Traffic Driving Articles - 4 Things ALL Articles Must Have

This tip brought to you by our Entrepreneur Guru Carma Spence-Pothitt on Feb 25, 2010

It is said that content is King, and for good reason. Content, in the form of articles, video, audio and images are what brings traffic to a website. Of the four primary types of content, articles are the most flexible and easy to work with and, in the end, are the main producers of traffic.

Whether your articles appear on your website or in article directories (and why not both?), they are your best chance at affecting search engine rankings. And, the higher a site ranks, the bigger slice of the traffic flow pie it gets. Greater traffic flow equals, potentially, greater profits for your business.

But, to be effective, these articles need to meet certain criteria. These criteria include keyword density, word count and quality. Articles with the correct keyword density per word count will gain points from the search engines, and well written articles will catch the attention of your prospects and keep them coming back for more.

Here are some tips to help you create articles that satisfy these criteria. Below you will find four things that all articles must have to be successful and help your website earn more traffic.

Keywords and Keyword Phrases

An article must be centered on keywords and keyword phrases. These are the words and phrase people use to find information on the web. Your key words and phrases should be related to your website.

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.

You need to be careful about how often your mention your key words and phrases in your article. Not enough and your article won't rank in the search engines. Too many and the search engines will penalize you.

Articles should have around a 3-4% keyword density in their content, about 2 mentions per 250 to 350 words, for search engines to rank a page high in their search results.

Good Article Content

You are not writing these articles for search engines only... you want them to be read by real people. So, your articles must also be regarded as good reading and the repetition of keywords or keyword phrases must be natural.

Articles must entertain the reader, as well as provide good information. They should be written well with correct spelling and good grammar. If you want people to trust you, make your work good and well thought out.

Links Back to Your Site

And another important thing to remember. If you are going to submit articles to article directories, always remember to include a link back to your site... but only in the resource box. This little resource box should include a brief description of your offer. If people like your article, they will most likely click on the link directing them to your site.