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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

@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.

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

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

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

The question is: Why do you think this is?

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

[DELETED]

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.