Title: 3 Criteria For Ranking Article Directory Sites Word Count: 332 Summary: Article marketing is becoming more popular as webmasters realize the value in their content. Because of article marketing's popularity, there are literally thousands of article directories all over the internet, with new ones being launched every day. Today, finding the right article directory can seem to be a daunting task. So, the question becomes, how do you determine which article directories are the best? Though there are several websites where you could find hundr... Keywords: article marketing, article directories, article links Article Body: Article marketing is becoming more popular as webmasters realize the value in their content. Because of article marketing's popularity, there are literally thousands of article directories all over the internet, with new ones being launched every day. Today, finding the right article directory can seem to be a daunting task. So, the question becomes, how do you determine which article directories are the best? Though there are several websites where you could find hundreds of article directories ranked according to popularity, it is best that you make your own evaluation based on your niche as well as your personal preference. Here are a few factors for you to consider when ranking article directory sites. 1) How old is the site? With the launch of the Wayback Machine, it is now possible for anyone to check web pages that have been archived since 1996. Enter the names of the article directories you are considering and find out how old they are. In this case, the older the better. Google looks at site age for trustworthiness. If you can't find a site in the Wayback Machine, try doing a whois search. This will give you the date the domain was first registered. 2) Find Google and Yahoo backlinks If you have already submitted articles to various article directories, enter the title of a few of your older articles and do a Yahoo as well as a Google search. See where your article is ranked in the search. The articles that are in the top few spots would have been submitted to well-established directories or what Google considers to be the best content display. The higher up an article directory is listed on Yahoo and Google, the more effective it is. 3) Look at PageRank PageRank is the numeric value that Google assigns to every web page and is an indication of the importance of a website. The numbers range from 0- 10, with 10 being the most important. Submitting your articles to directories with higher PageRanks can increase your exposure manifold.