Public relations writers have long known the value writing and publishing articles can have on your branding and credibility. Search engine marketers are now beginning to realize the importance these articles can have in building inbound links to your web site and thereby increasing your rankings.

By using this method, you can establish a large number of links very quickly. Three or four hours of work writing an article and submitting it to article directory sites can establish a dozen or more links after search engines re-index these sites. By spending extra time finding just the right sites to submit your articles, you can also increase your perceived level of expertise and credibility as well as increasing your sales.

For a quick start in obtaining links, follow these steps:

1. Write an article

Write a 250 word article that you feel will be helpful and informational to your audience. The key to getting links is to include a short bio and a link back to your web site.

Use keywords that are important to your web site in the link back to your site. That makes the link more important for increasing your rankings. Search engines like to see links between sites with related content.

2. Submit the article

Submit the article to the general interest article directories listed below. These directories are where web editors come when looking for content for their own web sites. Since your article is listed both in a subject category and as the complete article, the bio and link you included will create a link from a high-content site back to yours. Submit to 12 directories and you have 12 links. And every time your article is used by another webmaster, you obtain another link.

3. Repeat the process

Every time you write and submit a new article, you have developed another dozen inbound links. And the number of links keeps growing every time your article is used.

Build Brand and Credibility

If you are willing to put more time and effort into your article writing, you can build your branding and raise your credibility. Follow these additional tips:

Accept email questions

Include in your article or bio that you are willing to accept email questions - so long as you can publish the discussion in another article. This helps you develop relationships with your audience as well as becoming a fount of new material.

Accept article suggestions

Mention in your article or bio that you are willing to accept suggestions from editors for new articles. This helps establish relationships from article publishers which also gives you more opportunities to establish yourself with your readers and bring visitors to your web site.

Do research

Find out what kind of articles are out there. This will help you in writing articles that will be popular with other sites. You may also find bloggers linking to your articles which increases the value of your inbound links.

Optimize articles

Be sure your article takes full advantage of keyword optimization. Include keywords in your title. Use sub-heads containing keywords. And use text links containing keywords.

Use articles to build your own site

When you have written many articles, web editors begin to replace older articles with newer ones. Don't retire the old articles. Archive them on your own site. This makes your site a content-rich site which search engines love. Your site also becomes a resource for your visitors drawing them back again and again as your archive grows.

Create ebooks

When you find that you have a number of articles on a similar subject, put them together in an ebook format. This gives you free offers to increase newsletter subscriptions and to encourage backend sales. The web loves free offers.

Create an affiliate program

You may or may not decide to sell your ebooks. An affiliate program can be used as an incentive for other web sites to offer your ebooks to their visitors. A small ad on their web pages using your ebook offer can be used by them as an incentive to their visitors. But have the ad link back to your web site for downloading the ebook. This increases your inbound links.

Article directory links

http://ezinearticles.com
http://www.isnare.com
http://www.sideroad.com
http://www.howtoadvice.com
http://www.jorbins.com
http://www.mainstreetmom.com/article_submission_form.htm
http://www.family-content.com/articles
http://www.articlesubmissions.com
http://www.fresh-articles.com
http://www.freezinesite.com/articles.shtml
http://www.netterweb.com/articles/search.htm
http://www.valuablecontent.com
http://womans-netnews.com/community/archive.php
http://www.zinos.com

Using these techniques can quickly increase your inbound links thus helping your rankings. Over the long term, you can create a site that is very difficult for your competitors to beat.