Why You Should Strive to Create More Than Just Back Links

I read a message on a forum the a while back where a new
webmaster was asking for suggestions regarding article
submissions to create back links. The person asked how long the
articles should be, how many hyperlinks to include, and other
questions about article submissions. I was quite surprised by
some of the responses that this poster received.

What Sort of Advice Was Given…

It was actually recommended that articles only need to be 250
words long and that the person asking the question should include
4-5 hyperlinks. Another person suggested to write a 500-word
article and to include many hyperlinks, because the only purpose
of the articles were to create back links.

There is some truth to this… A person could write a short
article and get it submitted to many article directories. And,
simply generating back links is one way that a webmaster can
increase his or her position in the search engine rankings.

But, writing a 250-word article will probably not result in that
webmaster being considered an expert on the topic that he or she
is writing about.

Experts In Their Fields

Taking the time to create an informative and helpful article will
help a person to be considered an expert in his or her field.
Imagine for a moment if some of the most famous names on the
Internet were to only write brief articles to generate back
links. Would Matt Cutts (http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/) receive
the recognition that he does if he just scribbled a few sentences
here and there? Would Joel Comm (http://www.joelcomm.com/) be
considered an Adsense expert without writing informative how-to
articles and books for those wanting to make money from Adsense?
Would you know or care who Robin Nobles
(http://www.searchengineworkshops.com/) was if she did not create
in-depth articles about search engine optimization? Would you
even be bothering to read this article?

You can generate a bit of traffic by creating back links by
hammering out low-quality articles. But, if you want to be known
as an expert, you need to take a different approach and provide
the quality information people are seeking. If you have
information and expertise that others are unable to find on the
Internet, then you will get many more visitors as a result of
writing an article.

If you are looking for more than simple back links to your site,
then it is worth it to take the time to write a high-quality
article. A high quality article, that is written with the reader
in mind — not the search engines — is more likely to actually
get clicks (human visitors) into your site. This is what
separates the very successful webmasters from those who are
simply getting by.

To be known as an expert or an authority in your area requires
articles and information that human beings will actually read.
After reading this kind of article, a person will think to
himself “This author has the information that I am looking for”
and the reader will then visit the writer’s website.

How To Succeed With Article Marketing

A well-written article can be submitted to literally thousands of
publishers of ezines, newsletters, and free reprint article sites
and can result in dozens and sometimes hundreds of back links for
a website. Now, not every publisher will pick up your article,
but for the ones that do, you get a back link. More important
than the back links though is the number of people that will cite
your article, forward it to their friends, and reference it in
their own articles that they are distributing.

These high-quality articles are how a webmaster becomes known as
an “authority” on a topic. When you write for the reader and
offer something of real value, you will reap the rewards with a
huge influx of traffic to your website.

How To Fail With Article Marketing

Generalized junk articles that are filled with hyperlinks and
self promotion will only result in a few back links, and people
who actually read those less-than-quality articles are not very
likely to ever visit your site.

Poorly written articles are also unlikely to get published in
ezines and newsletters where you can reach potentially thousands
of readers in a single day.

The worst thing about the low-quality junk articles is that if
people do read them, they might always think of you as a “junk
peddler”, and most people don’t buy from people whom they
perceive as “junk peddlers”.

As a webmaster, you need to decide for yourself what goals you
have in mind for your article submission campaign. If you limit
yourself to only generating back links, you will not see the full
potential of visitors and traffic that you could be getting to
your website.

A Final Thought…

An article that is good enough to wind up on sites like
http://www.About.com can give you a huge and consistent growth in
traffic for some time to come. Articles that are picked up by
large newsletters like http://www.SiteProNews.com can deliver
thousands of visitors to your website in a day, add to your
credentials as an “authority” website, and will create a
situation where your website is one of the first places that
people turn to for information in your field.

The bottom line is that if you write for the human reader instead
of the search engines, you will be rewarded with many more
visitors, and you can gain an authority status among your
visitors.

The choice is yours. You can spend an extra hour or two creating
a high-quality article that will be published on more websites
creating more back links to your website, establish you as an
authority in your field, and allow you to see thousands of
visitors in a day when your article is published in one or a
dozen ezines. Or you can save the extra hour or two and pray that
your limited efforts will amount to anything of real value.

Copyright (c) 2006-2012 Trey Pennewell
Writing Puzzle
http://WritingPuzzle.com/

———————————————————-
Subscribe to the Traffic Tips (http://writingpuzzle.com/pub/subscribe.php) mailing list and get a 25-page PDF that teaches how to get more traffic from Google. Then, go to http://WritingPuzzle.com/ to find training guides for writers and article marketers. Trey Pennewell has been creating content for the Internet since 2005.