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
-
How do the powerful links of an old domain help my new domain?
I recently purchased a domain with over twenty years age, a few .gov links and A LOT of .edu links. Of course, the domain is relevant to my site's content. I'm hosting the domain on my shared server and have setup 301 redirects for each page that had external links pointing to it via the htaccess file within the domain's root directory. These 301 redirects, of course, point to my new domain, which is on a dedicated server. Specifically, they point to a directory on my new domain. I've also verified the purchased domain and my new domain on Google Search Console/Webmaster Tools. Finally, I've completed a google site change request for the old site to point to my new site. My questions: Should I also list my old domain on the dedicated server over the shared server or does it matter? Will the backlinks of the old site show up in my new site's links via Google's search console, Open Site Explorer, etc.? Will the backlinks of the old site improve the authority of my domain? Also, keep in mind that I have the 301 redirects pointing to a directory on my new site, not the root page of the new domain. Will the backlinks of the old site help my new domain's authority? In the eyes of Moz I've read, NO. I understand it's just a MOZ metric but from what I understand it also correlates with Google's actual 'authority' metric/method of giving value to a particular domain over another based on the backlinks. How exactly do the backlinks of the old domain benefit my new domain and is there a way to measure this/see the relationship? Thank you for any help you're willing to give!
Link Building | | ninel_P0 -
Self linking article
Every article on SearchEngineLand is self linked by it's title on H1 tag. I want to ask you if there is a SEO ranking benefit from it. I saw another sites that practice this tactic. Ex: http://searchengineland.com/forecast-google-lose-1-4-billion-pc-revenue-search-shifts-mobile-186504
Link Building | | fin0 -
Backlinks Redirected Temporarily (New to Old)
I have a website of which we are being forced to change the domain name and soon after give the control of the domain name to the corporate office. The corporate office will eventually put a new website up on it. We would like to build more backlinks without the threat of losing all of these backlinks to the corporate site. We were considering to start building backlinks to the new domain with temporary redirects to the old domain but have recently been advised against doing this (threat of Google looking down on this technique). Should we continue to build back links to the old domain, or should we 302 redirect the links to the old domain? Any advice is greatly appreciated!
Link Building | | wishmedia0 -
Our website has seen a steady decline in rankings over the past few months, is there any merit to paid bulk directory submission? Or could it potentially harm our campaign.
Our website has been experiencing a slow but steady decline in rankings despite our activity on social media platforms, is there any value in paying a large sum for bulk directory submission? Or will this only result in our overall website authority decreasing further due to unnatural links. Would really appreciate any help.
Link Building | | Peter.Huxley590 -
DMOZ submission
Has anyone had any experience submitting to DMOZ and waiting times. The category i've submitted to has only a few links (http://www.dmoz.org/Regional/Europe/United_Kingdom/England/London/Westminster/Arts_and_Entertainment/) Yet I submitted the site (www.capitalalist.com) over a month ago! Can anyone give examples of waiting times, or a way to perhaps get some feedback from DMOZ? Thanks in advance as always...
Link Building | | AdenBrands0 -
Where/should I post my press release/articles on my own website?
I have started a long-term article marketing campaign and press release distribution. I will have about 4 articles and press releases in total every month. Although the press releases will not be self-promotional, sometimes they will be talking about a certain product that we unveil. The question is, due to the high quality of these press releases, should I put them on my website as well as publish them on third party websites? If so, because they target a specific service/product which we already have a dedicated page on our website, wouldn't that put Google in the position of choosing between the two pages? I was thinking to put them on my blog and link internally from there with the keywords that I target on those pages as anchor text. The same question for articles. Any suggestions?
Link Building | | echo10 -
Is article spinning necessary?
Say I create my own original content for my website. If I want to build backlinks and promote to web 2.0 websites, do I need to spin my articles to submit to them or can I just send them a direct copy?
Link Building | | sleepmaster0 -
Is this directory good or spamy?
I was using open site explorer and one of our local competitors and in the top 5 of the SERP has a link in http://directory.askbee.net/submit-site-to-directory.html They want either a $1, $5 or a 3 way link to get your link in the directory. Do any of these help or would this directory be a waste of time. Thanks
Link Building | | mmaes0