INSIGHT
RIDDLE ME THIS
WHEN IS A GUEST BLOG
NOT A GUEST BLOG?
In today’s SEO landscape, a robust content marketing and outreach strategy is more crucial than ever
before, writes Joel Turner, Head of Marketing and Strategy at Blueclaw.
GooGle’S CAllS For the SEO
fraternity not to abuse guest blogging as a
tactic for link building have been growing
in number in recent times, reaching
a crescendo with the company’s chief
mouthpiece regarding webspam, Matt
Cutts, rubbishing the practice early in 2014.
His post, The decay and fall of guest
blogging for SEO, sent shudders through the
SEO community, leading to bemusement,
anger and even the loss of clients for some
agencies. So what exactly did he say?
“Okay, I’m calling it: if you’re using
guest blogging as a way to gain links in
2014, you should probably stop. Why?
Because over time it’s become a more and
more spammy practice and if you’re doing
a lot of guest blogging then you’re hanging
out with really bad company.”
He added that we should: “stick a fork
in it: guest blogging is done; it’s just
gotten too spammy. In general, I wouldn’t
recommend accepting a guest blog
post unless you are willing to vouch for
someone personally or know them well.
Likewise, I wouldn’t recommend relying on
guest posting, guest blogging sites, or guest
blogging SEO as a link building strategy.”
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The overwhelming reaction to his post
even caused Cutts to write an addition,
qualifying his comments: “I’m not trying
to throw the baby out with the bath water.
There are still many good reasons to do
some guest blogging (exposure, branding,
increased reach, community, etc.)”
Google’s latest
spam-fighting salvo
Clearly, and as Cutts points out, there
is still opportunity to undertake high
quality guest posting. Guest posting is
the lifeblood of the blogosphere, fostering
community and helping individual
bloggers to build exposure and traffic
to their sites.
It gets sticky when the subject of
crediting a guest blogger enters the
equation. It has been customary to link
back to the guest writer’s site – which
seems entirely consistent with the aims
stated by Cutts.
It’s for this reason that Cutts cannot
disqualify guest posting, or the backlinks
generated, as a result. But as with anything
the search engine tries to do to combat
manipulation of its algorithm, and
mGAMING
in-keeping with Google’s push to discredit
links from web directories, article
submission and social bookmarking sites
with the Penguin updates, it will be looking
closely for patterns.
This latest announcement regarding
guest posts has a lot in common with
Google’s webspam team discrediting
press release syndication for link building
purposes. The problem is, and has always
been, the SEO community’s willingness
to shamelessly use the same tactics for
link building until they are discovered
and annihilated. In many ways, it’s not
hard to understand why. Links are hard
to build, so if you find a tactic that works
you are bound to continue using it. Some
proportion of the link building community
will always pursue the easiest route to
links, with a mindset focused on
harvesting the highest number of links
for the lowest possible input of time and
money. The problem, however, as I
alluded to, is patterns.
Patterns pose problems
If you’re acquiring links in the same way
day in, day out with little variation in the