subject: Is Article Marketing On The Way Out? [print this page] Is Article Marketing On The Way Out? Is Article Marketing On The Way Out?
Recently, with Google's new algorithm change, there seems to be a minor scare going around the internet that article marketing is going to lose its appeal and will basically take a backseat to other more lucrative ways of generating traffic and gaining backlinks. True, some of the top article directories have taken a big hit, with Ezine articles reporting something like a thirty-five percent drop in traffic, leaving them scrambling to adjust. This no doubt, has caused them to tighten the reins on the quality of articles that get submitted.
But many others have taken it with a grain of salt, feeling that things will remain just as they always have, and haven't really changed their strategy besides possibly submitting to different article directories, or perhaps submitting to fewer of them. While I do my share of article marketing, it has never been a top priority of mine to blast out thousands of spun articles to different directories. Some people swear by these article spinners, and wouldn't dream about doing anything else. That's fine if that works for them, I am not here to knock anyone's strategy.
The problem that I see here, is that Google's top priority is to deliver the most relevant search results to their users. Seriously though, I think this is a very good thing, because quality of content is becoming more important than ever. Don't skimp on the backlinks though, that is not what I am saying. This will still probably be the most important thing in your efforts of ranking for particular keywords. You can rank for any keyword you want if you get enough backlinks with that keyword in the anchor text, even though you might not even have that phrase anywhere on your page.
Something to be aware of though, is that if you only submit to the same couple of article directories, it won't look very natural in Google's eyes. So, if you are only building links to your website from the same few article directories, overtime you will probably notice the the benefits have become minimal. And although I can't tell you for certain that this is the case, it is a possibility.
I hope you don't think I am bashing article marketing or downplaying it, because I am not. Honestly this should play at least somewhat of a part in nearly anyone's marketing plan. I guess if a person already has a list of ten thousand subscribers it won't matter too much if they don't submit articles. But, not everyone has got to that point yet.
Websites need content, and the articles that you write will hopefully find their way to other peoples websites where they will be republished as syndicated content. In a perfect world, the website owner will keep all of your links intact, but sometimes this doesn't happen. If this is the case, unfortunately you won't see any benefit. It happens more than it should, so just move on and don't worry about it. But, when someone does pick up your article and plays by the rules and doesn't omit any links back to your site, it will be very beneficial for you.
Something to keep in mind about article marketing is that things are ever so slowly shifting towards video. This shouldn't be a big concern however, because there will always be people who prefer good old plain text. Plus, you simply can't print videos out onto paper and take them with you to view at a later time.
An important factor that needs to be taken into consideration when doing your article marketing is making sure that with each article, you are targeting a good keyword. The keywords you choose to target will make a big difference with regard to your results. Not only will you be writing content that is search engine friendly, you will need to write content that flows naturally and encourages the reader to continue reading. Often times, it will be a fine line that you will have to walk.
If you will be submitting your articles to any directories, and these articles are going to be on your site, make sure the search engines have indexed your pages before submitting them to places like Ezine, or Articlesbase, or wherever. You really don't want the content that you have submitted to other sites, to outrank your personal website.
Also, when deciding what keywords you will be targeting, keep in mind that some markets are much more saturated than others. For instance, the weight loss niche, the make money niche, and the acne niche are just ridiculously competitive. This means you will have to change up your game plan a bit if you intend to jump into this market by going after less competitive keywords. Thousands of people post articles with these highly competitive keywords in them everyday, making the chances of getting ranked high for any of these really low.
You could always start building backlinks to your article to improve its ranking, but truthfully this would just be silly. No sense in trying to increase an articles ranking when you could be increasing your own websites ranking.
I honestly think that article marketing will be around for quite some time. It is great for acquiring backlinks to your site, and they have a good chance of ranking decently, giving you a chance of gaining some solid targeted traffic, possibly for years to come. Here's the kicker though, if a site that has some authority in Google's eyes picks it up, you will get even more traffic as well as some very juicy backlinks from that site.
Sure, article marketing may not be what it once was, but it is still a very viable part of any campaign, and it should be for a while to come. If it plays a big role in your marketing game plan, then by all means keep at it. I don't think all the doom and gloom type people will be affected as much as they think.
However, if you have been thinking about branching out and trying some other venues of generating traffic or gaining backlinks, maybe now isn't such a bad time after all. It certainly wouldn't do anything to hurt. Who knows, maybe you will find that you are great at making videos and really enjoy it. I hear video is great for driving traffic.
