Authoritative Article Marketing vs SEO Article Directory Marketing

The confusion, which continues between the two: “authoritative article marketing” and “SEO article directory marketing”, never seems to cease. Authoritative article marketers are clear about the marketing method they embrace, but SEO article directory marketers create the murkiness when they insist upon also referring to what they do as straight “article marketing”.

Let me explain the two:

Authoritative Article Marketing involves high quality, focused articles, written specifically to catch the eye of webmasters looking for good content for their sites, otherwise known as syndication. These articles nearly always contain more than 1,000 words; they draw in and entertain the reader and they never, never promote or sell. Selling is not their purpose, where-as engaging the reader and informing them is.

Articles written by authoritative article marketers follow an inherent understanding of how webmasters are constantly on the lookout for top-notch content for their blogs, websites, newsletters, etc. These webmasters will nearly always pick a long article over a shorter one, simply because of the space it occupies. Your 500-word article may be brilliant, but its selection means the webmaster still has critical space to fill.

The purpose of articles written for Authoritative Article Marketing is to pre-sell; actually, the prefix “before” explains the concept far better than “pre”. These authority articles provide information, and the context in which they are written is especially subtle. They also create the impression that the writer is an authority on the subject, meaning his/her opinion can be trusted, even sought out.

As these high quality articles are picked up and published on other, context relevant websites, they create very good backlinks to the author’s website, as well as placing his or her work in front of an ever-expanding audience. A smart authoritative article writer keeps close tabs on where his or her work gets published, so that any future relevant work is offered directly to the webmaster(s). This is true syndication.

SEO Article “Directory” Marketing does not require the same level of writing skills. The writer produces articles of between 400 and 500 words, employs software to create multiple, so-called, unique versions of each article, which he then either submits himself to multiple article directories, or uses further software to automate the process.

The theory behind this procedure is SEO, and the creation of hundreds, possibly thousands of backlinks to the marketer’s website, but the reality is, nearly all these backlinks are low quality and contextually irrelevant. In Google’s eyes, thousands are required to equal just one high quality backlink obtained on a context relevant website.

I believe the software writers who sell the programs used by SEO article directory marketers are constantly muddying the waters between these two marketing methods. While confusion within the two proliferates, their products continue to sell.

Writers considering SEO article directory marketing now need to bear in mind the drastic change Google’s February Panda/Farmer update to its algorithms has bestowed upon this form of website promotion.

This update de-indexed millions of previously indexed articles, produced expressly for creating high-volume, low-relevance backlinks. Even Ezine Articles took a considerable hit, which resulted in them removing thousands of previously accepted articles, and tightening up their article acceptance standards significantly.

This is the reason SEO article “directory” marketers are now posting left right and center, claiming article marketing is “dead”. Actually, it isn’t; authoritative article marketing in its purest sense is alive and flourishing. The Panda update gave this marketing method a huge vote of confidence.

And, in reality, neither is “SEO article directory marketing” dead, provided its advocates exercise caution before submitting their multiple article versions. Each variation must make sense, which in the past has not been the case, many reading as little better than gibberish. These low-level articles will never, ever result in quality backlinks, and many will never even get indexed by Google, but I suppose there may possibly still be a place for this marketing method among some writers.

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Filed under: Article Marketing

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