How to Write a Strong Article Resource Box

The resource box is the key to successful article marketing. This is the single most critical piece of the article marketing equation – yes, even more important than the article itself. If you write a good article but mess up the resource box, then all you've done is waste your time. The resource box is where you can place keyword links pointing to your web site, as well as promote your company.

Following are three criteria that your resource box must meet:

1. Your business should be promoted.

2. The resource box should have a call to action.

3. The resource box should contain a link that uses a relevant keyword.

If your resource box meets these criteria, it will help improve your search engine rankings and drive traffic to your site. Let's look at an example of a bad resource box and a good resource box so you can see more specifically what I mean.

Good Resource Box
Johnson Tax Service helps small business keep more of their income by finding creative ways to reduce their taxes. Put the Johnson small business tax service to work for you today by visiting www[dot]Johnsontaxservice[dot]com.

In this example, the words "small business tax service" would probably be hyperlinked to the company's web site. And as you see, it contains a call to action by asking the reader to put Johnson's tax service to work by visiting the company's web site.

Example of a Bad Resource Box
Jack Jones has been analyzing stocks and making recommendations for 15 years. To learn more, visit www[dot]jackjones[dot]com.

So what is wrong with this resource box? First off, lots of people analyze stocks and make recommendations, so what should I visit this person's web site? There is nothing that really compels the reader to do anything. However, strictly from a search engine perspective, there is a major problem, and that is no keyword link! The link in this example is the web site URL, which does not contain any keywords. From a search engine standpoint, having the link is good, but having a keyword in the link text is much better. Sometimes in the link building process you don't have the opportunity to control what text is used in a link to your site, but article marketing is not one of those times. So make sure you use a keyword in the text of the link.

Deep linking, or linking to pages other than the front page, is also another good use for your article resource boxes. Here is an example for clarification. Let's say you sell guitars on your web site, and you have a page specifically for Fender Telecasters. Ideally, the link to that page would be something like "fender-telecasters/." If you write and submit some articles for Fender Telecasters, you could use them to deep link specifically to the Telecasters page. If you then use the words "Fender Telecasters" in your link text, you've emphasized the keyword twice: in the link text and in the URL that it links to.

The next time you write an article for submission to article directories, remember the advice in this article and do it properly for maximum impact. Does it take a little longer to write a good resource box? Sure. Maybe five minutes. But that five minutes make the time you spend writing the article in the first place worth a whole lot more. Jerry Work is a highly experienced Internet marketer, founder and president of Work Media, LLC, and author of Scientific Search Engine Marketing and The Law Firm Internet Marketing Book, both available on Amazon.com.

No comments:

Post a Comment