Has SEO been reduced to Article Submission
A question to throw out there, I am constantly offered Search Engine Optimisation services, tips, hints and tricks, as I am sure most of the readers of this blog are. But my question is – is it all about Article Submission?
Just to explain quickly ‘Article Submission’ is the posting of articles on 3rd party websites that are relevant to your business. Without any real self-promotion these articles are subtlety linked back to your website. When Google trawls these articles their ‘Bots’ make a positive connection between the content in the article and your website thereby given your website ‘authority’ on the subject matter you are writing about.
If you’re promoting a ski chalet you might writer about choosing ski chalets, Google will then boost your website as a result of the association.
There are now thousands of Article Submission websites available where you might post these articles and Google in turn have taken to ignoring some, allowing others and generally confusing the quality. Google argument there is no point in a Tennis website promoting articles on Ski Chalets for example. The content has to be relevant all round.
The problem is that with regard to ‘off-site’ SEO – what more can you do? Linking Building is still very effective, but harder work than ever before, websites that have links to your website leak SEO and also have to be related to your subject and business, but the incentive to link is becoming less and less.
The other hot topic is Social Media – having a Facebook Page or Twitter account both help SEO, as does almost any other social activity, but these need to come from the heart of a company, they are proving very difficult to outsource to marketing people.
So Article Submission – is the only remaining ‘easy’ option for off-site SEO that can be outsourced to an agency, that does not bode very well for either the concept of Article Submission or ‘off-site’ SEO.
Does anyone else have any ideas?