If you are reading this, you probably already know what search engine optimization is. For those who do not, it is simply the effort to drive the pages of your site up into the top rankings of Google, Yahoo and MSN for the relevant keywords you are chasing.

One of the key factors in search engine optimization is your link count. In the past, the goal with most optimization efforts was to generate as many links as possible to your site. These days, it is much more about the quality of your links. You primarily want to obtain inbound only links from relevant sites. Publishing articles in directories is one way to do this. If you are not careful, however, doing so can sabotage your optimization efforts.

When writing articles, the first issue is coming up with something to write about. If you rarely write articles, this isn't particularly difficult. If you write all the time, particularly if you have multiple sites, it can be much more difficult. One solution to get around the problem is keyword research.

Keyword research is simply an effort to figure out what people are typing into the search engines to find things in your niche. Many people then take these phrases and incorporate them into their optimization efforts. This is done by writing articles on the subjects and publishing them on the site in question. The next natural step is to take the same article and submit it to the article directories. This is where problems begin.

A number of the article directories are very big and have tons of links pointing to them. If you publish the article in their directories, you may be in for a bad surprise. Instead of the page on your site going to the top of the rankings, the page in the article directory will. While I am sure the article directory appreciates it, such a situation more or less destroys your optimization efforts for your site. After all, the person that clicks the link is landing on the article directory site, not yours. Yes, they might click the link in your byline, but don't count on the click rate being very high.

Publishing articles in directories is a smart marketing move. Just make sure that you are not sabotaging the SEO efforts for your site.