Before you start to think that this is another SEO technique that may or may not work depending on the current algorithms of the search engines, think about it… EVERYTHING on the internet is CONTENT. The internet is a veritable treasure trove of information. Good, bad, valuable or not, the internet is all about providing information to people. That is why smart internet marketers know that people want information from their websites – not just SEO enriched pages of advertising. The loopholes that search engine optimizers have been trying to use for high ranking in the search engine has created a plethora of sites that boast high keyword ratios, thousands of irrelevant hyperlinks and sometimes even redirection. These redirected websites try to create an optimized web page that the search engines will rank high but actually redirect the viewer to a less search engine friendly site. Well, the search engines caught on. The websites that were getting the highest placements weren’t always providing quality information or useful content. In fact, they not only lowered the ranking of these sites – they even removed them from the listings completely. This sent a shock wave through the internet community and smart marketers realized that there is only one sure way to convince the search engines that they were meant to be at the top: Quality Content. Not only do the search engines love content, but visitors do too. By providing visitors with useful information and relevant links to other sites, they come back again and again! And that’s not the only benefit. Because website owners are now hungry for content, there is a huge market for informative articles that other website owners can use on their sites. By offering information to these sites in exchange for a hyperlink to your website, you get even more exposure, both to search engines AND customers. Writing content for the major article directories and including a signature or “about the author” at the end of the article with a link back to your website is one of the best ways of generating free website traffic. If the article is well written and about a strong niche topic, the article will get picked up by many websites for their own sites, which can provide you with a wonderful set of viral links to your site. The more frequently your article gets picked up, the more opportunity there is for another webmaster to see it and pick it up, too.