Why The “no Follow” Link Is A Blessing To Article Marketing

All this talk about SEO and backlinking has article marketers nervous as a dog on spay-day. “Create quality backlinks to improve search engine ranking!” the gurus cry. “You MUST include backlinks in your articles for SEO!” Then writers get hung up on the no-follow link rule, thinking that they might as well not submit articles to websites that prevent search engines from crawling hyperlinks.

Folks, search engines don't buy products. People buy products.

Articles contain information of interest to readers, and writers should tell readers where to go if they want to learn more. In other words, link back to your website where your product or service solves the reader's problems. You gain traffic to your website, goodwill from visitors, and perhaps a few sales along the way.

Search engine optimized (SEO) articles focus on keywords so Google and Bing and Ask can locate your tiny dot in the vast online ocean. The no-follow link has nothing to do with keywords. It only concerns whether or not search engine bots spot your hyperlink and raise your rank a smidgen because another site linked to yours.

Readers can still click through. Generate traffic by linking back to yourself, giving people yet another way to find you. You want real, human visitors—bots operate inside of complex equations that change without notice. Humans operate inside of complex lives that may be helped by your article, product, or service.

If you've read this far and are still confused about what “no-follow” means, here's the quick and dirty definition. Webmasters can tell search engine bots to ignore hyperlinks as they cruise through the content of webpages. The bots still read and index the page, giving it a rank among all others with similar keywords. So, you still get SEO benefits by putting your articles in front of real eyeballs. You don't score a point for another backlink. Arguably, more eyeballs is better than more backlinks.

The no-follow rule is a blessing to article marketers. It prevents article spammers from improving search engine rank unfairly. It makes writers think about delivering high quality, fresh content to readers.

Search engine optimization is absolutely something that website owners and article marketers should include in marketing plans. Don't let the no-follow rule put a monkey wrench in your thinking. Keyword optimize articles so they appear in the search engine rankings and don't worry about backlinking—people are buying your products, not search engines.

By: Evelyn Fielding

Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com

To learn more about article marketing, SEO, freelance writing, copywriting careers, and branding, visit Evelyn Fielding's blog at www.10000seeds.com/conqueringcontent. Reach full potential online. Maximize income. Become the expert. Conquer content.