Google changes the SEO game article marketing is dead?

Well Internet Marketers, gone are the days that Google will allow you to be "used" and or "abused" as some see it, by what they call "content farms".

It USED TO BE authority sites like ezinearticles, and eHow, about.com, hubpages and squidoo had the advantage... but now Google is calling these sites "content farms" and are ranking them lower.

See these would be authority sites used you to get your original content and then diluted it with ads all around it. Making them the big winner and you a "side story". Well now you can get your own love direct from Google.

If you are putting out viable content on your own Blog, that will be the order of the day to get top rankings. Of course you still need some backlinks to make it hit top page ranks and stay, but now at least you don't have to sell your "soul" to someone else to get some love for your own creativity.

Here's info from Google's blog:
"Many of the changes we make are so subtle that very few people notice them. But in the last day or so we launched a pretty big algorithmic improvement to our ranking??”a change that noticeably impacts 11.8% of our queries??”and we wanted to let people know what's going on. This update is designed to reduce rankings for low-quality sites??”sites which are low-value add for users, copy content from other websites or sites that are just not very useful. At the same time, it will provide better rankings for high-quality sites??”sites with original content and information such as research, in-depth reports, thoughtful analysis and so on."
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/02/finding-more-high-quality-sites-in.html

So, if you are wonder why your articles, hubpages, squidoo lens etc, along with any respective traffic, have all of a sudden found themselves way down in the page ranks, and way beyond first page of a Google search for your keyword(s) the past few days that's why.

However, I saw my blog pages move up in rank, so if you are not Blogging, you might want to get too it because Article Marketing via article directories, and squidoo and hubpagng, etc. for SEO #1 Google ranks appears dead. Original Content on your blogs, and forums is where you will find the new SEO love that Google wants to give out.

All the best in your home business success pursuits.

Thanks for the heads up FreeCashMan.
That is good news for some of us.

Yup EZA are all in a panic because they got slapped and are looking at a possible 50% reduction in traffic

see their blog post by CEO Chris Knight here

Stay tuned

There goes all my unique articles poof...ahwell.Thankfuly I didn't have hundreds or thousands...I feel for those people! haha

One thing is certain article directories and sites of similar structure are toast. Ezine Articles is and has made rapid changes but I'm not sure they will ever be the same as to getting an article publish there is practically instant first page, and there directory is not alone.

Google doesn't care about EA, answerbag, hubpages, they care about the user loving what they get from a Google search and content is going to rule. Along with those sites such as blogs, forums, websites, yours or others that have a more unique experience and content for users in their search.

I believe Forums, which I have long held as a the premier free way to get the most targeted traffic in the home business category to your website, are clear winners here with Google, along with individual blogs with quality unique content on a topic.

So post to your blog, other blogs, and get the back links, which is now probably the better use of article directories, but it may be harder to get into some, so now I think blog commenting and forum comment will be greater for quality backlinks. However article directories that have Follow links will likely still serve one well, but I wouldn't give them first crack at my own content of 400+ word article.

As a not EA was considering changing the resource to a No-Follow, they have since scrapped that idea, and its a good thing they did because if they hadn't it would not be worth sending anything to them. I believe anyone giving another site that also is making money with ads from the use of our content has a duty to give Follow links to the user.

Nearly all decent to great blogs went up in rank with the change. One of mine went to number one (if only it was a more searched keyword )

More details about the changes at Google:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704150604576166390281747136.html

http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2011/02/25/google-singhal-on-why-google-had-spam-issues/

Dang I just had majon do 3 articles for my site to try it out... oh well at least it was a one time thing maybe it'll be worth while. As for blogging, I do that every day with my blog and post to twitter/facebook, and that is driving INSANE amounts of traffic to my site along with forum posting, which I do once a week for my reports as I post to about 50 different related forums, which has helped my SEO tremendously the last 2 months!

Well, im not giving up on ejin@rtikles just yet as i ordered about 50 new articles
and plan to get another 50 more and keep going. I believe that
the new changes means ejin was dropped down a peg.

But what if i do good seo on all 100 of these unique articles? Im
talking blog commenting, profile links, social bookmarking, rss pinging, the works. I think it will still be beneficial because a lot of
non marketers view ejin@rtikles as respectable. Will google now
ignore highly unique articles because it comes from a "content farm"?

The scare here is that ejin lost their advantage that guaranteed them instant first page with minimal effort. I believe and hope that if you do seo on these articles you can stay on first page. After all there are many other factors that contributes to this.

Like domain age, page rank, dmoz, edu backlinks, total inbound links, total pages indexed, e.t.c No matter how you look at it, ejine should still beat out your domain.

It just got more expensive to use ejin@rtikles but i won't stop, no matter how many rules they roll out. As long as google doesnt ban them permanently it is still worth it.

I have noticed a decline in my article views and an increase in my blog traffic. Of course I didn't question it, though I should. I have my eggs in baskets all over the net so that one losing juice won't impact me so much. I have been through Squidoo shutting down 12 of my lens for a stupid error on my part. I just built them up again, better than ever.

I have posted a few articles with Street Articles which I think was created by Pot Pie girl and the guys at wealthy affiliate, I might be wrong. Anyway, those articles quickly went to the first page in Google so it might be worth checking out. Pretty strict guidelines as well.

This is an ever changing environment - what worked well yesterday may not work at all today so diversification is the key.

Those that rely on Squidoo, EZA or any single source of backlink love will always be at the most risk. Those that create good content and diversify with their backlinks will notice very little, if any, negative impact.

Thanks Robin - I am signing up for Street Articles as we speak.

MountainMom!

what is street articles?
Taz

It's a new article directory. Just Google it. I like them so far.

wow... took me about 15 min to write it and I LOVE their system and it was accepted within 5 min. Now that is service.

They did strip the last sentence out as I thought it was supposed to have a resource box.... but next time I know better and will just add the second link within the body.

I know, who knows, may turn out to be the next Ezine. The people running it are certainly capable.

My guess is it's because they know what we want beings they have done it themselves! Especially if Jennifer is involved.

I will check them out now,Let's hope they improve on ezines quality of content though and be stricter on what they accept or they are toast(as well) lol

Taz

Vishal P. Rao: I can 100% attest to this. Not just home business niche, take any niche. Forums are extremely interesting to read as they provide a diverse and interactive view than websites. As a result, people spend more time on forums than websites, of course
taking into consideration the quality of posts in the forum.
Yes, my SMICap thread at this forum ranks on the first few positions on the first page of a Google search, before and after the algorithmic changes. Thanks to this forum - I think Vishal has some magic