In the recent change to the Google algorithm the credibility of, and the traffic to, the largest online article directory took a hefty blow. EzineArticles.com saw a drop in traffic on some days of 35%, and many of its pages have been de-indexed by Google or removed from the site by its own team of editors.
The categories which received the most attention from self-editing were the old affiliate favourites:
- Men’s issues
- Reverse call phone look up
- Acai berry
As a result of the smackdown Ezine Articles toughens up
In an attempt to get back into the Google good books and to scrape back the lost traffic and credibility EA has brought in new guidelines for authors and a much stricter editorial policy.
It now estimates the article rejection quota will reach about 60%.
This is bad news for content creators who saw Ezine Articles as an easy outlet for their massively spun or badly written articles promoting crappy websites and/or affiliate products, and good news for creators of high quality content who like to use a site with a good reputation.
Ezine Articles moved swiftly to make these changes and have been letting Google know through blog posts and (very probably) telephone conversations too.
Quality over quantity
Interestingly, one of the changes is to sunset the WordPress Plugin that allowed submissions directly from a WordPress blog. On the EA list of actions it is taking the removal of the WordPress plugin was listed second. I guess this means it sees the plugin as a major contributor to the low quality content it receives (and, by the way, publishes).
Besides a general increase in quality control Ezine Articles has introduced one other major change – an increase in the minimum word quota. It’s now set at 400.
Naughty boy!
Overall I am in favour of the action Ezine Articles is taking. I’ve got a problem article in there at the moment which has been rejected three times. Twice for an inaccurate title and now, the third time, because “Your article does not include enough original and informative content.”
The article is 100% original! I wrote it myself without any help from anyone or anything. So I guess it’s not informative enough. Despite what you may think, I am happy with that comment. It forces me to go away and rewrite the article again, and to this time make it better and more informative.
Another reason why I’m happy with that comment is because it’s true. I quickly put something together in order to get a link from Ezine Articles to a new site I’m working on because I knew I could. I didn’t concern myself too much with the quality of the article, I just wanted the link. And that’s the way a lot of people in my position think, and Ezine Articles has allowed that to happen.
I wrote the article about four weeks ago when all of this kicked off. There is no doubt in my mind that it would have been accepted then, but not any more.
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What about you? If you use Ezine Articles have you noticed any difference in editorial control or has your content been pulled? So far that hasn’t happened to me, but I don’t use EA that much.
Hi Stephen,
Thanks for the update and the link to the conversation at Ezine. It was pretty heated! I haven’t had any problems submitting but most of my articles are in the 600 word range and all original.
What I have seen is a major traffic decrease but ironically my click through percentages are going up! So I think maybe, at least for me, I am getting a more targeted audience and seeing better results.
Thanks again!
Keith
Hi Dennis,
That’s good news about the increased click through. I hope it continues!
Thanks for commenting, it’s appreciated.
Stephen
I just got the fun “Your article does not include enough original and informative content” and it just makes me hate EzineArticles more. Just like you, I wrote 100% of my article, but unlike you…I did not throw it together for a link, I actually wrote it for information.
Who cares though, because at the end of all this, EZA are the biggest hypocrites on the web. Go take a look in a big “money making” niche, and look at the top authors.
Am I really supposed to believe that someone who has written 3,000+ articles is writing 100% unique and purely informative information in every single article? You don’t think maybe they may have the same thought twice, at least?
EZA is an absurd directory trying to impress the cool kid, and I can’t wait until they are no longer around in any profitable capacity.