Today there seeem to be an endless number of article directory websites on the internet. While an exact number is impossible to say they now number well over a thousand. The most popular one of them is ezinearticles.com which seems to dominate google search results and gets millions of visitors a month. So what is with all the hoopla about article websites and what is the secret of their success? The rest of this article will look at the reasons.

First of all the main reason that article directories get so much traffic is that they are very search engine friendly. Google and other search engines are always looking for websites that have a lot of quality content, have a good linking structure and are frequently updated. In all those respects article directories fit the bill. They have large amounts of content, are always getting new articles so are contstantly updated and have a linking structure that is search engine friendly.

Another reason that article directories are so popular is that they are usefull and provide an excellent service to both writers and as sources of content for bloggers and other webmasters. While blogs do often times get more traffic than article directories the fact is that people aren't allowed to reprint blog posts like they can with articles.

This useful nature of article websites causes people to keep returning to them often. Compare that to most other websites where many simply visit once and leave never to come back. While article directories aren't the most flashy websites around the bottom line is people don't come back to see pretty graphics they return to websites that are useful. Those are the two main reasons for the success of these types of websites. It is impossible to predict the future but there is no reason to expect that they will be replaced any time soon by another type of content site.