Article Marketing: How Small Business Owners Drive Traffic To Their Websites

You've just started your business and have taken pains to create a website that is useful, informative and a pleasure to look at. You're ready for the crowds of visitors to come pouring in, so you expectantly wait for the mad rush.

And you wait, and wait and wait.

We've all been there at that stage wondering, "Alright, now what do I do? How do I get people to come my site?"

Rest easy--you don't have to be an internet mastermind or SEO genius to have a successful website.

Even website owners who have little knowledge of how the internet technically works are able to transform their website from a deserted island to a bustling metropolis by simply writing and submitting educational articles with article marketing.

Here are the 3 big reason why small business owners choose article marketing as a main marketing tool for their websites:

1) Article marketing drives traffic to a website by increasing the inbound links.

Links are at the heart of driving traffic to a website.

Links are basically doorways to your website that your potential customers can walk through. Technically, a link is a piece of text or a URL that a reader can click to reach your website.

When you're submitting articles for article marketing, you will also include an author resource box, which has a brief author bio and a link back to your website. Each time your article is picked up for publication, your resource box is published also.

The more publishers pick up your article for publication, the more precious inbound links you garner. These links send a message to Google that your website has value, and this impacts Google's ranking of your website in search engine results.

So, an increase in inbound links to your website helps your website appear higher in the search results, which is what you're going for!

Additionally, people may reach your website without even doing a Google search, by finding your article on a website and clicking the link in your resource box.

So you build traffic in two ways--directly through folks who find your article on a website, and indirectly, by finding your website or articles via a Google search.

2) To bring worldwide exposure to their website and business while building up long term targeted traffic.

Article marketing is widely known for having a long term impact on targeted traffic when done consistently.

What is targeted traffic?

Targeted traffic is when the people who visit your website are in your target market and are likely to be interested in whatever services or products you're offering on your website.

So, you don't want just any type of random traffic to your site--you want targeted traffic.

By writing articles on your area of expertise and then having these articles appear on bunches of websites all over the internet, your articles are increasing the reach of your marketing efforts, because they are being seen by more people on more websites.

Every time your article is seen on a website, there is the chance of that person clicking through to your website, which increases your chances of making sales and gaining new customers.

3) To establish themselves as an expert in their niche.

Remember, your articles are like virtual sales representatives that you send out into the big wide world of the internet to introduce potential customers to your business.

The way you lure readers in is by providing them with helpful information in your article (your resource box is the only place where you can talk about your website and products). If the reader found your article helpful, then they will likely click through to your website to see what else you have to offer.

Also, sometimes a potential customer will Google your name or your business name before deciding to work with you. If you've been doing article marketing, a list of your articles will pop up in the search results.

As the person reads your articles and sees that you know your stuff, they start to think, "He really helped me understand some things I was unsure of--I think he can help me." By demonstrating your expertise in your articles, you're building customer confidence in yourself and your business, which goes a long way toward increasing sales.

If you've heard about article marketing before, but weren't quite sure why you should be doing it or how it could benefit your business, now you know!

It isn't enough to have a website--you need a web presence.

Small business owners use article marketing to demonstrate expertise in their field and build customer confidence, increase their search engine rankings, and generate targeted traffic to their website.

These 3 objectives are HUGE when it comes to marketing a small business online.