If we want to generate traffic to your blog or website to get your word out or even to make money we need search engine ranking. To get a high ranking in the search engines we require a number of backlinks.

One method to get more backlinks is naturally and if you’re a popular blog or website this can be quite easy but for the average site this can be quite difficult and slow. The other method to gain links is to submit your articles or article marketing.  For the purpose of this article we will look at article marketing.

What is Article Marketing?

Article marketing is basically writing an article and submitting it to as many article directories as possible on the internet.  An article directory is a site that collects articles on various topics and gives people a common site for content publishers.

So if you want to create an article called”101 articles to keeping relationship going” and you can only create 50 for your blog then an article directory could be a point of reference.

How does Article Marketing relate to Link Building?

When you submit your article you are required to add a small bio at the bottom of the article, where you can add typically two links back to your site (this will depend on individual sites). This will form the basis of backlinks. So if you submit the article to say 10 article submission sites which all give 2 backlinks you can do the maths you will get 20 backlinks.

Part two of the article directories is if other authors like your article they will publish it on their site and if they follow the rules correctly they will copy the bio (which will include your links) too. Therefore you gain additional links pointing back towards your site.

Automated Article Submission

To submit your article to article directories manually can be very time consuming and this can actually take more time than writing the article itself. We could outsource the submission but this can be very expensive, so we really need a way to automate the article submission process.

To be honest I have tired several automated submission software and they were rubbish, I got few backlinks but not much else. After reading a few bloggers were trying Unique Article Wizard I thought I would give it a go. UAW will cost you $67 per month which sounds a lot but to be honest for what it does its peanuts.

We can’t explain how UAW works as bound by the terms of conditions but basically they create thousands of unique versions of your original article which is still readable to humans. So we solve the issue of duplicate content at the same time.

So now we can have software that will automatically submit original content to thousands of websites with out us doing anything more than setting up the process at the start. UAW has a database of over 11,000 places they can submit your content too.

You will have control on how many sites you will like to submit your article per day, so you can set your submissions to say 50 per day and watch regularly the pingbacks to your posts and make the links look natural in the search engines.

You can now plan to take a website with 10 pages and each one of them should be able to get 1000 links over time and you can see quite easy you will get 10,000 backlinks throughout even if the articles are not good ones now they can still generate links.

So I am going to do my own 30 day experiment with Unique Article Wizard and take a typical underperforming website that is approx 4 months old which now earns coffee money and nothing more and see after 30 days if I can improve the backlinks and at the same time increase my earning.

Optimal Keyword Density for search engines

Keyword density refers to the ratio in percentage of keywords contained within the total number of indexable words within a web page. The optimal keyword density ratio will vary from search engine to search engine. In general, it is undestood that using a keyword density ratio in the range of 3-7%. Which means your keyword will be repeated around 3 to 7 times per hundred words.

Keyword Frequency refers to the number of times a keyword or keyword phrase appears within a web page. The theory is that the more times a keyword or keyword phrase appears within a web page, the more relevance a search engine is likely to give the page for a search using those keywords. Search engines want to see more than one repetition of a keyword in your text to ensure it’s not an isolated case.

It is recommended that you ensure the most important keyword or keyword phrase is the most frequently used keywords in your web page.But as all things, don’t over abuse the system by repeating the same keyword or keyword phrases over and over again.

Keyword prominence.

Keyword prominence refers to how prominent keywords are within a web page. The general recommendation is to place important keywords at, or near, the start of any web page, title, sentence or meta tag.

Keyword proximity.

Keyword proximity refers to the closeness between two or more keywords. Its recommended the closer the keywords are, the better it is.

For example:

1. How Keyword Density Affects ” Optimal Keyword Density ”
2. How Keyword Density Affects “Optimal use of Keyword Density”

Using the example above, if we searched for ” Optimal Keyword Density ” a web page containing the first sentence is more likely to rank higher than the second.The reason is because the keywords are placed closer together.

Tips on Keywords within your webpage.

1. Include at least 100 keywords in page text
2. Use keywords at the beginning of the page, title or meta tag
3. Place keywords close to each other
4. Repeat keywords 3-7 times for every 100 words.

Here is where you should not have many keywords in the same webpage, image having 6 keywords repeating each one 3-7 times per 100 words of text, you will find it very hard to use correct grammar, etc  for any sentence, therefore focus on 1 to 3 keywords.

Relevant Keywords and Phrases

Attract more traffic by careful selection of Relevant keywords and keyword phrases.

The key to the success of your website or blog is to attract traffic, one way of generating targeted traffic is from the search engines e.g. Google and thats though the use of the “keyword” meta tag. This meta tag is used when your site is indexed by all the major search engines with the exception of Excite, Google, Lycos and is one of the elements that is taken into consideration when the search engines decides how high or low your site will be listed on there site.

Deciding upon which relevant keywords and keyword phrases to use for your site will have a critical bearing not only on your position in the engines, but on the level and quality of visitors to your site. If you just guess your keywords your chances of generating the traffic you want are almost zero.

So how do you decide what your keywords should be? Here are five steps you should take that will help you to select the most appropriate keywords for your website.

1. Use the keywords you would use if you were looking for yourself.

Imagine that you are a potential visitor trying to find your own site. What words would you use in a search? Think about it and make a list. Try and think beyond the obvious words, consider using a Thesaurus maybe in microsoft Word to come up with slightly less common alternatives.

2. Now do a search using the keyword or keywords you selected above.

Go to the search engines and do a search using the list you’ve just made. Do the sites that come up in the top thirty look like they are appealing to the audience you are trying to reach? If so, you’re obviously on the right track. Look at the relevant keywords these sites are using (use “view source” in your browser) and see if there are any keywords they are using that could be suitable for your own site. If so, add them to your list but don’t just copy the keywords from the top couple of sites and use them for your own site, it’s unlikely that you’ll get the same results, not to mention that it’s unethical.

3. Use keywords that you know people are searching for.

Make sure that you are using words that surfers are actually use when they search. There are a several companies that will provide details of the top 200 or so search words that are currently being used. Another good source is Meta Spy. MetaSpy shows you in real time the searches actually being performed on MetaCrawler.

4. Using keyword phrases not just individual words.

A lot of web surfers don’t just use one word, they use two or more words or phrases. An excellent way to find alternative  phases is Google Adwords keyword tool.

As an example, is some results from the relevant keyword phrase “making money”:
“making money on the Internet”
“money making easy”
“money making fast”
“making money internet”
“making extra money”
“making money from home”

5. Be more specific about the keywords and keyword phrases you use.

The more specific you are with your keywords or phrases, the better chance you have of a higher listing because there is less competition for your keyword. The best way is by “longtail keywords” its for example, suppose your website is “travel” and a quick search in Google will come up with 1,130,000,000 sites so you can see to compete here will be impossible, so maybe look at “flights” now google reduces it too 3,570,000 sites so the competition is reducing.

Now consider adding “cheap” to  “travel flights” and see what happens and now we have 381,000 sites. which you would stand a better chance of getting high in the rankings on Google.

So by now having a keyword phase of “cheap travel flights” you have reduced the number of sites from 1,130,000,000 to only 381,000 which mays sense.

Sand box is like a holding pen Google Sand box is very similar to a new website been put on probation, and the website is kept lower than expected in search engine searches, after the sites proven its worth before having the full value for its incoming links and content.for new websites to the world of search engines.

The reason behind Google Sand Box is fairly simple its put into place to stop spam related sites that adds numerous purchased links, and ranking highly for their keywords from the date of launch which in turn forces the website’s with real content being pushed down the ranking in search engines. As a result, new sites are put into a form of probation i.e. Google Sand Box.

How long do we stay in the Sand Box?
Stays in the Sandbox can vary from one to six months, with three to four months being the normal time frame. Less competitive searches will be given the much shorter stay, while hyper-competitive keywords will often spend six months in the Box. The most frequent length of stay is about three months for most search terms.

Are there variable lengths of stay in the Sandbox?

The stay in the Sandbox is highly variable. The more competitive the keyword, the longer the site spends in the Sandbox. The filter will be gradually decreased over time, and will lose most of its dampening effect in about three months. Of course, for the most competitive search phrases, the Sandbox filter might remain in full force for six months.

So what can we do to reduce the effect of the Google Sand box?

Its very dfficult to avoid the sand box effect but we can do certain things to show Google that our site is geniune.

• Keep adding content & good incoming links to the sites as time passes by, relevant and fresh content and good links will take you to the top.
• Launch your content progressively instead of waiting for all the sites pages to be complete then launching at one time. Google dislikes a tidal wave of links and content from one site.
• Concentrate more on less competitive keywords so as to get top search results from the very beginning.
• By adding some powerful incoming links, with strong link anchor text, and by adding keyword rich relevant content, your site will rise quickly from the Sandbox.
• Purchase of an already existing domain will help
  
• As Google is not only search engine or marketing tool you can rely on other search engines which have no Sand Box at all or probation period is relatively shorter than Google this will also minimize the damages of the Sand Box effect.

There are many distinct forms of web directories, there is paid and free web directories, and they can be broken down into general directories that cover the whole range of topics or there is web directories that will display a specific niche.

The most frequently asked question is, are paid web directories better than free web directories?

This can either way, maybe paid directories are better or maybe they are not.

The more significant issue in web directories is not what the cost is,  but will your free directory listing be listed at all, you will need to stop and view how superior the directories position/page rank is, this would be something of importance that you will need to discover during your research beforehand. With all of this being said it would make no sense if you were to purchase a listing and the web directory you have paid gets no traffic, this would be considered a failed listing. However, you might discover an available free Web Directory that you select to present and list to that brings you higher levels of traffic; this would match a good selection. The principal matter is research and that you properly you seek out the correct information beforehand before listing any directories.
Here would be an important reason for having your listing in a web directory, that would be backlinks and PageRank. Web directories can help on this  and assist your ranking in the search engine rankings significantly. Many directories simply offer just a straight forward link exchange submissions, this entails you adding there link and they return the link. If you select to exchange links with these web directories just remember that sometimes this is not always a good choice and you should be careful, you should only look to exchange with a directory like this when they have a higher traffic flow that can lead a outpouring to your site otherwise it has no benefit to you. Another reason is that some web directory for your site is if or not the web directory uses the nofollow your links. The “nofollow” characteristic will hold back the search engine spiders or bots from following the connection to your website.
The best way to start maximizing on Web directories is to market your website and to submit to some of the largest web directories that cater to all topics and niches with a high PR. Once you have done this then you can choose to find the smaller niche directories to really pin point in on your specified niche.