Ezinearticles.com - New author guidelines 2011

Info  PR: 3  I: 3,180,000  L: 0  LD: 204,748,582  I: 323,000 Rank: 7  Age: Oct 12, 1999  I: 0  whois source Robo: yes Sitemap: no  Rank: 1586  Price: 989030 Links: 12|3 Density

Quality Criteria for Authors

In response to the Google Algorith Change 2011, Ezinearticles.com
has now finalized its new Quality critieria for authors.

The list is provided here:

1. Doubling the time for editors to make quality checks
2. No longer accept article submissions via WordPress Plugin and API
3. Two weeks limit for removal of identified dead links (vs 35 days)
4. Only 10 additional submissions to reach Platinum Level (vs 25)*
5. Minimum 400 word count (vs 250)

* Note: if you do not make the quality grade (platinum member) after
20 submissions you will no longer be allowed to submit to
Ezinearticles.com

The NoFollow Link Debate

There has been a heated debate over the suggestion by
Ezinearticles.com that they would introduce a nofollow link
process for the Resource box area of an article (they already
have this in place for "within article" links).

Blog comments became quite heated over this topic
(50 + pages of comments). There was a very strong resistance
to this proposed change as it stopped authors from generating
quality backlinks via Ezinearticles.com.

The effect of the no- follow tag on links is that search engines
will not follow/index the link and no "link juice" or anchor text
will pass from Ezinearticles.com (now PR 6) to the
author's website.  Thus the author would not gain a quality
backlink (see Matt Cutt's video below explaining Google's
position on no-follow links).

Christopher Knight argued that using the "no follow" tag
for the Resource Box links, would show Google that
Ezinearticles.com were not "gaming" the search engine
system and would improve its quality score.

Other commentators pointed out that Articlebase.com
had a 100% "no follow" policy and still were hit very hard
by Google's 2011 Algorith Change.

The debate then turned to, "What is the fundamental purpose
of Ezinearticles.com?"  Christopher Knight argued that the primary
purpose is to serve the reader with content that helps them
solve their problems/issues - Ezinearticles.com does not exist
to provide quality backlinks for authors.

Many of the commentators then argued that authors submit for
two purposes - to get traffic and quality backlinks. They suggested
that if the second benefit was taken away, many authors would no
longer publish on the Ezinearticles.com article directory.

Christopher Knight, Owner of Ezinearticles.com, then
withdrew the suggestion of "no follow" links from 
current quality considerations.

The discussion, though, highlighted Ezinearticles.com absolute
commitment to improved quality (necessary for its survival)
but genuine willingness to engage in discussion and consultation
with its members.

It also highlights the need to be continuously vigilant about quality
and innovation, even for an organisation that holds a premier
position as the No. 1 article directory of the Internet.

Related Post:

The 2011 Google Algorith Changes: Ezinearticles.com Response



********************************************

Ron Passfield, PhD, is an expert author/Platinum author
with Ezinearticles.com with 40 published articles.
Ron is the creator of a training program in social media marketing,
covering content creation, social networking
and promotion:
http://www.squidooroo.com

**********************************************

Matt Cutts from Google on "no follow" links

Ezinearticles.com Response to Google's new "Farmer Algorith"

Google bots on-the-move

If you thought it was difficult in the past to get your article
published on Ezinearticles.com, things are going to be
even tougher in the future.  Ezinearticles.com is
predicting that it's current 40.6% rejection rate will
climb to at least 60% because of new measures it is
putting in place to improve the quality of the site.

These changes have come as an immediate response to
what is being termed as Googles's "Farmer Algorith"
changes.  Google has decided that it is time to
change its search engine algorith to dump poor quality
sites from high rankings:

This update is designed to reduce rankings for low-quality sites
—sites which are low-value add for users, copy content from
other websites or sites that are just not very useful.

Google plans instead to give more value to what they consider
to be high quality sites:
...it will provide better rankings for high-quality sites—sites
with original content and information such as research,
in-depth reports, thoughtful analysis and so on.

Unfortunately sites like Ezinearticles.com, who go out of their
way to create quality through human editing and other measures,
have been among the hardest hit.

Ezinearticles.com has already recorded the immediate downturn
in traffic it experienced after the changes were announced:

While we adamantly disagree with anyone who places the
“Content Farm” label on EzineArticles.com, we were not
immune to this algorithm change. Traffic was down 11.5%
on Thursday and over 35% on Friday. In our life-to-date,
this is the single most significant reduction in market trust
we’ve experienced from Google.

There has been an immediate response by Ezinearticles.com
which has signaled the following changes:

1. tighten the software mechanism that detects copied content
2. no longer accept submissions directly from WordPress blogs
3. reduction in number of ads per page (to keep article reader focused)
4. 600-850 words may become the new normal with 400 being the minimum
5. increased rejection of "advertorials"
6. tightening up on categories that tend to encourage spam or poor content
7. may start rejecting content that is not unique to
EzineArticles.com alone. (this is in line with some news release outlets.)


So you can expect a whole lot of tightening up on Ezinearticles.com
but also on HubPages, AssociatedContent.com, Suite101.com and Buzzle.com
- all of whom have been negatively impacted by the Google Algorith Changes.

Some of the winners in the aftermath of the Google Algorith Changes are:

1. eHow.com
2. youtube.com
3. ebay.com
4. facebook.com
5. instructables.com

...plus Sears and Walmart!!
  
Dan Abbamont who compared some stats before and after the change
based on Google Canada suggested that Squidoo too lost 15 places
in search results.

This is not supported by other stats supplied by researchers.

Squidoo's recent appointment of large numbers of GiantSquids
as SquidAngels to do quality control over allocated
topic "neighborhoods" (sub-categories) was probably done in
anticipation of these Google Algorith Changes.

Whatever, the final fall-out is, the whole arena of article marketing
and content creation has changed yet again.

Related articles:

PotPieGirl gives her perspective on these 2011
Google Algoritm Changes changes:
http://www.potpiegirl.com/2011/03/my-theory-on-the-google-algo-change/trackback/

************************************************

Ron Passfield, PhD is the creator of SquidooRoo.com, a 6 month
program in social media marketing.  The Program covers,
content creation, social networking and promotion including
press releases.