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Home » The Famous Blog » Do You Know These 5 ‘Article Marketing’ Danger Signals?

Do You Know These 5 ‘Article Marketing’ Danger Signals?

July 13, 2011 - Last Modified: April 1, 2014 by James Martell 1,514

Article Marketing Danger Signals

So, what is article marketing?

Matt Cutts, head of Google’s Webspam probably explains it best in a recent video “…you’re writing an article and you try to include a link at the bottom and you’re hoping a bunch of other people put up copies or mirrors or duplicates of that article and that those links might flow through.”

[box type=”info”]Matt goes on to say “Typically the sorts of sites that just republish these articles are not the highest quality sites.”[/box]

With that said, does article marketing work? While content like this can be picked up by Google, it often doesn’t typically end up ranking highly. If it does, it’s most often filtered and discarded completely within days.

Why? For one, it’s generally not the kind of writing that is going to win any awards from a reader. It isn’t the kind of writing that a real person is going to Facebook or Tweet about, mention on their blog, or submit to DIGG.

And two, it’s most often a duplicate of an article that exists in many places elsewhere on the Internet. Google has been filtering out these “duplicates” for years.

I have never been a fan of article marketing.

It’s sold as a quick and easy way to get traffic, backlinks, and increased page rankings when there’s no such thing as a quick and easy solution with staying power.

Let’s face it.

If you do a Google search for a Roland piano keyboard, KitchenAid Mixer, or a Golden Technologies lift chair, that’s exactly what you should see in the search results, not some low budget say nothing article designed simply for the purpose of getting a backlink or a click-through. Yet, article marketing is still being promoted as a powerful marketing strategy — yet it is the biggest offender when it comes to pushing out crap duplicate content.

The other thing to consider, if you attempt article marketing without truly understanding what you are getting into, you are probably doing way more harm to your website than good!

Danger Signal #1: You Have ZERO INPUT Over Who Publishes Your Article

Who Publishes Your Article

As a writer submitting content to an article directory, you’re hoping that someone will grab up your article, and publish it on their website. The problem is, you’re given zero input on who uses your content the very second you press that ‘Submit’ button.

You’re article might go to a great website whose in good standings with Google, or more likely it will be published on numerous low (…or NO) quality websites.

if you want high-quality (long lasting) backlinks and the resulting Google rankings they can bring — you must maintain control over who publishes your content.

Danger Signal #2: Duplicate Content Is A Bad Thing

bad thing

It is not surprising that Google has been discouraging “duplicate” content for years. There is no advantage to having a duplicate article show up in the top of the results multiple times — but back in 2003-2004 this was a big problem.

To solve this issue Google added a filter to their algorithm to eliminate duplicate content from the search results. It cleaned things up nicely.

By the way, this removal of the duplicates is the primary reason article marketers have real trouble get any real traction for their business. It is the reason they find themselves having to start over all the time.

In my opinion, “article marketing” is a weak short sighted marketing model. Get this:

  1. write articles
  2. submit to articles to directories
  3. receive a blip traffic
  4. articles filtered by Google from the results
  5. start all over

I have chatted about article marketing for many years. Yes some have made money, but nothing compared to what could have made if they used a strategy that was not offensive (or filtered) by Google.

The real problem with article marketing is that the article directories were designed as a method to mass distribute duplicate content, and typically low in quality. It shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone that Google took broad sweeping action against them.

Danger Signal #3: Duplicate Anchor Text Can Be Very Problematic

Bad anchor text

Talk about timing.

I just got off the phone with an article marketer who has been madly working on gathering in backlinks to his website by blasting his articles out to the article directories.

He called me to ask if I would know why his page has “…dropped from page 3 of the Google results to page 30” for the keyword phrase Lasik eye surgery?

It’s a good question.

I chatted with him and learned that all one hundred of his backlinks use the exact same keyword phrase “Lasik eye surgery”, as the link back to his site. Therein lies the problem. It’s the duplicate anchor text that triggered a penalty with Google.

I have a question. What are the odds of a hundred webmasters randomly linking back to your site using the exact same keyword phrase (I.e. Pride lift chairs)? The answer of course is zero! Plus it is so easy for Google to see that this has been designed (albeit poorly) for the purposes of artificially boosting the sites rankings.

And guess what Google’s does — they have a real simple fix for this — they simply make sure that page does not rank for that keyword phrase.

Danger Signal #4: Welcome To The (Bad) Neighborhood

SEO bad Neighborhood

In the SEO world there a saying that you don’t want to get your site involved in a “bad neighborhood”. This is generally referring to the sites:

  • that link inbound to you
  • that you link outbound to

You can think of these sites as your “neighbors” — and who is linking to you — and who you are linking to does affect your rankings.

It wasn’t all that long ago when Matt Cutts, head of Webspam for Google, dropped the bombshell — that is was now possible for your websites rankings to be negatively impacted by others who were linking to you.

Let’s face it.

It’s for this reason (and others) that you want to be careful who you are linking to, and who is linking back to you.

By submitting your articles to an article directory you’re making it very easy for bad neighbors to link to you. In fact you’re encouraging it, and Google knows it!

Danger Signal #5: Google Discourages Article Marketing

Google Discourages Article Marketing

I have heard since the recent Google Panda updates that “article marketing still works”.

All I can really say to that is so did anchor text stuffing, so did link partnering, so did low quality content, so did duplicate content, so did link farms, so did the scraper sites, so did article spinning — and all of these strategies have been dealt with by Google.

I would say that just because it “works”, doesn’t mean you should be engaged in it — especially if you are looking to build a long term sustainable business. All of the strategies above for the most part are dead. DEAD!

And I say to article marketing; R.I.P.

All the time, effort and money that was poured into the strategies have evaporated. Yes some made some money but (in all cases) those engaged in those methods had to start over…some numerous times!

When Matt Cutts was asked “…if he recommends article marketing as an SEO strategy?” He publicly stated “…so if I had to make a prophecy or forecast about how Google feels or how search engines feel about them in general, the trend that I am hearing and the sort of complaints that I am hearing are that people are not huge fans of article marketing and don’t view it as an incredible value add in terms of the content that gets added to the web.”

I get a chuckle from Matt when he says “So if I had to make a prophecy or forecast…” keep in mind he’s the head of the Web-spam team for Google.

He knows very well where article marketing is going as far as Google is concerned. The way of the Dodo bird!

And agreed, to those who may say that Matt paints a panacea of how Google would like to see things done, but let me ask you–when was the last time you had to click-through to page two of the Google results to find what you we’re looking for?

Do you remember WebCrawler, Excite and AltaVista. The search results back then were dismal? Google has brought us all a very, very long way.

Again let’s face it, article marketing floods the Google’s results with millions of cheap, low-quality fluff pieces. Given Google’s attitude toward this type of content, does ticking them off sound like a viable marketing strategy to you?

I Have A Prediction

It shouldn’t be a surprise that Google is ferocious when it comes to protecting their algorithm.

It also shouldn’t be a surprise to see Google take a shot at the “article marketers” flooding the Google search results with tens of millions of low quality duplicate articles.

Google algorithm prediction

As you probably know Google is dealing with the problem. Many in engaged in the practice are already feeling the effects. Others are still yet to pay the price. (but they will)

And there’s one BIG difference to note. When Google dealt with the link farms back in 2004-2005 we didn’t have a “Google Account” in the same way we do now.

Today, every serious marketer has one. We need it. We need it to access Google Analytics, Google Webmaster Tools, Google Website Optimizer, Google AdSense, Google AdWords and even the new Google+. Here’s the thing. If you have been around a while and you think back to the 2004-2005 era updates, Google didn’t really know who we were, and what we were up to in the way they do today.

Now it’s a whole new ball game.

Google knows exactly who you are, and what you’re up to when using all of the Google services above.

I have a question?

Is it a stretch to consider that Google could ban articles marketers (and others that don’t provide added value to the Internet) for using strategies that Google finds offensive and that are clearly against their Google Guidelines? A strategy that clogs their search results with millions of low quality, low value articles that takes their resources to continually clean things up?

And let me change my prediction above into another question.

[box type=”yellow”]Is their a possibility of article marketers being permanently banned by Google?[/box]

It would not be the first time Google took action.

It was just over a year ago that Google permanently banned 15,000+ Adwords advertisers for their practices, And it’s been estimated that they were spending hundreds of millions of dollars with the AdWords program.

Overnight they permanently banned from Google AdWords.

It got me to wondering — could someone implementing strategies that Google has clearly indicated they don’t like — and for obvious reasons — actually ban those engaged in such practices?

I would think so.

I already know of one “serial offender” who has also been permanently banned from Google losing his entire Google Account?

Let me ask another question. If someone was negatively effecting your website would you grant them access to your free services and tools? I wouldn’t. In fact, I would change their passcodes, block their IP address and give them the cold shoulder when they contacted my support desk. I bet you would too.

I guess the real question is — is their a possibility of article marketers being permanently banned by Google?

Only Google knows for sure.

However, I can tell you one thing, I don’t plan to be one of them if they do.

Is Article Marketing Effective?

It was effective, at one time. With enhanced standards from search engines, however, there is no reason to believe that this practice is an effective, sustainable marketing strategy today.

Is it worth the risk?

Not in my mind.

I would love to hear your comments.

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Filed Under: Google, Marketing

About James Martell

Follow @JamesMartell

James Martell is an Internet pioneer who discovered the lucrative world of affiliate marketing in 1999. He is a self-taught Internet entrepreneur and a leading expert in affiliate marketing training, outsourcing and natural search engine optimization. James is also the host of the "Affiliate Buzz", the first and longest running affiliate marketing podcast in the industry (since 2003). Google+ James Martell

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{ 29 Responses }

  1. Robert Doebler says:
    The question on whether article marketing is still alive has always been an interesting discussion and so is this one, James. The opinions from other commenters are also very informative. I think all of us have different views on article marketing and I feel that article marketing is much needed because there are readers searching for information on the other hand if article marketing has not died down this means this technique still have relevance.
  2. Lee Rowley says:
    Excellent (and comprehensive) post. Even five or so years ago, when gurus were telling the lemmings that article marketing was the key to riches, I never saw it work very well. Duplicate content issues aside, the rise of social media has also administered a sound beating to article marketing. We're learning to rely on the people we know and respect to recommend valuable content. Assuming G+ doesn't implode over the next few months (and I'm not suggesting it will, just acknowledging the possibility), reliance on social contacts for worthwhile media will become even stronger. I can't imagine the reaction one would get on G+ for linking to an article directory ditty.
    • James Martell says:
      Hi Lee, agreed. It's been touted as a viable strategy for way too long. I always find myself wondering where some of the BIG article marketers would be today if they would have instead spent the time they poured into article marketing into a more legitimate strategy.
  3. Avelina Marshall says:
    Since the Panda update has penalized the duplicate content many sites have started article marketing with a new trend. Before panda the same article was submitted to many article directories sites, which were accepting the bulk articles. But once Google banned this, bulk article sites faced much loss in term of profit, visitors and page rank. But article writers have not stopped yet. Now they are publishing the articles in unique article sites and after approval they are promoting that page. Bookmarking it and sharing it on social media. Some says that it is legitimate doing this while some are still annoy and want Google to take action on this too. I think it is OK to promote your approved article's URL but what do you say?
    • James Martell says:
      It's a great question. It all boils down quality. If the "article marketer", for lack of a better word, develops a quality well researched article and submits it to another reputable website, there shouldn't be a problem. If though they submit a sub-standard article to a crappy site, not so good. It's all about quality content. I do think as well that the real problem for many article marketers is they have no idea how to create a real article. They are also looking for shortcuts. Those who focus on quality, will always do fine. As the saying goes, serve the visitor first, search engine second. James
  4. Tim says:
    Great post. Looks like quality content not spammed to every article directory is a safe way to get backlinks.
  5. Astrit says:
    Did you just said that duplicate anchor can be problematic? ROFL! No really, I had to laugh. I mean, anchored hyperlink is the way how search engines determine the subject of a website and accordingly rank them...but yet, you say it is problematic - how does that make any sense?
    • James Martell says:
      Hi Astrit, it sounds like you may have a frog in your throat. And yes I did say "duplicate anchor text is problematic". The story I shared was with an "SEO expert" who had used the exact same keyword phrase “Lasik eye surgery” in all 100 of his backlinks. He didn't very them up at all, and subsequently ran into troubles. ...so yes duplicate anchor text can be a big problem. It appears to also be something Google watches out for. I would also assume that it is very easy for them to detect. Matt Cutts address duplicate anchor text as being a problem in this video: http://jamesmartell.com/matt-cutts/google-seo-tip-120-do-you-recommend-article-marketing-as-an-seo-strategy/ James
  6. Michael says:
    Powerful article mate. You just nailed it down and I'm inspired. I believe article marketing should be done with a twist. If I had known when I started online business, I should have focused all my effort into guest posting. It's the best way to leverage on articles - ye, articles can be leveraged for huge business success but it takes a wise person to do this. You made me glad this evening (it's evening here).
    • James Martell says:
      Hi Michael, cool, but let's not call guest posting or writing "article marketing" because it has a very bad name. And it's only going to get worse.
  7. Samantha Gluck says:
    OK, brace yourelf -- I have an ignorant question. I know what article marketing is in the blatant sense of the word; but will Google consider it article marketing if I've allowed others that I know, who need content, to post an article from my site on theirs as long as they fully credit me and my site?
    • James Martell says:
      Okay, I am braced. ;) I don't see that as a problem at all providing the site you're posting it on is a good one and not engaged in article marketing as you say in the "blatant sense of the word'. It's only the spammy practices that run people into problems. I personally post my podcast along with a descriptive article every week on a few sites. I have never had a problem.
  8. Adam Stetzer, Ph.D. says:
    Hi there. This is a very interesting a timely discussion given all the changes this spring with Panda, then Panda 2.0 and most recently Panda 2.2... There is certainly a push at Google to remove certain elements from their database, BUT, from what I have researched online and seen in my own data, what they removed was mostly scrapped content and spun content. I am still seeing garbage re-writes get indexed just fine... I'm not advocating that people do that - just pointing out that the SEO community is ahead of where Google really is... Not a surprise. In your coverage of Article Marketing, I think you are mixing a couple key points that need to be viewed through VERY different lenses. Specifically, Article Marketing does NOT necessarily equate to duplicate content. Also, Article Marketing does NOT necessarily equate to low-quality content. Sure, many people do Article Marketing poorly (because they spin, steal, duplicate and write really bad stuff), but I would be interested in your opinion of someone who writes a ton of high-quality articles, and only ever submits them to 1 place each? Is this bad? If so, why? Also, I have some data from a large national SEO campaign we ran for a national brand in the mortgage space. It is a couple years old, but I think the time-series analysis is fascinating for answering the Does article marketing work question. You can see this data on my blog post about Article marketing effectiveness. Hope you don't mind the link-drop, but it's real data and quite interesting. In summary, I do think there are danger signs and this can be abused, like most things in life. But I also think that article marketing can be a legitimate marketing / link-building approach if done right. I wanted to know if you agree.
    • James Martell says:
      Hi Adam, I agree that "Article Marketing does NOT necessarily equate to duplicate content" and that "Article Marketing does NOT necessarily equate to low-quality content". The problem as I see it that any of the good content is mixed up in a sea of bad. You question about "someone who writes a ton of high-quality articles, and only ever submits them to 1 place each? Is this bad? If so, why?" I see no problems in this whatsoever. In fact, that's exactly what I have been doing and teaching in my courses for many years. It is a rock solid way to go (providing the place the articles are being published on quality sites ...and NOT article directories). And no problem on the link drop. The data mentioned as you indicated was from a couple of years ago. If the same test was run today the results would be much different. I agree that distributing a quality article to a quality website is a great strategy. I just wouldn't call it article marketing. I know article marketing as mass blasting low quality articles to the article directories. James
  9. Riya says:
    Hi James, Totally agreed with you, article marketing mostly used to promote your low quality links so that you can just get backlinks no matter if anyone likes it. I feel article marketing can only survive if you share quality content and leave spamming or else Google can ban it as it increases unnecessary competition.
    • James Martell says:
      Hi Riya, Agreed. It's all about quality.
  10. Denise Gabbard says:
    I think you hit the nail on the head, though many people will not want to hear what you're saying. Google does not want to see fluff articles with poor grammar littering cyberspace, so they are tweaking the algorithm to reward those who take the time to do the job right. I think building relationships with others in your niche and helping each other with content is more effective, anyway. You've been in this business much longer than me, but I already realize that the most important thing is to be flexible and adapt to the MANY changes that we'll be seeing in the coming years.
  11. Andreas says:
    The best is to go with publishing the articles on niche related authority blogs instead, where they attract targeted visitors and blog comments so that the page where the article is posted will get frequently updated.
    • James Martell says:
      Hi Andeas, yes I so agree. Publishing articles on quality sites is the way to go!
  12. Hamzah Kutub says:
    Hi James Thanks for this well thought out article which gives an interesting perspective on how google panda update is going to affect article marketing.I think if people are really serious about their online businesses then they must stay away from practices forbidden by most of the search engines and especially google. And you highlighted another important point that what would happen if a webmaster is suddenly banned by google from all the services such as analyitcs,feedburner,webmaster tools,adwords,adsense.We know what will be the result the next second your online business will evaporate and you have to start again from scratch.And in my opinion its going to be just impossible to start again if you are barred from using all the services of google . So it's better to work hard with white hat SEO strategies athough it's going to take time but it's better than to loose your google account and your traffic.
    • James Martell says:
      Hi Hamzah, Thanks. I don't think many of the serial offenders have really ever considered that they could lose their entire Google Account. It would be the end of most of them for sure if they did. And I agree it would be almost impossible to start again if you were to be banned from Google. James
  13. Jane says:
    After the Panda update, I don't think that article marketing is the same way as it used to be before. It is article marketing and the duplicate content issue, that were badly hit. And the sad thing is that there is only a very thin line better those two. When an article is submitted to article directories, it is getting duplicated many times and scattered over the internet. What is the point? Backlinks? Only quality backlinks count for SEO. Poor quality backlinks can do only harm. Jane.
    • James Martell says:
      Hi Jane, it is true that article marketing isn't the same way it used to be. I am not so sure though there is a thin line between the two. The typical articles I have seen being used by the article marketers art usually around 400 words in length and very thin in content. The real content producers such as yourself do write longer more in depth articles that are helpful to readers. You assertion that "only quality backlinks count for SEO" is a good one. I still feel many don't understand that all links are not created equal. James
  14. Ryan Biddulph says:
    Hi James, You bring up some interesting arguments here. The quality of the article - and the article base - determine if you get clicks or not. Many of the type articles you mention are piss poor, and to boot, they're in super low ranking bases like amazines, etc. If it's a great article with a catchy title, you can probably still rank high in search engines and gain some authority along the way. I still see certain ezinearticles rank pretty high for some solid keywords. That being said, if Google starts to switch things up, article marketing could be less popular. I wouldn't stop writing though. If you're providing content-rich, fact based articles, keep publishing. Independent of the SEO stuff, when you have a decent-sized following on Twitter you can still get a decent number of clicks. Thanks for sharing your insight James. Ryan
    • James Martell says:
      Hi Ryan, I agree, I just wouldn't publish the articles to anything that resembles an article directory. I don't want my site to be included in their neighborhood. You would be much better off publishing your article to a site such as this one. By contrast the articles in the article directories don't usually get retweeted or commented on...and usually for good reason. James
  15. Sunny says:
    I agree with most of that, which I think all them are the tips are good to the users while not to SEO. If google banned articles, I guess there won't be any spammers as well as good articles. And I doubt whether it will happen as text is the main way google understands a site. Instead, google may punish the article sites which release low-quality articles to limit the crazy article submitter.
  16. James Martell says:
    Hi Ted, I can understand why you might think that. It's been my experience in the past that you couldn't be hurt, but I have seen first hand many times that you indeed can be hurt. The story I mentioned in Danger Signal #3 above is a very common one. As for it being "too easy to suppress the competition" I heard Matt Cutts address this very issue. He seemed to down play it but clearly left the audience with the impression this is an unfortunately reality. James
  17. Ted says:
    I don't think Google tells the truth when they say a website can be negatively impacted by the others who are linking to it. It would be too easy to suppress the competition then! Just a few links placed on a "bad" website and hop! No more competitors!
    • James Martell says:
      You may want to do some research on your own on that. I think you'll be surprised by your findings.

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