Is Article Marketing Dead? Backlinks in a Post Panda World

Article marketing websites suffered a major blow during the Panda/Farmer Google update in early 2011. The update sought out low quality content websites and devalued their rankings, sometimes manually. The aim was to eliminate poor quality content from the search engine rankings and ensure that searchers are getting the best search results for their queries.

Article marketing websites, among many other content heavy sites, received the bulk of the "slap down" because individual users submitted many low quality articles. These articles rode on the backs of the high rankings of the website and appeared much higher in search engine rankings that they should have. If you've ever done searches for niche topics and been disappointed by the results, you know how much bad content there is out there and how much of it was being delivered in the top search engine results.

For those of us creating great content and submitting it to article directories, the Google update is a bit disappointing. But the update doesn't mean the end of article marketing. You can still use backlinks from article marketing websites. You just have to make sure that the content and the directories meet certain criteria.

First, let's talk about the content. It's been said before, but now it's more important than ever - your content has to be as unique as possible. If you were using spun content, that's no longer an option. The poor grammar and bad phrasing that result from spinning content or using low quality writers isn't going to fly anymore.

Not only do you need to be sure that your content is top quality, but any content you submit should be directly related to your website. Focus on topics that are popular to your website's readers. Consider repurposing any videos, power point presentations or teleseminars that you have created for your business. Using this content in a new form - articles - will ensure that your audience be interested. It's also a great way to save money on content creation.

Once you've created top quality content and are ready to submit it - select your websites wisely. The first place you should be going for top quality article submissions is other bloggers and websites. Doing a guest post on a high quality blog is going to be much more effective for backlinks than other types of article submissions. Seek out niche experts who have blogs. Look at their recent posts to see if your content will fit into their blog. Then find out if they have a guest posting policy. If you don't see any clear guidelines - then ask! They worst they could say is "No."

Your next step should be in finding niche targeted article directories. Finding niche directories rather than general purpose directories might help you avoid some of the major directories that were hurt with the recent Google update. It also has the potential for giving you more quality backlinks.

By focusing on high quality content and selecting your backlink submission sites wisely you can overcome the Google Panda update and grow your backlink profile the right way.

Sponsor Ads

• Ad Space Available - Rent it Now!

Report this Page

Created on Dec 31st 1969 18:00. Viewed 0 times.

Share on APSense

Comments

Philippe Moisan   Tutorial videos, sci-fi writer I am happy you posted this article about the aftereffects of the Panda update, Darren. I will post the link to this article in both the "Successful Marketers" and the "Article Writer Club" group, cause it's 100 % relevant in both places. :) Aug 1st 2011 12:03

Sean North   Business great article Darren there are those though who never even noticed achange, the ones who already posted quality and market defined articles over the quantity and respun articles of little relevance and value Aug 1st 2011 12:16

Malok Mading   Writer and Blogger. Article marketing is in fact a backbone to many if I may say. If you don't mind Mr.Darren, I invite any interested person to build backlinks for free! All I need is the names of the person,your field of expertise e.g Internet maketing and promotional links and I will have them featured on my blog for free! Otherwise, thanks for sharing this great article it would be useful in the named group as said by Mr.Moisan Aug 1st 2011 12:18

Chukwuekwu Okonta   Forensic accountant Great information about google updates thanks. Aug 1st 2011 13:19

Wincer Song   Founder from this article, i happened to get a new idea. there are so many duplicated articles online, i do not think google is smart enough to determine one article is high quality or not. I think only two ways can decide it. one is to check backlinks, good articles must be shared many times. the other is frequently comments. do you think so? Aug 1st 2011 21:45

Philippe Moisan   Tutorial videos, sci-fi writer I do hope Darren answers your comment fast, Wincer :) Aug 1st 2011 21:47

Wincer Song   Founder we have to research this on google, if it works as i said, we need to add comment as effort in TP. Aug 1st 2011 21:49

Vishwajeet Kumar   Blogger Great article Darren, Thanks for that, I also agree with wincer. There are too many duplicate articles available in internet, But It will detect by back links, definitely. Aug 1st 2011 21:50

Wincer Song   Founder @vishwajeet, i guess google likes an article increamently updated. Aug 1st 2011 21:54

Sean North   Business @ Wincer, even if google isn't smart enough to tell quality article from other they most certainly seem to be able to pick up on duplication and relevancy and it is my experience that backlinks from quality articles and sites are the most productive and clicked on and google has a habbit of disregarding and penalising for badly placed or dormant links Aug 2nd 2011 01:09

Zhangl Zhangl   *** I think that article marketing is not desirable, but the original article takes too much time and effort, all marketing will be used on more pseudo-original. Aug 2nd 2011 01:31

Arthur Webster   Just plain honesty Article marketing is not only dead, it is rotting above ground and creating a massive stink. Writing original articles no longer affects Google searches because, if you look at the internet, despite all the lies, software and guru crap that is written about the subject, there simply isn't enough available traffic for the average internet marketer to get any meaningful quantities. Google has major sites from which it profits greatly and which it trusts to serve its clients. Google simply has neither the time nor patience to pick out a "quality" article from the porrige of mush out there. WORSE - Google no longer has the NEED! That's why Google searches produce so many review sites as search results - Google gives searchers what the internet marketers produce most of - C R A P! Only the favoured major sites really get a look in at generic traffic. Backlinks are devalued as more and more people try to sell them. Aug 2nd 2011 01:51

Wincer Song   Founder @The Old Coot, yes, it is true. Qualiy article is not determined by the author, but the people who read it. If one page has only one subject, but a lots of discussions by other people, I think google also look on it as a quality page. Aug 2nd 2011 01:55

Sean North   Business @ Wincer your reply to Arthur (The Old Coot) is the excact problem he highlights and therefore you are endorsing the practice and basically commiting a fraud against your fellow marketers nad become part of what is wrong with internet marketing in the name of traffic and or sales Aug 2nd 2011 02:14

Wincer Song   Founder Article marketing does not work as good as before, but we cannot say it is dead. If your site has no content, your online business is gone. Aug 2nd 2011 02:20

Sean North   Business Yes Article marketing can still work particularly in niche markets with real and viable products, and targeted at your target market audience, However I have to agree with Arthur internet marketing in general is awash with total rubbish and devalues not only the practice but the industry as a Whole and can, and is often perceived as spam and scam rightly or wrongly. So if it isn't dying at best it is severely wounded Aug 2nd 2011 02:44

Darren Olander   Full Time Internet Marketer Hi Wincer, I believe you are right, I do know for a fact thats how they rank youtube videos.. the more comments/likes the higher it will be in the search results - so it only makes sense that the more comments/shares an article gets the more relevant and higher quality Google would perceive it. @The Old Coot of course Google does not do this individually, unless its a really big article directory like Ezine Articles or something - that's why they have algorithms for determining quality scores. If that same article is copy and pasted everywhere, that will lower the score because the content is no longer unique. Get people sharing it on Twitter and Facebook and those are backlinks, which WILL help you. Aug 3rd 2011 10:45

Raunaq Rayait  Search Marketer I don't think so article marketing is dead.It works fine for many i am completely disagree with that article marketing is worthless.See i know after google panda update many had faced the problem about loosing their keyword position.But the only reason they are facing such issues is just they had not worked on quality linkbuilding.Google had cleared a thing that panda is going to be 100% content optimisation.But still many had work as in same manner as they use to do before updates.See Apsense is also provides article marketing platform and we have many successful Marketers over here they are posting a wonderful articles and getting fabulous traffic. I just want to say that if anybody want effective results form their article marketing campaign so they should take care for their articles quality.Only the most informative article gives you better response.And never try to post a same article into more than one site.This will spoil your campaign. Aug 4th 2011 08:25

Arthur Webster   Just plain honesty Article marketing might produce "fabulous traffic" for a few but the "fabulous traffic" is not "buying traffic". There is no doubt in my mind that relying on content (which I used to do) no longer works because the famous Google algorhythms do not seek individual articles, they seek useful articles from the sites that they have learned to trust. If you were searching for a great wine you would go to a top ranked and fully stocked vintner NOT a wine shop selling bin ends. Aug 4th 2011 15:10

Cheryl Baumgartner   Medical Billing/Coding/Insurance Once again I see people praising quantity and not quality. It still is not registering that a ton of garbage is a ton of garbage. Adding to that ton of garbage simply makes a bigger pile of garbage. When something of substance does get added it is buried under garbage. Very few people go to the landfill looking for diamonds Aug 4th 2011 16:06

« Prev.12Next »