The number one question among webmasters is "How can I increase the number of visitors to my website?". There are several ways, but adding content to your site is the most effect method there is. This article explains why and how to do it.

Like all webmasters, the reason you created your website in the first place is so that people (visitors) can see what you have to offer. Maybe you simply wish to share your thoughts and opinions on a weblog. Perhaps you want to use your website as a "billboard" for your brick-and-mortar business. Or maybe you want to sell tons of widgets and make a living on the Internet.

Whatever your motivation for building your site, you won't achieve your goals without building a steady flow of traffic to it! There is one "best" thing you can do that will help you increase the flow of visitors to your site (and keep them coming back time and again): Add new content on a regular basis.

How does adding new content help build traffic? Here are three ways:

1 - More content helps boost your search engine rankings, and higher search engine rankings mean more visitors will "find" your website when they search for what you're offering. In general, larger sites fare better in the search engines than smaller sites, for various reasons.

2 - More content (meaning more pages) provides more "roads" into your site from the search engines. Having hundreds or thousands of pages means there are hundreds or thousands of varied search terms that your site will come up for in the search results. This means instead of your site being "found" when just two or three relevant searches are made, it will be found under hundreds or thousands of search terms!

3 - Fresh content will keep your current visitors coming back to your site to see "what's new". Any business owner will tell you it's cheaper to keep a customer you already have than it is to acquire a new one. The same principle applies on the web.

Adding fresh content on a regular basis is the true secret to expanding your traffic levels. You'll receive more and more new visitors all the time, and they'll keep coming back!

So how do you go about adding new content? First of all, set a goal of adding at least two new articles to your website each and every day. Two articles per day isn't much really, but it adds up to 730 new pages per year. That's at least 730 new "roads" into your site from the search engines!

So where do I get the content to add to my site? The best place to find new content is inside your head - write articles about a topic that's related to the overall theme of your site. Spend a few minutes a day doing some research on the web. Remember, Google is your friend. Just be sure you don't plagiarize (copy) someone else's work. Not only is it unethical, it's quite dangerous for the long-term survival and success of your website!

The process is really quite simple: Research, read, and learn. Then write an article of your own explaining what you have learned. That's it! You don't have to be a great writer who produces polished novels, you simply have to be able to get your points across.

If you simply cannot write (or have no desire to try), there are thousands of high-quality articles available on the web on virtually ANY topic that are free for the taking. All that's usually required is a link back to the author's site in a short "bio" section at the end of the article.

There are many websites on the Internet that offer tons of these "free content" articles. Just do a Google search for "free content".

Rick Rouse is the owner of RLROUSE Directory & Informational Resources http://www.rlrouse.com, your one-stop resource for interesting and useful information on virtually any topic. Visit his Webmaster/SEO Weblog http://www.rlrouse.com/blog for lots of great traffic-building articles.