One of the best ways to promote your blog or website is by publishing articles in Article Directories. Some of the better known directories are EzineArticles.com and GoArticles.com.  Publishing articles in these kinds of directories is smart for a few reasons.

• They create direct click-through traffic to your blog posts, articles, or domain.
• They can help your site become indexed by search engines more quickly.
• They create back-links to your site, which helps it achieve higher search engine results in Google and Yahoo.

How do Article Directories Work?

You can publish articles about anything, but you want the subject to be specifically related to what you write about on your blog.  The reason for this is that you get to place two links in the signature box at the end of your articles.  This is pretty much the whole reason you want to write for article directories: building links to your work.

Once your article is approved, it will be live and should soon get some search traffic to it.  This will in turn send some traffic to your blog via you signature links.  Other web publishers can re-publish your work on their own websites as long as they include the links to your site, which can further increase the amount of links you get to your work.

How to Get Click Through Traffic from Article Directories.

It is always nice to see high rates of click-through traffic on your ezine articles.  One way to increase clicks on your links is by writing in such a way that your reader still wants more information and will naturally want to click your link as a means to finding it.

In my last post I used the example of home brewing beer so I’ll continue that here.  Your article may be about how to brew beer properly or some things to know for beginners.  You may write in your signature something like this (with the link in quotes):

Read more about how to choose the best “Home Brewing Kits.”  Also, learn more tips and tricks to getting started “Brewing Beer at Home.”

Both links can be to different posts on your blog, or one can be to a post and the other can be to the homepage domain.  You want to also make sure to use keyword-rich anchor text.  The first link in the above example could lead to a review of several “home brewing kits,” while the second may be to the homepage, which may be more general in theme, which is why you use the text “”Brewing Beer at Home.”  It really depends on what your target keywords are.  In this example, you would

Keyword-rich links are good for off-site SEO and will help your site in the SERPS.  If you’re looking to gain traffic to your site, both direct and long term, article directories are a good place to start.

Article Length

400 to 500 words is the optimal length for these articles.

It can be frustrating getting started at Article directories–at least for me it was–because your work may be rejected for not reaching the publisher’s standards.  They don’t want spammy or keyword-stuffed content, which is part of the reason these directories maintain their high quality reputations, which are reflected in PR and search engine rankings.