A cost effective method to increase your website traffic is to submit articles to well known article directories. Most article directories have a box at the end of the article where you may insert a link to your site. The articles should be interesting and well written to encourage the reader to seek additional information.

You must publish fresh articles. Copying articles and submitting them as your own is an violation of copy right laws. Make sure your articles conform to rules set by the directories.

The Article Must Have Something to Say

If your article isn’t interesting and informative, it won’t get read. The article must grab the reader’s attention and make him want to discover more about the topic. He will then visit your site for information. Punctuation and spelling errors should be avoided and the articles should be written in a conversational style.

Getting Noticed

The articles should use keywords that will be picked up by search engines. The search engines will rank you articles by keyword usage. If you aren’t sure which keywords to use, check out Google Suggest, Overture and Wordtracker. Don’t over use your keywords, or the search engines will deem it spam. The best concentration of keywords is usually a 2% to 3% density throughout the article making sure to include the keyword once in the title, once in the first paragraph and again in the last paragraph.

The placement of the keywords is as important as the keyword density for search engine ranking. There are other keyword stradegies, like long tail keyword. This is the use of word or phrases related to your keyword. These can appear once or twice in the article.

You Presentation Must Be Attractive

Your article should be presented in a neat clear format. Use numbering or bullet points where appropriate, and break the article into short paragraphs. Clear simple language will keep the reader’s attention. If you have contracted an outside writer, be sure that you proofread the articles before submitting them.

Continuous Submissions

For article publishing to work as a method of driving traffic to your site, you must keep publishing fresh articles. Internet users have a voracious appetite for new data. It is best to submit several new articles per week. The more articles you submit, the greater the amount of traffic you will generate. That’s really the point of submitting articles.