Article Marketing has been, and will always be, an internet marketing backbone. There is no successful internet marketer that doesn’t use article marketing in their arsenal.

It’s a testament to how effective this method really is, from driving high quality traffic to adding high PR backlinks for your website.

It is not an accident that article marketing is very widely-used for SEO and traffic purposes. Google has always loved article directories and has always put high credit to these sites in terms of link juice.

Article directories have always produced quality content, mainly due to strict author guidelines and human moderation, and Google loves this. And when it comes to SEO, it’s all about pleasing Google.

So now I’m going to share with you how I personally do my article marketing campaign for SEO. This is article marketing the Evergreen SEO way.

Warning

Most of what I’m about to share with you may seem to just fly over the face of conventional SEO. I would also understand that many would violently disagree with my methods.

That’s fine, positive change is always met with extreme resistance. But I can honestly speak for myself and my colleagues that these methods work.

What you can expect though, is that we are sacrificing immediate but unstable (i.e. Google dance) SEO rankings for long-term branding (leads to more quality and increasingly responsive traffic in the future) and SEO rankings that stay in Google’s favor forever.

This is because instead of gaming Google like most SEO methods do, we work with Google.

Basic Evergreen SEO Principles for Article Marketing

  1. Quality over quantity. We are building a brand through quality content, not article spamming the directories. Nor are we creating spun articles and mass distributing them to all the article directories we can get our hands on. I’ve always believed that regular posting on a few high quality article directories is better than spam posting on a lot of article directories, and it has worked for me and my colleagues with great success.
  2. Create “real” identities. Ok, I’m not saying don’t use a pseudonym. It’s our privilege and right as online content providers to use different identities for different niches. But when you create accounts, there should be a story behind it, not just a username and a password. Take the time to fill-in the bio, attach a picture, etc. You’ll appear more professional and would be able to close more sales that way.
  3. Submit unique content. Write them yourself or have them outsourced, but only submit an article to one directory. I don’t advise spinning articles nor submitting one article on multiple directories. Besides, how hard is it to write a 500-750 word article anyway? If you are not a writer, $3-5 an article is pretty cheap for a lifetime of traffic and quality backlink.

Evergreen SEO – Article Marketing Method

STEP 1: Find article directories to participate in.

No, don’t go out looking at article directories list. We are not doing this the usual article marketing way. For this one, we only need to focus on 5-10 directories – one of which is EzineArticles by default since it drives quality traffic and has Google’s eye for a while. The rest are niche authority directories, meaning article directories concentrated around your niche.

Ok, EzineArticles is easy to find so that’s one off our list. To find authority sites in your niche, simply do a search in Google for “guest blogger”, “guest post”, or “guest article.” More specifically, here’s a list of searches you can do:

  1. “guest blogger” OR “guest post” OR “guest article” OR “guest column” + {your keyword}
  2. inurl:category/guest + {your keyword}
  3. “write for us” OR “write for me” + {your keyword}
  4. “become a contributor” OR “contribute to this site” + {your keyword}

You’ll usually find a good set of authority directories with just one of these search phrases. Take 5-10 that seems good. The basic rule of thumb is if you yourself would want to visit that site for information regularly, then it must be good for other people too.

Remember though that save for EzineArticles, the sites you choose should be specific/niche sites (i.e. the categories and articles available are only about your niche). You’ll probably come across About.com most of the time with your searches, it’s generic but good for SEO purposes. I’ll let you be the judge if you want to include it on your list.

STEP 2: Submit Articles.

Submit unique and quality articles. EzineArticles has a minimum word count of 250 words. Niche article directories are more targeted towards the niche and have higher quality standards so they usually require 500 words minimum.

Include your bio based on your identity for that campaign/niche. Short bios usually work better than long ones but it’s a niche-by-niche basis so try them out for yourselves.

Lastly, include the links to your website inside your bio. Different sites allow different numbers of links, but the optimal number from my experience is 2. Personally, even if a site allows unlimited number of links, I’ll only put 2. This worked out for me fine so far.

STEP 3: Repeat.

Keep writing or outsourcing articles and spread them out throughout your list of niche article directories and EzineArticles. When it comes to articles (unlike traditional SEO methods), you don’t have to regulate how much nor the timing of your submission. We are not gaming Google nor tricking the article directories and we submit only quality articles; therefore, we have nothing to fear.

You may ask why we need a list of 5-10 authority directories to spread our submissions. Why don’t we just submit everything to 1 authority directory? The reason is the same reason why experts contribute to different magazines, newspapers, or TV shows – to reach different readership or viewership.

Experts contribute to different resources to reach more people while also strengthening their reputation. It’s cooler to have appeared in Oprah and Ellen’s show than to be a guest in Oprah’s show twice. The same principle applies in authority directories submission.

Conclusion

Evergreen SEO sacrifices immediate, short-term SEO gains for long-term everlasting traffic and rankings. With the Evergreen article marketing SEO method, you are not only creating a strong backlink network, you are also building a long-lasting brand. And remember, in marketing, stronger branding equates to more sales.