Article writing for websites, has been a buzzword in the industry today. What is the significance of an article for an online company? The answer simply is that it promotes the website. The shrewd web host can make use of well-written articles to draw visitors to his site. But to do this, he has to maintain consistently high standards of writing in his site. When you have high quality material on your site, you get invited to link to other quality sites. It also helps you in Search Engine Optimization and getting increased visibility for your business venture. Earning a reputation as an expert in your area of specialization is another often overlooked, but vital advantage.

Before you proceed, take a couple of minutes to look through a few key points to keep in mind when writing an article. I have called them the four must-haves of good writing and we will now examine them in some detail.

In the criteria for a good article, the point that comes to mind first is a topic that is important, informative and interesting for the reader. Mindlessly cluttering up the article with SEO based keywords will not serve any purpose. Your article must hold their attention and provide some immediate benefit. However, do not allow the desire for an informative article result in boring or unimaginative writing. Your article must be user-friendly and leave the customer completely satisfied

Adding numerical data, documented information and statistics to your article will give it a much greater credibility. Your website will be authentic if you provide accurate content on your topic. Do provide the sources for all your facts and figures and check their authenticity. Also, check your article for inconsistencies, organization and language glitches.

If despite having many well-written articles, your website is never seen, no one gains anything. Websites crop up when a reader searches for a topic or an article, when a search engine such as Google or Yahoo finds them. These search engines find websites based on the usage of certain key words that are related to the article. Remember to liberally sprinkle your article with these key words so that the important search engines find them.

Include only key words that are directly related to your article. Indiscriminate usage will result in poorly written articles that will damage your site. You can make use of the many online tools that are available to help you decide the most effective key words for your article.

Having got your list of important words and phrases, you must put them to optimum use. This means that you must repeat them as often as it is possible to meaningfully do so. A search engine will not only pick up your website, it will also give it a rank so visitors will be drawn to your site. This ranking is entirely dependant on the concentration of key words and phrases in your article. A good guide is to have a key word density of about 10-15 percent in your content.

It will be very frustrating for a reader if, after reading your article, he wishes to know more and has to embark on a new search. To prevent all this unhappiness, always provide links on your website and at the end of your articles. Research the best sites that throw more light on your article and then provide links to them on your site. You will then have many happy readers!