• Good keyword research
• Proper meta tag usage (good title tags, description tags, etc)
• Proper body tag usage (h1's, h2,s, alt tags, etc)
• Good content with proper and natural use of keywords
• Good internal use of text links
• Good and relevant links pointing to your site

What I believe is changing a bit from this relates to linking. Although I feel search engines will always allow proper Reciprocal linking (that's the way the web started) I think we have seen an initial shift from the importance or value a reciprocal link on a links page gets. I say this based on research of sites we track and the number of reciprocal links we gather from quality, relevant, high pr sites that don't appear during a backlink update compared to links we establish through articles or releases that are posted on other sites. Those links that are wrapped in relevant content and usually the only links within the content have shown a much greater propensity to be counted as a back link than a reciprocal link. Again, I am not stating reciprocal linking is dead. I am saying there is and guess what, has been, another method of gaining links that seems to work more effectively. So did we (our company) just stumble upon this? No we've always used a variety of methods to obtain backlinks for clients and ourselves.

Including:

• Reciprocal links
• Links from press releases
• Article releases
• Blog postings
• Forum postings
• Text ads
• Directories
• Verticals
• Horizontals... ok, I'm being funny here but you get the point, lot's of ways to get links.

Again, what I'm saying here is that article writing can help with links but also it serves a very important feature that search engines and visitors like... CONTENT!

So how do you go about this article creation and distribution process? Simple, take the time to Write. If you're selling a product I would hope you know everything there is to know about that product. Features, size availability, color availability, etc also look at how that product impacts a person who uses it. Does it help with some aspect of daily living, their ability to function better physically, emotionally or even spiritually? These might seem like silly questions if the product is a hubcap but if you take a hard look at that hubcap I bet you'll find some interesting angles to write an article(s) about. That's the key, write, write, write.

The steps are:

• Choose a subject
• Use proper spelling and grammar
• Create an introductory paragraph that summarizes your article
• Use links within the article to point to other pages on your site that emphasize or explain a point
• Close with a wrap up or summary of the entire article include a call to action or follow up advice, it's here that you should tie in the product or service you are selling
• End with a short bio or who you are and include at least a link to your website

So the gist is, tell them what you're going to tell them, then tell them and finally tell them what you told them

Once you have written your article and made sure it has been proofread, spell checked and looked over by at least one other person you will need to submit it. The following are some places to submit an article, you should also consider local, state and national press outlets.

• GoArticles.com
• ISnare.com
• SubmitYourArticle.com
• ArticleCity.com
• ExchangeNet.com
• Article-Directory.net
• FreeZineSite.com

Now you've got another prospective on link building but as with all other techniques to getting great search engine rankings, don't try to trick the search engines, you're only tricking yourself and your visitors.

Enjoy!

Mark Stone
Partner
The Info Group
Search Engine Marketing Website Design