Should I use online article marketing for my locally based business?
Written by enetwal on July 21, 2009 – 4:54 pm -Online Article Marketing
Online Article Marketing is a highly effective tool used to sell both hard goods and information products to national and international audiences. But does it make sense for a small locally based business to use it as well. In a word, Yes!
Businesses use online article marketing to establish themselves as experts, to drive traffic to a sales page and to build back links.
While the first two are important, they are less valuable to the local business person, after all most readers will not be from your market place. Nonetheless some will be, but that’s gravy.
The real advantage of online article marketing for a local business is to out rank their competitors on the search engines. And that does make a real difference for many.
Each time an article is listed on an article directory or published in an ezine or blog, a new back link is created which the author of the article can direct to wherever they choose.
These back links from multiple sites factor into how some search engines like Google rank your site. A site that has links coming to it from a wide variety of sources is more likely to be seen as highly relevant.
While there are many factors that apply to search engine optimization, in general, the web site that has a lot of back links tends to be ranked higher than a comparable web site that has only a few. Online article marketing is one of the best ways to get a ton of such back links for free.
The key to your success is to identify a keyword that people search for, relevant to your specific business or a product you sell. Write the article about that keyword. Include the keyword in your title. And then use it in the resource box you prepare to go with each article you write.
In the resource box you will tell the reader who you are and invite them to come to your web site. You are usually allowed two hyper links by most article directories. You want to use your keyword in the resource box, and hyper link it to the URL of your web site. Ideally you want it to go to a page on your site dealing directly with the product you are selling.
Such hyper linked keywords are called anchor text. The search bots that roam the internet pay attention to them. By using the keyword, you are letting them know that the landing page you are sending them to is related to the keyword.
Thus when someone in your local market searches for “Primer Paints in Baltimore”, the odds are a little better that your shop’s web site will appear higher than your competitors. And that’s what you want.
Getting good back links is like naming your business AAAPaints in the old days when people used to use the yellow pages. Now they use computer search to find almost everything. And that’s why you should be using online article marketing to build your search engine ranking, even if no one in your market place ever reads them.
For more information on Online Article Marketing go to my blog on Article Marketing. http://ArticleMarketingHint.com
Over the years I have used a number of different paid keyword tools. The most effective and best value I've found is Market Samurai. I highly recommend it.
Tags: anchor text, Backlinks, mainstreet business, resource box, SEO
Posted in Article Marketing | 11 Comments »
Says:
July 21st, 2009 at 6:00 pm
A very important point you’ve raised for marketing offline businesses, Earl! And the beauty of article marketing is they can knock off an article any time business is slow, or to push a new product or product line they’re getting in, new services they offer, etc., and then just go online at any point to submit them.
Doug Champigny´s last blog ..Beyond SEO: 15 Free Ways To Promote Your Site Effectively
Says:
July 21st, 2009 at 6:52 pm
Good advice Earl!
Your right, the key here is finding good keywords to use, keywords which your market searches for. A lot of beginner marketers make the mistake of “assuming” they know what the best keywords are, but sometimes they are quite different from what we think. Proper research is a must.
Says:
July 21st, 2009 at 7:04 pm
Really amazed what articles can do for your site. It can be seen by the masses and if it is good enough you may have other websites using your article on their site. Now that is viral marketing at it’s best.
Andre Arnett´s last blog ..Do You Have A Mentor
Says:
July 21st, 2009 at 7:36 pm
You make a great point Earl in that all the local business needs to do is to outrank their local competition.
Article Marketing is a great way to do this and you might still get that stray customer, that just happens to be local, from reading your article.
This brings up a question.
Do you think it would help to include your demographic information in the article? Seems like you might stand a better chance of getting more locals reading your articles that would then follow the link to your website
Brett McEllhiney´s last blog ..Learn 14 Top Traffic Tips From Willie Crawford and Doug Champigny
July 22nd, 2009 at 10:08 am
Good idea, and frankly I’m not sure. If it is too locally oriented some directories and editors may choose to not publish it. Since we are primarily going for back link power, I would tend to want to keep it geographically neutral to get maximum distribution. But it would be an interesting experiment.
Says:
July 22nd, 2009 at 12:28 pm
Great points being discussed here. Putting geographic data into your article and keywords makes only sense if you want them to go to a local website but it that case powerful and helpful to do it.
Fred
Fred Lotgering´s last blog ..Ways Not to Make Money with Twitter
Says:
July 22nd, 2009 at 1:28 pm
Earl, you are right using article marketing can be as effective way to help establish yourself as as expert. It works quite well online. Don’t see any reason why article marketing would not work for the local market also. The main problem might find places to publish your articles so that you lock customers can find the articles.
Lonnie Minton´s last blog ..Three Tips For Building Your List Now
Says:
July 25th, 2009 at 7:42 am
Article marketing is a must, no matter what business you are in. There is no easier way to build incoming links
Alex´s last blog ..$1128 Niche Profit Classroom Bonus And Discount
Says:
July 28th, 2009 at 9:11 am
Great point. When I search for local service using Google I always enter the city as a keyword. Using article marketing for offline businesses will help to rank your site higher that your local competition.
July 29th, 2009 at 5:33 pm
Hi Earl,
This is my first time here, it is very professional, why shouldn’t it be you are one of the best of not the best!
Though I could be bias.
You sure do know your stuff keep it up and keep passing it along.
Thanks talk to ya soon!
Jackie
July 29th, 2009 at 5:43 pm
Thanks for the kind words.