How to Write Articles That Will Increase Traffic to
Your Website
I've been submitting articles to online article directories
for almost a year now, and as a result, I've seen a tremendous increase
in my website traffic. Increasingly, what I'm seeing is visitors coming
to my site because of searches for keywords that also happen to be the
same as topics of articles that I've written. Additionally, my articles
have been published in several high profile ezines that have very large
subscriber lists, which have driven even more traffic to my website.
How can you write article that increase traffic to your website? Here
are 10 strategies I am successfully using:
1. Short but valuable content. Based on all of my research of
various article directories, articles should be between 450 -1000 words,
with an optimal length of 700-800 words. Most of my articles are
1000-1200 words, so even though I'm a great violator of this rule,
article marketing has still been a successful strategy for me.
2. Curb your submissions. Many article submission services as
well as article directories permit you to submit an unlimited number of
articles on a weekly basis. Consequently, I've heard that some of these
services have been blacklisted by the more reputable directories (not
the service I'm using,
Submit Your Article, however). In my opinion, article directories
permitting unlimited article submissions are great wastelands of poorly
written articles, unless they have some type of article approval process
attached to the submission. The reputable article banks (those that
have great credibility with ezine publishers for having content-rich
articles) usually limit article submissions to no more than 2 per week.
3. Captivating title. Creating a compelling title to an article
is key in attracting a great readership. Most of my articles are "How
to" articles, or they are some type of tips article that solves a
problem. For example, "Top 10 Strategies to...", "5 Secrets to
Creating..", "The 3 Key Ingredients to...", or "7 Mistakes to Avoid".
The general formula that I use is a number and a problem that most of my
target market has or a number and a solution to a problem that they
have.
4. Include your keywords. In order to drive traffic to your
site, you'll need to include the keywords by which you want to be found
in the title of the article. To maximize the effectiveness of the
article, you'll want to use that same keyword 3-7 times in the content
of the article.
5. Short paragraphs are best. You junior high English teach
might cringe, but when you're writing online content, your paragraphs
need to be no more than about 3 sentences each, and your sentences need
to be rather simply constructed. Keep in mind that people are looking
at light, not paper, when they're reading online. That means that
stress on the eyes is different in this medium than reading a hard copy
of something. Because many readers tend to scan online content rather
than thoroughly read it, divide your article content into numbered
bullet points for easier reading and comprehension.
6. Valuable content. I read an incredible amount of drivel in
online articles. I really resent wasting my time when an article has a
wonderful title that solves a problem that I have, but when I click on
the full content, it fails to deliver any valuable information. It's
even more annoying when the article is simply an advertorial of sorts
for a product or service. I always strive to deliver the best
information that I have about a topic to my readers. Don't be afraid of
giving away what you know! It's a great way to establish your expertise
so that your target market will confidently buy from you when they're
ready.
7. Have a beginning, middle and an end. Your article should
have an introductory paragraph to tell your readers what you're going to
tell them in the article, the body of your article with your prime
content, and then an ending that summarizes what you said in the
article. If you write tips articles with numbered points like I do, it's
important to end with a summary paragraph rather than your last tip, as
many directory editors will refuse to publish your article because it's
considered incomplete.
8. Limit your URLs. Most article publishers will refuse to list
your article if you have more than 3 URLs in the body of your article.
Stricter publishers will refuse to publish any article containing
affiliate links in the body, or links back to one of your websites in
the body.
9. Compelling resource box. The resource box is the
"commercial" that appears at the end of the article to tell the reader
what you do. Typically, this commercial is 1-2 sentences containing
your catchy "tag line" and the URL of your website (preferably on a
separate line to make it stand out better). A resource box that makes
a reader take action and visit your site is one that contains a short
description of a free offer you're making to the reader, usually for a
downloadable audio file, ebook, special report, or ecourse if they sign
up for that product on your website.
10. Place your articles on your website. Search engines love
valuable and relevant content, so the more of this type of content that
you have on your site, the higher your search engine rankings. I would
estimate that at least 50% of my weekly traffic comes from searches on
keywords I have placed in my article titles. I just recently
reorganized my articles by topic and created an individual page for each
topic, with each page containing the full listing of articles that I
have that relate to that topic. I have the full listing of topics on the
left-hand side of every page of my site. I'm observing an increasing
amount of traffic to my site coming from search terms like, "Internet
marketing articles" or "time management articles", as I have both pages
as article listing pages on my site.
Your target market needs your expertise! If you use the strategies I've
outlined to write your articles, you'll start to see the traffic to your
website increase in short order.
(c) 2008 Donna Gunter
WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR EZINE OR WEB SITE? You
can, as long as you reprint the article in its entirety
and include this blurb with it:
Online Business Resource Queen
(TM) and Online Business Coach Donna Gunter helps independent service
professionals learn how to automate their businesses, leverage their expertise
on the Internet, and get more clients online. To claim your FREE gift,
TurboCharge Your Online Marketing Toolkit, visit her site at
http://www.OnlineBizU.com.
Ask Donna an Internet Marketing question at
http://www.AskDonnaGunter.com. Read about running an online biz at her blog,
http://www.GetMoreClientsOnlineblog.com.
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