To generate traffic
In today’s highly competitive internet universe, the importance of attracting highly targeted website traffic
to a given website cannot be overstated, especially in view of the fact that driving traffic to that website might just be the only means of survival in the cutthroat world of ecommerce.
That having been said, however, getting a high search engine ranking – which is one of the most effective ways to drive traffic to your website – can be a very difficult, if not unsurmountable task; but fortunately there is a number of website promotion strategies a website owner (webmaster/publisher) can use to drive traffic to his/her website.
Of the various traffic generation strategies you can utilize – if you are that webmaster/publisher – paid advertising and article marketing might be the least complicated; and while most other effective techniques require payment, there certainly are ways to promote your website and increase your website traffic without spending anything.
Let’s take a closer look at the easiest free traffic boosting method mentioned above. Writing articles is one of the best website promotion strategies you can use, and this method can be very effective; and even if you’re not completely sold on this strategy you might want to read the following paragraphs for ways in which it can help explode your business.
Reaching more people
When you write good articles it would be a shame not to share them with other people, since you can publish those articles to your website, as well as submit them to other sites such as e-zines and online publishers. Keep in mind that by submitting your articles to these sites, you provide exposure not only to your ideas but also to your entire website.
To get the full effect of any exposure from your well-written articles, simply include a link back to your site or include a short bio or other contact information in the resource box located below the main content area on most of these sites, thereby boosting your exposure and free advertising as well. Submit your articles to popular e-zines and take advantage of their popularity.
Other site owners who find your article(s) relevant may also link back to your website, enabling you to increase your link popularity, which is one of the most important search engine ranking strategies in the internet world. Remember that most people are looking for information online; and by filling this need with your high quality articles you may reap the benefit of more exposure and higher web traffic.
Free advertising: Search engine ranking
Submitting your articles to other websites presents an opportunity to advertise your website without paying exorbitant fees; and although you should avoid marketing language in your articles and make it informative and useful to your readers, you can always include your site’s link in the resource box.
In addition, by making your article relevant and helpful to your readers, you are building credibility for your website, which could ultimately lead to a visit and, hopefully, a purchase. Good quality content on a website is far better and more effective than a few lines of ad space. You have a very special opportunity to presell your product or service to prospective customers.
Many successful article writers create a unique web page for marketing articles right on their websites and optimize the articles to make them more search-engine friendly, and you can (should) do the same thing; but you will need to use top-ranked keywords and Meta tags in order to give your website the highest search engine ranking it can have for those keywords.
As soon as you upload the new webpage to your server, search engines will spider through it, thereby allowing you to get an increased search engine ranking and appear higher on the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages). Remember that search engine optimized content is a very effective strategy to gain a high rank in search results.
Link popularity & SEO
Instead of looking for other sites that would want to establish reciprocal links with your website, you can simply submit an article to other sites as long as you don’t forget to include a link back to your site in the resource box; and when these websites pick up and publishes your article, you automatically get a link partner.
However, you should try to get as many link partners as you can, as link popularity is one of the factors used by search engines in determining search engine rankings. Also make sure your article useful, if not compelling and appealing so that more websites will be encouraged to publish it.
By making your site keyword rich you can greatly improve its search engine ranking; but avoid keyword stuffing (cramming your site with too many keywords), because keyword density is one of the most important factors that search engines use when determining the search engine ranking of websites. However, you should always provide relevant, useful and pertinent information.
So resist the temptation to overuse keywords in the hopes of getting a high rank as this will definitely turn off most surfers, your readers and the search engine crawlers. Relevance and quality is still the most important things to consider when writing articles and it will be doubly useful to your site if you make your articles search-engine optimized.
Good reputation & high credibility
By writing excellent, original and relevant articles you not only give your site exposure, you are also creating a good impression on your prospects, as well as encourage more people to visit your site and do business with you; but it is just as important to establish an impressive reputation through your articles. You can do this by being seen as an expert in the field and you will get more customers eager to do business with you.
Another way to build your credibility is through references and testimonials which from your articles getting positive feedback when you publish them in e-zines and free article sites. Make sure to record this positive feedback and comments to be used as promotional material on your website or in any of your promotional efforts.
Your credibility will be greatly enhanced by positive feedback, as it will create a good impression on your prospects, as well as solidify your existing customer base. In this highly competitive environment, excellent credibility and trust may be the only things that can help you attract new customers or make loyal customers out of your existing base.
The most important thing to remember about article marketing – which is essentially what this post was all about – is that articles which are original, relevant, useful, interesting and well-written are among the most important tools you can utilize to improve exposure to, and explode, your business on the Web.
