Article Directories - The Good, Bad (and the Ugly?)

[JackPowers]

I'm beginning to question if submitting to many article directories is really beneficial for SEO and traffic purposes. A few months ago I submitted some almost unique spun articles to 10+ different article directories. When I checked my backlinks today in Yahoo Sitexplorer, only three of them were listed. They were:

Ezine
Article Base
Article Alley

The rest were not listed. I'm not sure what to make of this. An article directory such as Amazines approve almost instantly, but I don't think I've ever received a single visitor from them. Maybe the search engines have begun to view those instant approved directories as nothing more than a linkfarm.

Are they worth submitting too at all? Ezine is the only directory with decent traffic. I still use Article Base because they are popular with webmasters and people who download the articles seem to include the resource box.

Maybe it's best just to focus on a few article directories instead?

Originally Posted by JackPowers

I'm beginning to question if submitting to many article directories is really beneficial for SEO and traffic purposes. A few months ago I submitted some almost unique spun articles to 10+ different article directories. When I checked my backlinks today in Yahoo Sitexplorer, only three of them were listed. They were:

Ezine
Article Base
Article Alley

The rest were not listed. I'm not sure what to make of this. An article directory such as Amazines approve almost instantly, but I don't think I've ever received a single visitor from them. Maybe the search engines have begun to view those instant approved directories as nothing more than a linkfarm.

Are they worth submitting too at all? Ezine is the only directory with decent traffic. I still use Article Base because they are popular with webmasters and people who download the articles seem to include the resource box.

Maybe it's best just to focus on a few article directories instead?

Jack,
Many of your answers are here - There are $1,000's worth of advice on this thread all for free.... Article on site or EZA first ?

With that said let me also put something else straight here..

Google or any other search engine has no idea if an article directory is auto approved or not. There are many factors that can change the outcome of your articles and there is not one person that could possibly answer your question because there are many different factors that can change the outcome..

For example:

* Does the article directory have auto ping to notify search engines when an article is approved
* Is your articles up to par and is it written to speak to the reader
* Is your resource box in proper format and call to action
* Do you build backlinks to your articles
* Do you submit your author RSS Feeds
* Does the article directory advertise "your article" for you

This list can go on and on... As I said there are many factors involved here...

James

[JackPowers]

Originally Posted by TheRichJerksNet

Jack,
Many of your answers are here - There are $1,000's worth of advice on this thread all for free.... Article on site or EZA first ?

With that said let me also put something else straight here..

Google or any other search engine has no idea if an article directory is auto approved or not. There are many factors that can change the outcome of your articles and there is not one person that could possibly answer your question because there are many different factors that can change the outcome..

For example:

* Does the article directory have auto ping to notify search engines when an article is approved
Don't know
* Is your articles up to par and is it written to speak to the reader
Yes
* Is your resource box in proper format and call to action
Yes, works very well with Ezine
* Do you build backlinks to your articles
No
* Do you submit your author RSS Feeds
No
* Does the article directory advertise "your article" for you
Don't know

This list can go on and on... As I said there are many factors involved here...

James

I see that I have much to learn and read. I still think it's weird that the links don't show up, they should at the very least get indexed without any other action?

[Zeus66]

A lot of folks are coming around to seeing that getting on the 'Writing Treadmill' is not the most productive way to do article marketing. The notion that it's all a numbers game is one of the most harmful myths surrounding article marketing, no doubt about it.

You don't have to write and submit your brains out to build a sustainable income stream through article marketing. The key is getting and keeping search engine rankings for your articles. That's how to tame this beast for the long haul.

John

Originally Posted by JackPowers

I see that I have much to learn and read. I still think it's weird that the links don't show up, they should at the very least get indexed without any other action?

But have you actually looked in the search engines or just rely upon yahoo ??? See if they are actually indexed.. But keep in mind just because you have an article posted does not mean it will be indexed...

James

[JayWiz]

Mass submission is working for me.
Maybe you want to retest and see what happens?
Don't draw conclusion based on first experience, keep experiment till you find the way.