Selling & Branding with Articles

by Frank Furness

The importance of articles in today’s websites and businesses are immeasurable. They dictate a lot in the success and the drive of traffic into your site. They create links back to your sites and build your credibility and branding. It has become a key element in making a site work and earns a profit. Anyone with a website must have the good sense to include articles in their site that will work for them and earn them the many benefits articles can give to their site.

Articles have been known to be the driving force in driving traffic to a website. Articles play a massive part in giving site high rankings in search result pages. The higher a site ranks the bigger slice of the traffic flow pie you gets. With a huge number in traffic flow, there are more profits and more potential for other income generating opportunities as well.

But, it is not just about stuffing your site with articles; they have certain requirements as well. These requirements must be met to obtain the maximum benefits an article will provide for your site. A well written article will catch the eyes and interest of your customers and keep them coming back for more. They would also be able to recommend your site to others.

Here are some tips to help you and assist you in making your articles. Below you will read about four things all articles must have to make it successful and helpful in making your site a profit earning and traffic overflowing site.

Headlines
Whenever you read a newspaper or magazine, the first thing that captures your attention is the headline. If it looks compelling, this will encourage you to read further. It is just as important with sales copy, brochures, websites and any other marketing materials that promote you or your business. I use a useful piece of software http://www.headlinecreator.co.uk/ that enables me to create 100 headlines by just completing four sentences. Take a look at it, I find it invaluable.

Keywords and Keyword Phrases.

An article must always be centred on the keywords and keyword phrases. As each website visitor goes to a site, there are those who are just merely browsing but actually looking for a specific information. When this happens, a searcher usually goes to a search engine and types in the keywords they are looking for (e.g. Motivational Speaker, Panasonic Sound System, Dell Computers, Etcetera). It could be anything they want.

The important thing is that you have an article that has the keywords that are related to your site. For example, if you maintain an auto parts site, you must be able to have articles about cars and their parts. There are many tools in the internet that provide service in helping people out in determining what keywords and keyword phrases are mostly sought out.

Keyword Density

Know that you have your keywords and keyword phrases, you must use them fully. An article must have good keyword density for a search engine to “feel” its presence. Articles should at least have ten to fifteen percent of keyword density in their content for search engines to rank a site high in their search results. Getting a high rank is what articles do best for a site.

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. With a very high density, the essence of the article is lost and may turn off a reader as well as the search engines. A low number may be ignored by the search engines.

Good Article Content

. Articles must be able to entertain people as well as provide good information and help for their needs. Articles 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.

People respond well to figures, facts and statistics. Try to get great information and as many facts as you can. A good and well written article will boost your reputation as an expert in your chosen field or topic. As more people believe in you. They will be able to trust you and your products.

Linking Articles
If you are going to submit articles to Ezines and/or contribute your articles to newsletters and other sites, DON’T ever forget to include a link to your site. A little resource box with a brief description of your site and you should always be placed right after your articles that you have submitted. If people like your articles, they will most likely click on the link directing them to your site. Google also places a lot of importance to link popularity, and this is the easiest way to get links back to your site.

Submitting your article to article directories

You must submit your article to as many article directories as you can. I submitted 12 articles to one directory and to date they have been downloaded 1232 times. It can be a laborious task submitting to the various article directories. I use a great piece of software that makes the submission process quick and easy. Take a look at http://tinyurl.com/osv5h
This software allows you to submit one article at a time to 163 article directories and will save you a great amount of time and effort.

Article Resources
I use many resources to promote my articles and have put together a valuable software` package for my readers and subscribers. Take a look at http://tinyurl.com/rcx8q


Frank Furness CSP CFP is a professional speaker and trainer specialising in sales and sales management. He has educated, entertained and inspired audiences in 47 countries. His publications and sales CDs have been sold globally. For more information or to sign up for the free ‘Sales & Speaking Tips’ monthly newsletter, email frank@frankfurness.com or telephone+ 44 1923 248200. Take a look at my website at http://www.frankfurness.com