EzineArticles To Go Nofollow!

[eddiealfaro1]

EzineArticles To Go Nofollow!
Posted on February 27, 2011 by Neil_Shearing
Ezinearticles just published information at their blog in an apparently knee-jerk reaction to Google’s recent algorithm change… they’re going to add nofollow to all article links, even the bio-box!
Let’s back up a little. EzineArticles (EZA) are one of the oldest article directories. Authors favour EZA submissions as they are quickly spidered, indexed and a good source of traffic and backlinks.
Recently Google announced a slap for “content farms” which they say only “noticably” impacts 11.8% of their USA search results, yet traffic to EZA dropped like a rock (“Last month, we served 57 million unique visitors. Next month, that number may be in half.”). OUCH
Within TWO DAYS of the google announcement, Chris Knight, CEO of EZA announced a plan of action which, unsurprisingly, includes rejecting a higher percentage of articles, considering raising the minimum word count of articles, targetting “advertorials” etc. But the two interesting changes, to my mind, are…
“…evaluating ways to reduce the number of ads per page to improve the perceived user experience“.
Yes, that’d made sense because there’s nothing like five different Adsense blocks and extra, unidentified, “sponsored results” blocks to make a page look spammy!
“The rel=”NOFOLLOW” attribute will be added to all links on all articles very soon.”
What a peach! Did someone at Google lean heavily on EZA? Surely two days isn’t enough time to evaluate potential changes to your system unless you already know the change that need to be made.
In reply to people querying the reason for adding “nofollow”, Chris said…
“My gut feeling is that those links have carried no real value in at least 2-3 years now. I have no data to back it up. I do however know of plenty of competitor websites that have implemented nofollow already.”
Hmm. No data to back it up, yet his “gut feeling” is that the links have been worthless for years? OK. That wouldn’t be a cover for being leaned on to implement “nofollow”, would it, Chris? The fact that other directories have implemented “nofollow” does NOT mean that webmasters don’t like dofollow links, it means that either they were also leaned on, or they saw the writing on the wall and used nofollow to avoid getting Google slapped!
I would hazard a guess that Google probably suggested using “nofollow” way back in time, only for EZA to say that editorial checking of articles would be enough to keep out low quality content. But now Google have laid down the law, and EZA is going to comply. Sorry, chaps, no linkjuice here anymore.
As the linkjuice from EZA dies, the <strike>article marketers</strike> “content farms” lose juice and their Google rankings tumble, which was always the name of the game for Google.
Here’s what EZA said about nofollow when it was rolled out in 2005…
“We’re strongly considering using this new attribute…not only for the EzineArticles BLOG, but for the BODY of the articles within our site.
We will not use this technology for the RESOURCE BOX (as that is considered payment to the author for sending us their content), but we are strongly considering adding the rel=”nofollow” tag to ALL URLs within the BODY of any article.”
Times change, eh? So much for “payment” for the authors.
(note: links to EZA have been nofollowed on principle)
This entry was posted in article marketing and tagged ezine articles, nofollow. Bookmark the permalink.
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[mrozlat]

oh well... at the end it says that resource boxes will keep the link juice... and there is no evidence that nofollow links do not count to antyhing either... so it's not all doom and gloom aye

[TZ]

Well I don't like seeing anyone lose their income or lose a big portion of it, but I have noticed some of my competitors on our higher ranking white hat blogs are dropping off.

We had one competitor use a domain spam strategy, whereby he created a blog using the long tail keyword in the domain, added 4-5 posts of original content with titles for all posts being the same long tail.

Then he or she linked into them all from EZA, etc.

He just got hammered this month, and our traffic has increased. My wife always told me that those long tailed domain gigs were time limited.

Still hasn't got weird enough for me.

[affilorama-portal]

Times are indeed a-changing and we will really have to adapt to the new things, simply because we cannot really resist them.

Christopher M. Knight did say that he feels follow links have had no real value for some time now, and I have the same feeling.

Just because links would be nofollow is not reason to discontinue building links through sites such as ezinearticles. Nofollow links still carry value in other ways. We have a blog post about this:

Have you developed a case of "nofollow” tunnel vision?

[Negotiator74]

If you look at the blog that statement has now been lined out. FOr the time being, links will stay follow...

[MonclerJackets]

EzineArticles and articleplace.cc lost the concerned about them before

[HollyK]

This must be related to the new policy that Google allows people to block site that they consider spam, which is in the eye of the beholder. Demand Media and eHow are the poster children for the effort, but there are others and I'm sure Chris doesn't want his site to be banned, too.

Here are some articles that probably got him worried:

Blekko search engine Blekko Bans Content Farms Like Demand Media’s eHow From Its Search Results

Now Blekko is going to do one better and ban the worst offenders entirely. Here is the list of banned sites:

ehow.com
experts-exchange.com
naymz.com
activehotels.com
robtex.com
encyclopedia.com
fixya.com
chacha.com
123people.com
download3k.com
petitionspot.com
thefreedictionary.com
networkedblogs.com
buzzillions.com
shopwiki.com
wowxos.com
answerbag.com
allexperts.com
freewebs.com
copygator.com

Then there's this article from Mashable that names Demand Media (Associated Content) by name right before their IPO:
Google's Plan to Combat Search Spam

[eddiealfaro1]

the reason ezine got slapped is because of all these links they have on their site. people that used article marketing to get traffic from the articles might see their traffic rebound, because i think ezines ranking will improve after the no follow thing, the use of ezine for a backlink has diminished.

[eddiealfaro1]

i think what this teaches is the more legit you are the better, make good sites, good backlinks, build for the long haul.

[madazaar]

Originally Posted by eddiealfaro1

i think what this teaches is the more legit you are the better, make good sites, good backlinks, build for the long haul.

Yeah, I get the whole "more legit, the better" thing but ezine used to be the place for legit backlinks from the resource box. This just made getting backlinks that actually mean something a whole lot harder.

I can't be the only one really hesitating now to add articles to Ezine for fear that it will mean nothing for backlinks to my sites.

[kposs]

Changing the number of ads on each page might help Google's perceived 'user experience' on EZA, but I don't see how the nofollow will help with this particular algorithm change. Probably just kissing up any way they can. Can't blame 'em. I'd kiss up too if half my income was lost overnight.

[theseoguys]

It wouldn't surprise me if Ezine also got bumped because their Adsense earnings were getting a little out of control. Any estimate on what that might be? 7 Figures annually? Easily?

[Amber Jalink]

Yep, just saw this article that ezinearticles got bumped:

Google Update: Who Are the Biggest Losers?

[Amber Jalink]

btw - I think google needs to be careful on what they call "content farms"

There are a lot of half decent article sites that DO accept submissions, and do post them - but review the articles. And, I think the big thing might be having too many adwords links all over the site.

That should have been obvious from the start though - as soon as I see a site loaded with adsense ads, honestly I turn away. (I have ONE spot on my site only).

This is what killed paid advertising in the first place - people over did ad placements to make bank, but visitors have become oblivious to it.

Just my thoughts.

Amber