The future of publishing articles to get links
Let's suppose I write an article which includes a link to my website, submit it some free article directories and it ends up being reproduced on five other websites.
That's five links back to my site from the people who use the article, in addition to links from the directories.
However, it's still only one article. The fact that five people decide to copy it might indicate that it has some merit, but my point is that it is duplicated content. The article has not become five times more useful or relevant by being copied five times.
The "publish free articles to build links" strategy is why we have a new industry based purely on creating content for its sake. I'm part of it too.
I'm just wondering how long this "content creation industry" can remain viable. There is a huge irony in the fact that the more we create content to get links to improve our search engine visibility, the more we add to the clutter on the web.
Is it only a matter of time before Google and the others figure out a way to discount links that are in duplicated content?
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