Title: The Future Of Article Directories Word Count: 610 Summary: The internet has seen hundreds of article directories springing up recently. While some of these article directories will have good longevity, others will likely disappear as quickly as they arrived. There are several qualities common to successful article directories. First and foremost, a reputable article directory will offer quality, unique content. A good article directory should offer benefits to authors, including individual author pages, bylines, and more to encourage... Keywords: Article Directories, article promotion Article Body: The internet has seen hundreds of article directories springing up recently. While some of these article directories will have good longevity, others will likely disappear as quickly as they arrived. There are several qualities common to successful article directories. First and foremost, a reputable article directory will offer quality, unique content. A good article directory should offer benefits to authors, including individual author pages, bylines, and more to encourage regular content submission. The leading players such as Ezinearticles, Article Alley and Isnare will always do well thanks to a good reputation, good design and good features. Most article directories offer some of the same features. Free content is available, most often in exchange for a link, byline or similar credit. Content is typically sorted into categories, making it easy to find, access and use. Some article directories also allow you to sort content by author, and offer authors individual pages, featured author lists and other benefits. Site owners may find RSS feeds and other content management options available at some article directories a useful feature as it allows you to keep new and up to date content on your website with little effort. In the rapidly growing world of article directories, to keep ahead new features are needed. Great features that are appearing include the ability to submit articles to social bookmark sites such as furl and digg. These sites allow users to create their own accessible lists of links and online resources, allowing interesting sites, articles and content to be easily shared. These user powered content sites can bring more traffic to a given article, and more recognition to an author. Many online article directories offer unique author pages to encourage author recognition. Good author benefits will provide an article directory with better quality content and more new content on a regular basis. Many article directories also offer features that are beneficial to site owners in need of content. Lists of most read articles can be useful to help determine quality articles on an article directory site. Other useful lists and links on an article directory site may be a list of articles voted top by readers to assist you in choosing quality content for your site. When choosing content from an article directory, look for good quality articles that will provide your visitors with relevant and interesting information, as well as keywords to encourage good search engine rankings. A good article directory will provide you with ample access to the content you need for your site. Google appears to be clearing the SERP (search engine results page) of excessive duplicates or cookie cutter type sites. This is beneficial for site owners, as you can save yourself time and effort when seeking out free content via article directories. This measure will also aid good article directories, by reducing competition from poorly managed and maintained article directories. Consider choosing one of the reputable article directories as your primary resource for free content for your website. More advanced search engine technology requires more effective site management, both for site owners and article directories. While the future of article directories is a positive one, many of the less conscientious services will likely disappear from the internet in coming years. The top sites will remain and prosper. Article directories are a priceless resource for the web site owner seeking both good content and a good search engine ranking. Making use of a quality, reputable article directory is easy, convenient, and beneficial for your site in many ways. Look toward the future of article directories to improve your search engine rankings, please your site visitors and move forward with your internet efforts and reputation.