We all know by now that content is king. In order to effectively market your products or services and to establish yourself as a leader in your industry, writing and distributing articles is the way to go. One of the primary benefits of getting your content rich articles indexed in the search engines is so that you can increase your websites overall PageRank, while continuing to build exposure for your company.

Here are a few tips to get you started in the right direction:

Add popular keyword phrases in your article- When writing your article, make sure to include popular keyword phrases in your headline, subheads and summary of your article. Make sure your site uses these words too. Placing these keywords and search terms may help prospects and the press identify your article when they run a search in the major news feeds.

Include your website link - Whether it is in the authors byline or in the body of the article, if you are going to write an article, make sure to include your website link within the article. This is the best way to get inbound links from other websites, without having to return the favor.

Submit to PRWeb and other newswires - Journalists increasingly rely on major search engines for their research. In order to get your press release found, indexed and ranked, you may want to consider submitting to an article distribution service like PR Web. PR Web sends press releases to major news search engines, including Google News and Yahoo News. Press releases distributed through PR Web are optimized for maximum organic search engine inclusion. Search engines can then crawl naturally and efficiently to index your press release.

Additional article distribution services:
www.thephantomwriters.com
www.marketingsource.com

Identify the best websites for your article - After optimizing your article, identify which websites to submit your article to. There are hundreds, if not thousands of publishers that are looking for quality content to publish. It is best to find high traffic websites that have the target audience you are looking for. To find these sites, simply perform a search in Google by placing relevant terms like article submission or article directory in the search box. For instance, if you are writing a self-help article, type the term self-help articles and target the websites that are on the first few pages of the search engine.

Article announcement lists - Announcement Lists are newsletters, groups or ezines, which allow you to "announce" your new articles to thousands of editors and publishers instantly. Most of these announcement lists are sent out daily to their subscribers. This means that you can have your article circulating to key editors and publishers within hours of completion.

Here are a few Article Announcement Lists that may distribute your article:

http://topica.com/lists/freeezinecontent/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/article_announce/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Free-Reprint-Articles/

Become a contributing writer - If you are you an accomplished or aspiring writer with something to contribute, you might consider becoming a contributing writer for an online community. Typically, you do not get paid for your work but the amount of exposure you get is invaluable. You also get credit for your article including a free link to your email address and your website!

Here are a few good web properties to consider writing for:
Suite101.com
About.com

In sum, writing and distributing articles is one of the most promising ways to boost your sites ranking in the search engines. In the process, you also benefit from building quality links to your site, gaining an editorial following and most importantly, sharing your knowledge with the rest of the world!