Are Article Directories a Waste of Time?
I mean - I've just never really understood what the hype around them is. Surely it's better to write good content for your own site than a website you have little control over optimising how likely it is to appear in search engines?
In the past you could argue that submitting tons of articles is going to do wonders for your backlinks. Right you are. But we're increasingly seeing that backlinks aren't as important as they used to be and that maybe you should be giving more attention to building social profiles than rewriting your web content.
By all means I may be missing something.. Thus my reason for posting this. But in currently writing for 3 of my own sites I'm just left thinking 'Really?'. Is even loading up an article directory going to be worth my time?
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Not only will your site get found with articles it also drive a good amount of traffic to your site. This is all free visitors.
Another good thing with articles is that when you publish them they are out there for a long time sending you free traffic.
Just to give you an example over at StreetArticles I have about 100 articles and I have received 50.000 + clicks to my websites. Not views visitors to my websites. The only reason I mention the number is that I want to show you that articles build traffic over time. Put a few articles out there each week and your free visitors from article directories can really benefit you.
This is one article directory... you can also submit to ezinearticles, isnare, sooper articles. 2.0 sites like hubpages and squidoo just to give you a few examples.
Article marketing builds over time and can be very powerful.
Veronica
I'd be interested to see how different those 100 articles are to your web sites content? Are you just rewriting old news or writing new content?
Always new content. Google doesn't like duplicate content and Street Articles will not approve a copied article.
Like Craig is saying always use unique content.
You can also use articles to "warm up" your audience so that when they do get to your site they know what they are looking for.
I just checked one of my keywords, the number one listing in Google is a Ezinearticle that I wrote and published in March 2010... so the content stay out there for a long time and it can rank really well.
I believe that writing articles in article directories does help for people finding your website. In fact, the article I just recently published in Street Articles had 22 views before I even realized it was published yesterday. So, although backlinks may not be as important they still bring people to your site as long as you write quality content that they want to click through to read more.
Writing for the article directories will get your site found. The articles will provide a boost in traffic to your site and bring in additional readers that may not see your site otherwise.
Hmmm.. I can kinda see where you're coming from. That's the official line I guess.
But how much more likely are people to find content on an article directory as opposed to what you write on your more focused niche web site?
I see a short term spike in traffic each time I post an article. Articles don't raise your overall views for the long term but if you are looking for a boost these can help. If you continually add articles to the directories these can make a significant difference in your readership.
The only article directory I use is Street Articles. My main priority is having the best content on my websites. Say I have a page on my site that is about one thing in particular, but my keyword research shows tons of keyword variants for that topic, I will write an article on one of those keyword variants and post it to Street Articles. I don't re-write any of my content I will write something different but still relevant for my article.
Any of my Articles on SA have always ranked really well and have drove quite a bit of traffic to my website. Articles do drive traffic, a lot members write for SA and other directories, some people here are very active on Squidoo too. I think it all helps.
Back-links might not be as important as they used to be, but I think they are still relevant. I also do not load up the article directories, I just try to write a few here and there. When I was doing this full-time I wrote an article or 2 a week, with the main focus being my websites. I also use social media to promote the articles.
Valid point about using them for keyword variants which you can never seem to effectively land in your sites articles. Not bothering so much about it becoming your best work and just banging out a few hundred words is a good shout.
Maybe I'll give that a shot over the forthcoming weeks.
Thanks for your input. :)
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I have spent thousands of man hours writing and submitting articles to directories. It used to be the main focus of what I did to get traffic and backlinks. It worked for a while, but I do not do it anymore. Most traffic you get from articles directories is going to be people looking to use your articles for their own websites (syndication), or other non-customer related clicks. Most articles on most directories do not get found in the first pages of Google (IMHO).
Street Articles is the exception. Street Articles articles get found fast in Google, and rank well. I get tons of traffic from them. I have good luck with Hubpages, and Squidoo to some degree. Anything else is not worth your time, because you could be spending the same time and effort adding content to your own site.
This has been my experience, and may depend on your niche, competition, and keywords.
Interesting.
Ok - so I'm a little more convinced now. Maybe I will try Street Articles for a few short write ups on things I'm covering on my sites and see how I get on.
I just loathe to write more when I can be spending my time more productively elsewhere.
loathe to write.....hmmm. Think of the articles as your first contact with your reader. Give them a taste of things to come. Link them to the things. I think you will find that not only are articles worthwhile but they can be a good exercise to stretch your horizons and expand your thoughts. The extra traffic doesn't hurt either.