Value of back links from content aggregator sites

How good/bad are links from eHow, Associated Content, & similar sites

[Copeland]

I'm curious what the community thinks of the value of obtaining links by submitting articles to content aggregator sites like eHow, Associated Content, Squidoo, Article Alley, etc etc etc. Of course they aren't all equal and this isn't intended to be a referendum on any specific site. I'm just curious what this community thinks of this type of link generation in general.

Does Google treat backlinks from sites like these differently than they do other sites? That is, because a big attraction to submitting articles to these sites is getting the inbound link, does Google perhaps devalue links from these channels? Or perhaps, one might take the alternate theory that because these sites have submission guidelines and are "vetted" Google could in theory value them more?

What are your thoughts about these content submission sites as part of a link development strategy?

[wheel]

If you hang out with people that have cooties, you are likely to get cooties yourself.

And that's all I have to say about that.

[wheel]

I guess I do have one other thing to say. I"ve no idea if specific article sites pass link juice or not. I wouldn't worry about figuring it out either because it will likely vary from site to site.

What I would be worried about is getting backlinks from the same place that every other low end self taught SEO gets their links from for every single site they set up. Not to pick on Squidoo, but does anyone at all other than SEO contribute articles there? Haven't been there in a long time, but I'm guessing not.

So my speculation is (no facts, just practices) that if I was Google, I'd use outbound links from Squidoo, not as a benefit, but as an indicator that you're doing SEO. Or perhaps alternatively if you have a lot of links from the same places that some nasty low end sites do, that maybe your site is also low end. Which brings me back to my point about cooties.

But that's me being suspicious. I suspect that currently these low end links count for not very much. They may give you a tiny oomph, but not enough to matter unless you do it on a grand scale, and doing that has it's own potential problems.

[serenoo]

you could say the same thing about directories. Persons that submit their website to directories are doing SEO. Right Wheel?

[wheel]

you could say the same thing about directories. Persons that submit their website to directories are doing SEO. Right Wheel?

You could say the same thing about *some* directories. And I avoid those directories for the same reason.

[serenoo]

What are the directories you can submit your website without google think: "hey you are a seo"?

[martinibuster]

What are the directories you can submit your website without google think: "hey you are a seo"?

I don't personally believe that Google targets directories for deprecation. That is just my opinion, I could be wrong. But, the way I see it, all any search engine has to do is submit a directory's backlink profile to the same scrutiny any other site undergoes and any deprecation will be a result of the same checks/filters already in place.

To answer your question, as wheel mentioned, some sites have cooties. So to figure out what sites to submit to, analyze the directory for backlink nonsense the same as you would for any other site.

Good luck,
;)

mb

[Rosalind]

What are the directories you can submit your website without google think: "hey you are a seo"?

Better directories will add sites even if nobody suggests them via their forms. Lower-quality ones may start out with a seed set copied from elsewhere. So I don't think this is something you should sweat if you're submitting your site on a small scale.

You can tell the directories with cooties just by looking at their listings. Ask yourself if they're on-topic, quality, and likely to be useful to visitors. Should the search engines count those links?

[aristotle]

Some people say that backlinks can't hurt your site, no matter where they come from, because a competitor might have created them. But I wonder if this is really true.