Its true that writing articles is a good way to get people to your site. And while writing articles is a easy thing to do, there is some things your should know before putting one in your article submitter and blasting it out for the whole world to see.

Avoid writing articles that could become dated. For instance, if you are going to weave an event into your article, avoid using a recent news item, as that will become dated fast, which will in turn date your article. Instead, focus on 'historical' events - or events that are sufficiently old so that they will not date your article.

When you create a resource box for your article, remember to sprinkle keywords throughout it that are relevant to your topic. When a search engine ranks that page on the article directory, it will take note of the text surrounding the link to your site. If that text is relevant, it will increase the amount of weight it adds to the one-way link.

If you are optimizing your site with keyword articles, you will want to use the keyword approximately 1.5% of the time in the body of the article. This is the level of optimization most search engines are currently looking for. If the score is higher or lower, there's a chance you will either be ignored or penalized.

Remember to use a relevant keyword for the link your resource box. While many article writers simply link with a call to action, you will want to use a relevant keyword instead, especially since the site from which you will be receiving the link isn't directly related to your topic. This will improve the worth of this one-way link.

Rather than jumping right into your topic, lead your article with a story. You could perhaps use some historical example and then put an interesting spin on it. From there, move toward some type of 'moral' or 'lesson', which will ultimately tie back in with the purpose of your article. This will hold readers' attention.

If you are optimizing your site with keyword articles, you should consider using the keyword you selected for the article in the extension you use for the article. For instance, on an article that optimizes for 'low carb diet', you could use the extension /low-carb-diet or /low_carb_diet. Both of these would improve your ranking for that keyword.

Identical copies of articles on two different sites do not both count as unique content. For instance, if you put one article on your site and one on a highly-ranked directory, that directly will probably get spidered first, which means they will receive the 'unique content' credit - - and you will receive nothing other than a one-way link from that site.

Draw up some 'terms of use' for your articles. In these terms, you may want to include that you do not allow use on 'splogs' (so-called spam blogs) and sites that could be considered link farms. If search engines find your link in a bad neighborhood, your site could get indexed or penalized heavily.

Now that you have some guide lines to follow, get out there and write some fresh new articles about the things you love. BTW don't forget to download a free article submitter from my homepage:)