When you first start submitting articles or links to article and directory sites, you need to make sure that you dont over do it. Even if you have great content, and your site is 100% legitimate, the speed at which you submit your articles and links can get you filtered out as search engine spam.

Below Ive outlined a process to effectively and efficiently submit your articles and links and stay on good terms with article and directory site owners.

Before You Submit

Instead of trying to find submission sites on-the-fly, its much more efficient to do your homework first. You need to gather your resources, determine where you want to submit, and compile your list.

How you do this? First, if youre submitting articles, my rule of thumb is to find article directories with a PageRank of at least four. Its okay to submit to lower pagerank directories, just make sure theyre legitimate. Also, you might want to check out the Alexa rating for the sites youre submitting to. One way to detect a possible link farm is to look at the sites Alexa rating and compare it with its PageRank. If the Alexa rating is high (not as good) but the PageRank is high, then you know something is awry. If a site has a high PageRank it should also have a lower (better) Alexa rating.

Check the sites cache in Google. Has it been awhile since Google has been around? Its probably not a trusted site. Does the cache show a different site? Could be a PageRank redirect site. Avoid these at all costs.

Some common, high PageRank article directories include eZineArticles, GoArticles, iSnare. I dont recommend signing up for article distribution services. You have no control over where your article goes if you submit to these sites. All it takes is one article on a spam site to ruin your reputation.

Your Submission Speed

I recommend that you submit one article at a time to at least 10 different directories. Dont submit all the articles youve written to one site at a single time. By the time youve finished submitting one article to 10 different sites, you can go back and submit your other articles, moving down the list as you complete each one.

Make certain you read and understand the terms of service and submission guidelines for each article or link directory that you submit to. Some article directories only allow a few submissions per day. You need to adhere to the submission guidelines. Its much better to be able to submit fewer articles per day than to do a massive submission and risk getting your articles deleted, or worse, losing your account.

After youve submitted to the first 10 directories, find 10 additional directories to submit to. Repeat the process I described above. Use should not submit a single article or link to more than 50 directories per day.

Maintain a Clean Submission Process

Your article and link submission process is a very important part of your linking strategy. You have to make sure that you understand what the directories want and that you follow their rules. You may think the rules are stiff, but it actually helps maintain a clean community.

Because of the proliferation of mass submission software, commonly used by those webmasters who are trying to make a quick buck, submission sites have come down hard on anyone who even hints of being a spammer. If you submit too fast to too many directories, I can guarantee that you will be labeled a spammer and your articles, or links, will be deleted.

So, do your research, compile your list of solid web and link directories, submit your articles and links like Ive described above, and youll not only increase your search engine rankings, youll become a valuable part of the article and link directory community.