Article Directory Submission Advice: Article Submission Guidelines
There is a great deal of article submission advice online, but most is commercially driven, and this article is focused on article submission guidelines: what to avoid in submitting articles to make sure that your article is published. A large number of articles submitted to article directories and ezines are rejected for a number of reasons, and here we shall discuss the major reasons for rejection and how to avoid them.
Advertising
A major reason for your article being rejected is advertising in the body of the article. You are generally permitted to publish a URL to your website in the ‘Author’s Resource’ section of the article, but not within the body itself. Almost without exception, article directories demand that articles are informative and provide useful information to their readers. That, in their view, is why readers use the directory, and they believe, correctly, that adverts should be restricted to advertising services such as Google AdWords and any article directory submission that ignores this will be rejected.
Never actively promote a product in your article or publish your website URL or any active (clickable) link to it. It is permitted to mention two or three products as examples of those that can help to solve a particular problem without actively siding with any particular one, but even that can result in your article directory submission being rejected depending upon the directory.
You can review products, but you may not advertise or offer for sale the product you are reviewing.
Regional Relevance
Regional relevance in mentioned in Ezine Article’s ‘Author Guidelines’ and in the article submission guidelines of many other article directories. If you mention a region or place name in your article title, such as in “Using Alaskan Ice Making Services” you must make sure that your article is targeting ice making facilities in Alaska and how they can best be used. Your article will be rejected if it can be construed as applying to anywhere, and not just the region mentioned in the title.
Thus, in an article with the title “The Benefits of New York Massage Parlors”, you will have to explain why such parlors in New York will benefit you over massage parlors elsewhere, and not just write about their benefits in general. The article should not make equal sense if the place name was omitted from the body.
Word Count
Many directories have a minimum word count, and while a 300 word article might be accepted by Ezine Articles, don’t expect it be accepted by Article Avenue or Article Rich. Many directories operate a minimum 400 or 500, but you are best to stick to 500 – 800. Over 800 is fine of you have interesting content with headings, but never write below 500 or your article will either be refused or readers will think you are trying to take advantage of them.
Article Summary
Many writers do not give the article summary sufficient attention: that is what is used by the directory to advertise your article, and this is what is likely to be the description in any Google listing your article gets. Keep in mind that once an article directory submission has been accepted it is published on its own page in the directory.
You will not read this in any article submission guidelines, but it can be listed on Google just the same way as any other web page. Your title and summary are what Google visitors using your keywords will see if they come across your search engine listing.
Inappropriate Content
Make sure that you read the TOS before making an article directory submission and also read the article submission guidelines. Some content is inadmissible and will result in your article being refused. Among that are articles on adult topics, gambling, some firearms and listed drugs. The directory can follow your links and if they also lead to web pages offering such content directly or even through links contained on your landing page, your article is also liable to be refused.
Watch your Formatting
Some directories will refuse your article if numbered or lettered lists are not on different lines: for example, if ‘A topic 1:’ and ‘B. Topic 2:’ are not on different lines, your article will not be published. Over-use of keywords will also result in a refusal. For example, Ezine Articles will not accept article directory submissions that contain more than 2% Keyword Density.
I know that some SEO gurus will suggest 1% – 3% as being ideal, but if they do then they are Neolithic. That stopped when Google introduced its LSI (latent semantic analysis) algorithm that pays less attention to keyword repetition and more to the semantic relevance of the article syntax and vocabulary to the keyword theme. Now, you would do well to aim for 0.5% – 0.8% and focus of relevant vocabulary.
There are many other article submission guidelines to take into consideration with your article directory submission but these are the major ones to beware of, and I personally, even as a profession article ghostwriter, have been the victim of all of them. However, that was long ago!
