On oil changes and site promotion

Car owners often underrate how much the quality of maintenance affects how well their car holds up down the road. We’re talking, as you’ve probably guessed, about periodically changing the engine oil and filters. And that’s a real shame — how you look after a car determines its technical condition. As the saying goes, “the cheapskate pays twice,” and that applies not only to oil changes but also, say, to promoting a website online.

Here we’ll try not just to give some genuine advice on changing your oil, but also to show one of the most effective ways to boost a site’s ranking — namely, promotion through unique articles that need to be placed on respected sites. It goes without saying that to get a shot at having your article placed on such sites, it has to be not just unique but also interesting, and useful too.

So, let’s try to promote a site about engine oil, and give car owners this useful advice along the way:

• Change your engine oil more often than the engine manufacturer requires! Engine and filter manufacturers base their figures on running the engine under optimal conditions — namely, clean streets and quality fuel. Since real life never offers those conditions, engine oil gets contaminated much faster.

• Never buy the cheapest filters. The lower the quality of a filter (oil, fuel or air), the more dirt and foreign particles get into the engine. Down the line, those particles turn into an abrasive that’s extremely effective at destroying your engine from the inside.

• At every service, insist that the mechanics check the running gear. The car’s already up on the lift anyway. For not too much extra money, you’ll feel a lot more confident behind the wheel.

• Never buy engine oil at a market! Counterfeit engine oil is guaranteed not to suit your engine, and it will soon fail. Pay more, but buy your oil from a trusted seller. In truth, good oil is genuine oil, and it hardly matters who makes it — Elf, Chevron or Castrol.

• Alternate a vacuum oil change with a classic drain every other time. During an “express” change, far more used oil stays behind in the engine than with a full drain, which significantly degrades its properties. It’s best to use an “express” change only as a last resort.

• Avoid using any additives whatsoever in your oil. Whatever the sellers promise, any positive effect, if there is one, will be extremely short-lived, while a major overhaul will be needed with one-hundred-percent certainty afterward.

• Think carefully about choosing the right viscosity and brand of oil. What your garage neighbour or an acquaintance swears by can quite easily “kill” your engine if it’s a different make or brand from theirs.

After all this advice, it’s best to put a line at the bottom along the lines of: “Based on materials from the All About Engine Oil website,” and make that line a link to your (in this case, our) site.