Article marketing, marketing your site by contributing guest articles for other website owners, is becoming fairly common. While spammers have given it a dreadful reputation it's a solid technique for attracting traffic to CPA websites. If you're not familiar with SEO (or Search Engine Optimization) tactics, you may not be quite sure why that is. That's certainly not something to be ashamed of. The SEO business, like the tax business, is exceptionally dynamic.
The difference between article marketing and spam is article quality. Spammers use automated systems to create content that ranges from sheer nonsense to something that looks a lot like bad English. Good content provides the same backlinks to CPA websites, but the quality allows them to be published by better websites. This makes them much more effective both as SEO tools and as traffic bait.
Of course in order for article marketing to drive traffic to your site your posts have to inspire people to actually read them. There are a few simple tricks that can help you do this but first lets clarify the reasons we're asking you to take the time to do it...
* Articles generate a buzz about your business. Depending on where you submit them, they're likely to be read by hundreds or maybe even thousands of individuals the world over. Proof read and fact check. Make sure your article will reflect positively on your firm.
* Your article can provide backlinks to accounting and CPA websites. Best of all because you're writing the content yourself you can give these links any anchor text you want. Why, you ask? Well, not only will it prompt readers to click on the links and possibly gain you a customer on the spot, it'll also give the search engines (Google for example) an extra reason to rank your website closer to the top of its listings. You may already know this, but it bears repeating anyway. These "backlinks" are very important to your CPA website's search engine rankings.
Baring this in mind it becomes clear that article quality is very important. Knowing this what steps can you take to make your articles more likely to grab and keep the readers attention? Follow these five easy tips and you'll soon watch your popularity grow enormously...
1. Don't spam. Articles need to be interesting and persuasive. Present relevant information and do it in a simple, creative or even fun way. Your readers should be able to go out and apply this newfound knowledge in their everyday lives. This will draw the reader in and perhaps even inspire him to click your link. Even if it doesn't, though, your brand will be making a positive impact with the prospect.
2. Don't stuff your article with keywords just to rank in the search engines. For one thing keyword stuffing drive away quality publishers and readers. In addition the search engines can usually spot keyword stuffing and if your article is flagged as spam the backlinks become useless. Keywords need to be used sparingly: once in the title, once in the first paragraph and once in the last paragraph is usually more than enough to get you noticed.
3. Ensure your writer understands the audience you are trying to reach. If you don't have time to write your own articles, well... welcome to the club. There's nothing wrong with hiring help, but make sure the share (and write to) your understanding of your clients needs. If your reader feels your article connects with them on a personal or professional level it will be much more effective.
4. Make sure your writer understands at least the basics about your market. They'll need to understand both the geographical and cultural details of your prospects, and they need to be fluent in English (or whatever language your customers prefer). A badly written article can be incredibly difficult to read and is more likely to put a possibly client off than attract them to your business.
5. For extra readability, it's a great idea to use bullets and numbers to break up your writing into bite sized chunks. Information is much easier to abide when served in small portions, and since you need your readers to take in as much as possible, this is a terrific writing technique to use. Visitors are much more likely to visit linked CPA websites if they find your post easy to absorb.
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