Are article submissions the best way to build backlinks?

16 years ago

Are article submissions the best way to build backlinks?

No, they are not.

The best backlinks are natural links - and those come from people liking your content and posting links back to your site.

Artificial links are links that you create yourself.

When you submit an article to an articles site, and it contains a link, that is an artificial link.

The best and natural way to build links - is to post quality and unique content on your site, establish your site as an authority in its field, let people find your site, and if they like your content, they will link back to you.

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TheAnnoyingOrange

16 years ago

Originally Posted by ~kev~

No, they are not.

The best backlinks are natural links - and those come from people liking your content and posting links back to your site.

Artificial links are links that you create yourself.

When you submit an article to an articles site, and it contains a link, that is an artificial link.

The best and natural way to build links - is to post quality and unique content on your site, establish your site as an authority in its field, let people find your site, and if they like your content, they will link back to you.

LOL! How could they tell if you create a link via an article or not? There is not such thing as an artificial link.

Let me put it this way: Would a SE rank a backlink that is coming from a site (someone linking to you) that has spyware on it and is considered spammy higher than a backlink coming from an article at an established and trusted article directory ("artificial" in your words)?

I do not want to sound like I am attacking you but that comment really does not make me happy.

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~kev~

16 years ago

Originally Posted by TheAnnoyingOrange

LOL! How could they tell if you create a link via an article or not? There is not such thing as an artificial link.

Its not anyone (or any search engine) being able to tell anything.

There are 2 types of links:

Natural - links that you do not post yourself, are not bought, and you do not hire someone to post. People like your content and post links to your site for you.

Un-Natural - any link that you helped create.

The search engines probably are not going to be able to tell the difference. Its just a measure of your overall link percentage.

Lets say you have 10,000 links - how many of those are natural and un-natural?

Site A - Lets say site A has 75% natural links. That means there are 7,500 links out there they owner of the site did not have anything to do with.

Site B - Lets say site B has 75% un-natural links. That means the owner built 7,500 links.

Which one do you think would have the better content? The site with very few natural links, or a lot of natural links? I guess you could say, that natural links are a measure of how popular your site is and how good the content is.

If you have good content, people will be linking to your site, instead of you having to do it.

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Alexa Smith

Banned 16 years ago

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~kev~ 16 years ago

Originally Posted by Alexa Smith

what's the big deal about what "type" of link they are?! :rolleyes:

There is no "big deal" about anything. I'am just stating my opinion on the topic.

The topic of the thread is - "Are article submissions the best way to build backlinks?"

And in my opinion, no its not.

The best types of links you can have, are natural links that someone else posted to your site.
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imMindset 16 years ago

Provide relevant and useful comments on blogs related to your niche. Not only can you get quality links (look out for KeywordLUV), you can also drive quality traffic to your site. Make sure the comments provide some real VALUE. I operate blogs that receive plenty of comments every day, but I never approve of comments that don't add anything to the initial post.

You can also try online member blogs. They don't require much writing, but you can post quality info and get quality links from authority sites.
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Steven Carl Kelly

16 years ago

Originally Posted by Alexa Smith

No, indeed: search engines are definitely not going to be able to tell the difference, not even "Sherlock Google". In what sense, then, are you alleging that they're "2 different types of links"? If they're all the same to a search engine, who cares?

This is incorrect. There ARE differences between natural and unnatural links, and Google DOES have code built to try and determine which links are "natural" and which are not.

Matt Cutts himself posted a blog entry this past year entitled "Natural links are better than non-natural".

If you read Matt's blog, you'll find that he describes a "natural" link as a VOLUNTARY LINK that signals to Google a "vote" for the page that is targeted in the link. Thus, Google counts "natural" links as a point in your page's favor for improving your page's status in the SERPs. Matt goes on to say that the "nofollow" tag offers a way to signal a method of linking that is NOT natural (such as with paid links or self-promoted links) and that "nofollow" links are NOT considered a "vote" for the page. Therefore, any NOFOLLOW links are discounted by Google -- it is a link, but has no influence on your page's ranking other than adding to your backlink count.

Quoting Matt himself:

"The nofollow tag allows a site to add a link that abstains from being an editorial vote. Using nofollow is a safe way to buy links, because it's a machine-readable way to specify that a link doesn't have to be counted as a vote by a search engine."

Natural links, on the other hand, DO affect your page's ranking.

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bretski

16 years ago

Originally Posted by Steven Carl Kelly

Quoting Matt himself:

"The nofollow tag allows a site to add a link that abstains from being an editorial vote. Using nofollow is a safe way to buy links, because it's a machine-readable way to specify that a link doesn't have to be counted as a vote by a search engine."

Natural links, on the other hand, DO affect your page's ranking.

It is my understanding that a certain number of nofollow links would appear more natural and should be expected. For instance, concentrating on building links that are mostly or only dofollow would appear artificial. Of course, I think that mass article submissions and backlinking strategies with social bookmarking and link wheels etc are *******izing true article marketing and I don't think that this is what Alexa is refering to.

My question to all the "natural links only" folks is, so what do you do? Build your site and hope that your content is found by authority sites that will contact you and ask to publish your content or give you a backlink because your stuff just rocks so much? I'm not trying to be a wise acre here...just in search of answers to this conundrum.

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connorbringas 16 years ago

They are one of the best ways. Directory submissions are always good but you never know how long those sites stay up..sometimes they are gone by the time I go back to them. Article websites for the most part dont just fall off the map so your link lasts a while. You have to really think..will this website last? Twitter, facebook, other social media sites give you a good backlink..and most likely wont disappear soon.
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~kev~

16 years ago

Originally Posted by bretski

My question to all the "natural links only" folks is, so what do you do? Build your site and hope that your content is found by authority sites that will contact you and ask to publish your content or give you a backlink because your stuff just rocks so much?

No, not found by authority sites - found by the search engines.

Have you ever seen someone ask a question in a forum, only for someone to go find an article on another site and post a link to it? Perhaps wikipedia is a good example, and Matt Cutts blog.

Have you ever seen blog roll links? Where the owner of the blog has linked to other related sites?

Those are the kinds of links that I want. I do not want my articles re-published, I want them linked to.

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bretski

16 years ago

Originally Posted by ~kev~

No, not found by authority sites - found by the search engines.

Have you ever seen someone ask a question in a forum, only for someone to go find an article on another site and post a link to it? Perhaps wikipedia is a good example, and Matt Cutts blog.

Have you ever seen blog roll links? Where the owner of the blog has linked to other related sites?

Those are the kinds of links that I want.

So you do forum marketing and create blogrolls? Kidding!!!

I know what you mean but in the meantime wouldn't a mixture of a few articles that could be syndicated help you to achieve more authority in the eyes of search engines and some natural traffic from people reading those articles?

I think that the key is balance. I do have articles that have been picked up by blogrolls and also some stuff that has been posted by people on Yahoo Answers and weird stuff like that. I don't go nuts and don't believe that you need to post 10 articles a day or any crap like that...but I have seen value in article marketing.

Good thread but I also believe that there are no absolutes here. To each his own...

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~kev~

16 years ago

Originally Posted by bretski

So you do forum marketing and create blogrolls? Kidding!!!

I know what you mean but in the meantime wouldn't a mixture of a few articles that could be syndicated help you to achieve more authority in the eyes of search engines and some natural traffic from people reading those articles?

No, and No.

For my main forum, yahoo site explorer reports that I have 182,968 backlinks. You do not get that many backlinks by submitting articles to other sites. You get them by establishing your site as an authority in its field, and let other people backlink to you.

Out of that 182,968 backlinks, I estimate that 98% of them are natural links.

My main blog on the other hand has 5,099 backlinks in yahoo site explorer - but I'am working on it.

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Steven Carl Kelly

16 years ago

Originally Posted by bretski

It is my understanding that a certain number of nofollow links would appear more natural and should be expected. For instance, concentrating on building links that are mostly or only dofollow would appear artificial.

Sort of. There are instances in which content becomes popular and a huge number of "natural" links appear almost instantly. That's the way the Web works. Google understands the difference.

My answer is to the OP, who asked if article submissions are the BEST way to build backlinks, and I go back to my original response: article submissions are a good way, to be certain, and should be used. Is article marketing the BEST way? That really depends on your objective. There are other ways, possibly BETTER ways. In the end, good backlinks help your pages, if in no other way than providing an additional backlink to your stack.

There are BAD backlinks as well, and generally speaking should be avoided.

But to dismiss the notion that Google understands and is prepared to deal with different types of links just because you don't think they do is either foolhardy or naive. This is something that has been understood by many for years.

Whatever works for you, works for you, I guess. But understanding how other entities potentially treat your links is certainly valuable information.

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thebarksmeow

16 years ago

Originally Posted by Steven Carl Kelly

This is incorrect. There ARE differences between natural and unnatural links, and Google DOES have code built to try and determine which links are "natural" and which are not.

Matt Cutts himself posted a blog entry this past year entitled "Natural links are better than non-natural".

If you read Matt's blog, you'll find that he describes a "natural" link as a VOLUNTARY LINK that signals to Google a "vote" for the page that is targeted in the link. Thus, Google counts "natural" links as a point in your page's favor for improving your page's status in the SERPs. Matt goes on to say that the "nofollow" tag offers a way to signal a method of linking that is NOT natural (such as with paid links or self-promoted links) and that "nofollow" links are NOT considered a "vote" for the page. Therefore, any NOFOLLOW links are discounted by Google -- it is a link, but has no influence on your page's ranking other than adding to your backlink count.

Quoting Matt himself:

"The nofollow tag allows a site to add a link that abstains from being an editorial vote. Using nofollow is a safe way to buy links, because it’s a machine-readable way to specify that a link doesn’t have to be counted as a vote by a search engine."

Natural links, on the other hand, DO affect your page's ranking.

Are you serious? I'm going to agree with Alexa. I don't care what kind of "code" you think Google has. If a site links to Alexa's content... that's natural in Google's eyes right? If I pay that same site to link to my content as well... google can tell the difference? Do you really think Google is going to her link more weight than mine? PLEASE. They didn't link to me voluntarily, I paid them.

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Steven Carl Kelly 16 years ago

Originally Posted by thebarksmeow

Are you serious?

Absolutely serious.

Originally Posted by thebarksmeow

If a site links to Alexa's content... that's natural in Google's eyes right?

Perhaps, perhaps not. If you think for one moment that Google DOESN'T have the intelligence to identify certain links as less or more valuable than others, then you simply are in the dark about how Google works.

But if you want to ignore it, that's fine for you, no question at all. But please be careful not to mislead people who are genuinely seeking factual information on the matter.
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- connorbringas 16 years ago
  
  Personally, I think natural links and unnatural links dont exist. I dont think google has some amazing software or whatever to determine which links are natural..but then again you never know
  
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~kev~

16 years ago

Originally Posted by thebarksmeow

PLEASE. They didn't link to me voluntarily, I paid them.

Do the bought links pass page rank? If so, your in violation of the google webmaster guidelines.

Under "Link Schemes" in the google webmaster help section

Link schemes - Webmaster Tools Help

This is in violation of Google's webmaster guidelines and can negatively impact your site's ranking in search results. Examples of link schemes can include:

* Links intended to manipulate PageRank
* Links to web spammers or bad neighborhoods on the web
* Excessive reciprocal links or excessive link exchanging ("Link to me and I'll link to you.")
* Buying or selling links that pass PageRank

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Barry Unruh

16 years ago

Originally Posted by Steven Carl Kelly

This is incorrect. There ARE differences between natural and unnatural links, and Google DOES have code built to try and determine which links are "natural" and which are not.

Matt Cutts himself posted a blog entry this past year entitled "Natural links are better than non-natural".

If you read Matt's blog, you'll find that he describes a "natural" link as a VOLUNTARY LINK that signals to Google a "vote" for the page that is targeted in the link. Thus, Google counts "natural" links as a point in your page's favor for improving your page's status in the SERPs. Matt goes on to say that the "nofollow" tag offers a way to signal a method of linking that is NOT natural (such as with paid links or self-promoted links) and that "nofollow" links are NOT considered a "vote" for the page. Therefore, any NOFOLLOW links are discounted by Google -- it is a link, but has no influence on your page's ranking other than adding to your backlink count.

Quoting Matt himself:

"The nofollow tag allows a site to add a link that abstains from being an editorial vote. Using nofollow is a safe way to buy links, because it’s a machine-readable way to specify that a link doesn’t have to be counted as a vote by a search engine."

Natural links, on the other hand, DO affect your page's ranking.

But all you are really telling me with all of this is if I create my links on sites which are not NOFOLLOW, I am creating "Natural" links, and if they are NOFOLLOW they are "Unnatural"? It sounds like simply changing semantics...

The bottom line comes down to this. You must build backlinks. Backlinks with NOFOLLOW carry less weight, but not zero weight.

You must create great content so it is shared around the internet. Just because it is NOFOLLOW on an article directory does not mean it is NOFOLLOW when it is republished on someone's blog or website.

Higher PR backlinks are more valuable than low PR backlinks.

If you want to cut through all the BS, do a search for relevant keywords, look at the first three pages of sites, and see if you can manufacture backlinks from those sites. (Manufacture does not mean spam, it means guest post, create thoughtful comments, suggest one of your articles might be relevant, contact the site owner and discuss mutual benefits and JV opportunities, etc.) Those sites are on the first few pages of Google for one reason and one reason only...Google's algorithm found them relevant for your niche, so therefore backlinks from them are relevant.

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20smoney

16 years ago

Originally Posted by TheAnnoyingOrange

LOL! How could they tell if you create a link via an article or not? There is not such thing as an artificial link.

Let me put it this way: Would a SE rank a backlink that is coming from a site (someone linking to you) that has spyware on it and is considered spammy higher than a backlink coming from an article at an established and trusted article directory ("artificial" in your words)?

I do not want to sound like I am attacking you but that comment really does not make me happy.

I completely disagree. I think Google can and definitely does distinguish between links from "natural" sources like real individual sites and article directories. That would be extremely easy to program into their algorithm.

You should assume that Google (and others) is much smarter than you think. If you can find the easier ways to "build links" then I sure as hell believe Google with billions of dollars can find the "easy links" and give them the appropriate credit which is of course less than natural links.

Don't be naive.

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gsport11

16 years ago

My signature will show that I have a bias.

I find that social bookmarking is effective in driving traffic, but the lasting power of the links is minimal. Consequently, it requires constant attention. Given your aversion to writing, this may be a good alternative, although probably not for long term link building (per se) without other techniques. Usually a sentence or two is all that is required in the description. Make sure that the title of your bookmark is closely related to your key phrase.

I don't know if you resist video marketing, but that is superior even to article marketing in terms of building lasting links. It's not as hard as you may think, although after a career in TV I have no interest in returning to the "editing room." For you, it may seem like a new and exciting frontier.

While I include my signature on this post, you can find cheaper article marketing services on this forum than I offer. Some are very cost effective. Your niche and overall business plan will determine whether it is worth the investment for you.

You may want to invest the time in improving your own writing. Actually, your question is well written, clear and concise. Maybe you're not giving yourself enough credit.

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Noonaa 16 years ago

Hi

There are free sites where you can submit one article and they have an in built re writer and will release your article over a period of time to various blogs.
You even get to choose the blogs your article appears on.
Hope this helps.
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johnben1444

16 years ago

There are many ways to build links without having to write articles. But the truth is, article writing is diversified in the case that you can use your article to get links from several site. Article marketing, blogging, press release, web 2.0 sites requires articles.

Online classified, blog commenting, forums, submitting to directories do not require articles.

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jtormey

16 years ago

I don't mean to be a self promoter, but in this case, see my sig.

One of my videos is about how article mktg was like nails on a chalkboard
until I figured out something.... I don't have to do it!

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seobro

16 years ago

The best links are from blogger pals that write about your product or service. Well, they know better than to put - CLICK HERE, and the include your trademark in the hyperlink to get you link juice.

Worst are from no follow sites like Digg that send you traffic which does not convert and eats up your bandwidth to the extent that your web hosting firm disables your page.

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Steven Carl Kelly

16 years ago

Article marketing is good. A fine way to build backlinks, even if they are not as "valuable" as natural links. To augment your article marketing efforts, let me suggest press releases. I find press releases to be particularly effective.

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Itshard

16 years ago

You can do directory submission as well as blog commenting.

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Tony Marriott

16 years ago

OOh getting heated!

Are article submissions the best way to build backlinks?

Depends on your interpretation.
If you hate writing atricles, are bad at it and can't write more than one a month then clearly it's not the best way (for you).

The basic truth is that no one method is actually the best. You can argue about natural and artificial till the cows come home. I would even go as far as to ask - If all your links are natural - is that natural?

Is a site that has nothing but natural links not as contrived as any other.

A combination of all kinds of backlinks , natural, artificial, dofollow, nofollow, high page pr, low page pr, high domain pr, low domain pr etc. are what you need.

--Just because the link doesn't count as a vote does not mean it is irrelevent--

That is what looks really natural.
Avoiding a few bad areas like porn, spam, warez and other monkey rubbish sites/links obviously.

Think about natural anchor text too. Yes focus on your keywords but have a smattering of raw url links and keyword variations.

That is if your talking about eventually creating an authority site or at least one with longevity. The rules can be a little different if you want to put up a fast crash and burn website

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jlucado 16 years ago

Ya know, asking for the best way to get backlinks in here is like asking the UN how to solve world hunger!

Everyone has their opinion and everyone is correct.

Backlinks are Backlinks.

They all count, some more than others, but they all count.

Best to you.
Jerry
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- Steven Carl Kelly 16 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by jlucado
  
  Backlinks are Backlinks.
  
  They all count, some more than others, but they all count.
  
  I'm sorry, but I'll have to disagree. That is truly a non-factual statement.
  
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lenfoster

16 years ago

If you're going to place links on other peoples sites (blogs etc) (A) make sure the sites relevant to your own and (B) use quality authority sites that have decent page rank.

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uabclst

16 years ago

I really doubt that Google has the time to explore which links are natural (if it's even possible) and which aren't. Just imagine what amount of computer power that would consume.

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JonAlfredsson

16 years ago

My ways of driving traffic:
Article Marketing - you can submit articles to multiple article diretories.
Pinging - you can ping your published article (pingomatic and pingoat)
Social Bookmarking
Social Media
Blog Commenting
Video Marketing
Press Release
Forum Posting

These are for free and if you have all your time, you can do this, there's no need of outsourcing them.. =)