One fine morning you find that your customer base has eroded over the past month or so. What could be the reason? Obviously, people have not stopped eating marshmallows. Instead, the possible reason could be someone else from the competition is making a dent into your market.

Well, the difference? This competitor either ranks better with Google and other search engines, or he gets more foot-fall on his site through more links than you have.

Well, what is the secret? The secret to better search engine ranking is more keyword density or more back links. The competitor suddenly has not done anything to get these amazing results.

He has been doing it for some time now, only you have realized it now. In all probability, he has been writing or getting written, keyword rich articles for his website and submitting them to article directories. People and affiliate sites selling marshmallows have been devouring these articles as free content along with the competitor's resource box and flocking to his online store instead of yours.

In short, the article directories and submissions have given him more exposure and better status in the marshmallow industry than you. Well, you have been caught napping.

Internet marketing is an ever changing scenario and being caught napping is not a good practice. Articles and submission to article directories have been proven to bring results both ways, to the writers and the readers. The writers, by enhancing their expert stature and bring more links to their site and the users by giving them fresh content regularly on a periodic basis and thus attracting more and more traffic by the day, new and revisits, both.

It is not necessary that you write articles to retain customers. You can always get them written or source them from various sources on the internet. You can get them tailored to your needs and just submit them to article directories. Do not expect overnight results, but results over a short period of time are sure to show.

Ask any webmaster that you might know, he will be in a better position to explain the process of search engine optimization by the use of articles.

Use article directories, by submitting or sourcing your content from there. You are not far from the success.

You may come across sites that offer free content on the internet. These are directories that have articles written by experts in various fields. They are normally classified and offer good quality content. You can use the content from article directories on your website, but keeping them intact along with the resource box that may have a link to the site of the author. The only hitch is that you are having some other expert's article on your site with a link that may drive your customers to them.

Using the article directory, the other way round is more profitable. You should submit batches of articles in your field of expertise on these directories and let customers come to you through others websites that may use your articles for content.

Using article directories either way, is always profitable depending on your field of expertise and business plan.