Many people writing articles for submission to the article directories think that if they write a good 400-700 word article that this will be good enough to get traffic to their websites. This is true to a certain extent. But do you want to really maximize your articles potential and get it listed at the TOP of the search engines?

Now like building a website, You must take into account how to format your article so it gets the maximum benefit for you and your readers. The article directories have somewhat changed to. You were allowed to write a minimum of a 400 hundred word article to get your topic across to the readers you are targeting. That also has changed recently. Many directories will only accept articles of at least 700 words now, so be careful and make sure the article is that length so as to get it approved and published. Avoid having to redo your article to this format will save you more time in the long run.

Here are some key factors in determining the best possible results for your articles and maximizing your article marketing potential:

1. Article writing is like building a website. You want to properly place your target keywords in strategic areas of your article. Search engines software has become very complicated these days. You must be aware of the proper formatting of a great article.

2. Place your target keyword or keyword phrase in the title of your article. This will define what your article is about and then base the rest of it around that theme. But first you should do some research on Google to see what the number of searched were done based around that type of keyword or phrase that you want to target your readers. This can be a very effective strategy in your article writing and help boost your traffic and rankings.

3. You should also use your keyword phrase in the headline of your article. This will also help in getting the search engines to view your article. This alone can get alot of traffic from your target market. As search engines spider your article they will start from the top and to the left. Heres where you should use your keywords, but in a naturally, flowing sentence so it does not sound like a robot wrote it.

4. This is also a must, use the keywords you have carefully chosen within the FIRST paragraph of your article. This is a little tricky here. You need your keyword phrase to sound as natural to the reader as possible. For example: if you are targeting a keyword phrase like "Email Marketing". Do not use the phrase like "We have the best Email Marketing|Bulk Email Marketing software on the planet". It should sound like,"Here we have the best Email Marketing software around. We also carry a great Bulk Email Marketing software group that can serve all your email marketing needs". This sounds alot better than the first setence.

5. One of the most important techniques you must utilize for proper article writing. Placing properly distributed keywords evenly spaced throughout the article body. Googles optimum density is around 1.5% - 2.5%. Do not stuff your keywords into the article. This could get you banned!!! Thats a no-no. You can even bold and italize keywords, but do not do this to ALL keywords. Usually, one keyword bolded and italized will be enough. Search engine spiders will notice this and chances are your article will not get listed if all keywords were bolded and/or italized.

In conclusion: Write your articles as you would build a website. Properly positioned keywords and phrases will give you the best optimization and give you a very compeditive edge over other articles of the same category. This will result in higher search engine placement and will produce alot more traffic for your business. Be sure to write your article in a natually sounding form with the keywords placed in strategic areas within the article as to not alert the spiders. Make sure you describe the benefits of your article to your readers, you must talk "TO" the readers, not "AT" them. With all of these elements in place, you should now have the ultimate article to submit to the article directories. This will give you a greater approval rate and better placement in the search engines.