How to Add an Article Directory to Your Site
Posted by Steve Lazuka on Mon, Jan 12, 2009
No matter what the nature of your site, you should seriously consider adding an information resource section to it that is full of great, fresh content. Whether it’s a retail site or a strictly information-based site, your readers will benefit from a section that contains a wide breadth of in-depth information about your topic. Studies show this content-based strategy will keep visitors on your site longer, and keep them coming back more often… both leading to higher conversion rates.
Not to mention the fact that search engines love fresh content and this approach can lead to a dramatic increase in free search engine traffic from specific high-value keywords over time.
Information Articles
One of the best ways to accomplish this is by adding informative articles about your industry, product, or service. When you start thinking about all the various topics, you will realize that there is an endless amount of information you could be sharing with your readers. It just takes a bit of creativity.
In essence, this strategy is like adding a mini article directory to your website.
What’s an Article Directory?
An Article Directory is an organized list of directories, organized by category. The most popular article directory is www.ezinearticles.com, which gets millions of visitors each month and ranks high in Google for thousands of terms. This site allows the public to submit articles in exchange for a link back to their site at the bottom of each article. It’s like trading knowledge for a quick plug of your service, which has been going on in the off-line world for decades.
How You Can Create a Mini Article Directory On Your Website
It’s easy! All you need to do is add a link on your homepage called “Articles” or “Blog”. From here, the link goes to a directory page that lists all the article or blog post titles, perhaps with a few teaser lines to give a taste of what the article is about.
You can see how we use this strategy on our own site. Our homepage has a link called “Blog”. From here, it links to our article directory page here:
http://www.interactmedia.com/blog/
Post Often
Once your article directory is set up, you should add fresh content to it as often as possible. Don’t make the mistake of thinking you can add 10 articles, sit back, and wait for the traffic to pour in immediately. A good content strategy involves posting regular content. Both people and search engines will take notice when they see that, over time, you are continually adding more and more great content to your site.
Letting Others Post an Article In Your Directory
One great way to get some more free content for your article directory is to let others write articles and post it to your site. As I mentioned above, this is like trading information for a link back to their site. You could set up a page on your site that allows people to submit articles, which you could review first to make sure that the article is worthy before posting it. The writer will expect you to add a “for more information” their link at the bottom of the page, which is a fair trade-off since you are getting a full license to use the content on your site.
Optimize for Specific Keywords
Don’t forget to think about the keywords you want to target when writing and posting any articles. When possible, you should try and incorporate these keywords into the title and body of the article. Don’t overdue it though or you could risk getting an over-optimization penalty from the search engines. The general rule is to always write for humans first and foremost. If it sounds awkward to a human, than it could very well appear awkward to a search engine spider as well.