Why focus on getting my article to #1 in Ggle?

Simple. If you learn how to get rank 1 for one of your articles in google, you can implement it for all the articles. After all who would say no for all articles ranking in the first page (if not first position)?

Also nearly 56.36% of people click on the first link and only 13.45% click on second. It reduces as you go down the results (via Why You Must be the First, in Google’s Search Results at Least!).

I can give you the real answer.

I can post an article on ezine for say keyword "product a review" and be ranked #1-5 pretty easily once the article goes live.

However if I were to make a website it woud take time (months) and quite a bit of backlinking to get the same page on a website at #1 (fact is a lot of the time aritcles are already in those spots so it makes it even harder to get #1 with a site)

So to answer your questions, you may take a hit on clickthroughs with an article #1 (less affiliate sales) but it takes a hell of a lot less work to get that article #1 then a site of your own.

So most people just mass product articles instead of trying to rank sites.

Ron,

With your site, you can only rank for a a bunch of keywords. But when you have articles, you can rank for any number of keywords. You can pick hundreds of long tail keywords and get your articles rank for them. But you cannot have your main site rank for all the terms.

Or are you talking about submitting articles to article directories, making them rank in search engines and then having them visit your site?

If that's the case, article directories have loads of content in it and have a better chance to rank well in the search engines. Especially EzineArticles has the power to outrank authority sites. Also you can have an article, both in your blog and in article directories. They don't count as duplicate content. It is duplicate content only when you have same content placed in the same domain. So why would you not like to have the extra traffic from article directories?

Hope you are clear now.

I think you should focus on getting your own site's pages to number one.


Andrew

If you have a straight choice between getting an article on a directory to rank number one and getting a page on your own site to rank number one you should obviously choose your own page. But the top article directories (especially EzineArticles and GoArticles) have been around ages and have very high domain authority. This carries a lot of weight with Google and makes it quicker and easier to get stuff to rank.

There's absolutely nothing wrong with writing two articles targetting the same keywords. Posting one to a directory and backlinking it to get a short term traffic boost while at the same time working on a longer term (and more intensive backlinking strategy) to get your own site to rank number one for it.

Another factor that attracts people to try to optimize their ezinearticles, pages rather than their own pages is the "most viewed" list.

After every article on ezinearticles, the website shows a list of the most viewed articles in that category. So these articles actually get a free and very powerful advertising across the whole site to people who are browsing articles in that very topic. It's a case of the rich betting richer: if your article gets a lot of views, then it gets placed on that site-wide listing, which makes it get a wave of new views, which places it even higher on the list, which makes it get even MORE views, etc.

So it's not uncommon to see people trying to get as many views as possible for their articles by optimizing everythin from SEO and even driving PPC traffic to them (although I believe PPC has been recently made against the rules there.)

As told above it's not too complicated to rank for long tailed keywords at #1 position in google, becuase of the high PR of the article directories like ezinearticles or goarticles.

If you want to establish this for your website, blog or lens or whatever you need a lot of qualified backlinks. A great way to get this backlinks is a service like 3waylinks from Jonathan Leger. sure it costs, but you get 250 strong backlinks in return building up over a period of weeks and you can use it for 50 website. I do it and it has helped me a lot !

Mark

Yes, I would opt for my page to rank #1 over an article. That's obvious. But another thing to consider is this. As you go down the front page of Google for a search result, the number of clicks to be expected goes down drastically.

Suppose your page is listed at #2 for a search term. That means that there are nine other competitors on page one sharing traffic with you. Now, if you can get an article to list on page one for that search term, you have effectively eliminated one of your front page competitors.

Now, suppose you can get a couple of feeder pages you create, something like pages on Quizilla, Clipmarks, Weebly, maybe a Squidoo lens--and zap!--now you have eliminated maybe 50% or more of the front page competition. If you could control say 3 out of the top 5 listings on page one of Google, you could control maybe 85% of the traffic and also put your competitors back in the boondocks which is where you want them.

In the past I have had cases where I had 4-5 front page listings for the name of a product I was promoting and I remember thinking, "Hey, I don't really have any competition on page one--I'm really competing with MYSELF for the #1 position."

Now, I can't do that every time, but it is a great feeling when it happens. Good luck!

I'll chime in with the fact that your article at a directory can be picked up for re-publication on other sites (along with a backlink or two to your site). If you use good anchor text in your author box links, this is a definite SEO boon.

By the way, there's really no reason to make this an either/or proposition. Your articles are your property. Put them on your site AND on your favorite article directories.

Here's a clever twist:

1. Choose 2 closely related keywords that are basically interchangeable. Make sure both of them get a decent number of monthly search engine searches.
2. Write an article using one of the keywords and post it on your site.
3. Rewrite the article with minor changes, and switch every occurrence of the first keyword with the second. Submit that article to a directory like EZA or GA.
4. Get backlinks using the corresponding keyword as anchor text.

Now you've taken one article and a very quick re-write and created two keywords you can rank for without much extra effort. For a variation on this model, do a quick re-write of the same article using the same keyword and post the original version on your site and the re-write on a directory. I've done this and gotten both versions ranked for the same keyword on Page 1 at Google.

Lots of ways to skin this cat.

John

Focus on getting high rankings for the properties you own. The people who are bragging about top rankings with articles are taking a very SHORT TERM stance. They do this because it's easy to bank on the rank of the host site. And the bottom line is if you can rank anything in the top rankings that leads back to you there is a benefit... right up to the point where the rug is pulled out from under you.

It all depends on "if" you can turn a profit from the ranking. If you can rank an article and generate profit then do it. But if you are setting a long term goal and building a business you are better off ranking your own properties.

When you rank an article you are creating profit for the host site... but that isn't necessarily a bad thing if you can profit too.

The real advantage to the Article approach is you can get your affialite offer in front of people fast. Seriously... lets say you want to get in on the **** Berry craze... you have time to buy a domain, and rank it? You want to get your offer in front of people fast and this is easier. The **** Berry is this years Gogi, or Mangosteen, or Noni or whatever. (You would think that the way it is promoted people from Brazil are living to be 1,000 years old in perfect health... they are not). People want shortcuts and they want fast and now.

It just depends on what you are doing. If you are the type of person who is looking for a product and then just trying to milk it the Article Method may be great. If you are a Bricks and Mortar establishment and looking to build Brand Reputation and a continual stream of business over time your investment would probably be better served in ranking your own properties.

The real issue is how the method works into your business plan.

I have to agree with Zeus66. I don't see it as an either/or situation. Do both. ANY page that you can get ranked on the first page of the big G is a plus in my opinion.