Do articles still work?

by 34 replies
39
I have been analyzing back link profiles of some of my competitors who are high in SERPs and most of their links are still coming from articles and curiously they rank high on anchor text in these various articles. So a little confused as I keep hearing that articles are dead after Penguin.
#search engine optimization #articles #work
  • I'm a bit confused about "links coming from articles" - where should they come from? How many possible content types are there?

    Who keeps saying that articles are dead? Is it just another sad article spinner who's lost the only trick he knows, or is there an argument there?
  • Contextual links are still very very good.

    Are these links coming from article directories, or from articles in blogs/websites?
  • Im guessing he means "article submission sites"
  • Article submission links is not dead. Write good articles and you will get rewarded. Don't get all the links from few article sites.
  • article submission sites are good but hard to get approved
    • [1] reply
    • Good article submission sites are good. If it's hard to get content approved, that's definitely a positive sign.
  • Yeah article submission still works. Though matt cutts said google doesnt give priority to these type of backlinks, but i have a client website whose traffic comes through articles.
  • Write for human and not for bot.

    Not until you get that right, you will be assuming article is dead.
    • [1] reply
    • Correct. Quality, human-readable content is important.
  • Of course, articles still work. If you have great contents on your site, that's the best way to increase traffic and get more readers and potential customers.
  • Blog posting is a best way to get links and also good for serp.
  • Thanks for the response. Articles are placed in both article directories and blog posts as specially created blogs and as guest blogs. The interesting thing is that most of them sound spun as grammar is pretty bad so it is apparent that they have hijacked someone else's article and re-purposed it.
  • Forget about "most of their links" and ask yourself where they are getting their "good" links from. They may have 90% article backlinks but if they also have several high authority, high trust links from other sources then you can bet that a large proportion of their rankings are coming about because of these.

    If they only have article and guest blog backlinks then what sort of competition are we talking for the keywords you are targeting? Not a great deal I would assume, in which case these low quality backlinks might be enough still.
  • Content Link Building is good always.....

    Creating Content is always King. But Marketing is Queen!


    It might be coming from some article sites who referred ur site or giving information about the sites like you .
    • [1] reply
    • So... Content Marketing is a drag queen? I find that definition oddly satisfying.
  • Is there anyone here used freearticlesubmission site? Or can anyone give a good site?
    • [1] reply
    • Yes article stills works for ranking. I would like to suggest you to write good content & unique content in the article.
  • Low quality articles submitted to low quality sites are DEAD!
  • Use only Authority Articles sites like "ezinearticles' and at the end put your simple website name with bio.
  • Do Article Directories give quality links?

    Can Cat's Fly?



    Eh, NO
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
  • Article directories are not really beneficial these days. I am not saying that the one rare syndication for ezines might not be beneficial, but if the piece is unique, it is better off on your site. I would try to find real guest posting opportunities before using article directories.
  • "Article directories" is way too broad.

    There are article directories where I would never want a link from and then there are article directories where I would absolutely love a link from.
  • i have single suggestion, every seo activity is working but you should focus on quality. if you submitting article for gaining backlinks than it will really hurt your site.
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
  • Yes of course... Article is one of the most influential back link source but condition is that you have to provide content rich articles instead of boring large articles. You have to insert relevant images or videos with it...
  • Google's Matt Cutts: Don't Use Article Directories For Link Building
    Should I build links using article directories? - YouTube
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
    • [1] reply
    • But, notice how he's referring to 'spammy content being sprayed and syndicated all over the internet'. If you could find an article site that lets you publish (but doesn't allow others to take the content for republication), then you might be able to get a relevant backlink. That's assuming you are taking time to post higher quality, longer length content that is substantial and useful to the reader.
  • I agree that good articles with original content posted on credible websites still make for good backlinks. Article spinning is NOT good. And if you are trying to guest post, be sure to go after quality sites; if the site is picky about who they accept posts from, it's usually a good sign. If you are thinking about posting to a site that will take any piece from anybody, I would recommend staying away.
  • Article submission is not dead. It is very effective to create a backlink of the website.
  • If your articles are as good as they should be then you wont need any free Google traffic. =)
  • Few days ago Matt Cutts told not to use article directories for link building. But I think article submission is not dead. If you can submit quality articles on high authority sites then you can generate quality backlinks. But stop doing article spinning.
    • [2] replies
    • I think maybe that would be good for a bit of indexing but not actually ranking per se. Ie to get your link in Google but not try and spam it to the first page.
      • [1] reply
    • Can you please stop spewing this nonsense? It's not that black and white.

      Cutts didn't say that you shouldn't be using article submission, but he said that Google is looking in another form of spam and that you should be mindful of what you're doing in that space. They're possibly killing the mass manufactured spun spam article business. If that's your backlink strategy you really shouldn't be moaning about it, because you should've known that the big foot from the sky was about to crush it eventually.

      There are dozens of legitimate aggregators and mass blogs that'll probably do just fine. Perhaps you can't post your crap article to any source that's worth anything, but that's for the best of the Google's search product.
  • Article for Backlinks - DEAD no more working. If anyone still ranking I will surprise or they are Partial Penalized or will be soon
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    Do articles still work?

    I have been analyzing back link profiles of some of my competitors who are high in SERPs and most of their links are still coming from articles and curiously they rank high on anchor text in these various articles. So a little confused as I keep hearing that articles are dead after Penguin.