The Google Panda update that was introduced a few months ago brought about several major changes to the article marketing matrix, with many people believing that it was instant death to the concept of article marketing. In fact, the update did have a big impact on some major authority sites that accept low quality content. Various high ranking sites like Articlesbase.com, EzineArticles.com, Ehow.com, AssociatedContent.com, Buzzle.com and Hubpages.com got hit hard by the Google Panda update.
Is Article Marketing Dead?
While some sites (mainly the bigger ones) have witnessed a drop in the amount of visitors, some others have benefited from the changes. This has left many SEO experts with the question of whether the use of article marketing as an SEO technique has lost its relevance.
The answer is no. Not if you go about it the right way. The new Google Panda update ensures that article marketing will work if you produce content that users will appreciate and help you syndicate without you needing to ask or pay for it.
How to go about Article Marketing after the Google Panda update?
Article Marketing can still be used as an effective SEO tool if a few basic changes are installed in your article marketing plan. Here’s what you can do.
- Submit only relevant and unique content: Make sure that you submit only original relevant content. Unique content plays an extremely vital role in ranking. Also be careful to choose only one or two niche article directories to submit your articles to.
- Ensure that the ‘ad to content ratio’ is maintained: The Google Panda update aims at presenting only useful sites to the user and this is why it tends to eliminate MFA (Made for AdSense) sites from the ranking page. Therefore ensure that you reduce the amount of ads on your site so as to prevent the Panda slap.
- Retain authority of your site: Ensure that your site contains useful content for visitors. Keep adding new pages with helpful content to avoid being branded as a MFA site.
- Actively engage in social media: The Google Panda update places a lot of importance on the amount of time your site is shared on social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook. So be sure to actively promote your social media presence and install Social Media buttons on your site in order to facilitate sharing.
