As we watched article marketing roll along on a never-ending conveyor belt, filling up thousands of websites, we never thought for one minute the whole machine would come to a screeching halt. Yet here we are in 2011, and while article marketing hasn’t stopped, it sure ain’t what it used to be… that’s for sure. Google’s “Farmer” update pretty much squashed the easy breezy way of article marketing. According to SearchEngineLand.com, big content farms have been left scratching their heads as many have lost their rankings, forcing them to up the quality ante and implementing no-followed links. So is article marketing about to be extinct? Or might it be reinvented?
While ringing the death knell for article marketing may be premature, the platform is certainly going through some changes. And as content creators, we think this is a good thing. Google’s update has pretty much put an end to the crappily-written and reorganized articles. Instead, SEO experts are (finally!) saying that article marketing should be done with only well-written and -researched pieces — you know, the ones people would actually want to read. Uploading articles on your personal website and using social media to spread the word is what these same SEO geniuses are recommending in today’s new article marketing atmosphere. For lower-quality content, marketers will undoubtedly rely on farming techniques — but with more caution. With the growing community of talented writers online, lame articles and the spam-ish marketing that go with it have no more reason to exist.
The biggest change here is that the old Internet-polluting article marketing is done. Good riddance. Of course, it means you’re now responsible for producing great articles that increase your web visibility and fit with your well-crafted brand. This is all part of the story of online marketing and digital branding, and how many of the channels we use will continue to grow and change while others will simply fade away.
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