Get a top 10 ranking without paying a cent
by Glenn Murray
Published on this site: October 3rd, 2005 - See
more articles from this month
If there's one thing that Google loves, it's content. Done
right, a content rich website is almost guaranteed to rank
highly. But how to get that content? You can write it yourself,
but that takes a lot of time. You can pay an SEO copywriter
to write it for you, but that takes a lot of money. If only
there was another option...
What if you could get your content for free? And not just
a little bit of content; a lot! What if you could get an almost
unlimited supply of keyword rich, expertly written content,
specific to your subject matter, absolutely free of charge?
Would you snap it up and upload to your site in an instant?
Of course you would! Well here's the good news: you can! Read
on to find out how you can get a top ten ranking in the search
engines without paying a single cent...
Yes, Content Gives You a Great Ranking
Content is king. This is widely acknowledged as fact, but
if you need further convincing, consider the following two
points:
- Point - In Google's own words, one of the keys
to a high ranking is to "create a useful, information-rich
site" (from "Google Information for Webmasters"
-
http://www.google.com/webmasters/guidelines.html
- Point - Google insider, codenamed 'Google Guy',
advocates a list 26 steps to building a high ranking site.
Step 5 of the list says, "build one page of content
and put online per day at 200-500 words" (from Brett
Tabke's "26 steps to 15k a Day" -
http://www.searchengineworld.com/misc/guide.htm, advocated
by Google Guy in a WebMasterWorld QA session -
http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum30/29727-6-10.htm
But Why Does Content Give You a Great Ranking?
I won't go into any further detail about IF Google loves
content. I will, however, briefly explain WHY. Google's love
affair with content is based on two key attractions:
- Google loves sites with a lot of content because it assumes
they provide a lot of useful information. And remember,
that's the whole reason Google exists - to help people find
useful information. The more helpful Google's results, the more traffic (and revenue) it gets.
- Google loves sites that have a lot of links pointing
to them because this means other webmasters hold your site
in high regard, and Google assumes this means the content
is useful. And naturally, if you create a useful site, other
webmasters will link to it because this makes them useful
to their visitors (thereby developing site loyalty), and
they gain credibility and authority because they're associated
with you.
So How Can You Get Free Content for Your Website?
Three words: 'free reprint articles'. There are hundreds
of thousands of people out there writing high quality, helpful,
informative articles on virtually every topic imaginable,
then giving these article away to any webmaster who wants
to publish them on a website. In exchange for the article,
the author asks only that you retain the author bio at the
end, complete with all links (e.g. "Glenn Murray is an
SEO Copywriter and Article Submission Specialist...).
To find free content for your website, simply visit any one
of hundreds of 'article banks' on the Internet such as http://www.ezinearticles.com,
http://www.goarticles.com,
or http://www.articleblast.com.
Browse or search for the subject you're interested in, then
take the article(s) for free. There is absolutely no charge.
Some of these sites will even send a regular stream of articles
direct to your website (using RSS).
Alternatively, you can sign up to any number of article distribution
lists and get articles delivered direct to your email inbox.
Again, it's absolutely free! Some of the better known distribution
lists include
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/article_announce,
http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/Free-Content, and
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Free-Reprint-Articles.
TIP: The article banks and distribution lists mentioned
above are just the tip of the iceberg. There are hundreds
more - just do a search for "free reprint articles",
"article submission", "article submission site",
"submit article", "article submit site",
"free articles", or "free content". You
may even find a site or list which only deals in articles
relating to your particular subject matter.
Why is it Free?
Why are these authors giving their articles away? Because
it helps the author's own search engine ranking. It's a promotional
activity known as 'article PR'. As explained above, Google
loves sites with lots of links pointing to them. Every time
their article submission is published, the author gets another
link to their website. In fact, if the article is really good,
it may be published hundreds of times. And each time, it's
another link to the author's website. Put simply, article
submission is a writer's free pass to the top of the search
engines. (In this sense, the "PR" in article PR
stands for PageRank.)
Furthermore, like traditional public relations, article PR
also conveys a sense of authority because your articles are
widely published. And because you're proving your expertise
and freely dispensing knowledge, your readers will trust you
and will be more likely to remain loyal to you. (In this sense,
the "PR" in article PR stands for Public Relations.)
How Do i Know If the Quality is Good?
It's a process of natural selection. The better the article
submission, the more often it will be published, so it's in
the author's interest to write and submit articles of the
highest quality. Of course, this doesn't always happen, but
in most cases, you'll be reviewing the articles before you
post them anyway, so if you discover one that's not up to
scratch, don't use it.
In time, you'll become familiar with the authors who consistently
put out good quality content - you may even find enough of
them that you don't need to go looking for content from anyone
else...
Where Do i Put the Free Content
Most poeople put the articles in an 'Articles' or 'Resources'
section on their website, but you can put them anywhere you
like.
How Much Free Content Should i Use?
As much as you want or as little as you want. It all depends
on your needs and the needs of your audience. If your audience
expects that at least some of your site is original content,
then give it to them.
But What About the Duplicate Content Issuse?
It's not an issue!
There's a lot of a talk about how Google penalizes duplicate
content. The theory is that when the majority of the content
on two separate webpages (on different sites) is the same,
the one with the higher PR will be shown and the other one
will not.
Whether or not this theory is true is still a hot topic in
search engine circles, but regardless, it doesn't affect people
publishing free-reprint articles. When you publish the article,
just make sure you have unique content around it. Generally,
it's enough to have your own unique introduction to the page
(which may be common to all pages), and your own navigation
elements, headers, footers, sidebars, logos, images, etc.
Conclusion
Free reprint articles are a great way for you to achieve
a high ranking. And you don't have to pay a cent! So what
are you waiting for?
Happy reprinting !
Glenn Murray is a director of SEO copywriting studio,
Divine Write. He is a renowned SEO copywriter and an article
PR specialist. For more information, please visit http://www.divinewrite.com.
Glenn can be contacted on Sydney +612 4334 6222 or at [email protected]
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