Article Syndication: How Useful Is It?

Is is really worth it to syndicate your content across the web? Does article syndication really serve users as an effective advanced SEO technique, or is it really just a flawed and misguided idea?

Some SEO professionals still hold on to the idea that article syndication is a great way to attract the attention of search engine crawlers, and to improve your site’s indexing power and increase visibility. Often times an SEO marketer will recommend syndication as a way to spread the reach of your site’s content, and that by posting links to your content on multiple article directories, such as EZine.com, you can easily generate more site traffic and higher visibility.

Matt Cutts, however, sees syndication a little differently, hinting at the possibility that Google penalizes the mass syndication of content, rendering it virtually useless as an SEO technique. As the head of Google’s Webspam team, Matt Cutts is constantly working on changes to Google’s algorithm, devising better ways for Google to parse out and punish those relying on spammy, recycled or mass-syndicated content. Matt Cutts, according to Jennifer Slegg of Searchenginewatch.com, has recently pointed to the potential ineffectiveness of mass content syndication, stating that an attached content link from an article directory may no longer be a good way to boost site visibility, and that Google may now be keeping a watchful eye on this practice.

“In my particular opinion,” says Cutts, “article directories, and just trying to write one article and syndicating it wildly or just uploading it wildly to every site in the world, hoping that everyone else will download it and use it on their site…I wouldn’t necessarily count on that being effective.”

Slegg adds that SEO professionals, the people constantly looking for better, more advanced SEO techniques to improve their clients’ site visibility, have for the most part abandoned the use of article syndication and mass directories, and that those who continue to jump into mass article syndication are ignorant of the potential implications. She points to a recent statement by Cutts regarding a potentially proactive approach by Google to punish the practice.

“We certainly have some algorithmic things that…probably (make) it a little less likely to be successful now compared to a few years ago,” says Cutts. “My recommendation would probably be to not upload (an) 

article like that.”

Source: http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2326161/Matt-Cutts-Using-Article-Directories-for-Links-Just-No