Article Directory Questions

linkbuilder

I have been trying to get a full understanding of article directories before starting my first GSA campaign.  The reason is that if it is not used in the correct way, I can see much of this link-building being penalized eventually by Google if the right precautions are not made.  The other reason is that it seems to be one of the higher quality engines recommended for first-tier links.

So I would appreciate if you guys can chime in on some or all of my questions and I apologize if it is a little long-winded.

Keyword Density

If you guys are targetting an article about "dog training", would you protect that keyword phrase throughout the entire article so that it is not spun?  I am using an article spinner that allows that option, which is why I ask.

I know that keyword density used to have higher importance years ago with article directories, where you might want a keyword density of 3-5% for the keyword phrase that you are trying to get ranked for (i.e. dog training).  If you do not spin that keyword phrase in any instance, it would be easier to ensure a certain keyword density.

I suspect that keyword density is not an important criteria anymore.  If you generate 100 articles from spun content and do not spin your targetted keyword phrase, you would have a fixed amount of "dog training" phrases on each article.  If you don't spin the article really well, the amount of words per article might be close to the same amount on each article as well.  Therefore, the instances of "dog training" is constant and keyword density is almost constant across a large quantity of articles.  As smart as Google is, I'm sure they will not pass along link juice to your targetted url's when they see such a footprint (assuming they don't already do this).  Is that correct?

So I guess what I'm getting it is you probably don't want to protect your keyword phrase or arrive at a certain keyword density on any given article?

If I wanted to have a certain keyword phrase show up more than another, I suppose that I could just do {dog training|dog training|training your dog}.  Does anyone do this when they want more occurrences of a certain keyword phrase in an articles?

Anchor Text & Linking To Target Url in Body

I'm assuming that the software is not designed to rotate anchor text using the anchor text field?  Obviously, I wouldn't want a generic keyword such as "click here" showing up in the article body.

If I did want to alternate anchor text to my target url in the body, would you just use standard code such as "<a href="http://www.dogtraining>{dog training|training your dog}</a>" ?

Summary Box

Will most article directories accept an article without us submitting a summary?

On a different note, if I had 5 spun articles submitted using this software but only 2 summaries spread across the 5 articles, would the article directories and/or google see this as 3 duplicate articles?  What I am getting at is if you have x quantity of articles, do you want at least x quantity of summaries?

Author Box

Is this where you would want to use generic anchor text included with your targetted url or url's?

If you use your targetted url in the article body using a specific anchor text, would you want to put it in the targetted url with a different anchor text?

Article Uniqueness

Do you guys try to only submit articles to article directories that has a certain percentage of uniqueness or is it not possible to set such a filter?

Thanks in advance and looking forward to the responses!

linkbuilder

Looks like the formatting above got messed up for some reason.

Another question that I forgot to ask is if you guys try to focus on 500 word articles when doing submissions?  I can see that more words would present more unique combinations if done the right way.  However, readability on say, a 1000 word article might be more difficult to obtain on so many articles.

Hopefully that should cover my questions for now. 

fullspeed

"If you guys are targetting an article about "dog training", would you protect that keyword phrase throughout the entire article so that it is not spun?  I am using an article spinner that allows that option, which is why I ask."

You can do it -- one way or the other -- don't think it'll matter much for ON-PAGE.

Variations and uniqueness are my preferred method.

You see -- preserving keyword density is essentially meaningless today.  So I could care less about keyword density as that counts for maybe .125% of Google's methodology.

What I care about is getting keyword phrase distribution outside my site.  That will make up for lack of keyword density with just one two three verified and indexed links -- no matter what quality.

Again -- I'll preach this atop the hill so high -- go for VISITOR experience -- forget about the search engines where it relates to content because your main JUICE and ranking power are the links you acquire to that piece of content.

So you better make sure the visitor experience on that well written, highly spun, yet readable content -- extremely value driven and begs to earn the visitor's vote to read all the way down to the bottom.

It's all a matter of priority on "keyword density" that has been long forgotten as essential or even meaningful -- but my bet is going to be on whether the "visitor's experience" is going to be outstanding and the visitor reads through the page and then also clicks through to MY site as well -- which is hopefully a backlink that Google is counting.

Here's why -- 

Google WILL lower your ranking if your bounce rate is high -- yet another factor to consider in the search engine rankings.  And what ultimately affects the visitor experience is TIME ON PAGE.  If 50-80% of the visitors that land on your web page/site STAY, you'll keep that top Google position for a good long time.

I've got articles that are going on 5 years and STILL rank #1 for their targeted keywords.

There's a reason why -- I grip the visitor and I don't let go until they consume that page.

A GOOGLE HIDDEN FACTOR?

Let's say you have a high ranking page that visitors consume like it was candy and then take the call to action at the bottom to CLICK over to your site, or from a DOORWAY page on your site to the actual sales/review page/post, then it is my logic that applies that you would likely get ADDITIONAL weight to the target web page and have an affect on its ranking -- when visitors click through a page and moves through that content.

You see -- and I don't mean this in a cruel way or a put down or anything -- whereas the priorities seem to be on technical stuff that is, as close to getting into the mind of the visitor and capturing their attention and leading them as the distance between here and Jupiter.

You see -- the thought about PLEASING the search engine is irrelevative.

Google is waging a war on content and link text spammers.

Reportedly on Google's site -- they are battling ONE MILLION PER ____

"Today, we estimate more than one million spam pages are created each hour. This is bad for searchers because it means more relevant websites get buried under irrelevant results, and it’s bad for legitimate website owners because their sites become harder to find."

http://www.google.com/competition/howgooglesearchworks.html

And that particular note is an actual BLESSING because there are spammers that are doing things SO scandalous that makes our stuff not even look worth to raise a brow (well, I can only vouch for my own stuff).  

As far as spinning and anchor text -- yes -- you do NOT want to keep a single keyword phrase.

Keywords like these are considered to be different:

keyword phrases

common keyword phrases

overtly used keyword phrases

commonly known keyword phrases

way overused keyword phrases

keyword phrases overdone

highly contemplated keyword phrases

All those keywords are generally and typically similar that could relate to one page - but they are DIFFERENT keyword phrases -- even if by changing ONE word.

However -- you see that I am able to slip in the MAIN keyword phrase in there -- and if the MAIN phrase was three words -- I would have to get a little more creative.

But it IS mandatory to do this -- and you've got to show ingenuity and strength in diversity of anchor text.

IN THE BODY

Having anchor text in the body of the article is fine -- and I believe that GSA SER does rotate anchor text if you use spintax for multiple keywords in the "anchor text" fill in box inside your compaign settings.

However -- I wouldn't want to use ANY keywords or URLs for the body of my article.

This is your chance to get some good DEEP LINKING going for TWO other pages and 4-6 other keyword phrases.

If you use the SAME genre of keyword and the same URL -- the second duplicate URL has basically zero power and having two duplicate outbound URLs to your money/target site will DILUTE both links.

So I consider the body a way to get TWO BONUS links -- and I like to create a NON-SELF-SERVING link that leads to an authority type site for a keyword -- and then the second link to my site that is SELF-SERVING explains a topic or defines a word or answers a question with 3-6 variations of anchor text.

GOOGLE TIP TO REMEMBER:

Google said as part of last years rollout of Panda update that they are looking for unique content that is thoughtful and well researched.  And well researched papers/white papers usually have references or sources that information was derived from like books and published articles.

So -- if you want to show Google how GENEROUS you are and literally throw their scent off track -- point a link at Wikipedia.org, Amazon.com for a book on the topic or some other authority site on the subject of that keyword phrase.  Google wants to see OUTBOUND links to sites other than within YOUR OWN network.

It's natural.

It's a human thing.

Apply human logic and you'll always win.

GOOGLE FILTERS THAT ARE SURE WINNERS:

Look -- wanting to put 2 Self-Serving links is all about greed and squeezing as many links as possible.

This is classic short term thinking -- and I can guarantee you that Google has a FILTER that probably diminishes the value of an article (even if it is unique) by having a bunch of SELF-SERVING links because you cannot be the "be all" "end all" authority on the topic.  Besides -- it's like putting yourself among geniuses when you quote and refer to other's genius's work outside the article.

VALUE DRIVEN LINK

Lastly -- when you do make that NON-SELF-SERVING link, make it VALUE driven.  Will the visitor get value out of it???

If not -- don't publish it and find something that will ENHANCE the experience of the reader that might land on your article and ends up clicking on a reference that ENHANCES the experience which then shows the visitor you are actually guiding them through the education process on this topic.  Trust is formed, the visitor is now prone to accept a call to action and shall do as you wish them to.

You see -- VALUE IN -- VALUE OUT.

And that is ALL business is about.

You are exchanging your VALUE (content and knowledge) with the visitor's VALUE (their money or interest to follow your click to an affiliate sale or adsense click).

Do you now see HOW focused I am on pleasing Google?

Sure -- it's all in the details -- but my MAIN, PRIMARY, ISOLATED focus is on the visitor every step of the way.

It's like I am clearing all road blocks for visitors to land where I want them as I want them to because it's like a board game where they PASS GO and I collect the $200 on their behalf.

Most folks are doing this search engine optimization and thinking of an article as a device to manipulate Google.

Unfortunately -- I do not!

I think of it as the beginning to my symphony that I shall introduce the visitor to and will build their desire in whatever topic I am discussing before their very eyes.

But that desire will NOT be satisfied on the article page because I will LEAVE something or two things or three things out that the visitor must GO AND CLICK to get that extra bit and learn more from me.

I am therefore using the article (piece of content) as a page in a book that the visitor turns as soon as he reaches the end of the article.

And I want to have the visitor turning the pages of my book from one article (piece of content) to a continuing discussion on a Web 2.0 article that receives the backlink and gives the visitor a little more incomplete information.

Then I want the visitor to turn the page again and continue the dialogue/conversation between us (whether it's one-sided nonetheless -- haha) -- and the visitor finally ends up on my actual WEB SITE where I satisfy his/her building desire to uncover the rest of the tips and secrets --  and I give him the ULTIMATE SOLUTION to cure this nagging, bugging problem that is frustrating and putting this person at dis-ease.

SIDENOTE:

If you want to learn why some markets work better than others for online marketing, all you have to do is ask yourself which person was MORE frustrated with the situation you were address on your site.  People are more empassioned and motivated to MOVE when they are tense and completely a wreck about something.  The reason they get on the search engine is to FIND the solution and relieve the issue -- the problem -- the question that is likely keeping this person up late at night.  Those are the kind of people I always like to market to because they happen to be the easiest to move into action.  Whereas someone who is just lollygagging around and doing research for the next few weeks to make the all-around right decision is gonna take a lot of incentives to get them to act today/right now.  This is the kind of person that is TOO comfortable and doesn't have enough distress to get off the pot and make a decision now gosh darn it!  I want to market to the irritated, disconcerted and folks begging for the problem to be address, be understood and be properly present with a SOLUTION.  If your site is MISSING this -- then you need to re-evaluate your niche market.

END SIDENOTE

So my content literally is a DUAL-EDGED SWORD that cuts both ways.

1)  It is driven toward satisfying and pleasing the visitor to match the content to what  he/she searched for

2)  Because I've centralized the content around the visitor experience, the visitor SHALL experience the value I am giving in the article and will therefore have no need to click the back button, thus becoming the smart bomb to convince Google that this article is worth to keep at the top -- no matter what!

Now that's what I call BULLET PROOFED content!  ;-)

Obviously -- as I am going through this -- there are folks that are KMing or ACWing their content -- which is fine -- but what will the VISITOR VALUE be there?

And if a visitor ends up landing on that content/article page and it just SO HAPPENS to get ranked -- will Google be convinced that the article is a GOOD EXPERIENCE for the visitor if he/she hits the back button 80 - 90% of the time?

I don't think SO!

So you take the short cut -- yeah -- you may get some inbound links to your target site -- but will they be HIGH POWERED links and article/content pages that are like bait to lead a visitor to the promise land?

I don't think SO!

So you're putting a lot of effort into MULTIPLE campaigns that I believe won't be AS effective unless the total focus is on the visitor's experience -- which, in turn, Google will reward accordingly.

See -- again -- to me -- it feels like a LOT of people put plenty of emphasis on the nuts and bolts of SEO rather than putting the focus on what I believe pays 50-100X more in residual returns -- that being, the visitor whose world I am trying to enter.

And to me -- it's ALL the same.

If I get some content in an article directory ranked -- that's the SAME value to me as if someone lands on a UNIQUELY HAND CRAFTED, NOT SPUN piece of content on a web 2.0 property, or a web page on my money site.

When you SHIFT this focus from SEO and aligning with Google's needs, and x, y, z -- your VISITOR CAN FEEL the difference because your conversions will increase due to a happier, more satisfied visitor.

I would say that a VERY LOW % of folks are even approaching things like this -- and those peeps are making out like GANGSTERS in the old Las Vegas days.  

AUTHOR  BOX --

Your author box is where you randomize TWO VARIED ANCHOR TEXTS that are individually spun from multiples of other keyword phrases like mentioned above -- and each anchor text goes to a DIFFERENT URL.  You CAN use, as a spun variation, generic anchor text at this place, but it's NOT completely necessary.

Here's what I would do.

Do something completely nuts and what rare few would consider doing.

fullspeed

HAHA -- my post was 470 characters TOO LONG -- so I'll post the continuation of the post below now:

============================================

(continued)

Give a link away to Amazon.com or some other authoritative site that has content SIMILAR to the theme of the keyword phrase and the content itself.

BE DIFFERENT!

Do stuff that is the complete opposite of a CLEAR sign that you are desiring to link spam.

Be an UNSPAMMER.

Where link spammers are using the same anchor text ALL THE TIME or every hyperlink to the same URL -- you UNSELFISHLY give a link away to some site NOT in your network or control.

Profile what a search engine SPAMMER would do -- overdo, overuse, over-exaggerate and speed up the link building software to try and accelerate rate of success.

Then do the exact opposite.

HINT:  Setup a Web 2.0 blog property on a high page rank site.  Write three pages of unique content off the top of your head and then DO NOT HAVE AN OUTGOING LINK from that property to ANYWHERE.  Let it be that way for three weeks and begin building backlinks to it through other WEB 2.0 properties pointing similar articles or "Turn of the Page" type articles like I refer t above.  After 3 weeks, find a place to put a self serving anchor text link.

Would a spammer do that?

Hell no!

And when GoogleBOT goes by sniffing the Web 2.0 property that has NO outbound links anywhere -- this is the KIND of thing that throws GoogleBOT off by potentially NOT raising any flags -- even if you did kind of OVERDO the link building campaign targeting that web 2.0 blog you set up by hand.

While the spammer is on FULL THROTTLE and balls to the wall - I'm fine just coasting on a consistent basis each day, slowing raising the INTENSITY LEVEL minimal amounts, rather than looking like a 7.6 earthquake spiking on the seismograph.

There is some really great state of mind in here -- but when you get your head complete aligned with it -- you will be powerful and commanding and the visitor will be under your complete control!!!!!!

My name is Ahhhhhh-nold -- I am the Terminayyyyyyyturrrrrrr!!!!

AlexR

I think this is the best post I have read on the GSA forum. Thanks @fullspeed. Bookmarked and needing a review again to take it all in. 

Could you post a sample so we can see what the output looks like? I.e. blur out the text, but give us where you place the links in the article etc. I'm struggling to see the whole picture here...

fullspeed

Here's structure of an article:

===========================

Introductory sentence that introduces topic and article (also uses keyword .

Second sentence that gets into some more detail about the topic, but it really starting to BUILD TENSION.

Then the third sentence gets into things <a href="http://www.amazon.com/book-about-making-decisions.html">a bit deeper</a> now and really starts to divulge the 7 special tips or 5 things to avoid.

1)  Bullet #1 for first tip

2)  Bullet #2 for second tip

3)  Bullet #3 for third tip

4)  Bullet #4 for fourth tip.

You can either put the 2nd anchor text in one of the bullets that addresses the tip and tricks or you can just bury it <a href="http://www.mysite.com/informative-article">within the paragraph like this a bit deeper</a>.  And with those words underlined in blue, it's easy enough for the to click it or not.

This is  the concluding paragraph of this article, and we want to remind the visitor that there are two others things to avoid or two tips and tricks that improve the experience so they would click on the links in your resource box below -- which allows us to keep moving them through a well thought-out map that we ultimately know what they are going to be offered or presented in the end.

=======

RESOURCE BOX

Full Speed is a guy who likes to type out <a href="http://mysite.com/internal page">{long-winded responses|well thought out rubbish|a bunch of hot air}</a> on the GSA Forum and is considering taking a full time position with the <a href="http://mysite.com/internal page">{Dutches of London|spin2|spin3}</a>

-----------------------------------

Note to also SPIN the keywords in the BODY -- yes, even the Amazon one because that is the HUMAN thing to do.  

fullspeed

ALIGNING ANCHOR TEXT WITH TARGET TITLE TAG

I totally forgot this -- and it's another BIGGIE because this FURTHER even boosts the power and relevancy of your backlink from a site.

Once you have your article spun out and ready to spin it for submissions -- after you are done with your submission -- make sure to go to the web pages that are a target of the URL in the anchor text hyperlink pointed at your site/web 2.0 property.

Now look at the Title Tag as you compare it to the list of keywords being spun.

keyword phrases

common keyword phrases

overtly used keyword phrases

commonly known keyword phrases

way overused keyword phrases

keyword phrases overdone

highly contemplated keyword phrases

So if the title tag is a little off on topic -- we can re-write it so anchor text and title tag for the target page is completely relevant, which Google loves so much (relevance and related keywords on the web page).  Here's a sample title tag using a combo of some of the above keywords.

Title Tag of web page at Target URL:

5 Different Common and Way Overused Keyword Phrases

So if you take a look at the keywords and my title tag -- it is screaming a COMBINATION of all those keywords all in ONE title tag -- and that creates a double helix bond of relevancy.  

AlexR

Perfect! I need to go and edit a good number of articles!!!

The next obvious question is:

1) Are you using random names to submit the articles?

2) What about Google authorship...surely best to keep a constant email and author to build up your credibility?

AlexR

I'm not following you with "ALIGNING ANCHOR TEXT WITH TARGET TITLE TAG". I understand that the anchor text should be in the site you linking to title but...

1) What links are you looking at to align? The external, the moneysite or the 2 internal site links?

Looking forward to your response on the names and your opinion on authorship... :-)

AlexR

Oh and the other thing that I didn't get 

"So I consider the body a way to get TWO BONUS links -- and I like to create a NON-SELF-SERVING link that leads to an authority type site for a keyword -- and then the second link to my site that is SELF-SERVING explains a topic or defines a word or answers a question with 3-6 variations of anchor text."

(as per https://forum.gsa-online.de/discussion/856/article-directory-questions#Item_5) 

What are the 2 BONUS LINKS in the body you are referring to? or did you mean resource box?

linkbuilder

Yes, agreed...this is the best post that I have seen on GSA so far.  Thanks for taking the time to write the {long-winded|very informative|detailed} post.  I will have to read this over more than a couple of times.

So you are focusing on visitor experience at the tier 1 level, which ultimately will lead to these links getting ranked correct?  What I don't understand is that if these are article directories (in this example), why would you want to get that ranked?  It doesn't seem like article directories get ranked much anymore, but correct me if I'm wrong.

I used to get articles ranked in ezinearticles years ago, but that seems pretty difficult these days.  Maybe I am misunderstanding the reason behind focusing on visitor experience at the tier 1 level, instead of on my own site.  I guess I don't understand the value of doing so, when most visitors are not seeing the content.

Thanks again for the great response!

gorillape

Great post ^^^^ 

Belongs on a blog!

I think his "bonus links" are innerpage links. He's saying, don't like to your homepage if you already did so in the resource box.