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Are article directories still useful?

by joekoffi
18 replies
Hello,

We know of the constant changes in SEO. We used to publish articles on article directories for backlinks and traffic.

What I don't know now is if submitting articles to directories is still valuable. Which article site do you recommend?

Thanks for answering
#article #directories
  • Profile picture of the author Syed Raza
    In My Opinion, these are not working now
    Google's Matt Cutts told webmasters and SEOs not to use article directory sites for link building strategies.
    Cick Here is the video in which he explains everything about this matter.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bo75Og4M34Q
    Best of Luck !
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  • Profile picture of the author StanHyeck
    Still useful for SEO purposes. But it seems like GoArticles and EzineArticles are really about the only ones. FURTHER you have to know what the "seo purpose" is.

    In other words those sites have so many outbound links that they aren't passing much "link juice". However they are constantly crawled and the links followed. That means it can get new stuff on your site indexed pretty fast if you post something to your site and then post an article that links to the new thing on your site. Viola ... instant indexing.
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    • Profile picture of the author joekoffi
      Originally Posted by StanHyeck View Post

      Still useful for SEO purposes. But it seems like GoArticles and EzineArticles are really about the only ones. FURTHER you have to know what the "seo purpose" is.

      In other words those sites have so many outbound links that they aren't passing much "link juice". However they are constantly crawled and the links followed. That means it can get new stuff on your site indexed pretty fast if you post something to your site and then post an article that links to the new thing on your site. Viola ... instant indexing.
      Hey Stan,
      Any idea if these links are dofollow? I think I get a point from what you said here about quick indexing. However, my articles get indexed within 24 hours of publication. I'm interested now in ranking
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      • Profile picture of the author StanHyeck
        Originally Posted by joekoffi View Post

        Hey Stan,
        Any idea if these links are dofollow? I think I get a point from what you said here about quick indexing. However, my articles get indexed within 24 hours of publication. I'm interested now in ranking
        If you're interested in ranking then you need to learn about creating "Private Blog Networks"

        That's definitely the best way to get rankings that I've found. Article directories aren't really that useful for ranking because they have so many outbound links that no one link passes much link strength.
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  • Profile picture of the author dgiles63
    Originally Posted by joekoffi View Post

    Hello,

    We know of the constant changes in SEO. We used to publish articles on article directories for backlinks and traffic.

    What I don't know now is if submitting articles to directories is still valuable. Which article site do you recommend?

    Thanks for answering
    Articles are definitely less useful than they used to be. But there are successful people still using them. Here is an article by Connie Green, 1000 articles in 1000 days. 1000 Articles In Less Than 1000 Days? We'll See! | Online Business Success | Connie Ragen Green
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    Dean Giles
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  • Profile picture of the author Walter Cyclid
    Well, despite what Matt Cutts and others have said about article marketing and article directories, I still find it to be one of the more effective ways of getting targeted traffic.

    On the other hand, I am not claiming that I know personally what the very best traffic generating method is, just that I don't think article marketing is quite as dead as some are making it out to be.

    I doubt anyone has tried every traffic generation method out there. There are just to many, but I would recommend article marketing to things like Trafficswarms, solo ads, subscribing to safelists or buying lists.
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  • Profile picture of the author Khondoker
    Article directories bring in visitors. If you want visitors, it is better you place your content as many eyeballs as possible!
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  • Profile picture of the author damiensuccess
    Certainly many changes have been made to SEO algorithms in the past few years, but thing I always keep in mind is that change is always being made. Sometimes what what is not effective now, may be effective later.

    Always keep the readers in mind. As said here on Warrior forum, Be your own moderator. Bring value and reason with all of your article posts.

    Having your own in depth articles linking back to for readers to get more detail, would certainly prove valuable if the article sites allow link follows. For now with SEO, its little to non effective, but the future of SEO is uncertain.

    Amreen said it right. More eyeballs are better. SEO is not always the best option for some business to gain valuable viewers.
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  • Profile picture of the author EconomicalDomains
    I think they have lost a lot over the years. You definitely won't get much traffic from them at all. As long as you post to related directories and high quality and respected ones they can still have a minor impact on Seo. There are a lot better ways these days with all the google crackdowns however.
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  • Profile picture of the author Michael Levanduski
    They can be helpful in getting people to publish your content on a site related to yours, with a link back to your page. These are high quality links, which will help you for SEO.

    The directory itself will be no-follow and PR0 (yes, even ezine) so you won't get any 'link juice' from the directory.

    If done properly, however, it can still be helpful.

    Michael
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  • Profile picture of the author joekoffi
    Thank you guys for the answers
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  • Profile picture of the author Rod Cortez
    Originally Posted by joekoffi View Post

    Hello,

    We know of the constant changes in SEO. We used to publish articles on article directories for backlinks and traffic.

    What I don't know now is if submitting articles to directories is still valuable. Which article site do you recommend?

    Thanks for answering
    From a pure ROI standpoint, I find article directories near worthless.

    I get way more targeted traffic from putting content on my own websites and blogs. While I no longer actively look for content partners, there was a time where I was. I find it far more effective buying my traffic now and forming strategic alliances with other business owners.

    I probably shouldn't share this, but I get way more traffic from my reports and ebooks that I put on Kindle then I ever did from putting articles on EZA, Goarticles, or any of the other directories.

    In fact, some of the directories I used to post religiously on are now out of business. Two of them got bought out and another one changed their TOS so much that it makes no sense putting content there.

    I've been publishing content on the web for over 14 years with thousands of articles under different pen names. While I still get traffic from all that content, I can tell you that submitting content to article directories is a losing game.

    They are worthless. Build your own virtual real estate. Learn how and where to get traffic that doesn't rely on short-term solutions or building up someone else's real estate. There are some exceptions to this, such as using the Kindel platform, iTunes, Audible.com... find out WHERE you audience hangs out and how they can find you.

    There is so much traffic out there if you know how to get it. Submitting to article directories isn't one of them.

    RoD
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  • Profile picture of the author ErinWalsh
    My company still finds articles useful, but that's in part due to our market. We're in the software to fix computer problems business. We put up articles on how to fix things like sound or video not working. To make finding the articles our users need we have directories. As you can see with that kind of business model articles are important, and bring business out way.

    The usefulness of articles really depends on how your business model uses them. SEO is still important when writing articles, but your business model can no longer depend on SEO alone.
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  • Profile picture of the author Rod Cortez
    What a lot of newbies don't realize is that Article Directories were NOT originally intended to be used for SEO purposes, in fact, they still aren't. It was used to get their content syndicated. Now, websites like Hubpages aren't technically article directories and I see them get ranked all the time (along with a bunch of other websites).

    At one point I had 8 full time authors writing content for one of my publishing companies and most of that content was going onto my own blogs and websites. I later sold those to a much larger corporation.

    When you build your own website properties and monetize them (with a buyer's list if that's your business model), you can SELL them for a lot of money later.

    With private blog networks you have to be careful on how you set them up.

    I no longer deal with back links or any of that SEO nonsense. It's a headache and it's a moving target, much more so than paid traffic in my experience.

    RoD
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    • Profile picture of the author Walter Cyclid
      Originally Posted by Rod Cortez View Post

      I no longer deal with back links or any of that SEO nonsense. It's a headache and it's a moving target, much more so than paid traffic in my experience.
      Very interesting. You have posted twice on this thread pretty much giving kudos to paid traffic while pretty much rejecting every other traffic generating method, in both or your posts.

      You must know something I don't then, and I am curious to know what that is.

      I have tried many paid traffic methods myself, and my results have been the exact opposite of what you indicate yours have been. Every time I pay for one form of traffic or the other, I always either don't get the volume of traffic I pay for, or else the traffic I do get is not targeted. Not by a long shot.

      How or were do you get your paid traffic, if you don't mind me asking?
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      • Profile picture of the author Rod Cortez
        Originally Posted by Walter Cyclid View Post

        Very interesting. You have posted twice on this thread pretty much giving kudos to paid traffic while pretty much rejecting every other traffic generating method, in both or your posts.
        No, I haven't rejected anything except submitting to directories. Just because I didn't mention social media or press releases doesn't mean I don't use them. This thread was about article directories and I was comparing it one other type of method that I use, my favorite, which was paid media.

        I mentioned it because from experience, from a pure ROI perspective, I get way more returns on my paid advertising then I have ever gotten from any content I've submitted on directories. It's not even close.

        You must know something I don't then, and I am curious to know what that is.

        I have tried many paid traffic methods myself, and my results have been the exact opposite of what you indicate yours have been. Every time I pay for one form of traffic or the other, I always either don't get the volume of traffic I pay for, or else the traffic I do get is not targeted. Not by a long shot.

        How or were do you get your paid traffic, if you don't mind me asking?
        I get it from a variety of sources that I've tested over the years. I test at least 1 or 2 new paid traffic sources every single month. I've been buying advertising for over a decade and my first year of doing it I lost a lot of money, mostly because I wasn't tracking my advertising, my sales copy was good, but I had a horrible sales funnel.

        It would take a whole book to explain what I do. It's not just about the traffic source. It's about how many offers you are promoting, how your marketing / sales funnel is set up, are you able to build a list, etc.

        I purposely don't share what sources I use for 2 very distinct reasons:

        1. The traffic source is just one part of the equation, there are a lot of other moving parts to to it. I could say I used Advertising.com for a very specific CPA dating offer along with 8 other Clickbank offers in one marketing funnel and people would try and copy it and fail and then say the traffic source sucks (it's rarely that simple).

        2. I've invested a lot of money in testing and tracking different forms of traffic with a lot of different companies over the years and I don't share that info with anyone.

        When you say you have "tried" paid advertising, what kind of offers were you promoting? Was it your own product? Was it someone else's? Both? CPA offers? Something else?

        RoD
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        "Your personal philosophy is the greatest determining factor in how your life works out."
        - Jim Rohn
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        • Profile picture of the author myob
          Within the context of sound marketing principles, article directories continue to be very effective as a tool for gaining exposure to relevant publications.

          Marketers who fully understand the real power of article marketing (for syndication) have actually been doing exceptionally well in directly driving massive floods of highly convertible traffic.

          The time-proven (ie long before Google) method for generating direct response traffic has simply been to write real articles, intended for real people, and submit them to real publications.

          Article directories (particularly EZA) provide content for publishers and a valuable adjunct for article marketers as part of building their syndication partner networks.

          It really has never been a viable marketing model to game the search engines by submitting massive quantities of semi-coherent text to article directories.

          The so-called "article marketers" who have fallen for the mania of Google ranking by polluting article directories with keyword-laden garbage for backlinks and traffic are essentially the only ones who are failing now so miserably.
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  • Profile picture of the author Janice Stacy
    I hope you will find this article useful-
    Does Article Marketing Add Any Value To SEO Now?
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