Article Submission- Multiple versus One Copy
I've had a few conversations in the past few days about article submission. And I've tried to explain it a few different ways, I'm going to see if I can get crystal clear in this blog post.
First off, submitting the same article to multiple directories is NOT bad. Yes, you're not going to end up with thousands of incoming backlinks but you could end up with a few dozen, and that doesn't suck. Plus, you'll also have your article out there so that it can generate traffic for you.
Imagine your website was a "Sausage Making" site. And you wrote an article about "Making Vegetarian Polish Sausages out of Tofu". Let's say the main keyword for your website is "Sausage Making", and the keyword for your article were "Making vegetarian sausages", also your anchor text from your bio uses the keyword phrase "Making vegetarian sausages".
Now if you posted that article in lets say 50 PR5+ directories, and put it up on your website, what would that mean for the searches?
If you did a search for the article title "Making Vegetarian Polish Sausages out of Tofu". You'll undoubtedly come up with dozens of results. Some of these would fall out of the index, but not all. They showed up for a while, then completely dropped off. Some would show up in the supplemental index. After around 3-6 months only 10-20 entries usually survive.
In almost every instance my original on my website DID survive. I think it's because google is smart enough to figure out, even though this "text" shows up all over the web on multiple sites, they are all pointing to this one domain, where I see the same text. That must be where it came from. Just my theory, seems to be held up from my experience.
Now, if you were to do a search on the keywords "making vegetarian sausages" that's where it gets interesting. Because I have all these 10-20 articles pointing to my website with the anchor text "making vegetarian sausages". Now my HOMEPAGE comes up first, NOT the article that I wrote. And assuming that it was a small volume, not very competitive keyword phrase, ONE version of my article will show up. The search won't show all 20 versions of my article, as it's smart enough to know they are all the same. Although every now and again you'll see 2-3 show up, usually in a few months only one survives.
The reality is that I don't always want MY article to show up for that keyword search. If I did, I might have the anchor text, and the link on all the articles bio boxes pointing to the actual article page on my website. And there are good reasons for doing that.
Now, here's where it gets fun. Google LOVES Ezine Articles, given the choice google will always use Ezine Articles. But, then it's up to you to figure out what google likes second best(my best guess is Goarticles, followed by Article dashboard).
Now, if you have another article that you create called something like "Making Vegetarian Sausages out of Wheat"(I'm guessing here), with the same keywords and such. Now, DO NOT submit this article to Ezine Articles, but submit to the other article directories. Eventually you'll see the same thing, 10-20 articles will survive the google index purge.
Why is this important?
Because google doesn't like to show the same domain name twice in searches. So, at most you can have one EzineArticles.com article show up for a keyword search. But that doesn't mean you couldn't have your website, an EzineArticle.com article, and a Goarticles.com article and a ArticlesDashboard article show up all on the first page of a google search for your keyword phrase.
So, if you did a search on those keywords "Making vegetarian sausages" you could completely dominate the first page with all of your different articles. I have one instance, where my website is #1, and 8 of the rest of the top 10, are in some way links that reference my website, articles, directories, etc. I'm completely dominating that keyword niche by taking this staggered approach.
Also, there is a very good reason for submitting the article multiple times. Even though only a small percentage of them survive, because each one of them is giving a link to your website with the anchor text, your site is becoming more important in Google eyes for your anchor text keywords. If you were to only submit to Ezine Articles, and just the one article. Most likely the Ezine article is going to be what is displayed NOT your website. When in most cases we would prefer the website to come up rather than your Ezine article. The more of your articles that survive, and the more times you write articles that link back to your website with your keyword phrase, the more likely you are to rise in the search rankings for that keyword phrase. Ultimately if it came down to it, wouldn't you trade your website coming up for the keyword phrase you're targeting, even if the article that you wrote isn't even indexed on your domain, over hoping someone reads your article on EzineArticles, isn't distracted by the dozens of other links, and chooses to come visit your article. Isn't that the point, getting visitors that you can monetize somehow. Because the longer they stay on EzineArticles or some other site, the more likely that someone else is monetizing on your "potential clients".
So, it really depends on what you're looking for. If you're in a highly competitive niche, and you need high powered backlinks, then you'd be better off submitting everywhere including the all powerful EzineARticles.com. But, if you have a smaller niche, it's entirely possible to dominate the entire niche with your articles.
Hope this was educational,
MR
First off, submitting the same article to multiple directories is NOT bad. Yes, you're not going to end up with thousands of incoming backlinks but you could end up with a few dozen, and that doesn't suck. Plus, you'll also have your article out there so that it can generate traffic for you.
Imagine your website was a "Sausage Making" site. And you wrote an article about "Making Vegetarian Polish Sausages out of Tofu". Let's say the main keyword for your website is "Sausage Making", and the keyword for your article were "Making vegetarian sausages", also your anchor text from your bio uses the keyword phrase "Making vegetarian sausages".
Now if you posted that article in lets say 50 PR5+ directories, and put it up on your website, what would that mean for the searches?
If you did a search for the article title "Making Vegetarian Polish Sausages out of Tofu". You'll undoubtedly come up with dozens of results. Some of these would fall out of the index, but not all. They showed up for a while, then completely dropped off. Some would show up in the supplemental index. After around 3-6 months only 10-20 entries usually survive.
In almost every instance my original on my website DID survive. I think it's because google is smart enough to figure out, even though this "text" shows up all over the web on multiple sites, they are all pointing to this one domain, where I see the same text. That must be where it came from. Just my theory, seems to be held up from my experience.
Now, if you were to do a search on the keywords "making vegetarian sausages" that's where it gets interesting. Because I have all these 10-20 articles pointing to my website with the anchor text "making vegetarian sausages". Now my HOMEPAGE comes up first, NOT the article that I wrote. And assuming that it was a small volume, not very competitive keyword phrase, ONE version of my article will show up. The search won't show all 20 versions of my article, as it's smart enough to know they are all the same. Although every now and again you'll see 2-3 show up, usually in a few months only one survives.
The reality is that I don't always want MY article to show up for that keyword search. If I did, I might have the anchor text, and the link on all the articles bio boxes pointing to the actual article page on my website. And there are good reasons for doing that.
Now, here's where it gets fun. Google LOVES Ezine Articles, given the choice google will always use Ezine Articles. But, then it's up to you to figure out what google likes second best(my best guess is Goarticles, followed by Article dashboard).
Now, if you have another article that you create called something like "Making Vegetarian Sausages out of Wheat"(I'm guessing here), with the same keywords and such. Now, DO NOT submit this article to Ezine Articles, but submit to the other article directories. Eventually you'll see the same thing, 10-20 articles will survive the google index purge.
Why is this important?
Because google doesn't like to show the same domain name twice in searches. So, at most you can have one EzineArticles.com article show up for a keyword search. But that doesn't mean you couldn't have your website, an EzineArticle.com article, and a Goarticles.com article and a ArticlesDashboard article show up all on the first page of a google search for your keyword phrase.
So, if you did a search on those keywords "Making vegetarian sausages" you could completely dominate the first page with all of your different articles. I have one instance, where my website is #1, and 8 of the rest of the top 10, are in some way links that reference my website, articles, directories, etc. I'm completely dominating that keyword niche by taking this staggered approach.
Also, there is a very good reason for submitting the article multiple times. Even though only a small percentage of them survive, because each one of them is giving a link to your website with the anchor text, your site is becoming more important in Google eyes for your anchor text keywords. If you were to only submit to Ezine Articles, and just the one article. Most likely the Ezine article is going to be what is displayed NOT your website. When in most cases we would prefer the website to come up rather than your Ezine article. The more of your articles that survive, and the more times you write articles that link back to your website with your keyword phrase, the more likely you are to rise in the search rankings for that keyword phrase. Ultimately if it came down to it, wouldn't you trade your website coming up for the keyword phrase you're targeting, even if the article that you wrote isn't even indexed on your domain, over hoping someone reads your article on EzineArticles, isn't distracted by the dozens of other links, and chooses to come visit your article. Isn't that the point, getting visitors that you can monetize somehow. Because the longer they stay on EzineArticles or some other site, the more likely that someone else is monetizing on your "potential clients".
So, it really depends on what you're looking for. If you're in a highly competitive niche, and you need high powered backlinks, then you'd be better off submitting everywhere including the all powerful EzineARticles.com. But, if you have a smaller niche, it's entirely possible to dominate the entire niche with your articles.
Hope this was educational,
MR
Labels: article directories, article submission, seo
