Dropping backlinks using article directories

[WizKid10]

I've been submitting a lot of articles to article directories and mostly putting a backlink inside the body of the article using anchor text. Lately I've been seeing more and more article directories that only allow you to place your link in a separate section below your article. "About the author" is a common title for this section.

My question is are links placed there of less value in terms of generating link juice or is it the same as placing them within the body of your article?

[Alexa Smith]

Originally Posted by WizKid10

My question is are links placed there of less value in terms of generating link juice or is it the same as placing them within the body of your article?

The link-juice from the backlink is identical - with a few exceptions not relevant here, this is determined by the page itself and other stuff on it, not by the position on the page.

It's possible that fewer people may click on them in a "resource-box", depending on the layout of the page, but that's a different matter.

Bear in mind that article directory backlinks are non-context-relevent, PR-0 backlinks, and in terms of link-juice you'll typically need something between 50,000 and 100,000 of them to be equivalent to one relevant authority site backlink (and I'm not exaggerating).

[mikeroosa]

It's still a link. The problem is most of the article directories are junk so the backlinks aren't that valuable. Use the bigger directories for better link juice.

[auradev]

Page Rank is not a linear scale. As you go up, the links from high PR sites are exponentially more valuable. It is quite possible 10,000 PR0 links is the same as 1 PR6 link - but only Google knows for sure.

[hans8233]

Originally Posted by auradev

Page Rank is not a linear scale. As you go up, the links from high PR sites are exponentially more valuable. It is quite possible 10,000 PR0 links is the same as 1 PR6 link - but only Google knows for sure.

So is this all a waste of time then?

[NicoleBeckett]

Originally Posted by hans8233

So is this all a waste of time then?

Absolutely not.

Whether the links you're getting on the directories are PR 0 or PR 9, you're still getting a bunch of eyeballs on your information. Readers aren't going to think "oh, this is only a PR 1 page, so I'm not going to visit this author's site." If people like what they see, they'll click on your link - or they'll syndicate your article on their own site.

Syndication is a great way to build links. Every time someone syndicates one of your articles, you're getting a link from them (and, of course, getting even more eyeballs on your content) Depending on the sites that pick up your stuff, you could wind up getting several high PR links from just one article. Yes, your article's page on EZA might be a PR 0, but you can get a whole lot out of it than just a PR 0 link.

And, remember, a big part of article marketing is establishing yourself as an expert. That PR 0 page on EZA is a great platform for sharing your expertise and getting your name out there.

[Alexa Smith]

Originally Posted by hans8233

So is this all a waste of time then?

Not at all. As Nicole explains above.

But using article directories purely for backlinks is pretty much a waste of time, yes, compared with a few hundred other things one could do with that time. They're close to being "the lowest of the low" in backlink terms.

I'm a full-time article marketer. I submit to article directories nearly every day (to a couple or three, anyway). But my business would be in a very sorry state indeed if I were depending on article directories for off-page SEO (as I discovered a couple of years ago, or so, when I foolishly used to submit to hundreds of them).

[Justinpage]

It has the same value. The only difference is that it is in the source box and not in the body of your article.