I think pretty much the same thing with what he said in the video above:


Websites that syndicate content more than develop their own original high quality content aren't usually high quality sites (except of course authority news sites and some high authority niche sites, but this is just me and not Matt Cutts or the Google Search Quality Team); Syndicated content isn't usually high quality content (except of course breaking news content and some materials from globally and locally renowned niche experts or popular public figures, I think); Syndicated content doesn't usually add value to the experience of viewers on a site (except I assume the content items I mentioned earlier); "Duplicate" content (Matt Cutts' words in the video, not mine) and duplicate anchors won't be good for their SE results index because these aren't good indicators of authority or popularity, and so on...

You have to take what Matt says with a grain of salt and not just except it on face value.

It's just as important to notice what he doesn't/can't say as much as what he does.

What he says is that they are not 'huge fans' of article marketing. He doesn't actually answer the question about how backlinks are treated.

I'm not suggesting article marketing is a good strategy and flame me all you want but I think Matt is a great speaker. Can you imagine though if he said article marketing will or might, help you rank higher in the SERPs? He couldn't admit it even if it were/is true.

There is only one way to know what really works.


I believe he recommends GSA lately, purely as value for money. As long as unique content is manually spun, main anchor text doesn't exceed 17.3% and you don't have more the 37% forum profiles in tier 2.