By now I’m sure you have discovered many different ways to submit articles to various submission sites. You have written your articles, proofread them and are ready to submit. You are now at another cross road, should you show discretion and submit your articles to a few chosen article directories or go for bulk submission?
There are those who opt for bulk article submission, getting their articles out across the entire Internet vs just a few submission sites. Others feel this method is a haphazard avenue with many pitfalls.

Does Bulk Article Submission Work?

Many marketers believe submitting tons of articles to countless directories is not good practice. What is the reality of bulk article submission vs taking the conservative path and submitting to selective directories?

First, you need to look at the reality of bulk submissions. More than likely you are going to submit articles to the wrong directories, or land on a specific site which has nothing whatsoever to do with your subject. You will loose significant article values because these articles will be declined. The myth that the more sites you submit to equates to higher ranking in SERPs is total bunk!

Directories within Directories:

Many article directory sites are actually copies of major directories. These sites are thrown together with little to no effort and offer little to no effect. There are a few that are actually worth their weight, but not many. These sites are hardly ever updated, are not maintained and have never been promoted. No promotion – Poor Alexis Ranking.

In answer to your question about getting slapped by Google? I wouldn’t worry about it, search engines will never run into these sites. Unfortunately, out of all your heaped-on articles, you will be lucky if 10% find their way to readers. Once articles make it to readers, the search engines will pick them up, but look at the percentage drop.

What Happens When Search Engines Find Duplicate Articles?

You need to understand a little bit about Google and whether Google penalizes sites for duplicate content. Google does not have duplicate filters and therefore has never penalized or banned sites for having duplicate content. However, Google does search for keywords and phrases that are and unique and this can effect your ranking.

Google’s Hierarchy Prioritizing Techniques:

Google sends out spiders who, in turn, come back with reports on published articles. These articles are considered for display, while copies of these articles will never appear in search results. Insignificant directories may well publish your articles but larger more significant sites may take weeks to get these articles approved.

What happens now, Google has identified your new content and your articles make it into a relevant search result. As your other articles start to surface, elsewhere, Google deems them as less significant, their ranking lowers and end up on the bottom of the heap and invisible.

Here is the two-edged sword. There are marketers who submit hundreds of articles to directories and then turn around and publish the same article on their website. The original article might have caught the attention of Google, but the duplicate, posted on their site, will not rank well.

What About All Those Backlinks:

Google is very aware of bulk submissions and the thousands of published articles across directories. Those thousands of backlinks will count for absolutely nothing! Remember those submissions and their insignificance (i.e. buried at the bottom of the heap)? You are not going to get backlinks from Google. Google is not looking to slap you down, they are simply stating your duplications are not of value and will ignore them.

Bulk Article Submissions vs Selective Directories:

Using bulk article submissions will cause approximately 95% of your work to be ignored or declined by search engines. The other 5% will probably do quite well, but look at the loss in terms of your site’s ranking.

The only people who benefit from bulk article submissions are those who concentrate on unique content quality and submit to selective directories. While you are spinning your wheels, they are reaping the profits of traffic to their sites and looking good in the eyes of Google.