Ezinearticles is dead! So are the other article sites.

MarketItAll

15 years ago

Nah I haven't noticed at all. Maybe it's just something you're doing with your articles?

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Terry Hatfield

15 years ago

I don't use article marketing myself.

What I noticed is on many of the keywords that my sites rank on, those results pages no longer are showing articles.

Many of the articles that are missing have been ranked on page 1 for years and some even had like 500 back links.

Now gone, all gone.

Hope this isn't permanent. I really feel for article marketers if it is.

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winnerman

15 years ago

i have noticed it ppl are abusing the system mainly other articles and google caught up with it

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Michael Lee

15 years ago

The Internet has become much more competitive than ever before. Perhaps many highly informative content sites have sprung up and have taken the place of some article pages.

I checked on some of my articles and they seem to be near their original spots, but some have also dipped down. We can never really rely on search engines as their algorithms change every now and then, that's why it's important to never put all your eggs in one basket.

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ExploringInfinity

15 years ago

Originally Posted by Michael Lee

The Internet has become much more competitive than ever before. Perhaps many highly informative content sites have sprung up and have taken the place of some article pages.

Precisely.

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KatyaSenina 15 years ago

Anyway if EZA is losing its power maybe it's time to move on to other article directories? Buzzle and Articlesbase, even Searchwarp look great and even hold the same ranking power.

Or what about doc sharing sites? Or web 2.0 sites? Hubpages/blogspot is ranking extremely well if you know what you're doing.
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Terry Hatfield

15 years ago

I was checking some other keywords and it looks like squidoo is taking a hit also. Many of them look as if they dropped a few spots from where they was.

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Gerald Arno

Banned 15 years ago

What I found out threw personal experiences is that ezine articles
only rank good if either
A) The keyword is not competitive
or
B) You put effort into ranking your articles

Ezine articles are great for getting high quality backlinks,
especially if you don´t submit the article to any other site,
because than it´s higher valued by Google.

Like Michael said: Integrate more weapons into your arsenal,
and you won´t get hurt if one of them should become dysfunctional.

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1 reply

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Liam Hamer 15 years ago

I'm slightly confused. You state you are not an article marketer but seem surprised that articles you submitted years ago aren't ranking as high :confused: There's so much competition out there nowadays and fresh, keyword rich articles with quality backlinks will often take over from older articles in the SERPS over time.
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NiallR

15 years ago

I think that article directories have slowly been devalued over the last few years and will continue to do so.

I remember the good old days when you could build a small niche site, post about 10 articles to EZA and just watch the money come in.

The main problem with article directories is they're being spammed so heavily their results can't be trusted anymore. For example I recently got an e-mail from an article directory support team telling me that articles "that gave negative information about a product or service are not permitted in their directory". So that instantly devalues their use.

Article marketing is now just a small part of promoting your website. The recent Google slap is just an indication of where things are going.

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Alexa Smith

Banned 15 years ago

Originally Posted by Terry Hatfield

Many of the ezinearticles articles that used to be ranking on the same search results pages as my keywords are either gone or showing up at the bottom of the listings.

This is normal.

It happens with all of my articles, and it's what I want to happen, too: I would hardly want an article directory outranking my own site for my own keywords.

You're talking about it as if it's something bad? :confused:

Believe me: if this didn't happen to the EZA copies of the articles I write, I'd be very unhappy indeed about it! In the long run, after the EZA copy has fulfilled its purpose for me, I want the copy on my own site ranking as highly as possible and the EZA copy preferably not ranking at all, or at least ranking far lower down. This is why it's so important to post all your articles to your own sites first, and get them indexed there, for all the reasons explained by so many successful, experienced pro's in this thread, so that in the fulness of time, your own site ranks as highly as possible and you don't depend in the long term on getting your traffic through article directories from which you lose half the traffic to their AdSense and other distractions. :p

I'm in business to develop my commercial assets, not to develop article directories.

EZA, by the way, is far from "dead": it's absolutely thriving. But that bit went without saying, really, didn't it?

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KatyaSenina

15 years ago

Originally Posted by Alexa Smith

This is normal.

It happens with all of my articles, and it's what I want to happen, too: I would hardly want an article directory outranking my own site for my own keywords.

You're talking about it as if it's something bad? :confused:

Alexa I've heard you say this before but you make it sound really simple. To be honest, you sound like you get almost ALL of your articles to rank, appear in the search engines and outrank article directories. :p

Unless you're going after extremely low competition keywords and have a website with decent pagerank I don't understand how this is possible.:confused:

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DireStraits

15 years ago

Originally Posted by KatyaSenina

Alexa I've heard you say this before but you make it sound really simple. To be honest, you sound like you get almost ALL of your articles to rank, appear in the search engines and outrank article directories. :p

They usually (if not always) will, in time, Katya, providing you only build backlinks to your own site, and not to article directories.

An article page at EZA with few to no backlinks isn't going to stand a chance against your site's article page to which you've slowly and steadily been building backlinks over a period of time.

Some article directories - EZA in particular - do have a lot of "generic authority", which is precisely why articles you publish there tend to rank so well (at least for a while); but the longer-term aim for your sites should be to match or exceed that authority. And that happens over time, when you build or acquire lots of good quality (preferably high-PR and context-relevant) backlinks to your site's pages.

But so long as you dismiss the building of backlinks to your own site in favour of letting your articles rank on the merit of EZA's or another article directory's search-engine authority - or even worse, by building backlinks to them - that will never happen.

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Barry Unruh

15 years ago

Originally Posted by KatyaSenina

Alexa I've heard you say this before but you make it sound really simple. To be honest, you sound like you get almost ALL of your articles to rank, appear in the search engines and outrank article directories. :p

Unless you're going after extremely low competition keywords and have a website with decent pagerank I don't understand how this is possible.:confused:

Or....She might be getting articles syndicated to places which drive traffic directly to her website getting her the bulk of her traffic.

Those sames sites of course are likely to be within her market and potentially have higher PR

Then throw in the simple fact an article which gets syndicated across a group of sites = more backlinks than a single article on a handful of article directories.

I'm guessing even Alexa will admit she does not rank well for many of her keywords, but with syndication she gets traffic from MOST of them.

Along with Alexa's further comments, it would be good to have Bill Platt - TPW throw in his 2 cents..

Barry

P.S. EZA or any other directory being reduced in value is not necessarily a bad thing to an article marketer. It just means it is time to re-think your strategy and start testing again. Stop thinking VOLUME and start thinking ENGAGEMENT.

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Alexa Smith

Banned 15 years ago

Originally Posted by KatyaSenina

Alexa I've heard you say this before but you make it sound really simple. To be honest, you sound like you get almost ALL of your articles to rank, appear in the search engines and outrank article directories. :p

Unless you're going after extremely low competition keywords and have a website with decent pagerank I don't understand how this is possible.:confused:

Hi Katya,

Article directory backlinks are non-context-relevant, PR-0 backlinks. In SEO terms, they're almost the lowest of the low (only "off-topic forum profile backlinks" are worse, I think, and that's because most of them are never indexed!).

In SEO/link-juice terms, an article directory is almost at the opposite end of the spectrum from an "authority site".

The only way article directory copies of articles are going to outrank your own site, in the long-term, is if you build backlinks to them, as Mike explains above. Once this is done, then "the damage is done" and yes, it's going to be difficult for your own site to outrank an article directory.

Even with a brand new site, it's easy to outrank EZA for non-competitive, long-tail keywords. When you post the article to your site and have it indexed there, and then submit it to EZA, what will happen will normally be that the EZA copy will temporarily outrank your own, originally indexed copy. But as long as you do all your off-page SEO for the copy on your site, and never build backlinks to an article directory, this is only temporary, and with every new article it gets briefer and briefer, and surprisingly quickly you get to a point at which your own newish little site will outrank any article directory.

Context-relevance is far, far more significant, regarding your long-term SEO prospects, than page-rank. Page-rank really doesn't matter. All our EZA articles (yours and mine!) are on PR-0 pages anyway. Yes, it's true that EZA's home-page is PR-6, and that's why those PR-0 pages get a bit of a boost and can overtake our own copies.

The purposes of getting the article indexed on your site and building backlinks to your site rather than to the EZA copy isn't to prevent that specific EZA copy from outranking you. That won't happen until your site's built up some authority. One has to take a long-term view, and appreciate that it's "to make that as brief as possible" and "to make that get briefer all the term" and "to bring your own site out on top in the long run". It's very much easier to do than one would imagine. The only real way to stop it from happening, in fact, is to build backlinks to article directories. That, from the perspective of your own site's long-term SEO really can be Disaster City, and is really difficult to recover from.

By gradually building up your own sites' SEO, it becomes easier and easier all the time. Yes, I have a PR-5 site and some PR-3 ones, but I'm doing this with some newer, PR-0 sites, too.

The trap into which people commonly fall is to see the EZA copy doing better in the SERP's and imagine that that makes it a good idea to build backlinks to the EZA copy. It isn't at all, though: it's a huge mistake. It simply perpetuates the problem rather than gradually resolving it, and means you end up with a site that can't outrank an article directory, and that you're effectively sending your traffic (i.e. produced indirectly by your backlinking) to article directories instead of getting it from article directories.

It's "the descending ceiling".

As explained here, here, here, here, here, here and so on ... all good threads to read.

Katya, replying to your post reminds me that I have an unreplied-to p.m. from you in my inbox - please excuse me: reply coming up shortly!

Edited to add PS: I'm not talking about ultra-competitive keywords like "make money online" and "pick up girls", of course.

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edlewis

15 years ago

"Every truth passes through three stages before it is recognized In the first it is ridiculed, in the second it is opposed, in the third it is regarded as self-evident" - Arthur Schopenhauer

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Craig McPherson

15 years ago

Originally Posted by edlewis

"Every truth passes through three stages before it is recognized In the first it is ridiculed, in the second it is opposed, in the third it is regarded as self-evident" - Arthur Schopenhauer

I was gunna say that

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Brandon Tanner

15 years ago

No doubt a few of the more well-known article directories are starting to lose some of their effectiveness for direct traffic... but they are still GREAT for backlinks.

That said, it's interesting to see that article directories that only accept content that has NOT been published anywhere else online (ie Buzzle) are starting to get a LOT more direct traffic "love" from G now.

So in response to the OP, article directories are definitely NOT dead -- far from it. You just have to know which ones are best for direct traffic, and which ones are best for backlinks (and this can of course change about 25 times a year, thanks to Google).

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Alexa Smith

Banned 15 years ago

Originally Posted by Brandon Tanner

No doubt a few of the more well-known article directories are starting to lose some of their effectiveness for direct traffic... but they are still GREAT for backlinks.

Brandon, with respect, they're absolutely terrible for backlinks. They're non-context-relevant, PR-0 backlinks, for heaven's sake. You can't get much "lower" than that.

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Brandon Tanner

15 years ago

Originally Posted by Alexa Smith

Brandon, with respect, they're absolutely terrible for backlinks. They're non-context-relevant, PR-0 backlinks, for heaven's sake. You can't get much "lower" than that.

I beg to differ, as I have found it most effective to get backlinks from a variety of different PR's (0 to 7). I think context-relevance is a little over-rated when it comes to backlinking effectiveness, and I think PR score is waaaaaay over-rated when it comes to backlinking effectiveness. Mixing it up is important.

That said, I have gotten the best results from using sites like EZA for backlinks to my backlinks. For example... EZA --> Buzzle --> Money Site. Used like that, it is GREAT for backlinks. In my tests, doing it like that has caused a LOT more of the original backlinks to stay indexed over time (compared to just using single-tiered backlinks). Try it for yourself and see.

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alexanderpoole9

Banned 15 years ago

Originally Posted by Brandon Tanner

I beg to differ, as I have found it most effective to get backlinks from a variety of different PR's (0 to 7). I think context-relevance is a little over-rated when it comes to backlinking effectiveness, and I think PR score is waaaaaay over-rated when it comes to backlinking effectiveness. Mixing it up is important.

That said, I have gotten the best results from using sites like EZA for backlinks to my backlinks. For example... EZA --> Buzzle --> Money Site. Used like that, it is GREAT for backlinks. In my tests, doing it like that has caused a LOT more of the original backlinks to stay indexed over time (compared to just using single-tiered backlinks). Try it for yourself and see.

What's a single-tiered backlink?

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larkykid 15 years ago

Originally Posted by alexanderpoole9

What's a single-tiered backlink?

A backlink without any other backlinks pointing to it.
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IMandSEO

15 years ago

Originally Posted by Alexa Smith

Brandon, with respect, they're absolutely terrible for backlinks. They're non-context-relevant, PR-0 backlinks, for heaven's sake. You can't get much "lower" than that.

I have to disagree with some of this... I think it is really how you look at things in the end. You seem to be looking at what they give you right away as opposed to the value you "may" get from them after some time and syndication has taken place. Hopefully spreading your links across multiple domains(some context relevant) and creating some incoming link diversity.

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KatyaSenina

15 years ago

Originally Posted by Terry Hatfield

I was checking through about a 100 0f my keywords. I noticed something really strange. Many of the ezinearticles articles that used to be ranking on the same search results pages as my keywords are either gone or showing up at the bottom of the listings.

Anyone noticed any of their ezinearticle articles drop in ranking?

P.S. I think articlesbase may of taken a hit also.

Yep I have, it seems like Buzzle and Suite101 are leading right now and a few others.

Plus most articles get barely over 100 views. I'm talking about EZA articles (not to mention how little views other directories get), unless you do some extra promotion or get your article to rank it's impossible to make a living off article marketing alone. Just my 2 cents.

Edit: I don't bother with article directories unless I get them to rank and I only use them for backlinks.

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bhuff85

15 years ago

Originally Posted by KatyaSenina

unless you do some extra promotion or get your article to rank it's impossible to make a living off article marketing alone. Just my 2 cents.

I definitely wouldn't say it's impossible to live off of article marketing alone. Not even close. Do you know how many Warriors here make a living from article marketing? And, a decent one at that?

Sure - some of them may make more money than others because they might be selling their own products, consulting/coaching or higher ticket affiliate items and building a list, but many of them still use article marketing to drive traffic to make money from those, hence them "making a living" from it.

Article marketing (or what I look at more of as "content marketing"), will never die. For those who believe it's dead, keep on believing if you wish. It'll just open up even more room for those of us who it's still alive and well

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emb1781 15 years ago

I have noticed that there are some articles with 30k views from articlesbase and ezine that have been in the top 5 for there target keyword for A very long time that have been removed from page 1. Ive had some ezine articles that I have been working on for the past month for competitve high search volume terms that I had on the brink of page 1 that have been knocked down as well.

It seems that video sites and answer sites have been bumped up into the spots that were reserved for articlesbase and ezine. I know i'm not too happy about this and I am sure there are alot of others pulling there hair out right now. Ranking articles for competitive keywords is pretty much dead if things stay the way they are now.
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KatyaSenina

15 years ago

I didn't say it's completely impossible to live off article marketing alone. I'm sure lots of people do quite well with it, but it primarily depends on the business model you have into place. Poor business model is poor conversion. Now the traditional article marketing business model is something like this; throwing out an article (in most cases even poorly keyword optimized) and hoping to get views and traffic, hoping for it to get picked up and re-published by other people. That's like hoping to hit the lottery. The chances are low to non-existent.

My experience is that I hardly get any views and traffic to my site if I don't do any additional promotion or if my articles don't show up in Google. Usually I get around 40 views per article from within the article directories directly after submitting, now I'm sure it adds up over time but still it's not much, which is shockingly low for someone like me. It's not like my headlines suck or aren't enticing enough. Even though English is not my 1st language, but my third, I don't consider myself an awfully bad writer. Nor do I throw out junk out, yet I'm very disappointed with the low amount of views that my articles get from EZA (I don't even bother with other directories, 'cause Goarticles has even poorer article views in my experience). Now these are not my articles alone. I've seen other marketers get little views as well.

Now the ONLY way my efforts pay off is if I SEO optimize my articles and build backlinks to them, and a few other things. I'm still testing this and trying to find the perfect strategy to get my articles ranked easily. I made article marketing a study and I definitely use it in my internet marketing business, but only to its fullest potential. I certainly don't throw out articles and sit, wait, hope and wish my efforts will pay off. That's useless.

Originally Posted by bhuff85

I definitely wouldn't say it's impossible to live off of article marketing alone. Not even close. Do you know how many Warriors here make a living from article marketing? And, a decent one at that?

Sure - some of them may make more money than others because they might be selling their own products, consulting/coaching or higher ticket affiliate items and building a list, but many of them still use article marketing to drive traffic to make money from those, hence them "making a living" from it.

Article marketing (or what I look at more of as "content marketing"), will never die. For those who believe it's dead, keep on believing if you wish. It'll just open up even more room for those of us who it's still alive and well

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Fun to Write

15 years ago

Most articles will drop off with time, unless they have little competition for those keywords. Article marketing is great for building up initial traffic and momentum for a site, then the site has to be able to stand on it's own.

If you're using article marketing to build a list, you should keep writing and submitting fresh content to keep the momentum.

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theemperor

15 years ago

@Alexa - very good point.

Traffic to your EZA article is good, but not as good as direct traffic to your site. because only a certain % will click through via the sig link to see your site.

Having said that, having your site at #1 and your EZA article at #2 can't be bad can it?

Unless you are trying to rank #1 #2 and #3 with your main site.

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morsh

15 years ago

hopely It's not, I'm doing EZA right now

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theemperor 15 years ago

Originally Posted by morsh

hopely It's not, I'm doing EZA right now

Don't worry - I say it unlikely that it will die soon, and it is certainly not dead. My views per article per month tend to increase long term.
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Terry Hatfield

15 years ago

OK, maybe I am going crazy! Am I the only one who see it?

I checked about 100 keywords that my sites, not articles, are ranking for. And on almost every keywords all the ezinearticles(other peoples not mine) articles have been removed from page one and most are on like page 3 now?

It looks like an algorithm change of some sort and ezinearticles is being devalued!!!

It isn't just a normal dance, all the ezinearticles on the 100 or so keywords I checked are penalized.

This is for dozens of niches, not just one niche. Many of the articles that are gone from page one where on page one for years literally without budging.

Not only articles that have a lot of back links but ones that have no back links also.

I repeat, some kind of Google algorithm has occurred.

Please someone please tell me they see it too. lol.

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KatyaSenina 15 years ago

Originally Posted by Terry Hatfield

OK, maybe I am going crazy! Am I the only one who see it?

No you're not the only one. Like I said I see it too.

I was doing keyword research today for a few other small niches. It's crazy.
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MelanieandMiles

15 years ago

Originally Posted by Terry Hatfield

OK, maybe I am going crazy! Am I the only one who see it?

I repeat, some kind of Google algorithm has occurred.

Please someone please tell me they see it too. lol.

Thanks

We are experiencing some less-than-comfortable changes in our search rankings for ezinearticles. Articles that were published as recently as last week and sitting on the #1 spot last night have completely disappeared from the search rankings. I've noticed at least a dozen or two examples of this from our personal efforts.

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Tony X

15 years ago

Originally Posted by Terry Hatfield

OK, maybe I am going crazy! Am I the only one who see it?

I checked about 100 keywords that my sites, not articles, are ranking for. And on almost every keywords all the ezinearticles(other peoples not mine) articles have been removed from page one and most are on like page 3 now?

It looks like an algorithm change of some sort and ezinearticles is being devalued!!!

It isn't just a normal dance, all the ezinearticles on the 100 or so keywords I checked are penalized.

This is for dozens of niches, not just one niche. Many of the articles that are gone from page one where on page one for years literally without budging.

Not only articles that have a lot of back links but ones that have no back links also.

I repeat, some kind of Google algorithm has occurred.

Please someone please tell me they see it too. lol.

Thanks

I started noticing this yesterday. It's not just EZA. Hubpages and other directories are also decreasing in the serps.

I had a hub that ranked number 1 for about 2 years. It dropped to number 3 and my site took over the number 1 spot.

I've also noticed it with a lot of other articles that I had.

The good thing about this is... I've noticed a lot of upward movement on my sites.

I think google is putting less emphasis on the article directories now or something.

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pdrs

15 years ago

Yes, I noticed this as well, there was definitely a change in rankings a few days ago for a lot of different things. A lot of my ezines were dumped down to page 2 territory after they'd been sitting on page 1 for months and months quite steady

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inter123 15 years ago

ehow / Demand Media are probably not too fussed because they sold their business recently by floating it on the stock exchange. Demand Media seem to have a habit of selling parts of their empire at the right time.

Originally Posted by cosmokid

Google warned us recently that they would be coming down hard on "content farms." I think ehow/On Demand Media is probably pooping bricks right now.
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x3xsolxdierx3x

15 years ago

Originally Posted by Terry Hatfield

I was checking through about a 100 0f my keywords. I noticed something really strange. Many of the ezinearticles articles that used to be ranking on the same search results pages as my keywords are either gone or showing up at the bottom of the listings.

Anyone noticed any of their ezinearticle articles drop in ranking?

P.S. I think articlesbase may of taken a hit also.

The question is: Why do you think this is?

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Jason Perez O'Connor

15 years ago

Articles that ranked before that are now lowering in rank has nothing to do with EZA or the Articles taking a hit. A lot of those Articles are very old and probably have no work done to them anymore. No backlinks and re-editing so eventually it gets beaten out by others building links for that keyword and Google notices this.

Rankings don't last for ever, you have to continually blast the domain with backlinks over time.

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MarksWineClub

15 years ago

Squidoo has been dead for a couple of years now, hasn't it?

That being said, isn't it a good sign long term if an article written in the course of 5 minutes no longer ranks highly? Don't we all want our money sites to rank and not our articles?

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charto911

15 years ago

These article directories end up being better used as sources to build quality back links for your site rather than to blow it up and having it outrank your site. I have actually had Buzzle Articles that outranked my clients site initially but then drop off very hard. None the less the quality article sites are still some of the best back links to build out in my opinion.

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Mike Anthony

15 years ago

Alexa good point. I wrote a blog post about this awhile back. It always was a losing strategy to try and rank an article directory rather than your site. Simple maths. the conversion rate through your link means you were more helping the article directory get traffic than you were yourself. Even if you were getting a 25% click through traffic on a 20,000 search term in say spot three on Google you were better off ranking your own site for a much smaller per month search term.

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Kurt

15 years ago

I won't speak specifically to EZA's rankings and other article directories, but Google has hinted for years that it intended to so something about article directories, as the content is often just spam.

Plus, Google was built on the concept of links being a "vote" for the quality of a site. However, with all the automated link programs now on the market, plus all the various linking strategies available, links really aren't that great an indicator of the quality of the content, but rather who has blasted Scrapebox or Xrummer the most.

Google is shifting to what I called "People Rank" many years ago, which is how REAL people act while on a page.

Does a link in the SERPS get more clicks than others?

How long are they on your page? Or do they visit your site and click back to the SERPs after just 5 seconds?

How deep do they click through your site?

How far down the page do they scroll?

How fast do they scroll?

And to the people that think it's easy to game with with proxies, etc, they forget about the Googlebar, which makes it very easy to track these activities and more, and very hard to game.

I'm not saying links are dead and "People Rank" is the only consideration. I'm saying that all 3 (including on page) are now factors. And as People Rank increases in use, things like linking and authority will decrease in importance...

Now toss in other factors like geo targeting, personal search history and others, there is no "one top 10 SERPs", there's many.

Now, there's even rumors that Google is using the "expertise" level of a page vs. the query. For example, if a search using advanced-level language and technical terms, it will return more academic type results. Use more simple language and Google will return pages using more basic words and language.

This means if you are targeting a certain demographic with your SEO efforts, it would be wise to use the language your demographic also uses. If you are targeting teens, don't use words a rocket scientist would use.

Plus, I believe Google has always used different "algos" for different searches. Highly popular searches such as "computers" would rely heavily on linking criteria, where as extreme long-tail searches like "fix a computer with a bad mother board" rely more on "on the page" factors.

My point is this: There are a ton of variables and the variables will constantly change and evolve. Therefore, the best, long-term SEO strategy is not to have just one strategy, but many.

And the best way to over-come many variables is to have tons of content, in tons of places, uses as many REASONABLE strategies as possible. Create some sites and link heavily. Create other sites and concentrate on "People Rank" by creating high quality content, etc.

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Jordan Kovats

15 years ago

Maybe this isn't as complex as we are trying to make it. If I am searching for "dog Training", really, why whould I be lead to an article site that hosts articles about 'dog training'? Why not be just led to a SITE that specializes in 'dog training'.

If I want 'articles', then I should be led to article sites, because in essence, articles sites can't be good at everything, except for hosting large volumes of articles on various topics.

To me, the assumption the search results are making, is that every search query, the user wants a DIY answer, so they were led to 'how to sites'. Reality is, maybe not everyone wants to Do It Themselves, and some people just want to know where they can go to get there Dog trained, period.

Maybe Google is slowly but surely putting article directories where they really belong. Let's face it, before Google and the internet, if I wanted to figure out how to do something, I bought a book, or went to the library or asked someone. Maybe now, if I want to figure something out, it's just a given I go search an article directory, or go to Youtube for a how to video.

I wonder if these observations of late have anything to do with Larry Page taking over the helm? I can see it now, his first day on the job, "Good morning everyone, for 10 years, you have let search results go to pot...time for a change". I wouldn't be surprised in the least if he is behind these subtle, but noticeable changes.

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wpgwalt

15 years ago

Yea if you're abusing the system and filling it up with a bunch of Crap Google will definitely catch on

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VOnline

15 years ago

Alexa has good points.
You definitely want your own site to place higher than all the articles you have written and submitted for that keyword.

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yuxx109

15 years ago

Does this mean the link wheels which built on many social network sites and article sites have been devalued, too? I think senuke and AMR will become useless from now if such sites have been devalued.

what is the new effective way to build backlinks?

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yukon

Banned 15 years ago

Why would anyone post an article & promote that article on an external site, knowingly not get traffic and a PR0 backlink?

Might as well not write an article, get a profile backlink, then double backlink multiple low PR0 profile backlinks from a single high PR backlink.

Guaranteed to get indexed, with way less work.

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warrior0

15 years ago

Definitely slapped. Especially those EZAs with few or highly undiversified backlinks. Also seeing some other web 2 being tossed around. Well, time to brush up web 1 strategies, baby =)

PS Just my 5 cents about EZA and web 2 in general. They rank much faster and higher from the same backlink juice than web 1 (your own domains). It is a fact. But things might be changing now. Back to black? As you wish, baby Google. =)

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TheAnnoyingOrange

15 years ago

Originally Posted by warrior0

Definitely slapped. Especially those EZAs with few or highly undiversified backlinks. Also seeing some other web 2 being tossed around. Well, time to brush up web 1 strategies, baby =)

PS Just my 5 cents about EZA and web 2 in general. They rank much faster and higher from the same backlink juice than web 1 (your own domains). It is a fact. But things might be changing now. Back to black? As you wish, baby Google. =)

But it's not logical to get EZA ranked higher than your own website for the keywords you're targeting.

You're doing all the hard work just to get ranked and then "they" come in and take most of the traffic, getting clicks on their ads and displaying more relevant articles below.

Sure, it may be quicker to get an article in EZA ranked in the top 10 for a low-competition keyword, but you will be paying the price in the near future when you realise that with just a little effort (yes, it actually requires work) you could have had the same article on a website that YOU own ranking highly.

Think about it this way - if you spent all your time writing articles for EZA and getting them ranked in google what would happen if one day EzineArticles, or whichever article directory you use, decides to shut down? All the months/years of effort you just put into a business that's not your own has just gone down the drain and you are left with no income.

EzineArticles is NOT dead - warriors need to understand how to harness the real power of article marketing.
PROTIP: EZA is not used for ranking

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Barry Unruh

15 years ago

Originally Posted by yukon

Why would anyone post an article & promote that article on an external site, knowingly not get traffic and a PR0 backlink?

This might be 100% contrary to what you will find me saying somewhere else, but wouldn't you post valuable content on your Facebook Fan Page and promote it? I know I would.

It has something to do with a half billion people hunting around on that site actively......

But, I would NOT do it for an article directory, because there is a very limited audience there.

It all comes back to the one most important criteria of all. WHERE ARE YOUR READERS AND HOW CAN YOU PUT CONTENT IN FRONT OF THEM?

In my experience, most of them are on Facebook, YouTube, Google, and on their favorite blogs or information sites. (I consider Forums to be information sites, or sometimes disinformation sites.) Since I choose to only chase Google Rankings for my own sites, that leaves Facebook, YouTube, and blogs with traffic in my niche as the other sites I want to make sure I have content on.

Which comes back to this point...there are places you do want your content ranked highly, even if you do not own the property. I want my content ranked highly on someone else's high value blog because it contributes to my pen name becoming recognized as an authority in the niche. For the same reason, I want my YouTube and Facebook material to rank highly on Google, YouTube, and Facebook searches.

Think about this factor....Do you go to your favorite guru's site because you find their information in a search, or because you recognize their name and want to be part of their following?

Start considering your content placement upon where it will give you the most value instead of what Google thinks about it.

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TheAnnoyingOrange

15 years ago

Originally Posted by Barry Unruh

Think about this factor....Do you go to your favorite guru's site because you find their information in a search, or because you recognize their name and want to be part of their following?

When I search for information on a particular niche (NOTE: I am talking about using SE's as an example) I tend to find the same author writing different articles that are ranking in the SE's (for similar keywords) so they must be doing something correctly. I do find their information in a search and once I see that their article is full of useful content then I explore their website further and soak up more information.

Having a name attached to that website/article will allow me to search for that 'guru' once again when I am in need for similar information because I found their former work credible.

So for me it logically flows like this: Search for Content > Find quality content > Go to their website with more content > Gained trust in a 'guru/author' > Higher chance I will go back to seek out more information.

The same should happen when finding information on a forum for example. Many people on this forum seek out the 'experts' for particular marketing methods because they delivered valuable content that THEN projected them into guru status.

People can only be part of a 'guru's following' when the author has been established as a guru... and how does that come about? With quality content and building trust.

EDIT: Allowing your articles to be published on facebook, article directories or any other places is perfectly fine and I am all for that - it is syndication at it's best. I am against trying to build links to other sites that are not yours, purely because your potential customers will have to take an extra step or two just to get onto your website which will not be worth the hassle and loss of potential income.

Forums/facebook are good places to get your content recognized because they already have the traffic just waiting to soak up information (as you pointed out). They don't require people to use the SE's to find information and therefore don't require time wasted on building backlinks to other sites.

Syndication is awesome - but I think this thread is directly more towards Article Directories and SE's.

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MelanieandMiles

15 years ago

Official GoogleBlog post from about 4 hours ago : Official Google Blog: Finding more high-quality sites in search

I'm surprised less people are talking about this significant algorithm change.

Edit:
Here's another take http://searchengineland.com/google-f...m-update-66071

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tamarindcandy

15 years ago

Originally Posted by MelanieandMiles

Official GoogleBlog post from about 4 hours ago : Official Google Blog: Finding more high-quality sites in search

I'm surprised less people are talking about this significant algorithm change.

Edit:
Here's another take Google Forecloses On Content Farms With “Farmer” Algorithm Update

Beat me to it, I was about to post this--I guess not too many people here read tech blogs? Google's been going after content farms for a while now, so this is no surprise; sites like ezinearticles et al are probably being flagged like lights on a Christmas tree. Even if we move on to other directories, those probably will be flagged and flushed out of search results soon too.

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DireStraits

15 years ago

Originally Posted by tamarindcandy

Beat me to it, I was about to post this--I guess not too many people here read tech blogs? Google's been going after content farms for a while now, so this is no surprise; sites like ezinearticles et al are probably being flagged like lights on a Christmas tree. Even if we move on to other directories, those probably will be flagged and flushed out of search results soon too.

Maybe; maybe not.

Whatever happens, I bet a lot of people are getting progressively more worried about this, and are beginning to wish they'd actually built up their own websites, instead of other people's over which they have no control ...

... especially those (perhaps relatively few) people who actually submit good, unique content to article directories like EZA, and go out of their way to backlink it.

Talk about backwards. :rolleyes:

Your articles may be decent; thousands more aren't. And whilst there may be some debate other whether Google would ever consider significantly penalising / dropping the rankings of a high-earning, premium AdSense publisher like EZA, I for one wouldn't like to take the chance.

So I'll say it again:

BUILD, BACKLINK, RANK AND PROMOTE YOUR OWN FLAMIN' SITES;
NOT SOMEONE ELSE'S OVER WHICH YOU HAVE NO CONTROL OF THE
GENERAL OPERATIONAL PRACTICE AND OVERALL QUALITY OF CONTENT.

(I'm referring to no-one in particular here - just in a general sense, to anyone for whom this is applicable.)

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kevintan

15 years ago

So you're saying not to layer links using Web 2.0 properties? A lot of my rankings haven't really been affected simply because I wasn't counting on any of my EZA articles to be ranking high (of course I was pushing my blog to move up). But I've also used AMR to split link submission between EZA and my blog just to layer it. What you're suggesting is to link everything right to my blog?

My method was to post on my blog originally, post on EZA linking to blog, and AMR to both EZA and blog.

Thoughts?

Originally Posted by DireStraits

Maybe; maybe not.

Whatever happens, I bet a lot of people are getting progressively more worried about this, and are beginning to wish they'd actually built up their own websites, instead of other people's over which they have no control ...

... especially those (perhaps relatively few) people who actually submit good, unique content to article directories like EZA, and go out of their way to backlink it.

Talk about backwards. :rolleyes:

Your articles may be decent; thousands more aren't. And whilst there may be some debate other whether Google would ever consider significantly penalising / dropping the rankings of a high-earning, premium AdSense publisher like EZA, I for one wouldn't like to take the chance.

So I'll say it again:

BUILD, BACKLINK, RANK AND PROMOTE YOUR OWN FLAMIN' SITES;
NOT SOMEONE ELSE'S OVER WHICH YOU HAVE NO CONTROL OF THE
GENERAL OPERATIONAL PRACTICE AND OVERALL QUALITY OF CONTENT.

(I'm referring to no-one in particular here - just in a general sense, to anyone for whom this is applicable.)

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yukon

Banned 15 years ago

Originally Posted by Barry Unruh

This might be 100% contrary to what you will find me saying somewhere else, but wouldn't you post valuable content on your Facebook Fan Page and promote it? I know I would.

No I wouldn't post valuable content on a site I didn't own, your just making money for someone you don't know.

I've been driving forum traffic in my niche for a few years to my own sites, I post a simple content description (no articles) & a link, done!

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TheAnnoyingOrange

15 years ago

Why on earth would you want your EZA page to rank on google?

Sure it can be an added bonus, but by adding backlinks to those articles you are only wasting your own time and further contributing to making EzineArticles money.

Build up your own website/s - do the SEO work for the content listed on your website!

Syndication is the main objective you should have for all articles that reach article directory sites. A well syndicated article will gather far more targeted viewers, help with the branding of your name and website and also add credibility to your name.

Oh well - your competitors will continue to produce quality articles (or information of any sort) while you waste time worrying about trivial matters.

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songjiekun

15 years ago

Originally Posted by TheAnnoyingOrange

Why on earth would you want your EZA page to rank on google?

if you need to build 1000 links and wait half year to push your own site to the 1-3 spot on the google result of your keyword,then you only need to build maybe 500 links and wait 2 months to push EZA page to rank on the #1 spot.

but it seems this trick has dead.

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TheAnnoyingOrange

15 years ago

Originally Posted by songjiekun

if you need to build 1000 links and wait half year to push your own site to the 1-3 spot on the google result of your keyword,then you only need to build maybe 500 links and wait 2 months to push EZA page to rank on the #1 spot.

but it seems this trick has dead.

Nobody said that it was ever going to be easy (depending on the competition for the keyword you are targeting).

Understand that it will become even harder to outrank your EZ article once you build your '500 backlinks' to it.

Why risk losing potential profit to EZA when all you needed to do was put in some extra work?

In essence - you will have missed an opportunity to greatly profit from your hard work in the longer term rather than having a short-term vision and attempting to make a quick buck.

As you build up your website you will tend to notice that it takes less and less effort to get your articles ranked (note: dependent on your competition).

So which do you want? A long-term income with some sort of stability or are you just trying to make a quick buck hoping that maybe what the OP has suggested would never happen?

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warrior0

15 years ago

Originally Posted by TheAnnoyingOrange

Nobody said that it was ever going to be easy (depending on the competition for the keyword you are targeting).

Understand that it will become even harder to outrank your EZ article once you build your '500 backlinks' to it.

Why risk losing potential profit to EZA when all you needed to do was put in some extra work?

In essence - you will have missed an opportunity to greatly profit from your hard work in the longer term rather than having a short-term vision and attempting to make a quick buck.

As you build up your website you will tend to notice that it takes less and less effort to get your articles ranked (note: dependent on your competition).

So which do you want? A long-term income with some sort of stability or are you just trying to make a quick buck hoping that maybe what the OP has suggested would never happen?

Dear Orange, you make good points and I totally agree BUT web1 are more sensitive to spam, purchased links, etc. web1 can catch -60 penalty easily (thin affiliate site and you got it!). You have to create a landing page with a few pages at least. Affiliate redirects is another issue with web 1. etc. etc. web 2 is much less sensitive to all these issues. That's why. But as I said you are right but we are talking not about a little extra work we are talking about a LOT extra work for web1.

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TheAnnoyingOrange

15 years ago

Originally Posted by warrior0

Dear Orange, you make good points and I totally agree BUT web1 are more sensitive to spam, purchased links, etc. web1 can catch -60 penalty easily (thin affiliate site and you got it!). You have to create a landing page with a few pages at least. Affiliate redirects is another issue with web 1. etc. etc. web 2 is much less sensitive to all these issues. That's why. But as I said you are right but we are talking not about a little extra work we are talking about a LOT extra work for web1.

I don't quite understand what you're saying but I'll do my best to respond.

You assume it is a lot of extra work but what exactly are you basing that on? If you work hard now you will reap the rewards later on.

You will want to create more than just a one-page site if you want to stand any chance of making money or being able to rank efficiently on the SE's. You should have a keyword list of 10-20 main keywords you want to rank for and then extras that are relevant to your niche. You should be aiming to produce a quality article for each keyword that will educate your readers.

I don't understand what you mean about the '-60 penalty' but if you're worried about 'paid links' then don't buy them. Affiliate redirects I also don't understand what you mean - EZA don't allow direct linking and you shouldn't be redirecting through a .info domain anyway - you should be trying to pre-sell and build a list if you want to efficiently promote your products.

Spam can be eliminated with wordpress - either disable comments, use akismet to moderate comments or moderate comments manually.

Just remember that you should be looking at SEO/article marketing as a long-term strategy to profit from.

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gearmonkey

15 years ago

Yup, HUGE Google change and it will effect those article marketers. I just started article marketing about 4 weeks ago and my SERPs on the landing page increased dramatically.

For my blog/review site, last night around this time I had approx 1,700 visitors (finished the day at 3,300). Tonight I only have 132 visits (and will finish the day at around 600-700)

Funny part is, my content is 100% unique and well written, seems I should be the one benefiting from this change.

I had hostgator server issues today (my servers went down for about 3 hours), so I thought my content got temporally moved down... looks like it might be this change.

Another scary change google is making, that likely wont work, is Google Block list
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/d...aogikpmpbdcdef

-that opens up for mass abuse. Only a matter of time for a software to be built to mass block your competitors.

This is probably the biggest and most significant Google change in 7 years. I am surprised more people are talking about this.

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CatherineC

Banned 15 years ago

OP turned out to be absolutely correct, google just announed their largest search impact algo change in the last five years on their blog.

Affects 11.8% of "all" searches, which for them is massive. The normal rate of algo change impact is usually 1-2% tops.

Massive SERP declines across the board for article marketers who even had high pr page ranks due to age and quality backlinking from 2004.

Articles for backlinks AND articles for long term seo-based marketing are dead.

Bum marketing officially died 2-24-2011. Woo-hoo and good riddance.

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spectrecom

15 years ago

Originally Posted by Terry Hatfield

I was checking through about a 100 0f my keywords. I noticed something really strange. Many of the ezinearticles articles that used to be ranking on the same search results pages as my keywords are either gone or showing up at the bottom of the listings.

Anyone noticed any of their ezinearticle articles drop in ranking?

P.S. I think articlesbase may of taken a hit also.

I've noticed something similar too. My articles no longer appear as prominently as they used, but it may be because of their age.

I'd say that it's probably still worth doing, just for the backlinks.

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xtremeux

15 years ago

If one article submit in more than one directory (here other than ezinearticles.com), then chances are high for ranking drop-down. Google has updated spam algo and observes copy content (dump content for the sake of ads and affiliates) as well page download time. Here, you should investigate if your article may submit in more than one site.

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Ezinearticles is dead! So are the other article sites.

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