Are Guest Post Anchor Text Links Evil?

[SparkplugDigital]

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!

[SparkplugDigital]

Thanks Joe. I thought he was talking about corporations asking if they can provide a guest post with specific anchor text links, but I'll have to go back and listen again. I agree that links should be relevant to the topic of the article. In a way I think guest post links are very similar to paid links in that you are exchanging a link for something of value (writing services) so it seems like a loophole to the rule of no paid links.

[JoeAmadon]

I could be wrong, but from what I remember of the webinar, he was referring to paid text links in her posts, which is manipulative. I believe the emails only offered cash in exchange for links.

But to the point of whether text links in a guest post are manipulative, I think it depends on the relevancy of what is being linked to. Would a user actually want to go to that site from the post they are on? I'm guessing not many people would want to go to a car insurance site from a travel blog.

I think blog owners need to remember that whether they've written the content or not, if they are putting it on their site, they are vouching for it. Your credibility with your readers and with search engines is on the line. So the blog owner should still take responsibility for making sure the links in a guest post go to reputable sites.