Want to learn the difference between content marketing & article marketing? The answer is here.

1. Content Marketing vs Article Marketing
Posted by: Aimee Beck on: December 6, 2011
In: Content Marketing | SEO Copywriting
I’ve been hearing a lot of chatter lately about the difference between article marketing and content
marketing. Admittedly, for a while there it all sounded the same — until I listened more closely. That’s when
I realized that what we were all talking about was not at all the same thing. I was talking about content
marketing, and others were talking about article marketing. So what the heck is the difference?
First, let’s define ―content.‖
What is Content?
Content is Web copy, and it refers to the words on a website, in an email, or in any other form of online
marketing communications that encourage users to take a desired action (aka: convert) – pick up the
phone, register, subscribe, download, or buy a product or service.
Now you might say that sounds just like article marketing. Close, but no. The simplest way to differentiate
the two is to say that:
1. Content marketing refer to the web pages on your site — your products and services pages, your
blog, your FAQs.
2. Article marketing on the other hand is off-site — it’s content that has been written to live
elsewhere on the Web and hopefully link back to your site.
Content marketing is about generating targeted traffic – not just top rankings in SERPs. I’ve said it before
and she’ll continue to say it, a number 1 ranking in Google, even if it’s for hundreds of keywords, is
worthless unless the page can convert.
Online businesses (or offline businesses that have an online presence) continue to make the same
conversion-killing mistake: they drive traffic to their website (with article marketing) before prepping it with
web copy (content) that converts.
Jakob Nielsen, usability engineer and author of Designing Web Usability, and other books, wrote, ―Words are
usually the main money-makers on a website. Better writing is probably the single most important
improvement you can make to your site.‖
Panda / Farmer / Content Farms
In early 2011, Google finally began to target and remove ―low quality‖ content from the search results,
primarily targeting content farms – which is why the algorithm update was originally called Farmer. Content
farms employ hundreds of low-cost, inexperienced writers who have little to no expertise in the topic area
they’re assigned to write about.
Link building guru and pioneer, Eric Ward, said, ―…content farms are good for the web. I don’t mean good as
in you should be using them as part of your linking strategy. Not at all. Link building via content farming is a
bad strategy. What I mean by ―good‖ is content farms ultimately help the engines figure what can’t be
trusted.‖

2. Article marketing is not content marketing. Link building is not content marketing. True, the proper use of
content marketing will generate inbound links, naturally. But the sole purpose of the content is to engage
and convert, not to link and rank in SERPs. Content marketing writers (aka SEO copywriters) create useful
niche-specific information to share with niche-specific audiences. They help Joe Smith become known within
his community as the go-to person in his field, whether he’s a cosmetic dentist, a florist or a mechanic.
There is a distinct difference between ―content marketing‖ and ―article marketing.‖
Do you have experience with article or content marketing you’d like to share? We’d love to hear from you!
Be sure to Open the SEO Vault tomorrow to read my in-depth content marketing example.
~~Aimee
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