Earlier this year I made some bold marketing predictions for 2014, and one of those was that Guest Posting would move from so so technique to absolutely terrible idea. Some of you called me crazy, some of you called me a visionary. All of you were right, but those of you who called me a visionary were especially right, which is the best right of all.
This week, Matt Cutts (the Mouth of Google) wrote on his personal blog:
if you’re using guest blogging as a way to gain links in 2014, you should probably stop. Why? Because over time it’s become a more and more spammy practice, and if you’re doing a lot of guest blogging then you’re hanging out with really bad company….
Ultimately, this is why we can’t have nice things in the SEO space: a trend starts out as authentic. Then more and more people pile on until only the barest trace of legitimate behavior remains. We’ve reached the point in the downward spiral where people are hawking “guest post outsourcing” and writing articles about “how to automate guest blogging.”
So stick a fork in it: guest blogging is done; it’s just gotten too spammy. In general I wouldn’t recommend accepting a guest blog post unless you are willing to vouch for someone personally or know them well. Likewise, I wouldn’t recommend relying on guest posting, guest blogging sites, or guest blogging SEO as a linkbuilding strategy.
So there you have it. Guest Posting is officially a bad idea for anyone who genuinely cares about search engine optimization and their reputation on the web. Will this stop people from soliciting guest posts? Of course not, but you should make sure that YOU stop and find a better way to build links moving forward.
Also, as a final note, I’d like to encourage you to still do the occasional guest post with links to your social networks. Sure, it won’t help SEO, but if people like what you have to say, you can still gain new fans and followers by posting on other quality blogs.
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