A simple technique to increase web site traffic is using articles.

Just imagine? Hundreds, even thousands, of theme-related sites having one-way links to your site! What would that do for your web site? Would your page rank increase? How much of an increase in web site traffic do you think you would see?

I can tell you from experience that it will blow your mind away. It is truly an amazing and simple strategy for increasing web site traffic, but very few site owners are doing it! Quality articles are in big demand on the web from article directories, webmasters looking for great content, and e-zine publishers. Just one article can spread across the web like wildfire taking your website URL and name along with it!

I am going to provide you with a simple 4-step process that will show you how to use articles to increase web site traffic and explode your online sales. I know many of you are saying, "I can't write and really don't have the time". It is O.K., no one is asking you to become the next Ernest Hemingway, so don't worry, just relax and follow these simple steps.

If you do, I guarantee you will see results almost overnight. So let's get started!

RESEARCH

This is vital to writing articles that will be snatched up by all of those people looking for great content to put on their sites and in their e-zines.

It starts by finding keywords that are relevant to your site and searched for around 10,000-20,000 times per month. Keywords that have more searches than that tend to have too much competition from competing sites. Use Overture or another keyword research tool to find keywords and phrases that give us the results mentioned above.

Next, you want to go to Google and type those keywords in to see how many search results you find. Preferably, you want less than 100 million results. The reason for this is when you optimize your article and turn it into a webpage we will be able to get a high ranking to help with traffic. We will get to that later!

Now that you have found the keyword or phrase to build your article around it is time to put it to use.

WRITING THE ARTICLE

You will build the article around the one or two keywords that you have chosen. Do not try to use more than two keywords because it becomes too cumbersome to write the article and optimize it for your web site. Just follow this outline and you will produce attention grabbing articles that leave people wanting more.

1. TITLE - You need to have a catchy title that contains your main keyword. Some directories and webmasters will only display your article by the title. So it needs to grab the reader's attention and make them want to click on it.

2. INTRODUCTION - This opening sentence or paragraph must draw the reader in and entice them to read the rest of the article. If your opening sentence is weak you will loose their attention and the back button will be all you get!

3. BODY - You need to fill the body with relevant and helpful information that will be of use to the reader. Make the body easy to read. I like to use an outline, but you can use other styles. Just make sure that your paragraphs are not too long and that you keep your focus on the main point of the article.

4. CONCLUSION - Make sure that you close the article strong and let the reader know that the information you have provided is helpful. A strong closing is extremely important to a quality article.

5. RESOURCE BOX - For those of you that don't know, this is the little box at the end of the article that talks about the author. The resource box is the most important part of the article. This is where your link is, so you need to have a convincing call to action to get them to click. The resource box is the most overlooked part of writing effective articles. Make sure that you make your link live when you submit it to the directories; this is critical and too many people make that mistake.

As a good rule of thumb you need to make the article around 500-1200 words not including the resource box. I have written longer articles, but some directories will not allow you to submit if you go over a certain amount of words, so check with the submission site and make sure your article will work. If it is too long, just make some adjustments to meet the guidelines.

SUBMIT YOUR ARTICLE

In order to get the most use out of your article you will need to submit it to as many relevant article directories and announcement lists as you can. In my opinion, article directories are more important because they will keep your article in their archives for long periods of time. This will give you an incoming link from a high paged rank site. Article announcement lists will not give you the same kind of results because they are short lived. It is beneficial to submit to them, however, for the exposure. The downside to announcement lists is that they do not provide any long term benefits.

There are several article directories on the web but some of the ones I like to use because they are high traffic sites are:

http://www.goarticles.com
http://www.ezinearticles.com
http://www.articlecity.com

There are several more quality directories that you can submit to but these will give you a great start.

UPLOAD YOUR ARTICLE TO YOUR WEB SITE AS A WEB PAGE.

The last thing that I would recommend is to optimize your article for the keyword that you have chosen and upload it to your web site as a web page. This will add quality content to your web site and give your site more search engine "bait". The ultimate goal is to get targeted traffic by utilizing articles.

There are a couple of things that I would like to recommend that you do when you optimize your article. First, make sure that your keyword density is about 1-3% in your article. If you go much higher than this you could get hit for spamming and that is the last thing you want to happen.

The second tip is to make sure that you build a site map for all of your articles and put it on one of your web sites. This will help lead the search engines to all of your articles and will help you with your rankings.

Using articles is a great way to increase web site traffic and build credibility. Articles will increase the number of incoming links to your site and beef up your profitability. If you follow the steps I laid out for you in this article you will be on your way to increasing your web site traffic. Articles are an inexpensive and very effective way to advertise your site and build credentials on the internet.

So take this guide and go increase your web site traffic!

Mark Williams has researched and reviewed hundreds of traffic generating techniques and tips. For proven traffic generating strategies visit: Increase Web Site Traffic