I read a message on a forum the a while back where a new webmaster was asking for suggestions regarding article submissions to create back links. The person asked how long the articles should be, how many hyperlinks to include, and other questions about article submissions. I was quite surprised by some of the responses that this poster received.

It was actually recommended that articles only need to be 250 words long and that the person asking the question should include 4-5 hyperlinks. Another person suggested to write a 500-word article and to include many hyperlinks, because the only purpose of the articles were to create back links.

There is some truth to this... A person could write a short article and get it submitted to many article directories. And, simply generating back links is one way that a webmaster can increase his or her position in the search engine rankings.

But, writing a 250-word article will probably not result in that webmaster being considered an expert on the topic that he or she is writing about.

Taking the time to create an informative and helpful article will help a person to be considered an expert in his or her field. Imagine for a moment if some of the most famous names on the Internet were to only write brief articles to generate back links. Would Matt Cutts (http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/) receive the recognition that he does if he just scribbled a few sentences here and there? Would Joel Comm (http://www.joelcomm.com/) be considered an Adsense expert without writing informative how-to articles and books for those wanting to make money from Adsense? Would you know or care who Robin Nobles (http://www.searchengineworkshops.com/) was if she did not create in-depth articles about search engine optimization? Would you even be bothering to read this article?

You can generate a bit of traffic by creating back links by hammering out low-quality articles. But, if you want to be known as an expert, you need to take a different approach and provide the quality information people are seeking. If you have information and expertise that others are unable to find on the Internet, then you will get many more visitors as a result of writing an article.

If you are looking for more than simple back links to your site, then it is worth it to take the time to write a high-quality article. A high quality article, that is written with the reader in mind --- not the search engines --- is more likely to actually get clicks (human visitors) into your site. This is what separates the very successful webmasters from those who are simply getting by.

To be known as an expert or an authority in your area requires articles and information that human beings will actually read. After reading this kind of article, a person will think to himself "This author has the information that I am looking for" and the reader will then visit the writer's website.

A well-written article can be submitted to literally thousands of publishers of ezines, newsletters, and free reprint article sites and can result in dozens and sometimes hundreds of back links for a website. Now, not every publisher will pick up your article, but for the ones that do, you get a back link. More important than the back links though is the number of people that will cite your article, forward it to their friends, and reference it in their own articles that they are distributing.

These high-quality articles are how a webmaster becomes known as an "authority" on a topic. When you write for the reader and offer something of real value, you will reap the rewards with a huge influx of traffic to your website.

Generalized junk articles that are filled with hyperlinks and self promotion will only result in a few back links, and people who actually read those less-than-quality articles are not very likely to ever visit your site.

Poorly written articles are also unlikely to get published in ezines and newsletters where you can reach potentially thousands of readers in a single day.

The worst thing about the low-quality junk articles is that if people do read them, they might always think of you as a "junk peddler", and most people don't buy from people whom they perceive as "junk peddlers".

As a webmaster, you need to decide for yourself what goals you have in mind for your article submission campaign. If you limit yourself to only generating back links, you will not see the full potential of visitors and traffic that you could be getting to your website.

An article that is good enough to wind up on sites like http://www.About.com can give you a huge and consistent growth in traffic for some time to come. Articles that are picked up by large newsletters like http://www.SiteProNews.com can deliver thousands of visitors to your website in a day, add to your credentials as an "authority" website, and will create a situation where your website is one of the first places that people turn to for information in your field.

The bottom line is that if you write for the human reader instead of the search engines, you will be rewarded with many more visitors, and you can gain an authority status among your visitors.

The choice is yours. You can spend an extra hour or two creating a high-quality article that will be published on more websites creating more back links to your website, establish you as an authority in your field, and allow you to see thousands of visitors in a day when your article is published in one or a dozen ezines. Or you can save the extra hour or two and pray that your limited efforts will amount to anything of real value.