Article writing is a valuable way to market your business. Many SEO companies have used the approach for link building as well. Articles provide a means for you to capture the attention of readers while adding a link to your site or branding your company name.

Articles can be written in the form of a product review, an informational piece, a how to article, advice, a press release, and more. And, they can be posted to your website, submitted to an article distribution site, or published on an outside website. Doing so creates and opportunity for the article to reach a large audience with limited hands on work on your part.

You do not need to be a professional writer to take advantage of the article marketing technique. Just follow the simple article writing and distributing tips below.

• Find a topic that relates to your business but is also reader friendly. Being too industry specific will limit your audience.

• Do your research. Search creditable sites or books to gain a better knowledge of the topic. Be sure to cite sources for the information you quote.

• Use a clear and descriptive title. Avoid catchy and cute lines that do not explain the article enough.

• Use a pyramid approach and put the important information in the beginning. Many Internet readers will not scroll through an entire piece, reading the first few paragraphs only.

• Paragraphs should be short. When you change a thought or idea, start a new paragraph

• Use bullet points and lists for clear, concise, and to the point information.

• Break up the article into sections and title each section with a descriptive word.

• Save the sales pitch. The article needs to be informative, not a promotion of your company.

• Refrain from using too many overly complex terms or acronyms without explaining their meaning.

• Add links naturally and sparingly. The article should flow and not be overly stuffed with links to promote your website or business.

• Link to other sites as well as your own. If every link is pointing to your homepage, the article loses credibility.

• Credit an article section on your site to centralize the articles for easy reading.

• Use diversity when submitting to distribution sites. For example, do not submit multiple articles to Ezine (a distribution site) that all have links to the same url. The links will diminish in value each time. Submit articles containing links to the same url to a different platform each time and the link value will be greater.

• Search for niche sites to post articles too. Complete a Google search for the topic or industry that you are writing about and look for a credible site that allows author contributions.

Article writing and distributing is changing and evolving as we speak so be sure to stay informed of new techniques by reading blogs and websites dedicated to the process.