Article marketing – An inbound link tactic turned sour
[2014 Addendum: Google came down hard on article marketing after this was written and guest blogging took its place as a way to manipulate rank. The two aren’t that different, but with guest blogging you have more control over where your post (article) will appear. Because of that, done right, guest blogging can associate you with the right crowd and do much to increase your authority and following in your field. But it too has been abused, and as of January, 2014, Google is pulling the plug on it as an SEO signal. To what degree we don’t know yet.]
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We all want those precious inbound links (also known as link juice) to boost our position in Google, but they are not easy to come by, particularly because most of the time we rely on others to link to us, and they might not be too interested in what we have to say. And so along came article marketing to the so-called rescue.
What is article marketing?
Article marketing is not new. For decades businesses have been using article marketing to their benefit as a form of advertisement. As an example, a landscaper might write an article on native plants and submit it to the local newspaper for printing just before the growing season. In exchange for the article, the newspaper would print the landscaper’s contact info along with the article. The arrangement is a win/win for both parties; the newspaper gets free content to publish to its subscribers and the landscaper gets exposure and gains credibility in the community.