Does article marketing work for ranking websites in google?

[phonetools]

Hey everyone,
I have a website I am trying to rank in google for a fairly competative keyword. I was thinking about using some article directory marketing for the purpose of buildin backlinks and ranking in google for my keyword.

I read a really imformative thread here:
Article Marketing: is the spin really necessary?

In it, the poster Alexa made the point that it isn't necessary to "spin" the article when posting to different directories, identical articles in deffeeen directories still count as backlinks whether spun or not. This is good news for me.

But she also claims that backlinks from article directories are nearly worthless for the purpose of rankin a website in google, because your article is a PR 0 page on a non-relevant website.

There is so much conflicting information about article marketing out there. I was wondering if anyone can finally tell me for certain, yes or no, will posting the same article to different article directories help me rank in google, or is it a waiste of time because article direcory backlinks are useless?

If I can't article market, is there any other way I can get good backlinks to rank in google, other then just doing link exchanges?

Thanks

[dadamson]

No one will give you a yes/no response to this.

The fact is, the Google updates throughout 2011 have nearly superceded article marketing as we know it.

Does it help?

Sure, but not nearly as much as it used to.

You used to be able to write a great article, spin it, spin your links, then run it through a mass article automation software and expect some alright rankings. These days the method has nearly no effect on Google rankings.

Sure, write some really great articles and post them individually on high quality article sites (manual approval types) and you will expect some decent movements.

But even then, article marketing is a weak strategy these days and definitely not something to solely rely on for your SEO efforts.

Originally Posted by phonetools

If I can't article market, is there any other way I can get good backlinks to rank in google, other then just doing link exchanges?

Plenty of better ways than article marketing and link exchanges.

Social bookmarking, guest posting, blog commenting, forum links, profile links, web 2.0 articles, blog posts, high pr private network services, etc.

Be creative and keep testing mate.

[retsek]

Yes it helps a bit, but you shouldn't rely on it alone.

Forgetting the article directories themselves, it's great when relevant sites in your own niche pick up those articles and post them on their site along with your backlink. Relevancy is worth alot.

[TheTruth2011]

In the past this would have worked better, but honestly you will waste alllllllot of time with little return if you just use this for SEO.

[samyindia]

A PR 0 is not worthless. This is wrong information. It is a low quality backlink, but not a worthless backlink. None backlink is worthless.
And yes article marketing helps your rankings. But you should not only rely on article backlinks, link diversity is the key to success.

[phonetools]

Darn, well thanks for the info guys, I guess I'll focus my efforts more on something that works more effectively.

@dadamson or anyone else:
Which of those other methods do you personally recommend as being most effective and efficient? What should I try and do? And what are your methods of doing them? I have already done a lot of link tradin with people in my niche but I wanna do something else for backlinks too

[samyindia]

There are many possibilities mate. Link exchange as you have already mentioned, blog comments, writing guest blog articles, buying links, forum links, social bookmarking. I always do all of them to make sure I have a good link diversity.

[kattehudson]

An article should have insight search detail about he topic and should have unique from other. And syndicate well on the net it will definatly boost the rank. Don't use article submission software and Article writing software.

[spymobiles]

Only target high PR authenticated sites. Secondly using spinned or duplicate content can never rank your site now as Google update Panda algorithm to stop this thing. So only submit original, unique and fresh content every time.

[spymobiles]

Submit article on high PR authenticated sites. Secondly make sure that your article is unique, fresh and original as Google Update Panda algorithm to punish spinned and duplicate articles.

[Rankx]

Article Marketing is good, but has lost some of its effect. I would still say to go for it, but combine it with some other good services as well such as Blog Posting which I have seen great effect with for my own company, and getting some EDU or Wiki backlinks just to name a few.

[Lucas Becker]

Like it was said above, no-one will ever tell a definite answer to any question pertaining to SEO. Everyone has a different opinion and different experience and only Google staff themselves would be able to give you a definite answer.

Don't just follow what everybody else tells you to. The fact is, people often put out skewed information or doesn't even know much about the topic, yet still are pretty confident to come out and claim what they say is the only truth.

You have to collect some information and then TAKE ACTION upon the info you've collected. You'll never really know for sure what works and what not until you try yourself.

My view is using articles as backlinks isn't as valuable as it used to be in 2010, but it does work still. Why not use articles as one source of backlinks and then move on to the other ones, like blog networks, profile links, blog comments, social bookmarking...? Don't get too hung up on this, just move forward. Perfection will ruin you, you have to stay progressive and take action, then measure for yourself what works.