Submitting articles related to your site’s content to article directories is another great way to build your backlinks. Most article directories allow you to include links to your site in the resource box. This box just gives readers the details on how they can get more information relating to the topic of the article. Carefully choose the anchor text in the resource box in order to see an increase in search engine rankings for these keywords and keyphrases.

In addition to building backlinks, you’ll also likely get traffic from the articles you submit to popular article directories. Some of your articles may even be re-published on other sites, generating even more traffic and possibly more backlinks. In theory, the better the article, the more likely it will be re-published on other sites. This should lead to more backlinks to your site (which the search engines see and reward you for) and more traffic from the links you include in your resource box.

If you are writing articles for SEO purposes, it’s crucial to spend the time selecting a good anchor text strategy for your resource box. In fact, I spend more time on this than anything else.

Once you’ve determined your article marketing strategy, you’ll need to actually write the article or outsource this task. Make sure that your article’s title pulls readers in … something like “3 tips on how to make money online with affiliate marketing” would do fairly well. People love easy-to-read content, so breaking down your article into specific bullet points will encourage more traffic.

Of course, if you choose to use this type of article title, you will need to identify the three tips you’re going to cover. The good news is that doing this will help you to quickly structure and write out your article. Articles published to article directories should be between 200-750 words. Most article writing experts recommend starting out with an introduction to help draw the reader in to the article before they continue with the main points of the article.

If you’re having trouble getting down to the business of actually writing the article, consider the following tips. First, don’t put too much thought into it – try to write naturally, as if you’re writing the way you’d talk about your target subject. Don’t get bogged down on whether you should be using a colon or a semicolon in a particular sentence – just get the words down on paper and you can come back and edit them later. If writing still isn’t coming easily to you, search for articles on similar subjects to see how they’re structured and what kind of voice they use. Don’t plagiarize – use them only to get a feel for how your own articles can be written.

The final element of your article is the resource box. The resource box is your chance to introduce yourself and convince the reader to visit your website. Different article directories differ on whether you’re allowed to use anchor text links in your article text, but almost all of them will allow you to put a link to your website in the resource box – so you can see what a powerful tool this section is.

Since most article directories will allow you to use anchor text in your resource box, you should take advantage of that instead of just listing your URL. Adding in anchor text is crucial for SEO so make sure to select a good keyphrase for this. I also suggest listing your URL as well, just in case the HTML link doesn’t work. In addition to an anchor text link + the URL, you should try to make your resource box interesting, to encourage readers to click through to your site.

Here’s an example of a good resource box with anchor text for the keyphrase ‘make thousands of dollars online’.

“Want to learn how I ‘make thousands of dollars online’, every month, working only a few hours each week? Check out my FREE report at www.howtomakemoneyonline.com!”

Including the anchor text with a link back to your webpage will boost the rankings of the page for the keyphrase ‘make thousands of dollars online’ in the search engines. Just make sure the anchor text you use is something people are searching for in the search engines.

Once you have all your article elements ready, it’s time to submit them to the directories. Google seems to give the most weight to articles posted on
EzineArticles.com, GoArticles.com and SearchWarp.com, so make these directories the primary focus of your article marketing campaign. It’s easy to sign up for a free account at each of these sites, and you’ll find more complete results on entering and submitting articles on each webpage.

Additional Articles in the SEO Tutorial Series:
SEO Module 1 - SEO Introduction & Keyword Research (Watch Online Video)
-Part 1: What is SEO?
-Part 2: Keyword Research
-Part 3: What is LSI?
-Part 4: What are Long-Tail Keywords?

SEO Module 2 - On-Site Optimization (Watch Online Video)
-Part 5: On-Site vs Off-Site
-Part 6: On-Site Optimization Details
-Part 7: What are Meta Tags?
-Part 8: What is Anchor Text?

SEO Module 3 - Off-Site Optimization (Watch Online Video)
-Part 9: Off-Site Optimization
-Part 10: Directory Submissions
-Part 11: Article Submissions
-Part 12: Press Release Submissions
-Part 13: Forum & Blog Commenting
-Part 14: Social Bookmarking
-SEO Tutorial Conclusion