Yes, it's still considered as an important back link along with other ways used for building backlinks.
Many people believe that the new Google Panda update killed article marketing. From my understanding It still is an effective method, as it always will. The Panda update devalued profile links, that's all I know. article directories still hold their value, but it's going to be better to get those links using white hat methods rather than black hat. I think the algorithms are using some kind of AI to spot obviously spun articles!
well article marketing is less effective now. or on the other side you will have to improve your articles and consider where you going to post them.
If you have quality content then you have nothing to worry about because Google is just getting rid of trash.
From our experience we had over 500 articles on Eznearticles that were (before Panda) indexed, now after the panda update NONE are indexed on Ezinearticles, so anyone saying that article directories are unaffected is wrong. All our content was 100% unique but due to others posted copied and pasted articles it will affect you and waste your time. We have found it much more time effective to write unique articles and post them on our website, this way you get the traffic direct.
The thing is quality, anywhere you are building links, you have to provide quality for better result, if you are doing article submission then try submitting fresh and quality articles to only top article directories these would give you good benefit. On the other hand, if you are using other method of link building like forum posting or blog commenting then here you have to contribute to the forums and blogs first then you would get good benefit. Well, how would you get the good benefit? You may be thinking that if there is no quality then still the link would be lived, aren't you? But it is not so, if there is no quality then your post may be deleted, if not deleted then there is no value of your content from other visitors on the forum and blog and your link would may not receive any click, if it receive clicks then it gives you SEO benefits also giving you link juice.
Article directories are still very important for link building because by article websites we are getting good back link with high PR websites.
Areticle directories help a ton! Just make sure you choose relevant keywords that pertain to your article. And that the articles are posted to relevant directories. (Don't put a car article up in a directory that deals with fishing, etc.)
Yeah I also think so, if you have fresh and unique content then article distributions are still worthy.
Of course it's still important .. it's a natural way to get backlinks .. so it will still important .. You can worry about blog commenting maybe ..
Writing an article can be a tiring process. Its not every day that you see yourself in the mood to write about a particular topic. It takes a while before you can start squeezing your brains for the right words and phrases. If you’re one of those people who hire others to write for you, well you are indeed fortunate. If you already have your article to be submitted, make sure that it has quality and original content. It should contain enough keywords to market your product. In article submission, you need to position your article in the right niche, category, and market so that it will be instantly noticed. Submitting an article into a directory can be an easy task yet it should be posted properly because the manner of posting an article may sometimes affect the interest of a reader. Adding an image or video that is relevant to the subject you are writing may also attract the readers to read. If possible you can add the links to an image or video.
Yes sure why not ... article directories are the best solution to get the good back links to your website . But to make sure you need to submit unique and quality content to these directory.