Why you shouldn’t use article directories to build links [Video]

According to Wikipedia, an article directory is a website with collections of articles written about different subjects. Sometimes they are referred to as content farms, which are websites created to produce mass content.

The reality is that article directories were a great way to build a large number of backlinks to your site – many years ago. Webmasters from websites across the world would just publish your article on their own sites to add content, including the link to your site. Unfortunately, those article directories ended up full of low-quality, stolen or spammy content, and therefore Google had to adjust its algorithm to this reality.

Yesterday Google’s head of Webspam team Matt Cutts launched the video below on the GoogleWebmasterHelp YouTube channel explaining why building links through article directories is a terrible idea.

Nowadays any decent SEO knows that using article directories is a surefire way to get filtered out or even penalised. It is a high-risk and non-efficient practice, and will never have the impact of building organic, high-quality and natural links through quality user-generated content.

Iñigo Etxebeste, January 31, 2014