Article marketing forms the foundation for any long-term link building strategy. Writing quality articles and sharing them on a regular basis builds up the level of content you are sharing, and the number of back-links being created. The better the quality of articles, the more chances you will have that they will be read and shared, increasing the exposure and spreading the content and back-links.

Have we convinced you about the importance of article marketing?

Here are some tips to help you make your articles of the highest quality, so they stand out, are read, and shared.

Always write an interesting and informative title. Don’t make titles too lengthy, Short and sweet is better. If you need to expand, you could use a sub-heading. Make sure your title includes the main keywords identifying the main subject you are writing about.

• A good title – ‘Article marketing for SEO’
• A bad title – ‘How to write articles so that you can increase your rankings on Google and other well-known search engines.’

The first is a title. The second is an opening sentence. Make sure you understand the difference and make your titles ‘pop’.

Keep your articles at around the 500 word size. Extremely long and wordy articles can be off-putting. If you do write a lengthy article, have a look at it. Maybe you could split it into two and turn it into a series? The general rule of thumb is a reader should be able to read your article within about five minutes. Readers are conscious of time. They are not looking for in-depth scientific papers that take hours to read and digest, they are looking for high impact, short reading time information that answers their questions or presents an argument in a different way. Have a look at the articles online, even those posted on leading newspaper sites tend to be kept at around the 500 word size. Blog articles are shorter – they are between 300 and 400 words.

Don’t ever plagiarize another article, and avoid spinning articles. Article spinning is when you re-write an article in your own words, without adding any new information. This won’t raise the bar on the quality of your content, or on your brand image. Plus, Google is clamping down in this type of article marketing so it’s best to exercise caution. Anyway, 5 high quality unique articles that present a fresh perspective, are much more valuable than twenty articles all saying the same thing in a different way.

Don’t forget to add a link to your site on each article. But change the links. Don’t always send readers to your home page. For example, link to further reading on the same subject, or link to an area on your website which encourages readers to register for your email newsletter. Keep it fresh and make sure all the pages of your site are given a chance to be linked to.