It seems quite while back now but back in August I wrote a post on why articles are great for search engine optimisation. I feel like this topic area is worth coming back to. In a nutshell I outlined that the reasons why articles are good is that you can get a one way link back to your site, people share articles meaning you can potentially continue to generate back-links month after month, it is low cost, and on top of it all Google likes good content.

I thought I would follow on from this post and talk about the content you create. As an SEO consultant I have seen hundreds of articles out there created simply to gain a back-link when actually the content provides no useful insight/information at all (I would be lying if I said I wasn’t guilty of this from time to time myself). However as more and more people are using search engines to find information, on top of the fact that article submissions sites are getting more and more scrupulous about what they publish, it is time to start creating content that is useful and that people want to read.

When creating articles it is all too easy get dragged into creating them purely for back-linking purposes. Of course having a back-link is the whole point in the first place but this should not override any need to provide good content. Creating good content is what SEO should be about. It is about thinking outside the box. Now I am aware of the difficulties, especially for small businesses operating in a rather small industry, to create decent content. Writing endless articles on printer cartridges for example could wear thin quite quickly. However this could not be further from the truth. In fact there are hundreds of topics you could write about if you simply develop a niche and also think about things people may want to find out when searching the web.
Echoing the sentiments of Matt Cutts in his very useful post on writing useful articles that readers will love, having a niche to write about is great for SEO. If you think, people are continuously searching for information on certain things all the time. I have many times searched for information only to be disappointed that there has been nothing in particular to help my quest for knowledge and I’m sure you have also. So think and research and find an area in which you can write about. Break down areas within your business and do not over generalise as you can always expand your niche later on.

Think about what direction you want your business to go. Do you want it to be seen as a serious authority on a certain industry or would you prefer it to be a more tongue in cheek look at your industry area to give your business that more quirky/fun image. You can build lists such as top 10 tips, do Q and A’s, post interviews. You can also write articles that purposely may generate debate, you can write weekly reviews on something within your industry, you can write about the funniest/silliest/smartest/amazing/saddest/badest things within your industry…the list is endless.
Lastly it just like with my post offering blogging tips (by the way all the points in this post do apply to blog posts also) think about the title of your articles. Use title that people my search and then that way the chance of gaining long tail keywords and people finding your articles increases greatly.

Have fun creating articles. It is your site after all and over time your site can end up building a great amount of credibility and back-links just by simply having decent content rather than being seen as simply another site in an endless line trying to manipulate the search engines.

Posted In:

Content, Link Building, Search Engine Optimisation