Owning a website is easy—with many web host providers, free website creators are included in the monthly or yearly cost. Owning a successful website is a whole other story. You can build a website, but that doesn't mean that readers will discover your site. Traffic rankings are the best way to ensure internet users are accessing your site.

There are many ways to increase your traffic ranking.

1. Establish links between your website and similar websites that have high rankings.
2. Visit related websites or blogs and leave a comment with your internet address included.
3. Optimize your website with effective keywords.
4. Make sure your website is listed with the major search engines (Alexa, Ask.com, Google, Live Search, Yahoo, etc.)
5. Market your website with articles that are posted online.

Writing and marketing with articles may be a new concept to you. The goal is to create an engaging, informative article relating to your website that is then posted online in as many locations as possible. The article links back to your website drawing reader's interest. Readers find the article, become interested in your ideas, and access your website via the article links. This is an extremely effective way to market your site, providing you follow a few steps.

First, your articles must always be enjoyable. If you bore your readers, they will abandon the article and never give your work a second glance. In essence, you must relate to your target market. Avoid generic writing packed with facts and little personable material. Articles should be full of stories to which many can relate. Getting your reader to empathize--"Hey, I know exactly what you are talking about!"--is the key to success.

Articles must contain excellent grammar and no misspelled words. Everyone makes mistakes, but if you are touting yourself as an expert and your article is packed with spelling errors, you will lose impact. Have a friend or family member check articles for errors. In addition, many freelancers offer inexpensive editing services. It might cost you a few dollars, but having a clean, error-free article will be extremely worthwhile in the long run.

At the end of your article, place a brief bio about yourself and/or your website. Include contact information and a link to the web page. Always check that links work. One misplaced symbol or a typo can turn a website link into a useless entity. If readers cannot get a website to work when clicking on it, very few will stop and verify that the link was written correctly.

Writing clear, catchy articles will increase your web traffic. Think of a well-written article as a business advertisement. Your website will be promoted, readers will flock to your site seeking more information, and best of all you can get these articles out on the world wide web for free! It's comparable to taking out an ad in the newspaper, but you don't have to pay a cent!