If you have a web based business, you know how important it is to drive traffic to your website. One great way to increase traffic to your business is to market yourself through articles. If you’ve ever been directed to a website like” ezinearticles” or “squidoo” during a web search, then you have firsthand experience with article submission websites. Most of the content on these websites comes from people who are promoting businesses. Each of them shares their knowledge with people on the web through these article websites in order to drive traffic back to their businesses, and it works.
Article submission sites are typically pretty high ranking in search engine results. If you write an article that contains keywords that someone searches for, the chances of your article coming up on the first page of search results is probably much better than for your blog or website. Another benefit of writing articles is that search engines can only read text. If your website is primarily comprised of pictures or short product descriptions, the text in an article will provide search engines with much more information to search for. At the end of articles, most websites allow authors to link back to their personal websites. Articles diversify your business’ web-presence and improve your odds of finding customers with links back to your website.
If you decide to start using articles as a way to drive traffic to your website, make sure you follow a few simple rules. First, choose keywords that you think your readers would choose when searching for the information in your article, and use those keywords in your title. You should also use these keywords in the body of your article, but only 3-4% of the time. Any more than that, and search engines might throw out your article as an “ad”. Articles also need to really be about something. Instead of writing an article about “why you should buy your toothpaste from don’s toothpaste warehouse”, write an article about the “benefits of fluoride in toothpaste” or “product reviews on the most effective whitening toothpaste”. Linking the article to your website should be the most advertorial thing about your article. If you don’t offer real information or advice in your articles, nobody will read them or trust you as a businessperson. Lastly, make sure to keep your articles short. Between 400 and 800 words is ideal. Most internet readers only spend about a minute reading an article, so make sure you get your information in before customers lose interest.
Some of the most reputable article submission websites are ezinearticles.com, goarticles.com, and squidoo.com, but there are many more. A simple keyword search for “article submission” will provide you with more information about marketing with articles and more websites where you can post them.