Google Knocks Article Directories

[cozandeffect]

Straight from the horses mouth:

Question: Until recentley (the last six months or so) a high ranking was achievable by submitting articles to article directories (providing they were 40%-60% unique), it no longer seems to be the case. Have links from article sites been de-valued at all?

Google’s Answer: In my experience, not every article directory site is high-quality. Sometimes you see a ton of articles copied all over the place, and it's hard to even find original content on the site. The user experience for a lot of those article directory sites can be pretty bad too. So you'd see users landing on those sorts of pages have a bad experience. If you're thinking of boosting your reputation and getting to be well-known, I might not start as the very first thing with an article directory. Sometimes it's nice to get to be known a little better before jumping in and submitting a ton of articles as the first thing.

Translation: Yes.

Google Answers Some Tricky Questions | WebProNews

Will this affect anyone's approach to SEM?

[captivereef]

probably why ezinearticles gets so picky at times!

[cozandeffect]

I agree, which leads me to believe submitting to other directories in the future will see diminishing returns.

[Nicky D]

This statement doesn't help me at all...

Just had a some articles created last night by a writer.

My content is actually valueable instead of a straight for the jugular sales pitch.

I need some tissue to wipe my tears!

Any suggestions where can we place them to get better feedback and results.

[AndyBlackSEO]

I generally submit unique articles to Ezinearticles, Goarticles and Article Alley. Concentrate on the main ones. Some of the unknown ones have either stopped operating, ie - given up on approving articles... 6 or 7 months later, still in review.

Andy

[Carl Pruitt]

Originally Posted by Nicky D

This statement doesn't help me at all...

Just had a some articles created last night by a writer.

My content is actually valueable instead of a straight for the jugular sales pitch.

I need some tissue to wipe my tears!

Any suggestions where can we place them to get better feedback and results.

Put them on your site, and submit a few to EZA. Then bookmark the site and your articles. If the content is good, this will do you as much good as submitting the articles to 400,000 junk sites and low quality article directories. All they are saying is they no longer value the repetitive useless generic junk articles slapped together in 3 minutes and mass submitted just for links.

[Oling]

I did notice EZA is more strict with approving articles and now takes a lot longer to get approved. Anyways i do not use those article submiter pro or something i just submit to EZA and goarticles and sometimes submit an article at Zimbio.com

Oling

[masteronlineprofits]

Hi

Thanks for the responses. I have not relied heavily on article submission in the past as my offline business has covered most things, but I am looking to drive traffic to some niche sites that I have. All unique content and wanted to see if google and others would look to devalue article submission sites due to the lapse in controls that Oling refers to.

Like Google, Article sites have to keep their content clean and unique so ensure the user gets the best experience, if you submitt to a heap of article sites does that just replicate your posting and down the track give cause to for Google and others to start pushing article submissions down the chain?

[scene4u]

Basically, all of the lesser directories that may have helped your site's ranking, can now instead have a detrimental effect. Stick to the main directories and you will still see the results.

p.s I am getting annoyed at how picky Ezine is now and it takes an age for articles to be published.

[hittjw]

Because Google is looking at entire site context, not just your content, this make sense that poorly managed article directories can hurt you. Many directories cover 90 different topics, accept any article that comes by, and really lack any unique value.

I'm actually happy to see Ezine Articles improve their moderation, that will mean my approved content will be next to other quality content. Send them unique high quality content and you'll stay in the directory, Google will reward them for being "of value" and everyone wins.

Best,

Justin

[jjpmarketing]

I would say that this happened because of Google Knols. But that is only the second part of it. The primary issue that Google would have with Article directories IMO, is re-spun content. While some major sites re-spin news articles, it is blatantly done on Article Directories.

You might run across 5 or more different articles that are essentially re-wording or re-stating the exact same thing... the same opinion... the same content.

When searching for something on Google.com you don't want the top 10 results to be the exact same thing. Google has always placed high value on unique and original content.

Does this mean that Article Directories are useless now? Absolutely not.

You can still utilize Article Directories to drive traffic to your site and in turn create streams of revenue. Article Directories however are not the best approach for SEO.

If SEO is what you are looking to use Article Directories for, then you may want to check out qassia.com. You get a backlink for each article (intel) you submit to their site.

[Solidsnake]

Expect link directories will suffer the same fate later...

[bgmacaw]

Translation: "Our algorithms have a hard time telling if an Article Directory is legit or just a link farm. Also, we don't have time between free massages and cappuccinos to check them out manually to find out. Therefore, we'll scare you spamming marketers who're too cheap to buy Adwords like you're suppose to into not using them."

[The Seahawk]

Originally Posted by jjpmarketing

You can still utilize Article Directories to drive traffic to your site and in turn create streams of revenue. Article Directories however are not the best approach for SEO.

I always thought that backlinking was about getting high PR links that are not nofollow to point to your site. Doesn't Google place a premium on sites that are being "voted on" through links from other high PR sites? Or do the sites linking to yours have to be relevant sites?

I personally don't care too much about getting my articles ranked highly - I'm after quality backlinks. Is submitting to a ton of article directories with different anchor text links no longer effective in attempting to raise your money site's ranking with backlinks?

Thanks,
Justin

[craftscn]

ezinearticles is one great place to submit good articles, it can drive a lot of traffic to your website.

[Derek Pankaew]

Hmm, my articles still rank quite highly in search engines.

One thing might be the switch in focus from "keyword density" to LSI. Most article writers are still keyword stuffing their articles, which will actually cause a drop in rankings, rather than having both the primary keywords and the relevant keywords sprinkled throughout the page.

My 2 cents,

- Derek

[jjpmarketing]

I think non relevant links would be harmful to your SEO, but I am sure that Google's almighty algorithm would give more significance to relevant backlinks. However, that can also be overcome with quantity.

The "nofollow" links is for traffic... not SEO. Get your links in front of as many people as possible for traffic. Get as many "dofollow" links as possible for SEO.

Another thing on the relevant backlinks. I think the "anchor text" has more importance than where the actual link comes from itself.

[Suzanne Morrison]

A few people above have mentioned certain types of links having a detrimental affect on your rankings.

I don't believe that any link to your website from another website can be detrimental to or decrease your ranking.

Yes, it is possible for the link to your website to have little or no impact to your rankings, but not a detrimental affect.

Why? Since you only have a limited control of links to your website from other websites, if it were possible for certain types of links to hurt your website, then what would stop competitors hurting you by getting these types of links to your site?

If you have an article on a page that is indexed by Google then I believe it will have a positive effect on your rankings. If it is from a crappy directory, then it won't help you, but I don't believe it will hurt you either.

Cheers,
Suzanne

[Li Weng]

Well it's pretty much saying that links from article from the top article sites from EzineArticles are valued a lot more than other random sites. I would just focus on submitting to the top site rather than submitting to hundreds.