Article Submission Old Hat or Still Good hat?
-
I have always used article submission sites such as ezine, article snatch etc... I have always seen the big ones as a good way of getting relevant content out into the internet network with the bonus of building quality links back.
However I have now been reading a lot of conflicting information, since the latest update from Google that even an article being republished multiple times around the net will wipe out the positive impact of the article and bring no SEO benefit.
I wanted to get feedback from the SEOmoz community to see if you now feel this is a pointless exercise and we should now be even more careful as to where our content is published.
-
Thanks for all the feedback I think you are right, I think the best strategy is to write on sites which fit your requirements. You are focusing on people rather than links then, this should increase click through and potentially improve your rankings.
-
Thanks for all the feedback I think you are right, I think the best strategy is to write on sites which fit your requirements. You are focusing on people rather than links then, this should increase click through and potentially improve your rankings.
-
I agree with Russ and Agents, it's an old hat trick and there's always the opportunity that Google could take a swing at you and claim you're over optimizing your website.
If you're producing good content, I would say maybe you should reach out and do some guest blogging.
-
Article Submission was a good tactic years ago but I think that the recent Google updates have limited their effect on getting good rankings. That doesn't mean that it can't work. Some folks are still doing it and have observed that article submission works sometimes for a few months. This tactic sometimes work in the short-term but an algorithm change can wipe your rankings achieved through submitting an article to a bunch of article directories, article portals, article resource sites, etc... Then, there's the issue of duplicate content and the submission sites can essentially cannibalize the traffic that you could have earned.
Google is getting smarter about content analysis so the classic or traditional forms of article submission are fast becoming old hat. We should now focus on real authentic alternatives that can get readership and trust over to our site.
In recent months, I have been focusing on guest blogging as a way to help build up my company's brand, earn recognition, and perhaps get some quality great links back to my sites. The time i used to spend on traditional forms of article submission are now being redirected into doing something authentic.
-
The biggest concern with these sites is that their distribution network can easily create anchor text over optimization penalties. If you promote an article on these sites and use manipulated anchor text, there is the possibility that by the end of the day you could have several hundred sites all with the exact same anchor text pointing to you. In a post-penguin SEO environment, this is not a good thing.
I can't see a strong argument against using these sites if you are creating good content and then using your brand or your actual name as the link, but I would be careful with targeted anchor text.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Unsolved Are links from staff profile pages no longer good for SEO?
Hey there, We run a small site that lists lawyers and we have an opportunity to ask the lawyers to display a 'badge' on their own website's staff page, linked back to the page on our site that they are listed on. Initially I thought this would be good link building (i.e. the lawyer's own staff/profile pages on their website linking to our site where they are listed = a highly relevant link). I was less concerned about the authority of the law firm's sites, though these will range from sometimes low-ish to medium. I just assumed that Google would see the value in the lawyer wanting to link to our site where they are listed. However, our SEO has said that these days Google doesn't give much/any value to these types of links from individual staff pages. His advice was to try and get the badge added to one of their service pages (or their About page) which will be unlikely as the badge is person-specific. I thought I'd ask if this was everyone else's experience regarding Google not valuing links from individual staff pages? Thanks for you help 🙂
Link Building | | Andy-H0 -
Requesting udpate's from old domain to new domain
Hey guys, We had a domain change three years ago now which was redirected. Many of the old domains have not been updated to the new domain. The redirect is in place. I'm just wondering if there would it be a worthwhile exercise to reach out to sites to request an update of the URL link from an SEO perspective? Many thanks Rob
Link Building | | Griffith0 -
Linkbuild on 'new' or 'old' url?
Hi, I'm trying to rank for a keyword. For the last year and 4 months the rank hasn't changed much. It stays on the 3th page. Within this period the rank has first gone down and then up. Three months ago I started doing linkbuilding for the url the keyword was linked to. This is a main category page. Lately, I don't know when exactly I've discovered that the keyword is ranking for a different url, a product category of these items for 1 brand. I'm wondering if it's wise to shift my focus and start using the 'new' url for linkbuilding? The 'old' url isn't in the top 100 for the keyword. However, if you search for the url in Google, it shows up. And, if I'm advised to shift my focus to the 'new' url, is it advisable to go back and change the backlinks to the 'new' url? A question related to the above one, is there another tool like Open Site Explorer which shows you an overview of the backlinks directing to a deeplink? Like MajestickSEO. I'm trying to get the most extensive overview possible. Thanks in advance.
Link Building | | anubis20 -
What else still works (other than awesome content)
Hey guys, I'm sorta at my wits end here. I know that some link building methods (such as private blog networks) used to work before the latest Google update (Penguin 2.1), but I have evidence that it's not working any more. At least not with the private blog networks that I used. So, my question is if there's a sure fire way to quickly and efficiently build back links nowadays? Do private blog networks still work for you? If so, which ones? If not, what do you use instead?
Link Building | | VinceWicks0 -
Are Links from an article site with a pr5 valuable when the article page itself has no PR
This article site has a PR5 my article with author bio here, has no PR http://goarticles.com/article/A-Guide-to-an-At-Home-Spray-on-Tan/6531453/ Is this type of link of any value ? Thank you in advance, Joe
Link Building | | jlane90 -
Backlink reports in OSE, the good and the bad!
Hi all Mozers, I have a couple of questions re the backlink reports in Open Site Explorer. In the introductory video Rand suggests that you can indentify backlinks that are a) Having a positive effect, and b) Having a negative effect on SEO campaigns. Do you identify such links using the domain/page authority of the linking page? Also, we know we have more links than OSE is reporting, does this mean that the links that are not reported are not helping our SEO campaign? Many thanks in advance, much appreciated. Lee
Link Building | | Webpresence0 -
Best Relevant Directory submission software
Hi Guys, Is there any really good relevant directory sumbission software out there?? Or am I just wishing for too much here! There must be a good sodtware tools out there where I can submit my property website to relvant property related directories with a jit of a button! Any help of poing me in the right direction would be very helpful! Thanks! G
Link Building | | GAZ090 -
Blog Roll Links - A good or bad thing ?
I Use Blog roll links all the time but recently they seem to be having a lower effect on listings. Is there a limit on Blog roll links you place on a blog. Internal blog roll links and external blog roll links. Also do you rename your blog roll to something such as popular links like we do ?
Link Building | | onlinemediadirect1