is there link benefit in articles?

[moonlander]

Is there link juice in submitting articles with my author name having a link using my key term? Site such as articlesbase and ezine?

What about links from social media sites?

[Allen Graves]

ML,

I believe there is. In fact, I have proof that you do get some juice from article submission when you have appropriate link text pointing to your own site from appropriate directories.

But Google released a blog post a couple of weeks ago that said...in a nutshell...mass submission of articles won't help and you should try to publish your content on niche-related article directories.

Of course, if it is syndicated then you have no control where it ends up. But (at least right now) you should start off looking for some niche-related directories if you want to start article marketing.

I would also suggest using a couple of the big directories along with the niche-related sites.

Allen

[Robert Charlton]

I've always been in favor of unique articles tailored for sites that are willing to publish them.

Dupe copies of an article are unlikely to show up in the serps. I think they're also unlikely to pass link juice, though I haven't specifically tested this. A precise test would be difficult... but theory and observation suggests that links from duplicate content, as well as from duplicate context, are likely to be devalued.

In my experience, articles submitted as press releases, with anchor text and proper promotion, can produce excellent results if the sites that use your press releases rewrite them.

Re getting press release information published and featured in relevant publications, there's no substitute for personal contacts in whatever market/subject area you're in. This has long been true in the "real" world. That truth also hit the web a while back.

If you do have personal contacts, suggest that either they or you rewrite the articles so they'll be seen as unique.

[louieramos]

It can still have an impact and benefit if you dont mass submit it, it must also be relevant. If you can afford to have 1 unique article per high authority article directory thats how you can benefit most.

[Allen Graves]

I would have to disagree with that.

If I were going to write 10 unique articles and submit one to each site, then I would only get 30 backlinks. But if I submit all 10 to each site, then I get 300. If you spread your links around to a lot of different internal pages, this can do wonders.

If you use a different title at each directory, at first, you will probably see the same article ranking multiple times, but within a few days, Google's competition filter catches up and usually only one remains. But in those few days, you get more/extra organic traffic.

Also, you will be getting your articles in front of more people that syndicate them for newsletters, memberships, etc... Not everybody uses EZA, you know.

There are a few other reason that I will keep to myself right now, but given the choice, I would submit every article to all of the sites on my submission list...which does not only include article directories, of course.

Allen

[Doogle]

Hi Allen, would the other sites you submit to be sites like Twitter and blogs then I guess? Anything that could get the articles in front of more eyes.

[LostOne]

What's the consensus of using your actual name with these articles? Is there a footprint one should try to avoid? For instance my name is Charley Brown and I run charleybrownshoes.com. In the about us page it's clearly shown I run the site and my name is shown. I'd like to dabble in some article marketing with links and prefer to use my name but any problems with the relationship? Would the gorg look at this and consider it article spamming? I would limit the articles and it would not be mass submission. Perhaps 20 or 30 spread over 15 of the better sources out there.

[Allen Graves]

Doogle,

Not Twitter, but blogs and niche-related authority websites. And I'm not talking about comments either.

You want to be an authority, not a commenter!

Sometimes you have to do a little work to get them to let you write for them, but it pays off with just a few. Once you get the gigs, treat them like gold!

Allen

[Allen Graves]

Lost One,

I would think this would be perfectly fine. If someone questions you, you can just point them to your site showing them that this is your real name.

Unless, of course, your name is "Cialis Viagra" or something like that.

Allen

[Robert Charlton]

If I were going to write 10 unique articles and submit one to each site, then I would only get 30 backlinks. But if I submit all 10 to each site, then I get 300. If you spread your links around to a lot of different internal pages, this can do wonders....

I'm not sure where you get your numbers or exactly what examples they refer to, but it seems you're suggesting submitting 10 articles per site, with 30 article sites publishing your articles.

Not likely to look natural to Google, nor is it likely that these links will help you with organic rankings.

My emphasis below...

If you use a different title at each directory, at first, you will probably see the same article ranking multiple times, but within a few days, Google's competition filter catches up and usually only one remains. But in those few days, you get more/extra organic traffic.

It's more correctly called a duplication filter, and Google does not like duplicate content. They don't like short term links designed to boost your rankings either. They might even consider the technique to be spammy.

Hard to say in a few days time how much organic traffic you will have picked up. It's not likely to be much, and that's not the kind of traffic you will retain... particularly since those articles will get filtered out in a few days, as you apparently concede.

[travelin cat]

Here's a real world example of why article submissions can help your ranking:

A while ago, we performed a test on one of our sites. We created two pages on our site with very similar content. One page had keywords targeted like this: keyword-keyword-cityname1 and the other targeted keyword-keyword-cityname2. The keyword-keyword were identical, the only difference was the city name. On both pages we had a direct link from the main site navigation and we then linked to them from other pages on our site that related to each of them. So far, everything was absolutely identical about both pages except for the name of the city involved.

Next, we wrote an article about only one of the cities. We made sure the article was about the city in general and sprinkled in a few choice keyword references. The author box in the article had a direct link to that city page.

We monitored the search engine results closely for while. About 6 months in to the experiment, we checked our rankings and found that the page that had the article written for it was showing up as #1 when searching for its title, but the page that had no article written for it, but all else being equal, was showing up on the 4th page. This is a huge difference and verified our thoughts on article submissions.

[aristotle]

We monitored the search engine results closely for while. About 6 months in to the experiment, we checked our rankings and found that the page that had the article written for it was showing up as #1 when searching for its title, but the page that had no article written for it, but all else being equal, was showing up on the 4th page. This is a huge difference and verified our thoughts on article submissions.

I wonder if the kind of benefit you saw depends on where the article was published. If it was published on an authoritative site in the same niche, then I would expect a significant benefit. But if it was published on a general run-of-the-mill "article directory", I would be surprised if it produced much benefit.

[travelin cat]

aristotle, the article was published in only one place and just once. I guess you could call the place an article directory, it is one of the largest article publishers online and is not at all aligned with any one niche.

[aristotle]

Quote:
aristotle, the article was published in only one place and just once. I guess you could call the place an article directory, it is one of the largest article publishers online and is not at all aligned with any one niche

I'm surprised that you would get so much benefit from publishing in a "general" article directory. I tried it once, several years ago, in a leading directory of this type, and didn't see much effect, even though the article was republished by several other sites.

[creative craig]

Quality article link building works and works well. There are many article directories out there - you just need to place your articles wisely.

[Allen Graves]

Robert,

That's exactly what I am suggesting, although my suggestions are not derived from speculation, rather solid and consistent data from tens of thousands of articles...if not more.

And at the end of the day when the competition filter, or whatever you want to call it, has done its job, you may only have one of those articles INDEXED, but your branding and direct traffic rates are so much higher than if you'd have only submitted one single article to one single site.

So far, Google has no problem with it. It's called syndication and I don't know why you would think it would be unnatural. Articles are syndicated every single day on a massive scale.

Using mass submission programs is spammy, syndicating an article to 20 or 30 different niche-related sites is not, IMO, of course.

Allen

[FranticFish]

I've yet to use article directories, but I seek out niche blogs and other sites to publish content written with (or on behalf of) clients.

My approach is 'less is more' - trying to get featured on ranking sites. I've noticed near-immediate positive results from one article sometimes.