So it used to be part of some search engine optimization strategies to write articles and then post them on content sites like Ezinearticles.com with links back to the original content or specific product or service pages that pay off the article. Recently Google’s Farmer update stripped many of these article sites from their search rankings, depriving them of the traffic that made them so popular. And while I understand and commend Google for their update – I mean it is all about relevant search results – I think there is some merit in continuing this practice… at least to some extent and depending on your approach.

Let me first say that I get just as frustrated as most when I see poorly written articles that stuff keywords and offer little relevance to the content they link to. Drives me crazy in fact mainly because this is not how we’ve approached article marketing or syndication. When we write articles and blogs, we make them fresh and informative; they’re well written and link to highly relevant content. And, we’re still seeing traffic coming from these article sites – mainly because Bing and Yahoo have yet to follow in Google’s footsteps – and because they’re well… relevant!

What Google is trying to accomplish with their Farmer update is to provide relevant search results. There are some fantastic content aggregators that screen for relevancy and still provide the benefits of syndication. It’s just that now this strategy needs a little more hands-on attention, and for that I thank Google for they’ve skimmed the SEO providers that use tactics that are less-than-favorable and cleared the way for those that do it right! Content is still king… always has been and I presume always will.