Submitting Articles to Directories - What to Do First

Article submission is an excellent way to get free, targeted traffic to your website, blog, or forum. It is also a great way to gain recognition for your name, or business name, as it pertains to a particular topic.

Many internet marketers understand these things and they are feverishly typing up dozens of keyword articles and submitting them to the hundreds of free article directories that they find on the web.

But, they may be making a mistake. In their quest to get as many articles out as they can, complete with their website linked author's biography, they may be overlooking five simple steps. These steps will make their efforts much more productive, and vastly increase the positive quality of their name recognition.

One: Check Spelling and Grammar

This should be automatic whenever you are sending an article, writing web copy, or even writing an email. Nothing says "unprofessional" more than spelling and grammar mistakes. Most word processing programs have built in spell checkers. Use it before submitting your article to a directory.

Two: Keyword in Title

Whatever your keyword is for a particular article, you should make sure to get that keyword into your article title or headline. After all, this is what people search for when they come to an article directory. If your keyword is not in your article title, it may not be found.

Three: Keyword Density

Most web copy and article experts say that you should aim for a keyword density between two and five percent. You can check your keyword density at such places as Textalyzer.com. When you submit your article to a directory, the most important thing is that people can find it by searching.

Four: Check Word Count

Articles in article directories come in almost any length. However, if you are aiming for professionalism combined with quick delivery, you should make your article between 400 and 600 words.

Five: Write Your Author's Bio

This might be the most important step in preparing your article for submission. Your author's biography is the blurb at the bottom of your article that identifies you, your business, and often includes your website link. You must be sure that your author's bio is attached before submitting your article.

Putting forth a quality product is essential in any type of business. Article writing and distribution is like creating a product and a marketing idea all rolled in to one. Not only does it have to attract quality, targeted traffic to your website, it also has to make readers remember your name. With that great importance, you will want to take the time to do these five easy steps before submitting your articles to directories on the web.