I have seen two different types of article writers that submit to directories. One style is something that REW writers do in particular when they write articles and thats just real good interesting articles on a certain subject with no real specific keywords in mind. For example check this link out and you'll get an idea of a very well written and thought out article but not keyword specific:

http://ezinearticles.com/?Sleep-Well...room&id=946611

Then there is the style of writing where the article is all about your keywords and very keyword specific. I have had this discussion with different webmasters and everyone has a different view point on the relevance of each style.

I have heard if it's not keyword specific then why would the article ever come up in a search for you? For example the article above titled "Sleep well in your green bedroom" is very unique, but how would that ever come up in a relevant search for my keywords? But I'm sure there is relevance to writing like that. Any thoughts from all you writers and article submission experts?

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MARK Z. & Associates

Coldwell Banker Real Estate
Northville, MI 48168
(248)675-6908
Northville MI Real Estate
Commerce Township MI Real Estate
Metro Detroit Real Estate Blog

Servicing the entire Metropolitan Detroit Real Estate market. If you know of anyone looking to relocate to Michigan, call me with their name and number. I am willing to pay you up to a 30% referral fee.

I think you miss a very deliberate part of "good" article syndication. And that is, the larger the audience that an article can appeal to, the more likely it will get picked up (With links in tact) thus increasing your link popularity.

If you are writing great articles that are keyword targeted to your market and meant to rank in the SERPS for said keywords, they should be on "your" website, not someone else's

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Webmasters who spend their energies upholding the spirit of the basic principles [Of Google] will provide a much better user experience and subsequently enjoy better ranking than those who spend their time looking for loopholes they can exploit. Google.com

Thanks that makes sense.

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MARK Z. & Associates

Coldwell Banker Real Estate
Northville, MI 48168
(248)675-6908
Northville MI Real Estate
Commerce Township MI Real Estate
Metro Detroit Real Estate Blog

Servicing the entire Metropolitan Detroit Real Estate market. If you know of anyone looking to relocate to Michigan, call me with their name and number. I am willing to pay you up to a 30% referral fee.

It also is a big help if your articles are not too generic to the point they have been done 1000 times. For example an article about the steps of purchasing a home has been done way too many times.

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Starke County Real Estate | PEI Real Estate | Real Estate Forms

There is someone in my market who has a terrible website but he is either in the top 3 for google. I have my google alert set for anything with the keywords "austin real estate" and this guy keeps on coming up. Daily with huge articles. its crazy. But it must be working for him.

Morgan-- I thought that It helped to be linked to a page where there were keywords that you were trying to rank for? keywords that matched your page keywords. Is this a myth? Or?

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Dena Davis
Broker/Principal
Davis Company, Real Estate
Austin, TX
www.DavisCompany.com
www.InvestInAustin.com

Not quite sure I understand your question but I will take a stab at answering anyways

In the natural world of linking (outside of manipulation) any inbound link is a good link (A good starting point)

Things that can make a good link a better link or even a great link:
Authority - High authority links (Especially relevant ones) increase your own websites authority.
Pagerank - Similar concept as above
Anchor text - if it reads "Austin Real Estate" as opposed to "Your website"
Semantic relationship - how is content x related to content y (I think this is what you were trying to get at)
Diversity - in the natural world, not all links would have austin real estate as anchor text, or necessarily be on "real estate" related websites, they might be on websites of lenders, or non profit organization sites because of donations, perhaps they are on fishing forums because you are into that sort of thing.

I could go on, but I have to head into work now - hope that helped

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Webmasters who spend their energies upholding the spirit of the basic principles [Of Google] will provide a much better user experience and subsequently enjoy better ranking than those who spend their time looking for loopholes they can exploit. Google.com

When an article is focusing on keywords it is an on-page optimization (on the article directory) which provide you with the page and keyword relevancy.

When an article is an outstanding content (still relevant but not focusing on keywords) then it can attract lots of links over the web and these links with their anchor text will help the search engines to determine which keywords are relevant for this page that points to your site.

Both are good and even can be combined. For instance you can decorate the keywords with bold/italic/underline.

Usually, an extraordinary content has way more value than a "regular" content. Of course that all the factors mentioned by Webmaster take important part for improving ranking especially authority, relevancy and anchor text.

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Real Estate Article Directory - With additional features for better search engine ranking

i find a blend of both techniques you mentioned works best for me. with the keywords worked naturally into the articles it helps with the search engine attention as well as the high quality combination.

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~Catrina~

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