Question

Topic: SEO/SEM

Do Article Directories Work?

Posted by Susan Oakes on 11/8/2007 at 1:46 AM ET 250 Points
We are considering submitting articles to directories to increase traffic to our website, however we have recently read and heard that this may not be a good tactic to use. The questions we need help on are:

1. Does submitting articles to directories actually increase relevant traffic?
2. If it is a good tactic to use what are the best directories?
3. As we have articles already on our website and add a new one about once a month, what is the best way to avoid duplicate content?

Our Google rankings are improving and for one keyword we rank number 3 and we have links but have been selective to ensure relevancy. We tried PPC but the conversion wasn't great. Our aim is to increase the the traffic from the USA so any other suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks
Susan
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RESPONSES

  • Posted by Frank Hurtte on 11/8/2007 at 9:26 AM Accepted
    I use a few of the aricle directories... I have never paid for one, nor will I list on one that demands that they be the sole location for the article.

    My thought is the greater number of places the articles are spread around, the greater the chances of someone seeing them. I have used many of them... all with about the same results.

    One point: A couple of these sites are very good about having their site crawled daily. Articles listed there show up on Google the very next day.

    contact me via my profile if you have questions.
  • Posted by Lorenz Lammens on 11/8/2007 at 11:04 AM Accepted
    Susan,

    we've been using article submissions for various sites and have seen a jump in traffic. The article publishing strategy was to write articles, publish them at the home site, than have somebody else re-write the same concept about the article for each off-site publication, thus saving time, with relevant key words hotlinking to the appropriate page on our client's site.

    After a while, we really brought it down to two important free sites: ezinearticles.com and goarticles.com (I admit these sites look pretty dated, but they work a charm.)

    Further, publish articles in relevant industry sites, e.g. if you are a marketer, you want to be publishing on this site.

    P.s. publish your PR materials in the same way to various PR publishing sites.
  • Posted by Susan Oakes on 11/8/2007 at 3:03 PM Author
    Thank you all for your responses and tips and I will look at the sites you suggested.

    Frank I will contact you as we have a couple of questions.

    Regards,

    susan
  • Posted by Joe on 11/8/2007 at 11:03 PM Accepted
    Just to add my 2 cents here- I've played around with posting a few articles on ezinearticles. The site looks kind of hokey, but the articles do tend to wind up with good Google PR. So it's one way to generate backlinks to your site. As well as some bona-fide traffic, which I've seen as well.
  • Posted by excellira on 11/9/2007 at 4:34 PM Accepted
    There are some holdovers but the SEO community is moving on. We still offer the service as part of a campaign but we do not value it like we once did.

    The article directories themselves aren't carrying much weight these days and there is no guarantee that the syndicated article will carry your link if its picked up by an unethical web master.

    Does it still work? Yes it can. Is it as valuable as it once was? No. In the old days (last year! ;-) all you had to do was submit to dozens of directories and you received at least the link from the directory and many more if the articles were picked up.

    Would I still do it? Yes. Would I put all my eggs in that basket? No way.

    Taka a look at this post by Aaron Wall: https://www.seobook.com/archives/002322.shtml

    I hope this helps.

    -Greg Hill
    [URL deleted by staff] Trinity Search Engine Marketing
  • Posted by Susan Oakes on 11/11/2007 at 12:39 AM Author
    Your responses have helped clarify our thinking and have put these directories into perspective. Thanks again for your help.
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