There are several article marketing "myths" floating around that I get questioned about on a regular basis. Too many of these myths are fear-based--they're either frightening cautions or sometimes even do-or-die instructions on how to submit online articles that mainly don't reflect Google's guidelines for producing a quality website.

Often attempting to abide by these myths seriously hampers your ability to provide the top quality content that you want to give to your readers.

So, let's start with what is the most basic myth--that there is something underhand about article marketing and that you risk punishment from Google for doing it.

That's completely false.

Article marketing is a respected and honest way to drive traffic to a website, and Google has no problem with it. You are certainly not trying to fool Google or do anything that breaks the rules. When you are submitting articles, you are simply creating worthwhile content that publishers need and readers want.

A positive consequence of article marketing is that your website is publicized, via the resource box at the end of the article. This resource box includes a link to your site, and each and every occasion your article is republished, you obtain another link.

The content you produce in article marketing is called "syndicated content". That means that it may be reproduced on a great many different websites.

Syndicated content plays a prominent role in how the workings of the internet, and search engines have no problems with it.

What Google Wants

Google is certainly not out to get anybody--it has an objective to achieve, and its guidelines revolve around attaining that goal.

This aim is to provide their clients (the people who are searching for information on the internet) with the best search results deliverable.

In essence, when a customer types a query into Google, Google wants to create a set of results that are ranked in order with the site with the most likelihood of satisfying the searcher ranked numer one.

To achieve this objective, Google needs to evaluate the web content so they can rank the web pages accurately.

What The Website Owner's Role Is

Your role as a website owner is to market your website. Just as an owner of a brick and mortar business would engage in various marketing and networking activities to promote his brand, so a website owner must use internet based marketing tools such as article marketing to bring attention to his website.

In promoting your website, you should consider keyword research and appropriately use your keywords in your site's content and in your article submissions.

It is also important that your website actually contains quality content. Yes, you want to be marketing your website, but your primary consideration should be a website that is warrents a visit.

Forgetting the content on your site whilst marketing it is like marketing a grand opening for an empty shop.

You must have excellent content on your website or marketing it simply makes no sense.

When you are doing article marketing correctly, your main job is to write valuable content that publishers are needing and that readers benefit from. You will be marketing your website in a purely innocent way, and your efforts will be on the up-and-up with Google and other search engines.