What are the best places to publish how-to articles for organic traffic?

If your goal is organic traffic, the “best” places to publish how-to articles are usually the ones that already have:

1. Strong domain authority
2. A large audience searching for instructional content
3. Good indexing and ranking potential
4. Topical relevance to your niche

Best places to publish how-to articles

1. Your own website/blog

Best overall for long-term organic traffic.

Why:

• You control the content, SEO, internal linking, and conversions
• Articles can rank for years
• You build site authority in your niche

Best for:

• Brands, businesses, and creators who want compounding traffic

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2. Medium

Good for exposure and some organic reach, but weaker for long-term SEO than your own site.

Why:

• Medium has strong domain authority
• Articles can rank quickly for some topics
• Easy to publish and share

Tradeoff:

• You don’t fully own the audience
• Competition is high
• Canonical/tagging issues can affect SEO if not handled carefully

Best for:

• Repurposed content or thought leadership
• Testing topics before posting on your site

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3. LinkedIn Articles

Good for B2B and professional/how-to content.

Why:

• LinkedIn content can show up in Google results
• Strong for industry-specific instructional content
• Useful for building professional credibility

Best for:

• Marketing, business, tech, career, and productivity how-tos

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4. Substack

Good if your how-to content fits an email-first audience.

Why:

• Can rank in search
• Strong for building a subscriber base
• Works well for recurring educational content

Best for:

• Niche instructional content, tutorials, and guides

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5. Quora

Good for answering search-intent questions and gaining visibility.

Why:

• Quora often ranks for long-tail informational queries
• Great for concise how-to answers
• Can drive referral traffic

Tradeoff:

• Hard to build a brand asset there
• Not ideal for full-length SEO articles

Best for:

• Supplementing your main content strategy

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6. Reddit

Good for niche communities, less predictable for SEO.

Why:

• Can generate traffic if the post is helpful and relevant
• Some Reddit pages rank well in search
• Best in highly engaged communities

Tradeoff:

• Self-promotion is often frowned upon
• Organic traffic is less reliable

Best for:

• Community-focused tutorials, niche problem-solving

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7. Guest posts on niche authority sites

Excellent if the site has strong topical relevance and backlinks.

Why:

• Can put your how-to content in front of an existing audience
• May earn referral traffic and SEO value
• Builds credibility

Best for:

• Industry blogs, publications, and resource sites in your niche

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8. YouTube descriptions / companion blog posts

Not a direct article platform, but very effective for organic discovery.

Why:

• How-to content performs extremely well on YouTube
• Video + article combo can dominate search results
• Can funnel traffic to your site

Best for:

• Tutorials where visual demonstration helps

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Best strategy overall

If you want the most organic traffic, prioritize:

1. Publish on your own site first
2. Republish or adapt on Medium / LinkedIn / Substack
3. Answer related questions on Quora and Reddit
4. Earn guest post placements on niche authority sites
5. Support with YouTube if the topic is visual

What usually works best by content type

• B2B how-tos: LinkedIn, your site, guest posts
• Consumer tutorials: Your site, Medium, YouTube
• Question-based answers: Quora, Reddit, your site
• Niche expert content: Substack, industry blogs, your site

Important SEO note

If organic traffic is the goal, your own website is almost always the best primary home for how-to articles. Publishing elsewhere can help with reach, but those platforms usually work best as distribution channels, not your main SEO asset.

If you want, I can also give you:

• a ranked list by SEO value
• the best platforms for your niche
• or a publishing strategy that balances SEO + backlinks + audience growth