Google’s Gone and Done It; Guest Blogging as a Search Engine Optimisation Tactic is Dead

In the not-so-distant past, guest blogging was widely used and encouraged by search marketing and online marketing experts. While it was considered somewhat of an honour to be the ‘special guest’ on another site’s blog, guest blogging was also a rather effective search engine optimisation tactic whereby you could write a post for someone else and build a quality link back to your website.

Of course, Google wouldn’t like us to blatantly say this was a search engine optimisation strategy, but when legitimately good quality content was posted on another’s site, a link to the author’s site was like a token of appreciation, which simultaneously benefited their search marketing.

But, overtime, people started to use and abuse guest blogging and it increasingly became yet another medium for spam marketing, a practice viewed as a major no-no by any search engine optimisation team that’s worth its weight. Eventually, people started imbedding spammy links in guest posts on others’ blogs or gave up writing the posts all together and just offered cold hard cash to take advantage of another’s page rank. And, as it always does, Google noticed. Really, the writing has been on the wall for some time.

It’s a shame some bad apples have nearly torched guest blogging as a way for the rest of us to gain credibility in our markets and niches, something which only benefits the marketing we do online. Notice I said ‘nearly torched,’ because this doesn’t mean any guest blogging you do will have detrimental effects for your marketing campaign. As Google’s Matt Cutts said, the search engine’s webspam team will further scrutinise guest blogging going forward, but it doesn’t mean you can’t still use this marketing tactic as a way to popularise your brand and demonstrate your authority through quality content–in fact, you should.

Here’s how to approach guest blogging, going forward:

• Never offer another site money to be their guest blogger and don’t accept similar offers from others. You’ve probably received emails from spammers wanting to be your guest blogger in the past–just don’t accept guest blogging offers from strangers!
• If you do decide to accept a guest blog post, be wary of the author. If it’s someone you know well and trust, their opinion or knowledge could be of benefit to your site and add value, something which is a must for sound online marketing, today. Look for opportunities to be a guest blogger for reputable sites, whose owners are your colleagues, friends, etc.

In a nutshell, reserve your guest blogging as a way to provide expert insight on the topics you know best and you’ll be fine. If you’d like to learn more about Google-approved guest blogging or how regular blogging for your own site will benefit any marketing and search engine optimisation you do call The SEO Company on 1300 885 557 or email us here.