I don’t know about you, but I was certainly holding my breath when I saw the title of Matt Cutts’ recent video: “What is Google’s view on guest blogging for links?”
My immediate reaction was, “Oh, no! Now what?”
Not to worry, though, Cutts says using guest blogging to build backlinks is perfectly acceptable in the eyes of the Google gods. But, it’s what he didn’t say that concerns me.
In his video published Oct. 9, 2012, Cutts says, as a blog owner, you should be happy to accept guest blog posts from “high-quality writers” who can bring unique insights to your blog. Cutts went onto discuss how some guest bloggers might not be as well-known or as knowledgeable as their “high-quality” counterparts but, generally, their guest blog posts should be welcome on your blog, too.
Then Cutts switched gears and talked about it from the guest blogger’s perspective. According to Cutts, many bloggers who use guest blogging to build backlinks are spinning their submissions and treating them with the same lack of concern for quality as they do their other link-building activities, like the articles they submit to directories for example. From my own personal experience, I have to agree.
Over the last five weeks, I’ve been studying the URLs and content on one particular blog. (The name is irrelevant and I wouldn’t share it anyway, so don’t ask.) This blog is a Google PR6, it’s about three-and-a-half years old and it has well over 1,000 posts, a good percentage of which are guest posts.
Most of those guest posts are poorly written. The grammar is atrocious, and most contain no fresh or unique information — they simply regurgitate the same old content you find all over the Web. None of the guest bloggers could be considered “high-quality writers” by any stretch of the imagination. It’s obvious these posts are being submitted for the backlinks.
Now, here’s where blog owners need to start reading between the lines and putting two and two together.
In his video, Cutts says: “Just be mindful that (guest blogging) can absolutely be taken to extremes and, in the same way that some practices which make a lot of sense when you think about it with high-quality people, when you’re just doing it as a way to sort of turn the crank and get a massive number of links, that’s something where we’re less likely to count those links.”
If Google is less likely to count those links, what does that say about the blog those links are coming from? In other words, are you risking your ranking by accepting those lesser-quality guest blog posts?
Until now, discussions on guest blogging always focused on how it benefits both parties and what you can do to have your guest posts accepted. But there’s never been a discussion on what it does to your blog if you’re the one publishing the guest posts. With the proliferation of guest posts popping up all over the Web, maybe it’s time to have that discussion.
Are You Risking Your Own Rankings When You Use Guest Bloggers?
The blog mentioned above is PR6 but, if you saw it, you’d know that ranking has very little to do with the quality of the content. The owner is a master at keyword research and SEO techniques. Nearly every single URL on his blog ranks No. 1 on the index.
However, at least one-third of those URLs are poor quality guest blog posts and the only reason they’re at the top of the index is because they focus on non-competitive, irrelevant keywords — because they’re written by guest bloggers who are just out for a link.
As it stands, this is a win-win situation for both parties. The guest blogger gets a backlink from a high ranking blog and the blog owner gets more URLs indexed which improves his ranking across the entire site. The question is: How much does publishing this poor-quality content hurt his integrity with his readers? And, more important: Now that Google is talking about guest blogging, could he potentially be risking his rankings?
Take A Look At Your Internal Linking Structure
One reason this blog has a high page rank is because of the internal linking structure. Every single post on the blog is within two or three clicks of the home page. Everything is linked together, which is exactly what Google wants.
But what if one-third or more of your internal links were devalued? Even worse, what if they were also de-indexed? Remember, Cutts just said, “… we’re less likely to count those links.”
It would seem like a no-brainer: If you’re a blog owner, don’t accept poor-quality guest blog posts. Yet, I see it every single day, on blogs in all niches, all over the Internet.
Look at it From Your Readers’ Perspective
A lot of blog owners accept guest blog posts to “pay it forward” and help a new blogger get some exposure — and that’s wonderful. But, aside from the fact that you’re not really helping them if you let them believe their poor-quality work is acceptable, you need to take a look at it from your readers’ perspective.
Your readers come to your blog because they respect you and look up to you as an authority figure, someone they can learn from. When you introduce them to no-name, poor-quality bloggers who are just out to get a link, then they’ve got to wonder how you got to be such an authority if you’re hanging out with these “lesser- quality writers” — aka: Spammers.
Think about your favorite talk show host. What kind of guests do you like to see? Usually, the guests who bring in the largest number of viewers are those who out-rank the host in some way. Oprah is famous herself but when she interviews someone even more famous, like Tom Cruise or Tom Hanks, her ratings skyrocket.
I already have several blogs that I no longer visit because they’ve basically turned into article directories. They accept guest blog posts from anybody with a pulse. People land on article directories as a result of an organic search. But they don’t go back when they
need more information. They do another organic search and go somewhere else. And that’s definitely not the way you want to run your blog.
I know some blog owners are vocal advocates of guest blogging so they accept every guest post that comes their way. But you need to ask yourself if it’s worth it. Do those guest posts really bring in that much additional traffic? If they do, does that additional traffic
convert into subscribers and/or increased sales?
Do your regular readers read those blog posts, leave comments, and share? Do your followers think those guest blog posts fall into the “quality content” category? If not, you may be watering down your blog, at least as far as your subscribers are concerned.
More important, in the not-to-distant future, you may be risking more than your reputation. You might be risking your ranking with Google.
Don’t Just Accept Guest Blog Posts, Ask For Them
I think a lot of blog owners are under the impression that their only options are to either accept guest blog posts or reject them but you have a third option. Why not ask for them? And not just from any Tom, Dick or Harry who happens to need a backlink and sees your “We Publish Guest Posts” banner. Why not ask those “high-quality people” Cutts is talking about?
Which bloggers do you look up to? Who do you turn to as your own source of information? These are the guest bloggers you want.
These are the guest bloggers who will add value to your blog. These are the guest posts that will survive the updates if Google decides to start penalizing blog owners for posting poor-quality guest blog posts.
Donna Anderson is a freelance writer specializing in website content. She writes for Infowars.com and guest blogs about Guest Blogging for money! http://smbcontest.com/how-to-get-more-out-of-guest-blogging/
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Just a different point of view.
1. Google were not always the giant that they are today. (Implication- they were once a much smaller business!)
2. No business lasts forever. (All businesses go through cycles. Even if the only cycle is “inception to demise”)
3. If google continues to alienate itself from small business ventures of today, it may well be cutting off its own future life blood. (Google is not the only possible road to business success!)
4. There are substantially more small “young” businesses in the world than there are large businesses.
Another loophole looks to be closing and about time too! Content is king. The talk show comparison is spot on!
I saw Barclays behave like google a few years ago. Today, they are running up and down looking for customers trying to repair the bridges they demolised on their way up.
I am also a blogger and also invite the Guest Bloggers to write quality content for me. But I agree that there must be a trade-off between the quality content that the blogger will get and the loss he might have to suffer in rankings..!
So the bottom line is just accept only Quality Content.
I think whatever happens guest blogging is a useful tool for SEO. It not only helps with backlinks, but helps build relationships with other people in your specific field, which can in turn help with traffic. Traffic is also a big part of SEO. I think if you are going to guest blog, ask for one in return, if the link cancels out at least you have increased traffic from another update.
All content should be quality content as it defeats the object of even having a website.
Certainly, its a good idea to filter content for quality, and ask those “high-quality people”. But it really seems difficult for a start up blog owner. If everybody start following this, there will be NO room for new blogger in guest blogging.
What’s your suggestion?
Parmveer, the important factor is quality content so if a new blogger came to me with great content, I would publish the guest post. Someone offering me a low quality post (even if it was Tom Cruise or Oprah to be honest) would not get published on my blog. I choose guest posts (and advice the same in my posts and eBook on guest blogging) based on what gives value to my readers, end of story.
We had the bright idea of accepting guest posts, in fact it seemed a “no brainer”. We got content, they got a link, no problem. We had quite a few in june, and after they were published, our rank went down. I now get these requests daily. I have taken down all the outbound links, asked google to reconsider, but nothing. Unless the blogger is VERY GOOD, in fact EXCEPTIONAL, dont accept them.
Impressed with your detail information. This days guest posting became mostly for promoting links in it. Either its paid links or normal website/blog links. So, the value of guest posting is getting down day by day.
I totally agree Shane an Nyagah. Google is getting far too big for its boots and forgetting the small businesses. Ive seen some searches within Google that return nothing “organic” above the fold. Meaning you have to scroll before you even see a result that isnt a paid ad.
I like to comment on blogs I read in which I have an opinion, however, is it not up to the blog owner to filter out spammy guest comments/blogs ensuring the quality of the host blog? Or have I missed the point?
What a silly post… it was clearly written for the sake of writing something…
Not informative at all and anyone with common sense should know this… and if you don’t you should be learning about it, and not wasting time reading posts like this.
Hayley, I agree totally. Finding posts that are not paid ads has certainly become more of a chore. I am the owner/partner of a body shop in a small town in Florida. I also have two blogs that deal with custom cars and motorcycles. I used to have a great ranking based primarily on our content. Our “true organic” listings were always on Google’s first page and usually within the top 5. Recently we have resorted to using Adwords to keep our rank! No matter how much good content you have, you can’t compete with the paid advertisements. I also agree that there are lots of “up and coming” companies out there who will someday give Google a run for their money, but, in the mean time, we still have to pay the bills, so, Adwords is really our only option if we want to “stay above the fold” on the listings!
Over the past year I have been reading so many of these blogs about SEO and blogging. Just when i thought I had got to grips with it all the rules all changed. Last month I sacked my second SEO company as I was horrified at some of the blogs they submitted on my behalf. They were terribly written and made no sense and should a client of mine ever see one of these I would be lucky to keep their business. With this in mind Google achieved its goal but how much time can people invest getting their sites ranked highly on Google
Great article BTW and I also agree with Shane and Nyagah.
As many people are finding out, high quality content and links cost money, whether it be in hiring good content writers or the content delivery method. i.e. Trusted Press Release sites on annual subscription, who pyramid the links back to the original website, ideal. Lots of SEO companies are using blog networks and re-spun content and you have found. You get what you pay for.
We accept guest blog posts if they are useful to our readers, its crazy to have to publish only original content, after all there are not only 15 or 20 authoritative blogs out there for everyone to read. Insisting upon original content will decrease the overall usefulness of the web. Every good thing can be abused, its something we just have to live with. This sounds like a proverbial throwing the baby out with the bath water!
I am so pleased to hear that Google are recognising guest bloggers! AT LONG LAST!!
I run a Further Education News site in the UK, we have guest bloggers (we call them columnists)who write monthly articles on the site. Our guest writers range from the Skills Minister (the Government Minister responsible for the UK’s Further Education Skills Strategy!),the Head of the Apprenticeship Service the Head of the Skills Funding Agency etc(very senior civil servants who set the strategy for our FE sector)… and Google used to penalise us for having guest writers!?…. our argument was that our audience really wants to read articles written by the people who are really responsible for making the strategic decisions for our sector.
So for us, it is about time that the power of guest writers is recognised by Google…. as our readers sure appreciated our guest writers articles and unique content.
Not easy to follow Google route, the new one EMD punsh sink a lot of sites now.
The first law of business: Be nice on the way up, as you’re going to meet them on the way down. While I don’t agree with the practice of publishing blogs for little or no reason other than to rank and sell a banner to a business that doesn’t know any better, I’m currently utilizing a blog for my own business to demonstrate how smaller businesses can get a ‘website’ completely free of hosting which they can easliy manage themselves, masked by their own domain.
Obviously this is presenting some challenges in terms of search ranking anyway, regardless of any potential penalty from Google. Penalizing me, in this instance for not posting much content of any great value at all, may not only damage my business, but potentially other small start-up businesses I’m pointing in Google’s direction.
I’d be interested to hear Donna’s opinion on this.
Irvin
http://www.thrustglobal.com
Google is going after every method that SEOs use to game the system. I would suggest change your mindset. Don’t do guest posts for the link, do it to gain traffic. Make the link just a side benefit. If you stop trying to game Google, you’ll probably get better, stable results over the long-term. We are learning this the hard way. :O)
The next question Cutts should be asked is why Google is allowing paid guest blogging services (as in, that’s ALL they do, for profit) to not only exist, but thrive? You know, since Google Penguin was created to combat the sale of page rank passing links, and all.
Some businesses have opted to avoid guest blogging completely because they do not want to take the risk of it coming back to haunt them in the long run. Others have become extremely selective about who they guest blog with now a day’s. The fact that guest blogging is supposed to help is good and probably should not be ignored completely, but playing it on the sage side is smart.
We have to admit that Google SEO is much more difficult as the time passing by.
Content is king, but nowadays, only counting on content is still not enough.
Have said it before and will say it again, Google fails its first tenement.. thou shall do no evil, as who decides what is poor quality content? Some faceless employee of Google? an ever changing algorithm…? i say let the internet decide what is quality content… not Google..
wow .. very interesting things.
You discuss so deep and clear.
This article gives a lot of input for me
thank you
I had trouble understanding your concern here.
Yes, certainly any respectable blog owner should only allow guest blogs that are of some quality. But I don’t understand how it hurts the blogs ranking if a blog is of low value.
Cutts said that links might not count on such an article. So, that hurts the person who wrote the blog and was hoping for the backlink. How does it hurt the ranking of the blog where the article appears?
Frankly, I am sick of “quality” being an issue. Google any product and the first 2 pages are the exact same product description from whomever put in the highest bid for product listings.
There are other factors involved, but unfortunately, we found that Google likes there wallets full.
@Saikrishna Quite the opposite, Saikrishna. I think the value of guest posting is going up. If blog owners start actively looking for quality guest bloggers instead of accepting every guest post that comes their way, then guest bloggers will have to improve their quality. But that’s only going to make the hosting blog a stronger blog so guest bloggers would WANT to improve their quality so they get accepted and get that link. It’s a win/win/win for everybody, including the readers.
@Darren Bell Yes, it should be up to the blog owner but like I said, some of them really do accept guest posts to give new bloggers a helping hand.
@Dee Blackman I think I know you!
And oooohhhhh, I have another artile out there floating around somewhere about Adwords. You don’t EVEN want to get me started. I think it’s on InfoWars…
@Darren Greenaway Sounds like you need a better content provider donna @ c2cwriter dot com
@Carol Only 15 to 20 authoritative blogs out there? Sorry. I disagree. If you’re an authority in your niche – which you should be – then you should be able to present information with your own unique and original perspective to make it relevant for your readers. If you have to resort to using someone else’s ideas then you’re not really an authority – and eventually your readers will see that.
@Gavin You guys sound like you were just ahead of your time so you should be in an excellent position. Sometimes ya gotta wait for Google to catch up
@Irvin Bhatt You’re in a competitive arena, that’s for sure. While I always hesitate to side with Google, they have a point. You have a blog that tells small business owners THEY should have a blog to promote their business. First of all, you have about a thousand other blogs competing against you. And second, you say you don’t have any quality information on your blog to help these small business people. If your competitors ARE supplying this information then Google is going to reward them with a better index position over yours.
@pixelrage IMHO paid guest blogging services are just intermediaries between blog owners and freelance writers. Webmasters have been outsourcing content for years and this is just another type of outsourcing. I think the “guest blogging service” tag just plays on a different market segment.
@Johathan Wood If a guest blogger sends you poor quality content then chances are that’s what he’s publishing on his own blog, too. And he’s linking to it from YOUR blog. Which means YOU have a link going out to a poor quality site. In Google’s eyes, that link means YOU are recommending that poor quality site to your readers and they frown on that.
People are just starting to realize that having 1 entity basically control the Internet could be a bad idea?!?
C’mon people, why do think monopolies are illegal?
I agree in part with getting low quality crap off the first page on ANY search engine.
But Google is a for profit firm whose main goal is to maximize profit (basic economics), not promote good writing and websites for free.
Perhaps if more people used Bing or Yahoo we could take them down a peg or two….
Bottom line: if you think ranking in Google is too hard, or their practices are unfair, start by using a different search engine for your own searches!!!
Guesting blogging is good, but what I have always questioned and continue to question is what is used as a yard stick for measuring “quality of content”?
Many people in the same niche tend to write the same thing over and over, with only a very little tweak because most often than not, they are faced with the same situation and circumstance. So there is often no much choice expect to echo and re-echo what the other person has written
According to Google (not saying I agree) the yardstick is user engagement. If users like your content, they’re staying on the page, and they’re sharing, and other bloggers are linking out to you then you must have “quality content.”
Most ‘guest posts’ are really just quickly written posts specifically for links and the blog owner is paid, which makes up for the lack of quality of the post.
It’s unfortunately for the readers, but if a blogger wants to make some money and someone offers a $100 (or whatever) to publish a post, a lot will take that offer.
You’re right, Mike. The system we’ve all been using is flawed.
I have a blog, but it’s usually the last place I go to publish content. (Stupid, I know). Instead, if I have a good article idea, I write the article first and then look for the best place to post it. That way it’s always quality content. I’m not writing for the site or the link, I’m just writing to engage the audience.
I agree 100%. One of the things I have started asking potential guest bloggers is “What idea do you want to write about?” I have stopped using the word “topic” because they all too often think “social media” is a topic…which is a lot like saying, “Let’s meet in France tomorrow. Look for the guy in the white shirt.”
I tell them that if they have an idea that inspires me, I’ll be happy to look at a draft. It quickly weeds out the people who just don’t “get it”.
Hi David,
Good idea. Especially on your blog. I imagine you get a lot of Top 10 Ways To Use Keywords” articles across your desk.
It bothers me that so many bloggers are manipulating guest blogging, just like they do the article directories. Why can’t they see that it takes less work to do something RIGHT? Do it right, do it once. Try to scam the system and you’re always a step behind your competitor.
I think whatever happens guest blogging is a useful tool for SEO. It not only helps with backlinks
Google is the king right now, hopefully that will change in the future.
So what they say goes, if you want to be found in this endless sea of information and competition.
I try to make sure everything that I do is “compliant” with their specs, I’ve seen a lot of people lose everything after their last few updates.
We need more competition to take Google on, they are King at the moment and can call the shots any way they think. Things will change when some other search engine comes to bat and take them on. They might think twice about chopping and changing the algos to suit themselves. Google is a monopoly and that is not good.
What about guest posts that promote an affiliate product directly? I would guess as long as the article is relevant and well written and information, then the big “G” would maybe give it some love.
Jay,
Don’t bet on it. Top rated article directories won’t allow promotional content. There’s a difference between informative content that includes an anchor text link to a product and content that just flat-out promotes the product.
Thank for sharing this post, i receive many emails asking if i want to accept guest blog post related to my blog, but their blog is not related to my blog and even their guest blog post, should I accept them, the content is hi-quality.
thanks
Hi reymund,
I wouldn’t. If they’re not relevant then you’re readers aren’t going to be interested and you’ll risk running them off. You’ll also be watering down your SEO with irrelevant keywords. Plus, Google will see you linking out to irrelevant content which might have an effect on your rankings. if not now, it will in the future. Your links aren’t helping that other blog either because they’re coming from an irrelevant source.
If you’re accepting those guest posts so you can help other bloggers, ask them to write something relevant – and link to something relevant.
I find that it is important to look at the fact that if a guest blogger does not care about the quality of the content he/she submits, they just don’t care about the publisher of the blog or website they are submitting to.
Yes, there comes a time when each of us have to just jump in with both feet to get started. That is the only way to get the experience that is needed to become one of the great ones.
As publishers we have a responsibility to be honest with new writers and give them a chance to try again. What I mean is that it is a true dis-service to all of us when we post just plain bad writings.
It is all about building longstanding relationships and growing a network of potential places to add your posts.
I am sure that all of us can relate to being newbie writers for both our own sites and other sites. But if we only care about sucking a little Google ranking juice from our fellow bloggers without adding value for them as well…
What does that say about us as writers, bloggers, net-workers, business people… should I go on?
Exactly, Leonard.
If that guest blogger is only after the link and isn’t willing to put in the effort to write something that will benefit YOUR blog, why should you publish his post? You have a business to protect.
I accept guest comments who add value to their post.
If they just say, ‘hi nice post followed by a series of url links with 22 different email address that says ‘buy my ugg boots’, that is not very edifying to you blog.
Yes, your ranking will suffer if you accept everything guest comment without checking.
An application to filter out viruses will automate sending this to the iggy bin.
Great article. With all these changes it’s difficult to keep up with is acceptable with Google anymore. Yes they are big today but what of tomorrow?
Two of the main things I look at when somebody suggests a guest post to me are the quality of the content and to what sites the author is linking. In the beginning I wasn’t as careful as I was new to the guest blogging world, but now I have a much better idea of what to look out for.
t really seems difficult for a start up blog owner
Most of the people accept guest posts without checking Will it useful for their readers and the links to targeted site is harmful? and people accept low-quality guest posts that either they’re less knowledge about SEO and Google’s recent updates and lack of time to write article.
Always quality wins and Google will like quality guest posts with link to quality sites.
From my perspective Google may soon launch an Algo to kick out crappy guest posts, since everyone target guest blogging to promote keywords and some people do black hat SEO too.