Article Writing

With the release of Google's Hummingbird algorithm update this has put article writing back on the map for many businesses. The Hummingbird algorithm takes traditional search marketing and turns it on its head, shifting the emphasis back onto producing deep, high quality and authoritative content and reducing the importance of links alone.

With the Hummingbird update, Google wants to provide searchers with answers to their questions, rather than just send them to pages that contain the keywords used in their searches. This new search paradigm is a boon for brands who have a strong content policy. If you regularly publish reviews, news, opinion pieces and how-tos, then you will be much better off thanks to Hummingbird. However, if you run a thin content site or an online store with just product descriptions (and no reviews), then you may lose out as sites with better content start to move up the rankings.

Evergreen content, or content that has a long lifespan, is the foundation of any good website. But you cannot expect to pull in traffic in the long term if your site is not updated regularly. It is the topical news pieces, seasonal guides and opinion pieces based on trending topics that will keep on pulling in large numbers of visitors.

Ideally, your content strategy should include a schedule for updating your website with exciting, relevant pieces. If you cannot commit to writing such pieces regularly, consider engaging a company that provides article writing services to take on this endeavour for you. In addition, don't forget about guest blogging, infographics and content curation. Those strategies can help to improve efficiency of your content team.

Article marketing has something of a bad reputation thanks to the Penguin and Panda updates. While it's true that bulk article marketing is no longer an effective strategy, that does not mean that all article marketing is a waste of time.

Until recently, bulk submission of articles and press releases has been an effective way of acquiring links that could increase your PageRank and improve the visibility of your brand. Unfortunately, article directories have become echo chambers and are no longer used by most people. In addition, Google has devalued links from article directories and is severely reducing the importance of the PageRank metric in general. Instead of writing generic articles for submission to directories, brands are now better off writing high-quality articles to share directly to their audience.

Guest blogging is a great way to build your brand and improve your relationship with businesses in your niche. You don't have to make guest blogging arrangements with direct competitors. A tyre company could make a guest blogging arrangement with an insurance firm or a company that sells other car parts. This kind of cross promotion is useful not just for SEO, but also for brand building in general. If you choose high-quality sites to be your blogging partners, your brand will benefit in many different ways.