Guest writer for a magazine that is .pdf?

[yatesandcojewelers]

I was asked to be a guest contributor to an online bridal magazine, but not sure if there would be any linking value on it, as it is a pdf.  Of course, there would be readers who might remember me, and come visit our site.

But for linking purposes, I don't see any seo benefit.  But I am a newbie, so I might be missing something.

The magazine's are in a pdf format.  Here is a link: http://bridesclub.com/wedding-magazines/Spotlight-NW-Fall-2013.pdf

You can also view it online but they redirect to www.issuu.com/  And the links are no followed.

Anyone have any advice?

Thank in advance!

[yatesandcojewelers]

Hi Karl,

The magazine is reputable, but don't think it goes out anywhere except to their online members.  I like the idea you mentioned, but seems the tough part of content marketing is the outreach part.

Man there is such a wealth of knowledgeable folks here on moz.  Awesome having experts like you help small guys like me.  Thanks so much!

ron

[yatesandcojewelers]

Hi Moosa,

I appreciate your input!  I like the fact about quality traffic you mentioned.  And the idea of "co-occurance".  I just watched a webinar where Ian Lurie spoke about that.  Great point.

Thanks for helping me.

ron

[yatesandcojewelers]

Hello Federico,

You are right about the relationship building.  I have good info based on 25 years experience in wedding bands/rings that could be useful to them.  AND as you mentioned it would be a good reference for my writing!

Thanks for posting!

ron

[yatesandcojewelers]

Hey Jeff,

Thanks so much for your helping.  Sorry for delay in replying, been buried.  Your information helped me a lot, great viewpoint - which I agree with.

ron

[KarlBantleman]

Hi Ron,

Whilst the pdf would give you minimal SEO benefit, if the magazine is reputable then you could use it as link bait. You could turn your post into a feature on your own website with things you learnt from doing the piece then reach out to blogger/website owners to link to your website.

As has been mentioned, it's not all about SEO and what value a link has. You have to think of the long term effect and what knock on effect guest authoring for the magazine gives you. See if there is anything else you can do with them onsite, that may be something that is worth asking.

[MoosaHemani]

Ron, honestly speaking SEO is more than just link and Google in order to give rankings use tons of different signals… I mean, if we talk about co occurrence you don’t not need a link, just a brand mention will work!

1. Google do crawl and index links from PDF files as well so there just because it’s a PDF you should not write for them is not really a good idea!
2. Not all no-follow links are waste… Wikipedia passes a no follow link but I have witnessed people’s ranking goes up after they get a link from Wikipedia.
3. Traffic is coming to the website and you can use that traffic ad encourage them to link back to you (somehow!)

So no link that offers quality traffic is a waste! If you think you are getting valuable traffic from that website just keep writing for that magazine.

Hope this helps!

[FedeEinhorn]

I will surely do it. It's not all about SEO, but building relationships. You may not get a link from them directly, but you could indirectly!

There's when guest blogging becomes a spam technique, when you only do it for the link. Change your mind, watch it from another perspective!

Example: I once wrote for a small SEO blog, it had almost no value, then when I applied for a much bigger site, and showed them my work, it was a "Can you please write for us?".

[customerparadigm.com]

Ron -

I took a look at the site and at the PDF, and I agree, there's not a ton of SEO value in writing a guest post for them.  While Google can index PDF documents, and even discover links in them, if it's no-followed… not going to help much.

PDFs are not really amazing for reading on a computer.  They are great for printing out.  Print designers use them quite a bit, because they never quite figured out this "Web" thing where the page looks different to different users based on their computer and browser.

If there's a different reason to guest blog, it would be that your target audience (who wants to hire you) might be reading it and find you online.  Or, you might want to do it to prevent a competitor from taking that top spot.

If you're on the fence, I'd check to see their readership, and if there's a way to have your information online and visible to their 1.2 million registered brides.

The US Wedding industry is a bit crazy -- people spend more than $25,000 on weddings.

Hope this helps...

-- Jeff