A few questions about backlinks

[Matt281]

I'm relatively new to this but I just got my first 3 websites up around a week ago and have about 25 articles between all of them. I'm just starting the backlink process. For far I've written 3 or 4 backlink articles, targeting 2 keywords each.

So a few questions before I get too far into this:

1. Some article directories like GoArticles will take duplicate content. Is it best to just submit original articles to directories that require it (like Ezine) and then submit copies to the other directories? Or are those backlinks weaker and not worth doing (in which case I'd just submit originals to all of them)?

2. How do links between pages on your own site help you? Do they function like backlinks? Are they less powerful? Are there other reasons to do it?

3. Does quality matter at all for sites where articles are only checked by a computer? Can I just bang out some nonsense with a few related keywords on sites like that?

Thanks!

[AlexJHN]

What I do is I write quality articles and I submit them to only top article directories these would help a lot.

[Matt281]

I'm doing that, but I was under the impression that also submitting duplicate content or lower-quality articles to other sites is also important.

If I need a few dozen backlinks for a page to rank well, I need to get them from more than a couple article directories because they start to be less effective when they all come from one place.

[Matt281]

Anyone? =(

[JHolness]

If your worried about duplicate content Matt281, here's what I do.

Have one article written around my main keyword term. I use that article on my blog. Then I have the same article rewritten a few times and use those to post out to the article directories. Doing it this way gives you piece of mind that your not using duplicate content, and you are getting the backlinks.

Remember that article marketing is just one way to get backlinks. You can do forum posting, blog posting, use RSS feeds. Your have plenty of options with this.

[Matt281]

Thanks, but that still doesn't really answer the question. Regardless of what else I do, I'm going to be submitting ORIGINAL articles to Ezine and other directories that require original pieces.

What I'm asking is, for article marketing on sites that DON'T require original content, is it effective to submit that same article to them, or would it be devalued somewhat? In other words, is it worth submitting original content to directories that don't require it?

[smorse1]

My strategy is just that - submit an Ezine article - as high quality as possible, this will pay dividends as it gets copied and reposted on other blogs with your backlinks intact.
Rewrite the same article, and submit it to 3 or 4 article directories like Goarticles.
The power is not really in the article directories themselves, but when those articles get copied. (that's my opinion, but it's also from firsthand experience).

[smorse1]

To answer your question - I rewrite the article after the ezine submission because of the lag time for it to be reviewed, that way I can submit the article to all spots and be done with it and on to others.

[Matt281]

Cool, thanks. How high quality are we talking here though? The ones I've been submitting are about 500 words and well written. Is there enough reposting of the ezine articles that it's worth putting a ton of effort into them? I know with goarticles I've got like 3 views after a week and a half.

Also, does anyone know about the other two questions in the original post?

[shaneparksons]

Originally Posted by Matt281

1. Some article directories like GoArticles will take duplicate content. Is it best to just submit original articles to directories that require it (like Ezine) and then submit copies to the other directories? Or are those backlinks weaker and not worth doing (in which case I'd just submit originals to all of them)?

The question is, where is your article campaign leading to? If you answer, to get backlinks from article directories, then better submit a single piece on all of them and wait for all the backlinks to be counted. But if you answer, to get backlinks from those blog sites getting articles from article directories, then what you need to do is trim your list of article directories and prioritize those where most of the blog / site owners acquire free articles from.

Originally Posted by Matt281

2. How do links between pages on your own site help you? Do they function like backlinks? Are they less powerful? Are there other reasons to do it?

Do you mean internal linking? As for me, I am taking advantage of it for theming pages, the geeks call it siloing. For instance, a loan page should only give link to loan related references, which means linking to non-related pages will devalue the page topic focus.

Originally Posted by Matt281

3. Does quality matter at all for sites where articles are only checked by a computer? Can I just bang out some nonsense with a few related keywords on sites like that?

You could do this if you only care about getting backlinks. But if you aim to gain backlinks and at the same time conversion, you better showcase a great copy.

[Matt281]

Originally Posted by shaneparksons

The question is, where is your article campaign leading to? If you answer, to get backlinks from article directories, then better submit a single piece on all of them and wait for all the backlinks to be counted. But if you answer, to get backlinks from those blog sites getting articles from article directories, then what you need to do is trim your list of article directories and prioritize those where most of the blog / site owners acquire free articles from.

Well ideally it would be from several bloggers copying articles, but as I mentioned some sites article submission sites get very few views. It seems like Ezine gets a lot, so it seems like the key is to submit higher quality articles to directories like that and lower quality articles to directories like GoArticles. --- My question was, for the lower quality sites that I don't expect to get copied and reposted - does original content matter?

Do you mean internal linking? As for me, I am taking advantage of it for theming pages, the geeks call it siloing. For instance, a loan page should only give link to loan related references, which means linking to non-related pages will devalue the page topic focus.

Yeah I was talking about internal linking. I've heard it strengthens the themes of the pages so I've been linking to relevant articles. But how important is this when the website is new? And how closely related do the articles have to be?

You could do this if you only care about getting backlinks. But if you aim to gain backlinks and at the same time conversion, you better showcase a great copy.

Ok cool.

[JamesGw]

I usually don't even bother spinning the articles when I submit them to other directories. I'm just concerned about the backlinks, not the traffic the articles are getting. Lately, I've been getting my article submission services from fiverr and they tend to spin them, which doesn't really make a difference to me.

[sunnychakes]

I always try to post a unique article in a single article directory. I never use it in other places. Even for blog I never use any of my content to several places. I always try to maintain the uniqueness. Yes, once posting any of my content I spin it sometimes and post to a different place.

[Ditso]

Originally Posted by AlexJHN

What I do is I write quality articles and I submit them to only top article directories these would help a lot.

Who do you rate as "top article directories"?

[Matt281]

Anyone know the reasoning behind it though? Seems like there's people doing it both ways.

[strategic seo services]

Originally Posted by Matt281

2. How do links between pages on your own site help you? Do they function like backlinks? Are they less powerful? Are there other reasons to do it?

Interlinking is very important, and it definitely helps rankings.