Matt Cutts - Guest posts are dead comment
-
It seems like it was a while ago now that Matt Cutts made his announcement "that guest posts are dead", however, does anyone know if Google has acted on this? Most particularly, for those that are targeting guest posts on high-quality sites, what has so far been the effect since the announcement on rankings? Anyone seen a dip in rankings from their high-quality blog post strategy?
-
Well I appreciate your experience enough to believe you are probably correct. I have read many of your responses to people here. You know your stuff.
-
I don't think anyone can say that guest post links pass nothing. We have no way of knowing which ones Google thinks are unnatural and which are natural. I do have a theory that with the next Penguin update Google will devalue links that they can tell for certain are in an author box as they are not really editorial votes for a site. But...that's just a theory.
-
Agreed that it wasn't significant however we were told they passed nothing. And now they may very well pass nothing - it was the statement I was questioning.
-
I've definitely worked on sites that had to remove guest post links in order to get a link based penalty removed. I have no doubt that overdone guest posting can get a site penalized. But, it's about quality and scale. In some cases, the "guest posts" were glorified article syndication. In other cases they were guest posts on good sites but done on a huge scale.
I believe that right now Google is penalizing some sites on manual review for overdone guest posting and my guess is that when Penguin rolls out, a lot of this will be taken care of algorithmically. That doesn't mean that you need to stop guest posting altogether though. For example, I'll still write posts for Moz and other good sites. But, my main reason for writing these is because they bring potential clients and traffic to me and they build my brand. When I'm guest posting I think, "Would I still want this link even if it were nofollowed?"
Should it still be part of an SEO strategy? I don't have a problem with getting some links from high quality sites via guest posts. But, I wouldn't make it a major part of the strategy by any means. I'd stay away from using keyword anchor text and I'd only guest post on sites that have good user engagement (i.e. don't exist just for the point of publishing guest posts) and I'd only do it occasionally.
"However... I can't help but remember when links from Press Releases, according to Matt Cutts, were useless... then it was proven that they certainly did count. "
I didn't put a lot of weight in that "study". They published a press release and showed that the link caused the site to rank for a made up term with zero competition. I don't think that they proved that press release links actually passed significant value.
-
Ha!
-
Sometimes I think that Mr. Cutts will say these things knowing that many webmasters will believe him and stop doing what Google wants them to stop doing. Then later they may make some algorithmic changes...
I think you are right! Thanks for the laugh.
-
I am not disagreeing with EGOL - I know when someone has more experience than me
However... I can't help but remember when links from Press Releases, according to Matt Cutts, were useless... then it was proven that they certainly did count. Or when exact match domains weren't supposed to help... but they still did...
Sometimes I think that Mr. Cutts will say these things knowing that many webmasters will believe him and stop doing what Google wants them to stop doing. Then later they may make some algorithmic changes...
This is clearly speculation on my part. It just seems this way sometimes.
-
**Anyone seen a dip in rankings from their high-quality blog post strategy? **
Just browse through Q&A here and look for posts with a title something like...... "Wah! my rankings dropped." You can see plenty of people are still getting smacked.
Probably part of the reason is that people who are doing "high quality guest posts" today were doing "spam quality guest posts" last year and have that link profile on their site.... and some of the people who think that they are doing "high quality guest posts" today are really doing "spam quality guest posts".
-
I certainly haven't seen a dip in submissions to YouMoz!
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
-
Guest Blogging Duplication
We are looking to get some articles from www.ghostbloggers.net and use as guest post. Please can you help with 1. Can we submit to multiple blogs or is that considered duplicate content 2. How do we chose bet guest blog to post for. Example we would like to use article Online Business: Why You Should Not Build Your Own Website http://www.ghostbloggers.net/?page=detail&art_id=3392 but not sure where to post it. Thanks
Link Building | | break_thru_pro0 -
Guest Posts on Established Blogger/Wordpress.com sites
How much value do you put on guest post opportunities on blogspot.com or wordpress.com sites (or similar). If the blog is established, gets good readership and traffic, do you consider it to be as useful as a privately hosted blog? I'm not really looking for a definitive answer here, just people's thoughts. Cheers, Bede
Link Building | | BedeFahey0 -
Best Anchor Text Practices Post Penguin Panda
my question is what are the best practices Post Penguin and Panda for anchor texts? I have heard info about using brand names, and not having duplicate anchor texts. But i'm confused; if its best to have brand names then likely it will end up being duplicate. Also is having no anchor bad? I have also heard that it is best just to use the website URL. It would be great if someone could clear this up for me thanks.
Link Building | | ilyaelbert0 -
Guest Blogging as an Agency
Hi, I have the following problem regarding guest blogging. When sending out the pitch one can utilise the client's email so it appears coming from the business/client itself rather than an SEO agency. However the problem that I am facing is what author bio to use. Is it good to sign the posts as the internal SEO agency copywriters, as the client or I have found some suggesting to create a fake persona. If the client or client staff as the author bio is not a solution what is the best way? I hope my question is not confusing but this would really help me out. Thanks in advance Kind Regards, Conrad
Link Building | | conrad880 -
Should I invite people to guest post?
I'm a little confused about the benefits of inviting people to guest post on my site. I've just read http://www.seomoz.org/blog/using-passive-link-building-to-build-links-with-no-budget which suggests that by inviting people to guest post on my site I can build a relationship with them and eventually ask them to post a guest post of mine on their site. If both posts have a link back to the owners site doesn't this amount to reciprocal linking? Or am I missing something? Is a reciprocal link only classed as such if the link points to the exact page where the article is or can a reciprocal link point to anywhere on the site and still be classed as reciprocal?
Link Building | | SamCUK1 -
Should you guest post on a site that allows unrelated anchor text?
Suppose a blog has pretty good authority and quality articles but allows guest posters to use really random anchor text in their bios like Miami mexican restaurants when the blog is about blogging. Is there a risk that all the outbound links on the site will be devalued?
Link Building | | ProjectLabs0 -
Are Guest Post Anchor Text Links Evil?
Hi, In the recent free SEOMoz webinar about What's Ailing the Linkgraph, Rand Fishkin says that corporations try to get anchor text guest posts on his wife's blog and he suggests this is manipulative. Do you agree that anchor text links in guest posts are manipulative? Do you think that Google will take action against this tactic in the future? Thanks!
Link Building | | SparkplugDigital0 -
Do you think it's a good idea to try to find synergy between clients for blog posts/citations/links, or should you keep clients away from each other?
Say you have for example three (in this case) clients, and: Client A sells red widgets Client B is a doctor Client C sellls blue widgets With some research, you find that: Red widgets (A) can make the process of blue widget creation (C) even more effective. Red widgets (A) can protect you from harmful things that doctors (B) are qualified to recommend that you stay away from. Furthermore, there are things that doctors (B) recommend that you do in order to maximize the benefits of red widgets (A) Blue widgets (C) carry with them certain potential health risks, which according to doctors (B) can be minimized using the following means Sometimes blue widgets (C) can be used to effectively repair red widget (A) factories ...and so forth. Sure you're really writing these articles to generate links and exchange authority, and frankly you started with "how can I find synergy between these clients?" rather than a with a great article subject that needed a citation which luckily happened to be another client, but the citations are legitimate and the clients are qualified to speak on the subjects where their expertise and interests overlap. Would you consider going ahead with this? Does anyone have any experience doing it? I could see potential pitfalls if clients were to interact with each other, but keeping yourself as the intermediary might well work and overall it seems like a decent way to grab low-hanging fruit as they say. What do you guys think?
Link Building | | PathMarketing0