Is Article Marketing Dead or Dying?

By AdStation | September 10th, 2013 | Categories: SEO & SEM
Enjoing the Work

Google’s Penguin put the deep freeze to and Panda bear-paw slapped the article directories seriously hard. That left many wondering if article marketing is dead or dying. Dead? No. Dying? Well, what’s dying is only the former practice of using articles from article banks that thousands of others also use.

All is not lost. As long as people want information, they are going to be looking for articles. They may go to these directories still. However, your using those directories for article sources is not the way for you to monetize best – if at all.

Here’s how you can pull out the crash cart, power up the defibrillator and give a good 200 joules jolt of life-saving energy into the heart of using articles in your marketing.

Home-grown

If you want it smokin’, you’ve gotta grow your own. Originality wins. This eliminates article duplication that Google likes to give out smackdowns for. This also means that article spinning software is a no-no too. Put your own original content on your site first to get your site(s) ranking.

Quality over quantity

The best information wins. It’s 100% about value. There is no other metric more important than this. Quality information is what brings in the readers, the likes, +1s, Digg, etc. Including top-notch information is way more valuable than keyword stuffing and other SEO tricks. That is not to say that you shouldn’t attempt to include relevant keywords and SEO – of course, you should. Relevancy is what matters. Resists attempts to plump up thin articles with useless fluff to extend them; that doesn’t help. There is no magic or perfect word count. All that counts is quality content.

Keywords

What you don’t want to do is come up with keyword phrases first, then write an article around them. Your first objective should be to give out the best information possible. That said, you don’t want to ignore keyword phrases either. The best practice is to incorporate as many as possible while using them in a natural way that supports the information in your article. It’s a delicate balance requiring research and good writing.

Summary

Aim for tightly-focused, high-quality, relevant content that is targeted to your website’s niche. Offer what readers are looking for, rather than what you think search engines might want. Avoid duplicating content and article spinning tactics. Write tight, there is no room for fluff. Use keyword phrases in a natural, organic way that supports the article’s content and refrain from keyword stuffing when it isn’t relevant and is obvious. Every SEO trick you might know is less important than quality content. In fact, SEO tricks may backfire on you. The new standard is natural, organic articles that gain over time.