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What is an article directory?
An article directory is a site that aggregates unique content submitted by web users. These articles cover a wide range of subjects and are usually listed under specific categories. Some directories allow anchor links or basic links within the copy, hence their importance for SEO.
Article directory history
Until recently there were a lot of article directories available online with content ranging from the very useful to the very spammy. The fact that search engines indexed these directories and gave them link popularity led to abuse by unscrupulous SEOs. Automated content, scrapped content, keyword stuffing and other "shady" practises forced Google to take action last year via it's now (in)famous Panda update.
While this meant the end of the road and lost rankings for many directories, it helped legitimate article directories become once again what they were in the past - trustworthy sources of information for web users.
Articles for SEO
Now that the "bad" article directories have been sidelined, it is possible for a business to use articles and publish them on directories to get genuine SEO benefits.
What do you need?
- Unique content - write specific articles for each submission, do not use existing web content
- Keywords - identify the right keywords for your business and which page of your site each keyword should consistently link to. Once you have this done, use these keywords in your content and articles
- Good content - don't write content for search engines, write content that will be useful to your audience
- Think quality more than quantity
Here's a quick list of some of the best and most respected article directories out there. Some of them will allow anchor links within the copy, others only allow links in signatures, so read the guidelines carefully before posting.
- Thefreelibrary (PR 7)
- Gather (PR 6)
- ezinearticles (PR 6)
- articlealley (PR 5)
- articledashboard (PR 5)
- amazines (PR 4)
- goarticles (PR 3)
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