Article Marketing for Backlinks

[Burkett.com]

Ok I know there's a lot of information already on here about Article Marketing for SEO, but I need to know if anyone here has recently ran an article campaign successfully?

Correct me if I am wrong, but submitting the same article to a bunch (more than 1-2) article directories for back links is a bad idea. Right?

Maybe it worked in 2006, but now even the site themselves (Article Directories) are just so polluted with spam from the pass that, that Even if you submitted a genuine article.. it would still not give you as much Juice because the sites themselves are considered spamy.

Looking at Alexa's ranking of Ezine Articles kind of proves that, after Panda Hit.

The bottom line is, my boss says I have to start writing articles for backlinks. He wanted me to blast them across multiple directories. So I need to be absolutely certain that where I place these articles will have Quality impact on our sites SEO.

Tips, Advice, Links, THANKS!

We are a prominent ecommerce site in the food service industry.

[PeterM22]

It's probably better to write a unique article for every place you submit them to, so theres no duplicate content issues. It might help a little, but it's certainly a somewhat questionnable link building method today. I've had success article marketing campaigns as far as getting traffic to the articles, then funnelling it to my sites, but not as far as increasing search traffic from the backlinks.

[DanSpeicher]

Work with popular blogs in your industry and find out what content they would like to see. Then make it.

[Burkett.com]

I too have had some success (in the past) with getting traffic from articles, but the quality of this traffic was 'fair' at best.

But to be clear here the goal is not to drive traffic.

The goal is to build a back link portfolio and from quality anchor text.

I appreciate your reply.

[Burkett.com]

Yes, both I and our general marketing coordinator agree with this strategy. What do you think about the Article Directories though? Should I totally avoid them completely?

[Alex-Harford]

Guest blogging is a better idea. I'm sure there are plenty of quality related blogs around who would be willing to take great content with a link back to your site.

Or is there some way of getting these catering services reviewed in return for a link? Perhaps offer some free services or a discount? As well as the link, if you choose the right places it'd be advertising your services to relevant people, so you could attract more business that way.

Can this company offer solutions to any particular problems the internet population might have? If so, search forums and a thoughtful answer with a link to the recommended solution on your site could go down well - just make sure it doesn't look like you're spamming if you do anything like this. You could even just help people out without mentioning your company, and have a link or two in your signature. There are ways to find 'dofollow' forums.

[Burkett.com]

Yeah I think we all agree guest blogging is a powerful way to attain quality backlinks. It’s not easy though, that’s why time and time again people just can’t help themselves from submitting articles to Article Directories and/or Linking their Keyword Term to Industry Site Directories.

Plus, as I was just reading this post http://www.seomoz.org/q/is-da-a-reliable-domain-metric :: And I feel the same way about the DA. Point being, some blatantly obvious spam sites have High DA, which is confusing.

We have very few backlinks and horrible anchor text associated with them.

Realistically speaking, I think finding a good blog to guest post on, writing the content and getting it on the internet would be At-Least a 2-3 week process. So if we guest posted every 2 weeks, in 1 year we would only have 26 backlinks.

Such a small number ....It's just really hard to justify the Time and effort this will take to get 26 back links when our competitors already have thousands for the competing anchor text. It's worth it right?

Thanks for the reply.

[JerDoggMckoy]

Your link is broken base.

[DanSpeicher]

I'd avoid article directories. They are not bad, but from a value standpoint, guest blogging has more potential. Either way you should be creating unique content. If you contact the bloggers prior to creating the material, then you can almost guarantee a spot on their blog by writing about what they want on their blog. It's always better to have people in place willing to "buy" your info before you spend time writing the article.

Justin Briggs uses a similar strategy for his info-graphics. He details his strategy here:

http://www.seomoz.org/webinars/effective-link-building

[DanSpeicher]

http://www.seomoz.org/q/is-da-a-reliable-domain-metric

[Burkett.com]

Thanks, that webinar and powerpoint presentation was great.

"You can't outsource giving a shit" - Tom Critchlow

lol