It has been a battle between online marketers and sophisticated search engines for long! As the online marketers devise new ways to food search engine optimizations and web spiders to pick up their links, the search engines become increasingly smarter.

There was a time when online marketers used content that could not be seen on the webpage by a customer that came to visit. This content was nothing but specific keywords stuffed in the background so that the web spider would consider this as a site that had a large number of relevant keywords. However, as this practice became prevalent among marketers, search engines web spider algorithms were also updated to pick out overstuffed sites and reject them in the search results.

Keeping in line with the changes, high traffic generating online directories have also changed some of the rules for article submissions. These rules ensure that the articles that are uploaded are not irrelevant content that is useless for the reader. Some of the aspects that these sites have adopted include:

-       A limit on the keyword density that is allowed per keyword. This means that if your article has a specific keyword too many times, it can get rejected even before you are able to submit it.

-       A review of the article content before it is made public. While many article directories still exist that do not review content before it is made public, most of the well known and good quality article directories have a panel of reviewers to ensure that the content is relevant free from disturbing information.

-       Link backs to the website are allowed only in the resource box. The content in the article should be purely meant for information for the reader. It is only via the resource box that you can create a link back and establish yourself as an expert in the area.

Effective article submissions need to ensure these factors if you want to avoid unnecessary hassles that rejections pose. It is also becoming a norm where article directories are ensuring a limited number of articles that can be uploaded in a given time frame to avoid flooding.

Anyone who has been an Internet marketer for some time would know the power that article marketing has in increasing the page rank for your homepage. While people know that article marketing is a strong and powerful tool in the hands of an Internet marketer, there is much more to article marketing than just good content.

Now, don’t get us wrong here, there is no doubt that content is king and that unless you have good content your website will not be able to build a good reputation of trust and reliability. However, it is also essential that you use this good content effectively.

And this is where directory submissions come in. Here are some rules of submitting articles to directories that you should follow to ensure that you are getting the best out of your articles.

-       Choose the right directories – The first and foremost task that is required when you start article marketing is to choose the article directories carefully. Get hold of a list of article directory sites (this should not be tough at all and you will get one off the Internet easily). Take the trouble of finding out the page rank of each of the directories and order them accordingly. It is also important that you maintain a cut off based on the resources that you have.

-       Consistent pen name – Using a pen name for the article directories is important. By using the same name across all the article directories that you use, you can slowly build up a reputation of this ‘author’ in the niche that you operate in.

-       Make a powerful resource box – This is really the call for action that you use for your website. And therefore make sure that you make the copy for this resource box as persuasive and compelling as you can. Don’t hold back in using the services of an expert copywriter to ensure crisp and effective wording.

Using these tips will ensure that you are making the best use of your articles. There are various article spinners that are available in the market that will help you create unique content. However, be careful if and when you use these spinners. While they can create quantity, the quality of the content suffers due to over repetition and redundancy.