Are Article Directories Still Relevant?
If you are wondering are article directories still relevant, this article may answer the question for you.
A few years ago, circa 2012, article directories were all the rage. It was a fantastic way for website owners to receive traffic to their websites. They created an article and uploaded it to a bunch of article directories.
Each article would contain a byline pointing back to the author’s website or web page. If you posted an article to fifty article directories, you instantly had fifty backlinks to your website. Search engines would rank that site or page highly because of the backlinks, and the traffic would start rolling in.
Key Concepts
The concept of article directories was a good one. It gave bloggers the means to post content to their websites. Suppose a health blogger wants to create content but doesn’t have the time to write it herself. She would search a bunch of article directories for articles that were health-related, and then post it to article directories. The only agreement she had to make was to include the article in its entirety, including the byline. When that agreement was honored, everyone was happy.
Well, everyone except Google. The mega search engine discovered that the practice was getting out of hand. After some time, several of the same articles would appear on various websites. There was no such flag for duplicate content back then, so people just loaded up on whatever content they could find on article directories.
The situation got even more out-of-hand when article spinning software entered the scene. These software programs replaced adverbs and adjectives with synonyms of those words. The more sophisticated ones could replace entire sentences and even paragraphs. These spinners could generate thousands of articles and keep the uniqueness relatively close to 100%, give or take.
After spinning thousands of articles, one could pay someone on sites like Fiverr.com to blast those thousands of articles onto article directory sites. Of course, all of them would link back to the website owner’s pages. This would generate thousands of backlinks in an instant.
Google decided to punish article directories with penalties and de-listings. With this one algorithmic change, the web saw the end to the article directory craze. Did this kill article directories? Oddly enough, they still exist, especially the bigger names like EZineArticles.com. However, just because they exist, does this mean you should be using them?
The answer is probably not. You can still post content on article directories. However, the link juice, as it is referred to, won’t be strong. Link juice is simply the strength of a link in relation to its ability to show up in search engines.
These days, if you decide to use article directories, you may not get hit with penalties. However, don’t expect much in the way of link juice. It has been some time since the algorithm changed. You may be tempted start using article directories again. Perhaps you read a marketing guru stating it’s time to get back into article directions. Of course, you’ll pay them for this advice!
You may also be tempted to believe article directories still exist for a reason. It’s a logical argument. Why would they exist if they don’t serve the same use they once did?
By the way, some of the higher quality article directories, such as EzineArticles.com, prevented authors from mass uploading articles using spinners and other software. They have moderators that check the quality of the articles and have established guidelines to prevent abuse. Unfortunately, they did not escape the changes from Google.
Why Do Article Directories Still Exist?
The truth is, there isn’t much of a reason for article directories to exist anymore. Perhaps the owners of these directories feel there may be a resurgence of the need one day. Who knows? Anything is possible. EzineArticles.com does maintain a quality standard. But, the whole concept of sharing content is part of the problem. Google penalizes duplicate content. They still allow you to download articles for use provided you include the article in its entirety. But, that is what Google feels is wrong with the concept!
As an experiment, I wrote an article on EzineArticles.com recently, and used a keyword that should get a decent amount of traffic. When I search on Google using the title, I don’t receive any hits to my article. If I use a quoted search (“”) it does appear as part of my author page on the site, but not the article itself.
Try This Experiment Yourself
To drive the point home that article directories are so 2010, try this experiment. Please note that I am not writing this to pick on EzineArticles.com. I believe they are a top-notch article directory. However, it’s the concept of article directories that are problematic. EzineArticles.com just happens to be the biggest, and if they are not relevant you can be sure that no other directory will be!
Go to the home page of EzineArticles.com. On the right-hand side, you will find the Author Spotlight. These are authors who have written several articles and who have reached Diamond status. If you check out each of these authors, you will find the most recent articles they have written were written years ago, some as far back as 2010. You can be sure that if the website was still relevant these high-profile authors would still be writing for the website. You can refresh the site for a new set of authors. You will be hard-pressed to find authors from this list that have written articles in 2017.
Another Experiment You Can Try
On the main page of EzineArticles.com, about half-way down, you will find recent articles. These will be articles published within the last days or months. Pick one article and use the title to search in Google. Don’t use quotes as most people won’t search with quotes. Does the article appear from EzineArticles.com? If so, is it on the first page or did you have to page through several Google results? You will find a few esoteric searches that may appear. These will not likely be relevant searches.
What You Should Do Instead?
If you decide to write posts on article directories, knock yourself out. Just choose the ones that maintain high standards (like EzineArticles.com). A better approach is to post articles to your website or blog. If it’s a quality article, it will eventually rank. Quality attracts quality and other influential websites will start linking to your content.
A still relevant concept is guest blogging. Just as the name suggests, guest blogging is when you find bloggers who will let you contribute to their websites. If you are using guest blogging simply as a means of garnering backlinks, you may want to rethink that strategy. However, if you find influential bloggers who are willing to let you contribute, and happen to include your link to your website, you will find this is a much more effective means of getting a backlink. Just don’t let Google think that you are using the strategy for the sole purpose of link building. The good news is that the influential bloggers won’t let you post junk. The content needs to be above average quality for them to consider your posts. It should be noted that the technique of guest posting isn’t as powerful as it once was. It still works, but it should not be your core strategy.
Time to Get Social
When you create a blog post on your website, you now have an asset that can be shared via social media. When doing so, make sure you share with a useful description. Instead of “read my post” or nothing at all, try to engage your followers. If you wrote on your blog about a certain hot-topic issue, mention that you read how people are concerned about the issue and you have discovered something that may help. Use conversational language as if you are talking to friends, because that is who you will connect with on your social media channels.
Consider posting related items from other people’s posts or social media links. This is a great way to get influential bloggers to notice what you are doing. If you share an influential blogger’s post, the chances are good they will mention your share. It won’t happen all the time, but even a few mentions from high-profile people can send your posts and website into the stratosphere.
Repurpose Content
This is a buzzword that’s getting use a lot these days. But, it’s still effective. If you have a blog post, turn it into a PowerPoint slideshow and post it on Slideshare.net. Then, make a video about your post and share it on YouTube. You can then embed your video from YouTube onto your original post. Don’t forget to add a link back to your website’s post in the description of the YouTube video.
Conclusion
Hopefully, you have learned not to waste your time posting on article directories. I wish it weren’t true because I loved using them when the “were a thing.” This is no longer the case. You will do much better by posting on your website or finding an influential blog that will allow you to guest post.
It’s possible the tides will change where article directories will become popular again. They will likely need to redefine how they are structured. I have noticed that HubPages has created different niche-related blogs where people can post, and these posts are starting to appear in searches. As I stated, they are trying to reinvent the concept. You can experiment with some of these niche-related websites to see if they help your SERPs.
The one factor that will always work is writing quality content and posting it on your website. This is what your viewers want and when viewers are happy, Google (and other search engines) are happy, too! Notice, that last sentence emphasized viewers first. That is the key to this whole blogging world. Give people what they want all the time and they will follow you. That following will garner the attention of the search engines which will then increase the strength of your authority in the blogging arena.
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