Article directory
Most people have run across article directories on their travels online. To put it simply, article directories or article websites are sites with comprehensive collections of articles written about many subjects.
For the most part, these directories welcome submissions, but they all have their own rules and guidelines. Some may insist that the article be completely unique. They do not want articles you have published elsewhere. Other sites are not as concerned with this. The article directory may wish the article to be a certain length, usually around 400 words. There are usually tools for writing and submitting your article.
One important feature is the resource box. This is where you are invited to put personal information about yourself, and this is where you are invited to put links to your page or landing page. Some of the directories allow one or two links in the body of the article as well. Some do not.
Usually there is a box for tags or categories to help organize their articles, and this also helps with the search engines. These tags or categories are in effect, keywords that will help draw people to your article.
Some of the better directories actually review the articles before they are published. There may be a waiting period of a few days or a week before your article appears. Article directories are also a device for getting traffic and sales.
Some popular article directories include Ezinearticles.com, Smartbananas.com, ArticleBase.com and many more.
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[edit] Submitting Articles for SEO
Article directories allow users to submit unique articles to the directory. These directories allow articles to embed links to other websites with relevant Anchor text. Popular article directories are considered authority sites and are constantly crawled by Search Engine Bots. Webmasters submit articles with relevant anchor text linking back to their site and obtain powerful backlinks.
[edit] Article Structure and Format
For SEO purposes, the ideal article length is 400-500 words with a keyword density of approximately 2%-3%. While discussion has been increasing lately on the effectivenes of longer or shorter articles, it remains general practice to submit articles in the 400-500 word range. Most article submission sites allow links, but they usually limit the amount to 2-3. The backlinks should have anchor text created using HREF tags. Most article directories prohibit keyword stuffing, so it is good practice to use multiple anchor text and links in the article.
