Get Your Article Published: 5 Popular Reasons Why Articles Are Declined (And How To Fix Them!)

by Steve Shaw

Article marketing is a great way to drive traffic to your website and establish yourself as an expert in your niche. Anyone can do it--all you have to do is write educational articles on the topic of your specialty and then submit them consistently.

Sounds easy enough, eh?

Well, article marketing isn't hard, but you still have to ensure that you're submitting articles that publishers want to publish--after all, what's the point of writing an article only to have a publisher look at it and say, "Nope--not what I'm looking for!"

The truth is that most quality publishers will review the articles that are submitted, and they do so using editorial guidelines that help screen in the quality articles and screen out the substandard ones.

Each publisher makes his own decisions about what he considers acceptable, so the exact rules will be different across publishers, but there are some guidelines that most publishers say, "That's where I draw the line--send me an article that violates that rule and it goes in the trash!"

You want to steer clear of making one of those fatal mistakes, don't you?

Let's go over 5 of the most popular reasons why articles are declined with some tips on how to avoid these faux pas:

1) Promotional articles.

A promotional article is one that is sales oriented or self-serving. Promotional articles are detect when the author talks about their own business, website, products or affiliate products in the article body.

That sort of information should be included in the resource box, rather than the article body. Whenever you're writing an article, please resist all temptations to toot your own horn in the article body (or article title) or make reference to your own business, website, products or affiliate products.

2) Non-applicable Title.

The title of your article should reflect what your article is about. If it makes sense in the context of your article, you can include your keywords in your article title; however, if you have written on a topic outside of what your keywords are, you should not include your keywords in your title.

First and foremost, your title should tell the reader what your article is about, and anything you promise in your title should be delivered on in the article body.

For example, let's you want to use the title "500 Tips For A Happier Marriage". That means that in your article you actually need to deliver on that title--you should list 500 tips for a happier marriage. I doubt if you'd have room in your article for a list that long, but you can try! If you only list 9 tips in your article though, your title would more appropriately be "9 Tips For A Happier Marriage".

3) Keyword overuse.

Yes, it's a great idea to know what your keywords are and to make sure that the articles you write are on the topic of your website, but it's not a good idea to unnaturally pepper your article with keywords.

Know what your keywords are, but write naturally about your topic. Remember that your most important readers are human--they need to be able to understand your article and overloading the article with keywords can turn a reader (and a publisher) off.

4) Too many words in anchor text.

If you've decided to use an HTML resource box, limit your anchor text to 3 words or less. It's not appropriate to hyperlink long blocks of text, as publishers can think that looks low quality--your hyperlinked words should be your keywords or variations of your keywords rather than entire sentences.

5) Grammar/spelling errors.

Use the spelling and grammar checkers on your word processor and then put the article away for at least 24 hours. By taking some time away from your article, you can come back to proofread it with "fresh eyes". Then you'll be able to spot mistakes you might have missed the day before. If at all possible, ask a friend who is good in the grammar and spelling department to proofread your article too.


You can't be too careful when it comes to grammar and spelling! Incorrect grammar and spelling can get your article declined in a heartbeat. Bunches of spelling and grammar errors make an article look low quality. Even if your article does slip through with errors, you'll have to live with it appearing on websites all over the internet with the mistakes, and there's little you can do to fix things then!

It pays to take time on the front end to ensure that you're submitting a quality article that appeals to publishers. If you can avoid these 5 common decline reasons, then there's a very good chance that publishers will be happy to publish your article!


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