What is a Promotional Article?

A promotional article is the process of obtaining links from high-traffic and popular quality sites, usually in exchange for a fee, and sometimes for free.

The promotional article is a link-building tactic used by almost all SEO experts, sometimes deliberately and sometimes out of necessity. When done as Google prefers, it can become a white-hat SEO tactic that does not trigger the Google Penguin algorithm*; however, if done according to Google’s preferences, it often remains a tactic that does not benefit us much.

Google does not find promotional articles natural because they are paid for, and wants the links obtained from these articles to be “nofollow”. According to Google, if a link comes to us as dofollow, it should not be in exchange for a fee and must be a backlink obtained through completely natural means.

For those who do not know, let me briefly mention. Nofollow links are known as links that do not transfer power to our site because they tell Google’s search bots “do not follow this link”. Dofollow links, on the contrary, are links that facilitate power transfer.

As SEO experts, we generally prefer the links we buy for a fee to be dofollow instead of nofollow, and to contribute to our site in terms of backlinking as well as traffic.

However, we cannot ignore the reality of the Google Penguin algorithm.

Therefore, the whole issue depends on how you strategize and from which sites you obtain how many backlinks, and how naturally you can perform this task based on the traffic, popularity, and quality of the sites from which you get backlinks.

How Should a Promotional Article Be?

Promotional articles should consist of articles that inform readers about your company or about the services of your company, rather than blog posts.

Promotional articles should have a striking and attention-grabbing title. After all, we pay to have an article written and then pay again to have it published on some sites, and thanks to Google uncle, the backlink we can get from this article has to be nofollow ???? so we must ensure clicks with a very striking title.

The real work starts here; readers who enter the article should be able to get what they want in the shortest time possible using a simple, fluid, and informative style.

How Should Promotional Article Anchor Texts Be?

The main purpose of promotional articles is to obtain backlinks. We call the words and sentences from which we receive backlinks anchor text.

Anchor texts are divided into 5 types:

• Branded (brand)
• Naked URL
• Generic
• Compound
• Money keyword

To maintain the naturalness in backlinks, we must distribute our anchor texts very wisely among these 5 types. You can benefit from competitors or do detailed research on how anchor texts are distributed in your industry to plan.

How Is the Topic of a Promotional Article Determined?

When determining the topic of a promotional article, 5 approaches can be followed.

1. Researching trending words in your industry and producing content related to them.
2. Researching words that have a high search volume in your industry consistently and producing content related to them.
3. Identifying the declining words of your company or the company you provide services to and producing content related to these words to bring them back to rise.
4. If you have a niche service different from your competitors, producing content to highlight this service.
5. Producing content to create brand awareness by directly narrating the services you offer and your company.

Topics or words may change, but what should not change in content is its simplicity, informativeness, and being reader-friendly. Instead of using a single headline, multiple headlines should be used, and readers should be able to reach the information they want in a short time with subheadings and short paragraphs.

How Should Subheadings and Keywords for Promotional Articles Be Determined?

When conducting keyword research for promotional articles, it is a better choice to go from specific to general. Describing the finest details of a small topic rather than superficially describing a general topic will not make readers equally happy, and they will not find answers to their questions in the latter.

First, you should decide which of the 5 topics mentioned in the previous title your content falls into, and then start your keyword research. The most preferred tools for keyword research include:

• Semrush
• Google AdWords Keyword Planner
• Keyword Tool
• KWfinder
• Moz
• Ahrefs

With the help of these tools, you should definitely consider the keywords you find when choosing subheadings. When selecting subheadings, what readers want to find in the article and subheadings that can include the keywords you found should be chosen. Care should be taken not to scatter the topic when selecting subheadings, and unity should be ensured in the article.

Where Should Promotional Articles Be Published?

The places where promotional articles are published are very important. Your articles must be published on sites and portals related to the sector you serve. Apart from these sites, if it will be published on a news site, it would be more beneficial to publish it from the relevant category.

Some points to consider when choosing a site are:

• Site traffic
• Visitor profile
• Trust scores
• Which sites have our competitors published articles on?
• Does the site you will receive constantly sell backlinks or not?
• How user-friendly is the theme of the site from which backlinks will be taken?
• If they share your article on social media, how many followers do they have?
• Scores on SEO tools you use.

By paying attention to these, you can choose the most suitable site and publish your article.

What Are the Benefits and Harms of Promotional Articles?

Promotional articles can provide 2 types of benefits:

1. If you obtain nofollow links from very popular sites by spending money and if that link brings you a very high number of traffic, it can be beneficial, but this is a very unlikely scenario and how much it benefits in terms of backlinks is still debated.
2. If a mixed link-building tactic close to natural is implemented both as Google wants and doesn’t want, it will provide more benefits. But the basis of everything is that the tactic is natural and not exaggerated.

What are the benefits of promotional articles then?

• Increases the visibility of your site.
• Enhances your backlink profile.
• Allows you to organically advertise on high-traffic sites.
• Helps your site climb to higher rankings with a good plan.

What are the harms of promotional articles then?

• Your site could be caught by the Penguin algorithm due to a poorly executed link-building tactic.
• Filling your site with links from low-quality sites leads to a poor backlink profile.
• Constantly taking links from bad sites can harm your brand recognition.

*Google Penguin Algorithm:https://www.crmmedya.com/penguen-4-0-guncellemesiyle-gelen-yenilikler/

CRM Medya

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