Aug | 23 | 2007

The Fall of Article Directories

Posted by Guru as Linking, Marketing and Search Optimization, Promotion, SEO Features, Submissions, Syndication

One way you can promote your blog is by submitting articles to article directories. However, this method might not do much good for your blog or website.

A few years back submitting an article to ezinearticles or some other big article directory did wonders for ones page rank. However, anyone who’s been using this technique for some time now can attest to the fact that it has become less and less effective to the point that many have decided to stop submitting articles altogether.

The problem with article directories is pretty much the same problem that permeates the whole internet – mass produced (READ: spammy) substandard content. When article directories gained popularity many people took advantage of this and started mass producing (rewritten…or barely rewritten) articles and mass submitted those articles to directories. Of course it worked wonders and helped gain back links and a good page rank in the beginning. However, as what usually happens when there is no real quality control involved article directories soon became saturated with crappy articles that all sound alike. Original articles are very hard to come by and so that articles found via these directories dropped in value. What this meant for those who submitted articles was that people stopped looking at their articles as a valuable source of information with many even denigrating article directories. Search engines, which we all know put value in content originality and quality, stopped placing any value to links coming from article directories. In short, the glory days of article directories are over.

Comments (2)

2 Responses

Alex
25|Aug|2007

Very sad, but you are almost right here.. I run a big article firectory and each day I fight with substandard content submissions. The solution I see is to run only small niche article directory where you are an expert and can easily see low level content.
All the best,
Alex
http://www.wowarticlesonline.com
Guru
30|Aug|2007

Hi Alex. It is sad indeed. I do love the idea of article syndication after all. It is really sad how “pure capitalists” are ruining the web as a reliable information source. I have nothing against making money but when you dabble to much in gray areas and do not offer something of real value then the bottom falls sooner or later. I do hope your directory manages to adapt and get more quality submissions.

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