Articles Directory | Free Articles | New Articles Daily | SEO: How Do I Post To Article Directory Sites?

Posting to article directories is an excellent means of promotion.

As I've previously written about the reasons for article submissions, I decided today we'd cover how to submit to article directories.

before we start, I should explain that when choosing where you're going to submit, you should give priority to article submission directories that allow you to include a proper HTML link in your About The Author box. Otherwise, you lose a lot of the SEO benefits from submitting your article.

Nevertheless most directories that don't allow HTML will automatically turn any website address into a clickable link. It's still a link, but lacking the valuable keyword-rich anchor text which search engines use to asses the relevance of a page to a given keyword.

Before you can submit an article, most article sites require that you create an author account. Generally only basic information such as name and email address is required together with a password to login, although occasionally you may also be asked for your physical address.

It's a good idea to create a specific email account at Google, Yahoo, etc., or on your own site to use for submitting to article directories. The volume of email from the better quality sites you join initially will not be a problem, but when you start opening accounts at many of the less respectable directories the amount of email you get will increase greatly.

At most article directories, you will be asked to verify your email address before you are allowed to submit any articles. All you have to do is click on the link in the confirmation email sent to the address you used to sign up.

Once you've activated your author account, you're ready to begin the process of submitting your article by completing the required information and choosing the most appropriate category for it. This is important. If you select the wrong categories, your article won't be effective.

Don't be tempted to list your articles in unrelated categories thinking it will bring some advantage over the competition. It won't. It will work against you in terms of both visitors and SEO benefits and may also get your account deleted if repeated.

This sounds obvious, but take some care to read any instructions and complete the article submission form correctly. Where articles are reviewed manually, mistakes here will cause your article to be rejected. If on the other hand submitted articles are automatically accepted, any mistakes you make will be published to the directory. Assuming you realize you've made a mistake, you can of course edit your article to fix it, but there's no saying that will be the case.

The information required is fairly standard across most article directories, with form fields for you to put the title of your article, the main article body, and your Resource Box or Byline.

Use word caps for your title, don't enclose it in quotation marks, and don't use punctuation at the end unless it's a question mark or exclamation. Some directories allow the use of HTML in the article body. This is something you might want to consider using in order to improve presentation..

Some article directories also require a short description or synopsis of the article, and give the option of tagging your article with keywords to aid in searches. If this option exists, always make full use of it by adding as many relevant keywords as the site permits.

Note I said "relevant keywords." Keep your focus reasonably narrow, and if you've exhausted the main keywords for the topic, move on to synonyms, rather than broader terms. Never use unrelated keywords, it will only harm, not help your submission.

Before clicking the "submit" button, review your submission, doubling checking that there are no ommissions or errors

If articles are accepted automatically, your article will be added to the directory immediately and you will receive a confirmation email from the article submission webwebsite. At the higher quality directories, all articles have to be reviewed before they are approved for inclusion. This can take a few days, after which you will be notified whether or not your article submission was successful.

Submitting to article directories may feel like a lot of work at first, but don't let that stop you. Much of that is simply because it's something new to you. The more you do it, the easier it will get.