What happens now? Guest blogging dead?
-
Today, Matt Cutts published an article on his blog saying pretty much "Guest blogging is dead". Seemed a little harsh to me, but what happens now?
Is GOOD guest blogging still allowed or will it be seen as spam too?
I even picked up a chatter on Twitter about YouMoz: https://twitter.com/rustybrick/status/425374254465445888
-
I have mentioned this a number of times but will rgab the opportunity and say it again.Nobody can fix google's algorith, not even Google itself. It's out of their hands, always was, always will be. The past already shows, that their algorithm gets a lot of things wrong and penalized small biz and ranks spam high, you all got examples of that. They are already bad at identifying machines or humans.
Assuming they will go for keyprhases such as Marie Haynes is a writer for example.com...", or "Visit my website at example.com" is simply impossible, for thishappen 99.9% of the guest post authorship tag must include the same keyphrase which i doubt. I find more likely to devalue for example ALL authorship links or even anything with /blog/ in its url, but for that to happen it would mean that 99% of the blogs have the same phrasing which I doubt.
If you are wondering how they will try to minimise that, my pov is that they will take into account a couple things such as 1)frequency of posts, 2) how many of these posts are original content and 3)OBL which to my surprise noone mentions here.
Matt refers to spam sites that are there for link selling purposes. If you follow his tweets and his latest activities you would know he is after the private blog networks advertised on the most popular black hat forum on the internet. What does that mean? that the algorithm cant track them thus he is trying to figure it out manually.
Black Hat SEO is the art of making a machines work to look like it has been done by a lot of humans. Google's job on the other site is to find out who's the human and who's the machine. Google gets better at identifying machines, so the SEO industry gets better at mimicking human behaviour. Guest Blog is an area that got abused but trust me there is a difference having a guest blog on a PR5 site, with unique content and 1-2 links and a total OBL of less than 30 than a guest blog of 500 words with 3 EM ancor links on high competitive keyprhases and roughly 20 comments with link in them. Then again in this case OBL would explode so why would you want a link like that anyway? You lose the value thus wasting money, time and resources.
-
_I personally believe that the next Penguin algorithm is going to discount any links that Google can tell are from guest posting. It may devalue links that are in sentences like, "Marie Haynes is a writer for example.com...", or "Visit my website at example.com". When those links get devalued then it's going to look like a penalty to sites who have relied heavily on guest posting. _
Let's assume I put a quality guest post on a quality site, with the do-follow link to my site embedded naturally in the copy and among one of half a dozen links to half a dozen sites (ie, the thing doesn't remotely look or smell like a guest post).
Does that pass muster? -
It is really interesting. I had been thinking about stopping this for a while, because as Rand says whats starts as an authority source i.e you look for the best sites, you slowly try and scale as you get more clients. I have used Myblogguest and Postjoint for a while now but never did any "exact match" anchor text and also avoided "so-and-so writes articles on (example.com). I tried to only go for authoritative and relevant sites, but yes hands-up this just for links.
I think it is time to sit up and realise we have to adapt our skillset to become digital marketers, not just SEO's. Is this the end for SEO, of course not!!!.
My question is if we do have a few links we feel although relevant and authoritative, could be called into question, do we get them removed or leave them as is?
-
I think that the message Matt was trying to get out is that if guest blogging is a linking strategy then stop doing it! However, when he changed the post to say that some high quality guest blogging is ok, I feel that SEO's are going to misinterpret this.
What I hear Matt saying: You can guest blog, and it's even ok to get the occasional link out of it, but don't use it as a way to get links. Only guest blog somewhere where you would have taken advantage of the opportunity even if there was no link. (For example, I guest blog on Moz for the exposure and the link I get is just an added bonus.)
How I feel a lot of SEOs are going to interpret Matt's change: Don't do glorified article syndication, but as long as it's not a spammy site, sure, go ahead and do a guest blog.
I think that a lot of SEOs are going to justify their link acquisition through guest blogs by telling themselves that they would have done the post even if there was no link, but in reality they are fooling themselves.
I personally believe that the next Penguin algorithm is going to discount any links that Google can tell are from guest posting. It may devalue links that are in sentences like, "Marie Haynes is a writer for example.com...", or "Visit my website at example.com". When those links get devalued then it's going to look like a penalty to sites who have relied heavily on guest posting.
-
Have you read the post? First he was talking about ALL guest blogging. Then he retracted and fixed both the title of the post and added a note to it.
FYI: This wasn't a video. It was a blog post on Matt's blog.
-
if Matt Cutts said it, that means it works.
Joke aside, guest blogging is not bad but getting links ONLY from guest blog is I guess. I dont think matt cutts referfs to guest blogging opportunities between good web sites, news and organisations he is more into the unsolicited spam emails I get every day by hundreds offering 400 word articles with links in exchange of guest blogging to their site as well. This will leave a footprint between my site and his/her site. My assumption is that if you have a profile with hundres of these you will get devalued. No need to panic every time Matt releases a video
-
It's nothing new and its been coming for a long time, did you see rands blog a while back on the subject - http://moz.com/blog/guest-posting-blogging-slippery-slope-whiteboard-friday
Guest blogging is still great for communicating but not for gaining links. If in doubt use a no follow link, or write a blog on your site and try to get people to organically link to it.
-
This is extremely funny. A bold guy is offering Matt Cutts something he is going to love...Lolzzzzzzz
A part of it. Sometimes, I get confused. Let me recall
- Google spammed millions of websites on April, 2012 (Penguin 1) on account of low quality directories (I got an email from an eCommerce Store which was penalized by Unnatural Notice. Somehow we could not make agreement. But I analyzed his back-links. Just hundreds and hundreds of low quality directories nothing else)
- On 20th Oct, 2013. I got email from same source with amazing words "We have started to get leads from our website suddenly. We havn't done anything on it in last 1 and half year. We are ranking on many keywords as well"
Directory Submission was crushed and now we can see directories pages ranking even for competitive keywords.
Similarly, Guest Blogging (Particularly For SEO Purposes) was promoted too much in last 1 year and I was anticipating this from last couple of months. Finally, it comes. Don't worry. Guest blogging will be revived in next few updates;)
Guest Blogging for branding purposes (Nofollow Linking) will not be penalized by the way!
Regards
-
Hi Federico,
I saw the title change too. I'm sure the social chatter was going nuts all over the world seeing something like that initially. Hopefully, SEOs and content marketers have settled down a bit, like I have.
Guest blogging will continue, I believe, so long as it doesn't look spammy and/or paid for. I mean, how else will we be able to distribute content all over and build relationships?
Building the brand with guest posts should be a focus, rather than linking out to exact keyword phrases as many do and have done. I'm guilty of it for our site and clients. Things now need to change and that's our goal. Adapt and improve and be as proactive as possible. Much like you keeping up on the latest from Google HQ
We'll be the ones adding value to our service offerings and ultimately for our clients. - Cheers! Patrick
-
And just minutes ago, Cutts changed the post title and clarified he was referring to "guest blogging for the sole purpose of SEO"...
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Does a site with only one blog post a month rank alright?
I manage multiple websites and want to start new ones but want to know if one blog post a month is acceptable for SEO since I'm worried about rank.
Branding | | hssm20191 -
Anyone know the benefits of sharing articles blogs posts on stumble upon?
Hi ALL, Just wondering if it is worth setting up a stumble upon account and sharing our articles or blog posts? I noticed a few companies in my industry who write alot of blog posts who share their articles to stumble upon. Anyone have any insight into the benefits of doing this for SEO? Cheers
Branding | | edward-may0 -
PR resource blogs
With the SEO community focusing a lot on "online PR" now, I was wondering if there were great sites around PR like MOZ or SearchEngine Land. Does anyone know any?
Branding | | ALLee0 -
How to leverage blog articles?
"Hello Moz Fans!" I've been writing blogs for our new site (bizinka.com an e-commerce,website design company) and posting links on our social media pages, however as we're in our infancy and so there's limited traffic that comes from social media so I want to know what the best practices and avenues to take in leveraging these blogs? I've heard a lot about article sites such as Ezine holding little weight and there's a lot of forums out there that don't seem to offer much at all in terms of traffic and credibility. Could anyone suggest some sites please?
Branding | | SimonDixon0 -
Tips for promoting the blog section of our eCommerce site
Hi, With the recent Google updates we're thinking that unique content is more important than ever in order to gain high quality, natural links from genuine users. As such we're thinking that our blog (http://www.refreshcartridges.co.uk/igloo/) might be more important than ever. Don't be put off by the lack of Page Authority or Google Page Rank; we've only just moved to this address from the subdomain igloo.refreshcartridges.co.uk. The content is certainly rather niche; an article like http://www.refreshcartridges.co.uk/igloo/how-to-the-reset-purge-counter-on-a-brother-printer-with-a-numerical-pad/ will be helpful to thousands of users who own this particular range of printer but it's debatable as to whether it is sufficiently mainstream to be openly shared and linked to. We ping to sites such as Technorati, produce videos to accompany much of the content (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dxmm4-blN8&list=UUH93Kwax4CcEIAOsXWb6CiA&index=1&feature=plcp for example) and provide easy sharing buttons. I do however think that we could be doing more to actively ‘push’ this content on to potential customers. I'm not naive enough to think that niche articles like this will be enough to get hundreds of links and tens of thousands of reads but printer news, reviews and support is pretty much the only thing we can write about while being relevant to our core business. I would however like to get the best exposure that we can for these articles which is why I’m asking for your advice today. I would really appreciate any ideas you may have as to how else we could gain the best value from these unique articles and videos. I apologise for this being such an open ended question but any and all advice on how to maximise this resource would be appreciated. Many thanks!
Branding | | ChrisHolgate0 -
Need Help Regarding Guest Blog Posts
Hello, I have recently joined here to read up about SEO and to access the tools for my in-house “SEO guy” who has just started. So I’m a little bit green to all of this and have a quick question regarding guest posting. He says that there is a lot to do with my sites; building links, correcting errors on some of my sites, etc. He showed me from the reports on here and he is an honest trustworthy guy, so not worried about being scammed. A lot of this stuff goes over my head though, so he directed me to the question and answer area/blog if I have any worries or queries. He wants to put a section on the home page of my blog promoting the fact that I accept guest posts. I understand that this will help me rank higher (hopefully!) and also he says I should be trying to post on other blogs to get these links for my sites. I think this might be a good idea because I have a few websites and not a lot of time or money to do a great amount of content (which I’m told needs to be regular and of high quality), perhaps a post a week on each site I can manage at the moment. I think that some competitors might want to use this opportunity to get a link from my website to theirs. I must admit I’m a little bit hesitant about doing this if it helps them. He is telling me that just one link in the author area of the post is fine, and only to accept good quality posts. But I just want some other people’s opinions as well. Are there any ground rules that someone can recommend I stick to? Along the lines of, how many links I allow them to have in their post, where these links should be, how long the content should be as a minimum, etc. Thanks in advance. Jeff
Branding | | JonathanRolande0 -
Can creating a subfolder and seperate domain blog build external links?
So I am currently going through the creation of a blog with a client that has a company that sells tennis equipment. I have talked to their development team, who is a third-party ecommerce platform, and come up with an idea to create an sub-folder (domain.com/blog) with an article page using their existing framework that would feature full articles in a blog format. Then I would create multiple blogs for them using tumblr and wordpress with their company name and a few with unique names targeted to their niche. These would feature snippets of the content taken from their article page (domain.com/blog) with some responses or reviews on the full articles to further their outreach and then link to the main articles on their article page. These snippets would be divided up amongst the blogs and posted on different days of the week to divide the traffic. Each blog will feature fresh content and focus on a rotating schedule of the latest videos, re-blogs, memes, photos, highlights, scores, upcoming tournament reviews, etc. I will set each one up to rotate through these different topics on different days and times to create a steady stream of traffic. I want to make sure that I stress the fact that I wont be stuffing the unique blogs with links only to the clients company store, I will be making sure to keep it to an amount that isn't spam worthy. Now if these blogs feature rich content including the snippets of the articles from my sub-folder page (domain.com/blog) will these blogs pass link juice to the blog set up on my sub-folder? Also is this a good way to ensure brand awareness and create external links without damaging their reputation? Are there other risks that people have encountered by doing something similar? Please share your experiences so I can make an educated decision.
Branding | | cscoville0 -
What are the best Guest Blogging websites? services?
Does anyone know of any guest blogging websites that offer a good (white hat) service? We're looking for websites that website owners may subscribe to that actually are pursuing guest bloggers to post on their site. We're looking for white-hat only websites. Thanks,
Branding | | iAnalyst.com0