Is SEO Is limited when it comes to article marketing?

So if you are saying that a lot of the article marketing traffic (according to the expert you spoke with) does not come from the search engines, then what are the sources that they are saying this article marketing traffic comes from?

I always understood that they majority of the article marketing traffic does come from the search engines, and that is why some many article marketers wouldn't live without tools like Micro Niche Finder.

Hmm, I think what your friend was experiencing was the long tail effect, and a much more natural search engine optimisation experience than they could otherwise have planned for.

Let me explain...

When first starting out with KW research, you assume that people are just typing in these discrete phrases as reported by Google Keyword Tool, or Wordtracker.

In reality, every day people are typing in unique search phrases that are in low volume, very low volume infact, and typically do not even show up in keyword traffic estimations.

When you write an article and submit to ezinearticles, you don't simply rank for the keyword you intended to, you literally rank for dozens.

In fact, you can see which keyword brought a visitor to your article by going into EZA, click the amount of views you have, then viewing 'more detailed data'.

You'll see that a large portion of your traffic comes from the search engines and from very specific long tail keywords, but not necessarily the keyword you were targeting.

Cool huh? there's a reason they call these results 'natural' and organic!

As far as using SEO in your articles, its good to base them around one keyphrase that you has reportedly high traffic, but I can certainly see why your friend would be experiencing high views without focusing too much on SEO.

The articles being distributed is another way they could get exposure, but in terms of traffic quality I would say search engine traffic still dominates.

Actually, there are 3 ways to use article marketing:

1. As backlinks building method - spin and send articles to blog network or directories, get backlinks for your keyword. Proved to work again and again! Just take a bit more time as compared to other link building method.

2. Create exceptional great content - This used to work great few years ago, when there aren't much "noise" on those directories. It still work today, but you need to build a list of directories, publishers who had traffic and authority, send your article to them whenever you had a very good one! They will send you traffic and sales, and the best part is - If you had an affiliate program, you can share profit with them, which they would more than happy to publish your content!

3. BUM marketing - Use the domain authority on web 2.0 or article directories, to rank high for targeted keyword. You must optimize keyword on your article in these areas:

a) Title
b) 1st Paragraph
c) Middle Paragraph
d) Last Paragraph

This method work better in these days, where keyword research plays the most important part. Many big name article marketer start to use this method, but they aim for higher search volume keyword, which had more competition. Since they know how to backlink and get their article high, and attract tons of traffic to their site or direct sales, they can make a lot of money just from few articles!

The sky is the limit here, combine 3 methods and you can draw tons of traffic, lead and sales to your site!

Kok Choon

Writing quality articles with relevant content seems to get a lot more long tail searches than just optimizing for one keyword.