I have heard a lot of article marketing myths, and I must say that this is the first time anyone has ever asked me this. Nonetheless, I thought it was worth covering. You know, if one person asks the question there are probably others out there who are wondering the same thing. Somebody asked me this recently:

"My SEO guy told me that in order for an article to have link value, the links must be coming from the article body and be formed using my keywords as anchor text. Is this true?"

So, you are wondering if the only way to make an article have link value is to link to your own website from the article body using your keywords.

Interesting thought. My own experience and that of my clients does not support that theory.

With article marketing, the link to your website is usually in the resource box, rather than the article body, so you will not often encounter publishers who will allow you to link to your website from the article body.

Still, many people use article marketing as their primary marketing tool and see excellent results. Using myself as an example, since I've been article marketing I've seen my site rise from as low as the 85th ranking for a particular keyword phrase up to the #1 spot.

Certainly it is not necessary (or even allowed) to link to your own site within the article body, and yet article marketing still works.

But let's look further into how this faulty idea could have been started...

Are Some Links More Valuable Than Others?

Yes, certainly some types of links carry more weight than others. For example, the anchor text link in an HTML resource box speaks more powerfully than a plain URL link. This is just because the link in your HTML resource box gives Google more information about what your website is about.

(When using your keywords in your HTML resource box, be sure to switch them up so that the same words are not used every time. If you always link the same words to your website from your HTML resource box, it can look suspicious to Google. Varying the keywords looks more natural.)

This is not to say that a straightforward URL link is worthless--it certainly is not. It still carries value, but just not as much value as an anchor text link.

Does Link Location On The Page Matter?

It is also reasonable to suggest that the location of the link on the page carries some weight as well. So, a link in the footer or margin of a page, or a link that is repeated on every page of a website, will not carry as much weight as a link in the main body of text on a page.

Obviously no one has access to Google's algorithm for rankings, but it also appears that keywords that show up higher on the page carry more weight than those that appear lower down. One could therefore suppose that anchor text links appearing higher on the page carry more weight too.

This is probably where some SEO 'specialists' go astray in their opinions on this matter.

What they are not accounting for is that in most cases the resource box with its link is published in the main body of text on a web page, along with the article. In some cases the resource box is even published above the article.

We can talk all day about which links carry the most weight and what locations carry the most value, but it is a bit far fetched to say that the only types of links that contribute to an article page's value are anchor text links that appear in the article body.

If you buy into that, you are really shooting yourself in the foot. SEO theories do not change the facts. Article marketing is a perennial favourite marketing tool, simply because it works.