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Content and links. That’s it. SEO in a nutshell.

But, since spamming the search engines is not a great option, high quality content and links trump quantity for long term success. But, that just made the game more complex! What is quality content? You hear a lot about it, but who says it’s “quality”, and how do you define it, who or what can verify it?

First of all, search engines don’t have any content themselves, they have to let the spiders loose – and get it, find it. Until they discover, store and classify the content (documents), the quality is unknown. Links & attribution is a key factor for the quality (‘Google PageRank is based on links, and is Google’s voting system’).

How can you leverage article marketing for optimum SEO?

Google claims over 50 billion+ documents (2009) are stored across their datacenters, and a trillion new URLs are found each day.

With this volume for Google alone, SEO is the best and only option for optimizing pages so that search engines and users can easily find them. The pages rank, and therefore, they bring clicks and traffic to them (your site).

And, if you have a decent conversion funnel and tracking in place, you can sell the visitors your goods.  The formula: Rank, Traffic, Money is what you aim for in search, but not always in that order. Many SEOs claim that rank is dead.

This post is not about how to create content (that’s coming), but that you “must” do it. Content is King, links are Queen, as the saying goes. Content is also marketing, and the search engines love it. (videos are content too)

And, links bind the web together. The content allows the links to be noted, and users and search engines support each other. Search engines find pages, serve them, and with Google’s voting system – scores them (quality) and you get traffic, and make money (right!).

Search engines don’t have content on their own, they need us as content contributors.  Creating a page on your own blog is a good start, but you need more depth.

Here’s what article marketing can do to help you:

  • Top directories allow you to submit content to them, trusted by search engines (ex: ezinearticles)
  • Webmasters pick up the articles and re-post with attribution (link) back to your page (wide distribution)
  • Links are discovered via the spiders and partner networks move it all into the ‘syndicated’ world. The results are happy readers, and search engines pass one-way link juice back to your page from all over the place.

The quality of the articles, along with the destinations will be more important than simply posting them “blind” and hacking them out in minutes. Think about the website owner who doesn’t like to create content, doesn’t have the time nor means, etc. They can pick up yours and you get the links back. Create different versions, and don’t spam.

Article marketing works. How have you used it lately?

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Entrepreneur Magazine says Jon Rognerud is one of the most sought-after Digital Marketing Experts. His clients extend from high-end brands and middle-tier businesses in both B2B and B2C. His SEO website optimization book, "The Ultimate Guide to Optimizing Your Website" from Entrepreneur Press is in bookstores now.