Article Writing and Distribution: The Highest Level of SEO

Article writing and distribution — it’s one of those multipart arts that’s extraordinarily hard for one person to really master. Most people — myself included — who have a modicum of talent at writing (in all humility) simply don’t have the kind of patience or detail-oriented mindset to follow through with the long, complex, and ultimately boring process of properly submitting those articles. Similarly, the kinds of minds that make mincemeat out of article distribution generally aren’t capable of producing copy that normal human beings enjoy consuming.

But, for all of it’s pain-in-the-butt-ness, article writing and distribution is the pinnacle of organic SEO. It creates backlinks that have nearly every element of a perfect backlink: they’re

• Context controlled: the creator gets to determine the content around the link.
• Anchor text controlled: the creator gets to determine the anchor text used.
• Authoritative: a good article directory pulls a LOT of juice.
• Persistent: most article directories only take down an article if they’re legally obligated to do so.
• Replicable: turning in the same article to many different directories gets you many different backlinks from different root domains.
• Relinkable: you can profit greatly from linking TO your article from other sources as well as linking FROM your article to your site, thus expanding your sales funnel.

That’s nothing to shake a stick at — but there’s an entire other level of power to a well-written article: the power to act as an extension of your brand. In effect, when a surfer lands on an article you’ve written and then they clickthrough and see your website, they permanently connect the quality and content of the article with that website. As such, if you get someone to write you a killer article, you can actually improve the conversion rate of the visitors that click through that particular link to get to your site.

In short, while articles take a lot of time and effort — at least, the ones that will be of actual value to your business in the long run do — the value they create is well worth it.