The significance of articles in today's information intensive and internet based companies are immeasurable. In large part effective articles contribute enormously to the amount of traffic to and through a website. It has become a key element in making a site work and achieve profitability. A shrewed website operator and owner must have the marketing insight to include articles in his or her site that will work for them and earn them the many benefits articles can give to your site.

Articles have been known to be the primary impetus in driving traffic to a website. Articles are a key factor in garnering high rankings in search result pages for ones website. The higher a site ranks the bigger slice of the traffic flow pie she gets. With a huge number in traffic flow, there are more profits and more potential for other income generating strategies as well.

But, it is not just about stuffing your site with articles; the articles must meet certain requirements and possess certain characteristics These requirements must be met in order for the article to deliver the desired results. A well written and insightful article will not only catch and hold the attention of the readers, but also keep them coming back for more. Having had an enlightening and informative experience at your site, they would also be more inclined to refer others to your site who may turn into paying customers.

Here are some tips to help you and assist you in creating and optimizing your articles. Below you will read about five elements an article must have to make it successful and helpful in making your site a profit earning and traffic pulling site.

Keywords and Keyword Phrases.

An article must always be centered around relevant keywords and keyword phrases. When a website visitor goes to a site, there are those who are just browsing, and there are those actually looking for a specific something. When this happens, a searcher usually goes to a search engine and types in the keywords they are looking for (e.g. Toyota Camry, Meningitis, Tax Lawyer and Etcetera). It could be anything they want.

The Important thing is that you have an article that has the keywords that are related to your site. For example, if you maintain an auto parts site, you must have articles about cars and their parts. There are many tools on the internet that can help a webmaster in determining what keywords and keyword phrases are most relevant and most in demand . You can use this tool to determine what keywords to use and build your article around

Keyword Density

Keyword density is the number of times a keyword or keyword phrase is used in an article. The number varies depending on the number of words used in an article. An effective article must have a keyword density that is not too high or too low. Relevant keywords should account for at least ten to fifteen percent of an articles total word count for the benefit of search engine crawlers.If the occurance of the relevant keywords exceeds this, the essence of the article is lost and may turn off a reader as well as the search engines. It could be viewed as excessively redundant, and may even be considered as" keyword spamming"by some search engines.On the other hand, insufficient keyword usage could cause your article to be ignored by the search engines.

An article must have good keyword density for the search engines' to "feel" its presence. Prudent keyword usage goes to the heart of what a well written article is intended to accomplish: High page rank There are anumber of software programs available on the Web, that are designed to calculate the percentage of keyword occurance in an article.

Good Article Content

As stated above, you cannot just riddle an article with keywords. Articles must also be regarded as good reading materials. Articles must be able to entertain people and above all provide good information and help in solving whatever their problem is and/or answering whatever question they may have. Articles should be written with correct spelling and good grammar. If you want people to trust you, make your work good and well thought out. Be sure to proofread your work several times until you are comfortably sure that it is grammatically as well as factually correct.

People respond well to figures, facts and statistics. Try to get great information and as many facts as you can. A good and well written article will boost your reputation as an expert in your chosen field or topic. As more people believe in you. They will be able to trust you and your products.

Linking Articles

And another important thing to remember. If you are going to submit articles to ezines and/or contribute your articles to newsletters and other sites, DON'T ever forget to include a link to your site. A little resource box with a brief description of your site and you should always be placed right after your articles that you have submitted. If people like your articles, they will most likely click on the link directing them to your site.

Distribution

Effective and strategic distribution is the final step and possibly the most important. Unless your article gets in front of the eyes of those that matter, your efforts are most likely to be for naught. Submit to good ezines and newsletters related to your topic or niche. Also free submission article directories that are accessed by webmasters, ezine and newsletter publishers and owners of sites with topics related to yours.