Guest Posting

[Studio33]

Is guest posting to get links a good idea?

I have the blogs to post but do not have the time to find, approach and build a relationship with bloggers to get the guest posts.  Are guest posting services a good idea and if so can anyone recommend one?

Thanks

[troytlb]

TextLinkBrokers offers high quality placements for guest posts. As long as you aren't using commercial/exact-match anchor text and stick with branded/generic terms you're good to go. They also don't use any networks and spend a lot of time building relationships with authority sites. Check it out.

[irvingw]

This site with the content might be ok, the site with the artificial links will take a hit for link building.

It's not perfect content, it's basically trading someone writing "good enough" content in exchange for a link, so instead of paying cash for a link you are paying indirectly by paying someone to write content for them in exchange for a link.

Google wants to see a site mentioned in the news for instance by an authority site like if CNN did a piece on your niche and linked to your site. That is a natural link. Having a dofollow link at the bottom of a page (many pages on the same site) with your exact desired anchor text after a blog post is nothing more than a paid link, better than article sites like ezinearticles.com who were the first on the chopping block, but now G will come for all the SEOs that have flocked to guest blogging.

Also, G is looking at your G+ authorship to determine how good of a writer you are and where you are posting and if that is tied into your business they will make a determination as to whether you are a low quality writer or not.

I'm just slightly ahead of the curve, if you want to do this just make sure you have the login to the accounts you are guest blogging on always so when the time come that guest blogging is now causing penalties you can go in and quickly remove or nofollow them.

[CommT]

But how are they going to do it?

I wouldn't have thought they could distinguish between a guest blog and a normal blog post unless it's labelled as a guest blog (and let's face it, if Google goes after guest blogs, then all those sites promising to publish guest blogs will change their message pretty quickly).

Additionally, if a publisher agrees to publish a guest blog on their site, aren't they endorsing (voting for) the guest blogger? Wouldn't it then be a 'natural' link because the publisher has agreed for a guest to publish content on their blog and therefore must believe that whatever the guest blogger is saying is worth sharing with their visitors?  Also, the blog editor (or owner) will have to review the guest blog before publishing it, so again, it's been verified by a human. To me this seems to be perfect content, and what we want and need more of online.

One more thing. The 'problem' with guest blogs is usually down to quality, and I would agree with you that there are a load of rubbish guest blogs published on similarly rubbish sites. These are the problem, not people employing professional writers and researchers to generate useful and informative content that people actually want to read.

I just can't see how it would help the index to remove sites that provide useful content. Or, am I missing something here?

[Studio33]

I would be link building for SEO purposes so I would not want the links to be nofollow.  From what you are saying, and if it actually becomes reality that google hits guest posts then I as our site has zero guest posts at present I am better off not doing anything and waiting for the google update, the sites above me will fall and I will rise surely

[irvingw]

"but a guest blogging campaign should be as much about gaining traffic from referral sites rather than using if purely for link building."

In Google's eyes if it's passing PR it's link building to manipulate rankings, so if you are guest blogging it had better be nofollow and for traffic only, not for SEO because guest blogging is the next form of link building they are targeting because it has gotten so prevalent since Google put the kabash on so many other forms of link building already and SEOs are scrambling to find safe ways to build links that pass PR. Wow that was quite a run on sentence whew.

[ditoroin]

MyGuestBlog is a good service, but you should check every offer carefully and accept only good ones (PR4+ websites)

[CommT]

I've read this as well, but I just don't quite get how or why Google would want to go after all guest blogs! I get that some are rubbish and spammy and I guess those are the ones that cause a problem, but a guest blogging campaign should be as much about gaining traffic from referral sites rather than using if purely for link building.

I think about it like this: if a guest blog brings me traffic by itself then the SEO benefit of the link is the cherry on the cake. Without the SEO benefit, I still get targeted traffic to my site that converts.

[DavidKonigsberg]

It all boils down to add value to the industry in some way then tell the world about it.

[brad.s.knutson]

Moz has published a lot of posts on Link Building: http://moz.com/blog/category/link-building most of them have some solid advice.

[Studio33]

Thanks so if I don't guest blog what other ways are there to get links?

[brad.s.knutson]

As Chris stated above, many in the SEO community feel that guest blogging will be the next target for a Google update, so while short term it may pay off to put some time in and find a site to post your content - in the long run your content might be better off being posted on your own site.

I've always felt that if my content was good enough to be posted on some other site, then I would rather it be on my site in the first place.  This is unfortunately the only real future-proof method, as it's hard to say what will happen to guest blogging as a link-building tactic.

[DavidKonigsberg]

I have used all these services and mostly you get bad quality sites i would recommend reaching out to blogs that have readership and following in your niche and try to contribute. We learned that the manual process of going after real sites gets you links but even more importantly your brand and info in-front of your target audience. Good luck its a long road but well worth it if you have what to contribute to your industry.

[PaddyDisplays]

hmm, myblogguest has also been recommended by Rand

http://moz.com/blog/4-valuable-link-building-services

thanks for bring it to my attention

[CommT]

Hi Studio33

We use My Blog Guest (http://myblogguest.com/) for our guest posting activity.

I recently petitioned my boss to be allowed the paid version, and it's well worth it! We have the most basic plan (can't remember what it's called, but it's the cheapest one there) which allows us to post 10 articles in the Articles Gallery. I think there are other plans, but I couldn't say how good they are or not because I haven't used them!

Before using the paid version we'd spend ages on the my blog guest forum trying to get guest posts from relevant sites, but it just wasn't time-effective for us. But, if you're not 100% sure if you want to pay for it or not, then go for the free version to test the waters - especially if your budget is tight (though I do think the price is fair for the service they offer - which is excellent).

I also send out tweets on a fairly irregular basis with the hashtags #guestblog and #guestbloggers if I really need something quick, and that works pretty well (we got a regular guest blogging spot on a very influential and high trafficked blog in our niche from sending out tweets).

Good luck with your guest blogging - it is worthwhile.

Amelia

[Chris.Menke]

Studio,

There's noise that the low quality guest posting tactic is next to be targeted by Google so consider the quality of your posts and the quality of the sites you get your posts published.  That said I'm familiar with two services--Bloggerlinkup.com and myguestblog.com but I'm sure there are many more.

edit: myblogguest.com not myguestblog.com. Sorry.