It’s 2014, Article Directories Are Practically Useless

by TECHNOLOGY INFORMATION 4/21/2015 04:14:00 am 0 comments Adobe CC Alexa Rank Backlink Cara SEO Coreldraw X7 Google Linux Mozilla OS Office Office 2013 Photoshop CC Pingblog SEO Book Ubuntu OS Widget SEO Windows 10

In the past, people would try everything they could to land on the first pages of Google. While many techniques used to work, some are not effective and may end up hurting the site owner. At the very least, when trying old and useless methods, a site owner will waste his or her time and resources. For this reason, you should know that article directories are basically useless. Here are eight reasons why this is the case and what happened to cause this.

Low quality

First and foremost, most article directory sites do not offer a lot of high quality articles. No, instead, these web ties provide a place for people to spam their information and articles full of links and overused keywords. While Google liked this in the past, the search engine giant has caught on and now punishes people who use article directories. Think about it, when you land on a directory site, you will see dozens of categories and thousands of uninteresting and spun articles that nobody reads. For this reason, most search engines devalue that content and do not take this into account when coming up with organic search rankings.

Too easy to manipulate

Since most article directories do not require a person to offer much, they are not too valuable to anyone. In reality, when going to an article site, all you need to do is upload your content. Other times, some will charge a small fee. Either way, since this is an easy method for people to manipulate the search rankings, Google has mostly realized that the articles are unoriginal and will not value them highly. However, if you go to a high PR website, you can upload articles and still get something out of the experience. Of course, this will largely depend on your quality of writing.

Content quality

Now, more than ever, people think they can write and put it all over the Internet. It seems almost everyone has a blog where they spew their opinions and talk about their interests. In reality, to most people, this is not interesting. Furthermore, since most people are not good writers, this causes problems when trying to take advantage of article directories. To understand this, you only need to head to an article directory site. Then, if you read two or three pieces, you will understand most people do not know how to create something that people enjoy. In some cases, the piece was actually written by a machine. Either way, when understanding that the content is of low quality, you should have no trouble understanding why article sites are a waste of time.

Too many links

Now, when making an article, some writers will do it wisely and put in one or two high quality links to relevant sources. On the other hand, many use article directory sites as a way to list multiple links in their story. While it is okay to offer one or two links, the writer should keep it simple and avoid sounding unprofessional by offering a dozen or more links. Since Google will not take kindly to this, you must understand how to provide the right amount of links to your website. When you do this, you can write an article that both your readers and the search engines will love.

Hundreds of sites

At first, there were not a lot of article directory sites on the Internet. Now, with the explosion of information and the need to land on the first page of Google, many sites sprang up. While this was god for some people, it has had a detrimental effect on the quality of these websites. Think about it, there are now thousands of websites where you can upload your article. This is not good as so many of these places are just a thinly veiled attempt at cheating the system. Of course, if you choose a good site to upload your articles to, you have a good chance to get something out of the experience as some sites still offer value.

Other metrics are now more important: Now, when looking at SEO, you will notice that people always change their minds about what works. There is a reason for this as Google will make updates where they devalue some things and add value to others. For this reason, if you are relying on article content marketing to get to the top, you are in for a rude awakening. Now, you must have a flawless site with plenty of useful content. Not only that, you should have relatively few links. Of course, when getting links, you should only concentrate on high quality as this is what matters. Finally, with social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, you can gain in the rankings and see your site do well. For this reason, article directories are largely ignored by people who want to rise to the top. Simply put, there are other more effective ways to gain in the organic search rankings.

Everyone trying

In all truth, you should try to stay head of the SEO game. This is harder than most people realize. However, if two years ago you started concentrating on quality content and great links, you would sit on the first page of Google for many search terms. Sadly, most follow the overall trends and they end up on the back pages of Google. For this reason, it is obvious that article directories are largely inefficient since most people use them in their day-to-day SEO strategies. Instead, by concentrating on quality and value, a site owner can rise in the ranks without having to resort to ineffective methods that are largely harmful.

Filled up

Think about it, most possibilities have already been discovered. Meaning, when writing an article, it is nearly impossible to write it from an original standpoint. For this reason, you will not get much out of article marketing unless you are an incredible writer who speaks about subjects people want to understand. You must understand that most sites are full of the same articles and ideas. Nothing is going to change, and you are not likely to go above and beyond the other writers. Not only that, when looking at older articles, you will have an uphill battle as they enjoy plenty of SEO link juice since they have been around so much longer. Simply put, the battle has been waged, and unless you can knock off the person on top, you should largely ignore article directories.

When looking to SEO, you must understand what works and what fails to get results. Sadly, some people are stuck in the past and think about what used to work. This is a serious error in judgment as many of the old methods are simply a waste of time. Sadly, many perpetuate this myth and wonder why their site was hit by the latest update. Rather than fix the underlying issue and find out what no longer works, many opt for the same approach and hope things improve. This is foolish, and if you want to regain your rankings, you must understand that things like article directories are largely irrelevant. Instead, you should look to the future.