focused and easier for the search engines to “read” and index.
• Ideally, your keyword should be in the first sentence and the last paragraph, then sprinkled loosely throughout. Don’t go overboard here. Put the keywords in where it looks natural. Forcing it will not only make your content look bad, but can actually hurt your ranking in the search engines.

A bad article on the other hand fails to fully explain the statements made in the supporting introductory paragraph. For example, if the first paragraph states the purpose of the article is to teach the reader “how to decorate a cake” and the following paragraphs discuss the best flavors of the cake and the different colors the frosting or fondant can be, that is no help to the reader. The author has failed to complete the primary purpose stated in the first paragraph; how to decorate a cake.

Where To Publish Articles

There are two mindsets that go with article publishing. One is to get your article read and have you established as an expert in your particular field. This builds credibility not only for you, but for your website that should be referenced in each article that is published. Another mindset is to publish articles so that links to your website are created, thus giving you better standings in the search engines.

To establish yourself as an expert, get your articles seen in the search engines and build the most PageRank for your website – there are 2 places that you should have publish your articles:

1. Ezinearticles.com

2. Goarticles.com

Short of a public relations campaign where you are targeting newspapers and offline media, Ezinearticles.com is the most important site you can have your articles published online. While it can take up to a week for new articles to be approved, once done, your article will have higher placement on Google that other article directories and will receive better PageRanking by Google.

Of course, this assumes you followed the steps to creating a good article with great content and keywords that targeted your audience. After Ezinearticles.com, you will want to submit to Goarticles.com. This is another large article directory that receives a decent amount of respect currently from Google and the other search engines.

Other Directories You Can Submit Your Articles To

There are many more directories that you can submit your articles to. These directories are good for generating backlinks to your website, which over time will give you higher rankings in the various search engines. What this means for you is more free traffic, as people will find you either through your articles or directly though your website as it is listed in the search engines. A few directories you can submit to are:

1. Articledashboard.com

2. Articlepros.com

3. Articlebase.com

4. Articleset.com

5. Articlealley.com

Article publishing can make a huge difference in traffic to your website over time. It takes patience and persistence to keep submitting new articles that have great content and are relevant to your audience or niche. However, that patience can payoff in the form of free traffic that continues to come in month after month once you’ve done the footwork.