The web has provided one of the greatest opportunities ever for those who want to start their own businesses. Anyone with an internet connection and commitment can create their own e-commerce site or blog and potentially reach hundreds of millions of people. The natural question, of course, is how to make your website stand out from the masses.

You want your business' website to show up right at the top of the search engine results when people search on topics relevant to your business, and making that happen requires a multi-faceted approach. Though the major search engines are understandably reluctant to give away the trade secrets of how they rank websites, enough research has been done over the past decade to know the basics of what works and what doesn't. Some techniques help short-term, while others help long-term, and you need to employ both to succeed.

One thing your website needs to rank highly in search engine results is a strong catalog of backlinks. Backlinks are links from high quality websites to your site. The better the sites that link to yours, the higher your site will rank. Acquiring good backlinks is an art, and one of the techniques for generating backlinks that is known to be effective is article writing and submission to relevant article sites on the web.

Millions of people turn to article directories every day looking for information of all kinds, from how to drain a crank case to how to make a lemon soufflé. These articles are allowed to have links to specific websites, and if you write articles with links to your website, you'll build up your site's collection of valuable backlinks, boosting your site in the search engine rankings.

But it isn't as simple as just cranking out mediocre content full of links. Article directories sometimes have very strict guidelines as to the numbers and types of links they allow. Some allow several links in an article, while others may only allow one. But virtually all of them provide an "author's resource box" at the end of every article that allows the author to give a little information about himself or herself, and the particular website he or she wants to promote.

That's why, if you don't have the time to write high quality articles, or if you simply don't feel confident doing so, you should trust your article writing needs to professionals who are familiar with the best article sites, their requirements, and how to maximize exposure there. Having just anyone crank out 500 words on the appropriate topic and then trying to tweak it a little for the different article directories won't do you any good.

You need manual article submission of unique, well-written content to the top article directories on the web to get the most exposure for your site and to add valuable backlinks. The best article writing services will not only include the best anchor text for your links, well-written descriptions, and keywords in proper proportions, but will also submit articles individually to article sites making sure to follow each site's unique editorial guidelines. A good article campaign is cost effective and will increase relevant traffic to your website, and is well worth your consideration in your overall plan to promote your website.