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.
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Comments (21)
Cheryl Baumgartner12
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
Cheryl Baumgartner12
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
Arthur Webster7
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.
Raunaq Rayait6
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 i
Darren Olander8
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.
Sean North12
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
Wincer Song16
APSense 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.
Sean North12
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
Wincer Song16
APSense 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.
Arthur Webster7
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 nei
Zhangl Zhangl4
http://www.oneaf.com
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.
Sean North12
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
Wincer Song16
APSense Founder
@vishwajeet, i guess google likes an article increamently updated.
Vishwajeet Kumar14
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.
Wincer Song16
APSense Founder
we have to research this on google, if it works as i said, we need to add comment as effort in TP.
Philippe Moisan16
Tutorial videos, sci-fi writer
I do hope Darren answers your comment fast, Wincer :)
Wincer Song16
APSense 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?
Chukwuekwu Okonta12
Forensic accountant
Great information about google updates thanks.
Malok Mading10
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
Sean North12
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