Articles have become the foundation of the Internet. Even in the face of the growing audio and video revolution, the underpinning information revolves around articles. They form the primary content for most websites. They serve as the primary means of driving traffic to most websites. Almost all Internet marketers use articles as part of their traffic strategy.



Whether you write them yourself, use private label rights material, or outsource them, you need to understand what makes for a successful article and how to maximize the cumulative effect of your articles.

With this in mind, let's take a look at some basic elements that should be incorporated into every article you use ...

1. Title Keywords And Keyword Phrases

Keywords are still the primary way of directing traffic on the Internet. Whether you're online looking for information about how to use a yo-yo or you're looking to purchase a Stanley 25 foot, retractable tape measure ... you start with a basic search. Google, or whatever other search engine you may be using, develops a list of websites and articles that they believe meet the criteria of your search term. In the case of our examples, these would be either yo-yo related or Stanley tape measure related.

If you have a website, or you've written an article on how to use a yo-yo, but the term yo-yo or more appropriately, "how to use a yo-yo," isn't included in the title, then your content will most likely never appear in the search engine results. Or, if it does, it will be buried so deep in the results that it's unlikely anyone will ever find it.

So, in your website page title and in the title of the article, you want to include the keyword phrase that properly reflects the content. In the case of our example, once again, it would be ... how to use a yo-yo.

2. Keyword Density

There was a time when keyword density was the way the search engines measured how well your content met the criteria of a search. For instance, if you only had "how to use a yo-yo" in the title and it appeared nowhere else on the page, then your content would be deemed less relevant than content that included the same phrase dispersed fairly regularly throughout the page.

Of course, this was quickly abused by webmasters who wanted the search engines to place their content at the top of the results. Some would write nonsensical articles stuffed with keyword phrases. Others would hide keyword phrases on the page by making them the same color as the background. Well, the search engines frowned upon such tactics and quickly went about deleting them from search results.

Until recently, though, it was still believed that having a keyword or keyword phrase appear on the page (or in the article) two to three percent of the time would be helpful. However, as the search engines have become more sophisticated they've learned to recognize appropriate content without the need to see constant references to a keyword phrase.

So, in our example of "how to use a yo-yo," they're able to identify associative terms such as yo-yo string, palm of your hand, yo-yo tricks, walk the dog, holding the yo-yo, making a slipknot, etc.

The bottom line: get your keyword phrase into your content a couple of times and don't worry about density.

3. Provide Good Content

What else needs to be said? If you're going to write articles for distribution or for your website pages, make them solid articles with content that visitors will find to be worth their while. Don't junk up the Internet anymore than it already is. Respect your visitors. Respect your business. Do it right.

4. Linking Articles

Articles written for the purpose of promoting your website or a product should use proper linking strategies. For instance, if the article is on how to use a yo-yo and you want traffic to a specific page on your website about buying the right yo-yo, you would take advantage of your resource box at the bottom of the article for this. Here's what you might include: To learn more about yo-yoing, visit our site at (list the website address). And if you're looking for the latest yo-yo models with designs that make every step of yo-yoing easier than ever, don't miss our specials!

In this example, you would want to anchor the text "latest yo-yo models" with a link back to your sales page.

As your article gets distributed to numerous article directories around the Internet, each one will have those two links pointing back at your website. This is an excellent way to not only draw traffic, but to gain the attention of the search engines.