Article marketing is a cost-effective way to increase your online visibility, drive traffic to your site, and bring in more business. One article provides long-term results, exposing your company to thousands of potential customers—over and over again. Every article you place drives more traffic to your website and improves your site’s link popularity and search engine rankings.

Online articles are an excellent resource for potential clients and illustrate you’re an expert in your field. When writing online articles, it’s important for them to be well written, informative, and unique. This rule applies no matter where you submit your article.

Make sure the article is focused and expresses your expertise. The article should NOT sell your product or service—it should be informative and relate to your industry. For example, if you specialize in web copywriting and online website promotion, instead of writing all your articles about web copywriting tips, try to think outside the box and touch different industries in a unique way. Use what you know about online website promotion, and apply it to a specific industry.

There are five key platforms to submit online articles to, in order to increase SEO:

• Reputable article directories.

• Popular bloggers.

• Social media sites.

• Social bookmarking sites.

• Online publications.