Article Submission Best Practices

There are two ways to use article submission. In one, you spread the word about your services and knowledge. In the other, you boost your website’s popularity in search engines by increasing the amount of links to your site. There is a potential problem though. By submitting to multiple article sites, you can get slapped down by Google. It can be a disaster if you plan on submitting the same article over and over. Different directories require different types of formatting which article spinning doesn‘t take into account. Making sure you submit correctly means the difference between acceptance and rejection. It is not uncommon to be banned after 3 rejections, so this is no joke.

Links may be restricted to one, but could range to as many as three. Resource boxes (where the links typically go) all come with their own specific instructions as to what is allowed and what isn’t. If you don’t follow that correctly, you will not get your content live and will get banned. Article submission software can get you banned really fast, so take the time to submit your articles manually. If that doesn’t work for you, hire a professional article submission service to manually perform the process for you.

Here are a few tips to make the process easier. Write your articles according to an approved template for each platform – don‘t mix and match or you‘ve wasted your time. SEO friendly article writing can help your article rank well in search engines. Don’t ever spin your content using one of those automated tools. All they do is substitute synonyms which often wind up producing articles that read like Klingon viewed in a mirror.

Many article directories want 350-400 word articles, but some insist on as high as 500. 1000 words is the top range – one page articles generally fare the best. Consider linking related articles together instead of having one huge long article. This is good link juice and it is more reader friendly. Google will reward you! Single space your copy, and double space for paragraphing without indentation. Use single quotes when possible instead of double quotation marks as a rule of thumb.

Be careful with spell checkers and grammar checkers, and have a third party proof for you if possible. They don’t always perform as you would expect. After you check everything, your article is ready for submission. Use Notepad to get rid of any excess formatting (for example, copy and paste from Word into Notepad, then cut and paste from Notepad into the article submission system.) Do a final double check for spacing, paragraphing and other formatting. This should make the transition go smoothly.

Some sites will mandate a summary of about 250 words describing your article. You will need to fill in the resource box as well. Do NOT be promotional here! Some directories allow you to tag your article with keywords. Do NOT spam. A few directories allow links in the article body, while others restrict them to the resource box. If your article has been optimized and submitted, you should receive a valuable link to your site. Change your article for each site you submit to so you can avoid duplication across the web. If an article is picked up by Google, you’ll benefit from traffic increases instead of just links! Just stay away from the automated spinners like The Best Spinner can land you on the Google blacklist.