Free articles and article directories - the benefits

Free articles and article directories can be of great benefit to webmasters and SEOs.

In recent years the popularity of free articles, and the article directories that host and supply them, have become very popular.

Free articles - the benefits to you

Free articles are available from a large number of free article directories. Typically you are allowed to reproduce the articles on your own website. You must not alter the article, and must publish it in its entirety, including the 'About the author' or similar resource box, found at the end of the article. This resource box typically contains a link to the authors website. Always check the terms and conditions of the article directory before using articles from it.

You can use free articles to increase the amount of content on your website. By searching and carefully selecting, you can find articles that closely match the topic of your website. Free articles are available for anyone to use, and you should consider that other webmasters are also likely to be using the articles. Search engines often penalise websites if they have a large amount of content found on other websites. However, if you use free articles along side your own content, you should avoid any sort of search engine penalty.

Free articles - the benefits to the author of the article

Free articles are typically written by people who are looking to gain backlinks to their website. The author writes the article, adding links to their websites in the 'About this author' resource box at the end of the article. The articles are typically written using plain text, and no HTML, as many article directories only accept articles in this form. The author then submits the article to article directories, in the hope that it will be accepted. If accepted the article appears within the article directory. The article can be found by browsing the category in which the article has been published, or by searching for terms found with the article title and body text. The article author is hoping to gain a backlink from the article directory, and also from any other websites that use the article. Popular articles, if widely used, can gain the article author hundreds of backlinks from different websites.

Free article directories - the benefits to the directory

The article directory is looking to increase its number of pages, its content, and normally the amount of revenue it makes through advertising. The more pages a directory has, the more visitors it will attract. The more visitors it attracts, the more revenue it will earn.