Watch this video below to discover an awesome free keyword research strategy that you can use to quickly and efficiently find great targeted keyword phrases to go after. This is a great strategy to use on your websites if you are trying to find better keywords to go after. If the video doesn’t play you can click on the linked up video title below! Have a great day!

According to some very reliable Internet sources it appears that Google is in the final stages of possibly acquiring Twitter. Honestly I can’t say that I am shocked that they would consider purchasing Twitter. In fact, I am surprised they didn’t jump on it faster. Based on a recent article posted on CNet.com, sources claim that a deal is getting closer between the two.

It makes perfect sense for Google to acquire Twitter because it gives them another place to syndicate their advertisements and to increase their exposure on a massive scale. They also acquire a database which contains massive intelligence on hot topics that people are actually talking about. It is scary to think of what kinds of things Google could come up with from the data that Twitter provides. All they have to do is sift through the daily “Tweets” and pull up endless amounts of information on the latest and hottest trends.

Besides being able to syndicate their ads I really think Google wants the search.twitter.com application the most. There are perfect synergies for Google because it is right in the search market. Twitter also gives Google yet another opportunity to set itself apart from Yahoo and Microsoft.

I feel this deal will go through just because it makes sense for Google and also the Twitter founders Biz Stone and Evan Williams sold Blogger.com to Google awhile ago. So they are familiar with each other already in negotiations.

No word has been made on the price to my knowledge.

Tell me your thoughts below. Do you think Google should acquire Twitter?

There are literally hundreds of article directories online that you can submit your content to. These directories help generate exposure, website traffic, and most importantly help give you backlinks for your website which helps from an SEO point of view. Although links from article directories are not considered the highest quality of links to your website, they are still good backlinks.

An often overlooked point about article directories is that they really help you increase your online exposure, credibility and traffic. Further the best article directories are scoured by other website owners as they look for content to post on their website. If they post your content they should attribute the article to you and should provide you a link back to your website. This link will be on a website that can give you more of a backlink benefit.

When writing your articles it is important to make good use of keywords in the title of the article. This will help your article come up in the search engines and will also increase the relevancy of the link to your website in the signature which will help give you a minor search engine link boost as well. Further the better you “optimize” the article the more traffic it will get. Just don’t focus your attention on optimizing the article, but focus on providing good, solid content to be safe.

So I have put together below a list of the 12 article directories you need to be using to drive traffic and to build backlinks for your business. I have ranked them based on Alexa Ranking and also by getting an idea of where they stand in the eyes of Google as far as their search engine rankings are concerned. The higher they rank in the search engines for article directory the higher they scored in my book because it showed their authority.

SEOCounts.com Top 12 Article Directories List

1. EzineArticles.com
2. ArticlesBase.com
3. GoArticles.com
4. ArticleAlley.com
5. Buzzle.com
6. ArticleDashBoard.com
7. IdeaMarketers.com
8. ArticleSnatch.com
9. Amazines.com
10. ISnare.com
11. Article99.com
12. ArticleGold.com

These sources will greatly help increase your Internet exposure.