Article content dictate the success of the flow of traffic to one's site. And successful article marketing is key to making a site work and earning a profit. Articles, through good keywords, can give a site high rankings in search result pages. The higher a site ranks the bigger slice of the traffic flow he gets. With a huge flow in traffic, there are more profits and more potential for other income generating schemes as well.

But website promotion is not just about stuffing your site with articles. In fact, for each article, there are certain requirements that it must fulfill for you to reap maximum benefits. Here are 5 such requirements:

1. Good Keywords and Keyword Phrases.

An article should be written with good keywords and keyword phrases in its content. Usually, a prospect will be searching for information related to the keywords. Keywords are the words or phrases that he or she will type in the search box of a search engine. It can be anything that he or she wants to find out. Most of the time, it is related to a solution sought for a problem at hand.

Hence, the important thing is that you have an article that has the keywords that are related to your site and in answer to what your prospect is looking for. For example, if you maintain a herbal remedy site, you should put up articles about medical conditions and herbs. It is a good idea to spend time doing keyword research as keywords are the phrases that help target your prospects.

If you get your keywords right, you target the right person. Just think about it. Writing an article that is on herbal remedies for cancer and with keyword phrases like "herbal remedy" and "cancer" is going to win you prospects in the example cited over writing an article with keyword phrases like "mesothelioma". "Mesothelioma" may be a high paying keyword but what is the use if your site is targetting people looking for herbal remedies?

2. Keyword Density

Now that you know which keyword phrases to use, 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 three to four percent of keyword density in their content for search engines to rank a site high in their search results.

Keyword density is the number of times a keyword or keyword phrase is used in an article. An effective article must have a keyword density that is not too high or too low. If your article has a keyword density that is too high, search engines know that you are "keyword stuffing" and frown on this act.

3. Good Article Content

Like what is stated above, you cannot just stuff your article with keywords. The article must also be a good read. Articles must be able to entertain people as well as provide good information and help for their needs. Show professionalism by having correct spelling and good grammer. 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.

4. Include Related Keyword Phrases in Your Author's Resource Box

In the author's resource box, write as a third party describing your sites and include some of the keywords phrases that target your site. For instance, in the above example, I may include the sentence "the site also includes information on herbal remedies, herbal products and chinese herbs" in the author's resource box if I determine that "herbal products" and "chinese herbs" are also good keyword phrases to target. My article is on herbal remedies for cancer, but my potential prospects may be actually looking for information on traditional chinese herbs. Saying that your site includes far more information that what the article content has helps to raise the curiosity of the reader such that he or she will click through to your site.

5. Include an active hyperlink to your site

Lastly, don't forget to include an active hyperlink to your site. Many article submissions fail to ensure that the hyperlink is an active one. As a reader to an article, I will not have second thoughts to making a click through to the author's site on an active link as compared to one that is not. If you are using an article submission service and not submitting your articles manually yourself, it is a good idea to include the full url of your site in your author's resource box and instead of using a text link. Some article submission service providers may omit to also submit an active hyperlink for you. In this case, if the hyperlink is not active, readers can still find your site as the full url address is included in the author's resource box.