Search engines are notoriously secretive about how they generate search results. This is because a search engine is a business like any other -- Google doesn't want Yahoo! learning its secrets, and vice-versa -- and competition is fierce. Yet their methods are not as mysterious as they'd like them to be. After all, search engines aren't magic -- on the contrary, they're human-designed programs comprised of complex algorithms. The mathematical-minded marketing expert can easily deduce any search engine's inner workings.

At first look, it seems clear that small business owners are given the shaft by search engines. If you Google almost any product, the first few pages of search results show nothing but large companies -- the Amazons of the world -- while smaller businesses are relegated to the murky depths. Many small business owners, when they see this, assume there's nothing they can do, so they try building site traffic in other ways.

But with creativity and intelligence, you can raise your website in the search results. The large companies are not intentionally favored by search engines -- rather, they earn their favored spots because they're backlinked a far greater number of times than smaller companies. How often, when surfing the Web, do you see links to Amazon.com? If you're like me, you see them everywhere. This, in addition to all the clicks Amazon receives through the search engines themselves, is what leads to the favored position.

If you can raise the number of active links to your own website, you can create a similar snowball effect, and dramatically raise your site in search engine results.

The key to building site traffic is to take a back-to-basics approach. In today's marketing environment, you don't have to have a million-dollar advertising budget, and it's no longer necessary to pull out all the dramatic stops. On the contrary, today's customers, more than ever, know a phony advertisement when they see it, and if they sense an advertisement, they won't even pay attention. It's better to generate thoughtful, informative content, which can earn long-term trust and respect from potential customers.

Today, fresh Web content is one of the most valuable commodities. The Internet is, ultimately, a learning tool, and to teach a reader something new is the best way to capture attention.

Article marketing services -- easy to locate through a Google search -- can help you do this, but first you have to write some articles. This is easier than it may sound, as you will be writing articles on issues within your area of expertise. No doubt, you already have many of these articles practically written in your mind, and now it's just a matter of typing them out. Of course, they don't have to be perfect -- your article marketing service will suggest revisions.

It's very simple. Before the Internet, how did small business owners gain customers? In many cases, they earned customers' respect by exhibiting knowledge and expertise. Today, the Internet allows you to do the same thing, but on a much larger scale. Through your articles, you'll show people that you know the ins and outs of your business, and then they'll want to work with you.

Again, Internet surfers don't like advertisements -- that's why there's a whole Web industry devoted to ad blocking -- so you don't want your articles to sound like sales pitches. If your content is solid and informative, the "About the Author" box, included with all of your articles, will lead people to your business.

In other words, the more times your name and website show up in an "About the Author" box attached to an article, the more clicks your site will receive, and the higher you will rise in search engine results, creating the snowball effect I described above.

So, find an article marketing service. If you're not sure which one to use, keep in mind that the services closest to the top of an "article marketing" Google search probably know what they're doing. They're experts, and they can help you solve the Internet marketing mystery.