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seanfalconer
04-13-2016, 12:30 PM
Matt Cutts declared guest blogging dead back in 2014 saying that it had become too spammy yet in Moz's recent survey, guest posting was the number one link building tactic that people use.

Is it still a viable way to create contextual backlinks or is it really dead as an SEO tactic?

Sources:
https://www.mattcutts.com/blog/guest-blogging/
https://moz.com/blog/2016-state-of-link-building-survey-results

Harold Mansfield
04-13-2016, 12:55 PM
Matt Cutts declared guest blogging dead back in 2014 saying that it had become too spammy yet in Moz's recent survey, guest posting was the number one link building tactic that people use.

Is it still a viable way to create contextual backlinks or is it really dead as an SEO tactic?

Sources:
https://www.mattcutts.com/blog/guest-blogging/
https://moz.com/blog/2016-state-of-link-building-survey-results

Just using the process of elimination, Matt Cutts worked for and is still involved with Google doing the exact thing that he talks about. He literally wrote the book that everyone else pontificates on.

But IMO, guest blogging is spammy and I've never thought it was that great. Nor chasing back-links one at a time. That's a very narrow focus today. I think about overall promotion of my brand and my products. So no, I would never guest blog on someone elses site for a back-link, but I would submit articles to well known and respected publications for the overall promotion of my brand.

seanfalconer
04-13-2016, 01:04 PM
Just using the process of elimination, Matt Cutts worked for and is still involved with Google doing the exact thing that he talks about. He literally wrote the book that everyone else pontificates on.

But IMO, guest blogging is spammy and I've never thought it was that great. Nor chasing back-links one at a time. That's a very narrow focus today. I think about overall promotion of my brand and my products. So no, I would never guest blog on someone elses site for a back-link, but I would submit articles to well known and respected publications for the overall promotion of my brand.

Thanks for the response Harold. By respected publications, do you mean official news outlets rather than well known blogs? And do you mean, you would submit an article about something related to your brand and treat that more as a general advertisement of your brand rather than a way to generate a link?

Harold Mansfield
04-13-2016, 01:33 PM
Thanks for the response Harold. By respected publications, do you mean official news outlets rather than well known blogs? And do you mean, you would submit an article about something related to your brand and treat that more as a general advertisement of your brand rather than a way to generate a link?
Of course that's going to depend on your target market. For instance, I know HuffPo takes article submissions and I see people with books and other products to sell getting published there in the appropriate sections.

You can see this all over the web. It's not easy and most major publications only deal with people who've established themselves or are known in that industry for something. But it is possible. You just have to target the right publication, submit the kind of things that they're asking for, the way they want them submitted, and write with their readers in mind, not your own promotion.

Usually publications that take submissions have guidelines that you can follow. And there are blog posts all over the place on how to submit to one place or another.

Harold Mansfield
04-13-2016, 02:37 PM
Overall almost any place you can get exposure is worth it. I just think it's better to put out killer articles to the places that can give the most exposure to your target audience, than posting articles around low traffic blogs one link at a time. The goal is reaching your target audience, not just link building. You can use the opportunity to do both if you're going to get the link anyway.

seanfalconer
04-13-2016, 02:55 PM
Of course that's going to depend on your target market. For instance, I know HuffPo takes article submissions and I see people with books and other products to sell getting published there in the appropriate sections.

You can see this all over the web. It's not easy and most major publications only deal with people who've established themselves or are known in that industry for something. But it is possible. You just have to target the right publication, submit the kind of things that they're asking for, the way they want them submitted, and write with their readers in mind, not your own promotion.

Usually publications that take submissions have guidelines that you can follow. And there are blog posts all over the place on how to submit to one place or another.

Thanks Harold. Really good stuff.

vangogh
04-13-2016, 04:54 PM
It really depends on the quality of what you write and the specific sites you write for. I think guest blogging like anything else can be spammed, but it doesn't have to be. It's not really about whether something specific like guest blogging is spammy or not. It depends on the details. For example I'd say writing a good article for Moz would be a good thing, assuming your business is marketing or SEO or related. Moz also uses editorial control to decide what they put on their blog. On the other hand writing a 500 word listicle and submitting it a site that accepts everything submitted, probably isn't going to help much.

Don't get hung up on the word blog. Think about it more in terms of quality. The content you create should be the best you can create and you should be looking for the sites in your industry that most people look to for information. If it's a blog, great. If it's not a blog, that's great too.

Also think about what your goal is. Are you trying to reach people so they'll check out your site or are you hoping for a boost in search traffic? Using Moz again as an example, I would guess most of the audience is made up of marketers, SEOs, and similar. These people aren't likely to become your clients if you have a similar business. On the other hand Moz is certainly an authority on those topics and links from their site to yours will mostly likely help bring more search traffic to your site.

bhanks
04-19-2016, 02:47 PM
It really depends on the quality of what you write and the specific sites you write for. I think guest blogging like anything else can be spammed, but it doesn't have to be. It's not really about whether something specific like guest blogging is spammy or not. It depends on the details. For example I'd say writing a good article for Moz would be a good thing, assuming your business is marketing or SEO or related. Moz also uses editorial control to decide what they put on their blog. On the other hand writing a 500 word listicle and submitting it a site that accepts everything submitted, probably isn't going to help much.

Don't get hung up on the word blog. Think about it more in terms of quality. The content you create should be the best you can create and you should be looking for the sites in your industry that most people look to for information. If it's a blog, great. If it's not a blog, that's great too.

Also think about what your goal is. Are you trying to reach people so they'll check out your site or are you hoping for a boost in search traffic? Using Moz again as an example, I would guess most of the audience is made up of marketers, SEOs, and similar. These people aren't likely to become your clients if you have a similar business. On the other hand Moz is certainly an authority on those topics and links from their site to yours will mostly likely help bring more search traffic to your site.

^^This. If you are contributing high quality, unique insight through articles (whether on your site, or on another site) it can only be a benefit to others and to yourself.

tmcmahon
05-09-2016, 05:37 PM
Guest posting is still a great tactic for backlinking and brand building, but there are some things you need in place to do it correctly.

If your main reason for guest posting is to get backlinks you need high quality, informational content on your site to link back to contextually. People who get in trouble with guest posting are the ones using exact match anchor text and linking to their sales pages. Who accepts those kinds of low-quality posts? Low-quality sites.

If you're trying to brand build and grow your audience (the original way guest posted started) then having a nofollow backlink in your bio or naturally linking to your articles is going to happen regardless.

KristineS
05-10-2016, 11:43 AM
I never thought of guest blogging as building backlinks - I thought of it as more about reaching a new audience and riding (a bit anyway) on the coat tails of someone who already had credibility with that audience. It's kind of like being introduced to a group at a party. The person who introduces you is already a known quantity and they're telling the others in the group who don't know you that you're worth a bit of their attention. Of course, once the introduction is made, it's up to you to provide the quality content that proves you're worthy of notice, but guest blogging gives you a bigger window of acceptance.

I think the value of guest blogging also depends on where you are in your career. If you're just starting out, getting introductions from better known people in your field can be immensely valuable. Once you're established, guest blogging probably is done more to promote a specific project or maybe as a favor to the blog owner. Part of guest blogging is building connections, and that has value all on its own.

The big thing to remember is to evaluate every opportunity to guest blog and figure out if what you'll get out of it is worth the time you'll spend.

Natalie
05-10-2016, 10:51 PM
Guest blogging may not have the same influence on SEO as it used to. But ultimately, guest blogging is a great way to enforce your authority within your industry. Share your opinions and expertise and gain a reputation for being a thought leader in your field. Blogging (unless the content is poorly written) is never a waste of time!

tmcmahon
05-11-2016, 12:03 PM
I never thought of guest blogging as building backlinks - I thought of it as more about reaching a new audience and riding (a bit anyway) on the coat tails of someone who already had credibility with that audience. It's kind of like being introduced to a group at a party. The person who introduces you is already a known quantity and they're telling the others in the group who don't know you that you're worth a bit of their attention. Of course, once the introduction is made, it's up to you to provide the quality content that proves you're worthy of notice, but guest blogging gives you a bigger window of acceptance.

I think the value of guest blogging also depends on where you are in your career. If you're just starting out, getting introductions from better known people in your field can be immensely valuable. Once you're established, guest blogging probably is done more to promote a specific project or maybe as a favor to the blog owner. Part of guest blogging is building connections, and that has value all on its own.

The big thing to remember is to evaluate every opportunity to guest blog and figure out if what you'll get out of it is worth the time you'll spend.

You're quite right, KristineS, on everything you said above. And all of those benefits are how guest posting started and became popular in the first place. Then SEO/linkbuilders figured out that you could put backlinks into your guest posts (or for your clients) and guest posting has become synonomous with "link building" (and all of the negative connotations that go along with that). That's why you'll see people asking questions like this thread and posts about "Is Guest Blogging Dead?" etc, etc...

Thanks to the FUD that Google/Matt Cutts spread about guest posting, many blogs and bloggers think they'll get in trouble if they participate in it. And if you're doing it the wrong way you certainly could get in trouble (like with any link building tactic), but if you're doing it the way you described people shouldn't have any problem and should see a lot of benefits from it.

Margaret
06-10-2016, 07:33 AM
From my experience guest blogging still works

Metapilot
11-17-2016, 04:20 PM
Thanks to the FUD that Google/Matt Cutts spread about guest posting, many blogs and bloggers think they'll get in trouble if they participate in it. And if you're doing it the wrong way you certainly could get in trouble (like with any link building tactic), but if you're doing it the way you described people shouldn't have any problem and should see a lot of benefits from it.

The nature of marketing is to find and exploit opportunities to sell products. There will always be some group of marketers who understand how to take advantage of stuff non marketers have created online and off. There will always be those marketers who are not doing it "the right way". And anyway, who determines the "right way" Google? It's not really a judgement call, it's all just opportunities of greater or lesser degree, more or less money, and higher or lower risk.

A lot of this is semantics. "Guest Blogging" has really turned into a term that connotes marketers producing (less than high quality) content full of promotional (to put it mildly) outbound links for websites that don't descriminant between quantity and quality. So when one uses the term "guest blogging" today, they might as well be using the term "spamming" and no matter how you cut it, Google is going to be trying to track it down and kill its influence on the search results.

On the other hand, if you ask whether or not it is of value to write for a blog that carefully curates its authors and topics and has learned how to properly (according to Google) link out to exterior sites, there is still a lot of value in that, yes there is. You may have to be of the old school, however, to recognize it.

InFrontDigital
12-05-2016, 09:31 AM
People seem to forget that guest posting isn't all about gaining a link, especially as they will more than likely always include nofollow links. By writing a guest post for an authoritative site in your sector where you will be in front of hundreds or even thousands of potential customers interested in what you offer, then yes - of course it's worth it!

Daniel160
12-17-2016, 03:19 PM
I just think guest blogging is still a normal way of building backlinks even many people said it's usless ( even Matt Cutts), like what he said before no-follow links were not helpful for ranking but many people still believe it does. Never think about it would too spammy but just keep it trying that's ok.

printshop1
12-19-2016, 07:58 AM
It depends on how you are doing it. If you are doing quality guest blogging on relevant websites and posting unique articles then that would be great otherwise bulk submission of guest blog can create problems.

sahib1989
09-09-2017, 06:49 AM
No matter which SEO related guru you speak with, they will all tell you that guest posting is one of the best ways to increase your organic rankings. It is also a good way to gain organic traffic on your site. However, there is a lot of hard work that goes into it. You have to approach multiple sites, write emails to them, send them samples and then wait for weeks or sometimes months for a reply.

gimli
03-10-2018, 02:48 PM
We all know whe we look up seo thae old list that comes about, skyscaper techniques, infographics , guest blogging ect ect.

Well most of those guys now charge to even consider your article or content.

People have realised the importance of good links now after panda they exploit it and make money of of it.

Now i know google says that paid links should be no follow, that they arent good for seo. However ive seen many cases where this is simply not true. Guys getting featured on blogs with great "authority" ranking well. ( i am not talking about buying links straight up ) Thats suicide.

So why is google turning a blind eye to this ? simple because it means you can pay a guy to guest post for his backlink or you can pay for adwords.

Most companies in my niche do paid adverting now. With a but of content spreading but very little.

So to answer your question in terms of ranking its not effective , however if you gain traffic from that blog and that leads to sales or conversion then yes, your work may introduce you to a influencer in your niche so it cant hurt. I wouldn't put all my eggs in that basket though.

DianJohnson
06-02-2018, 06:31 AM
I've never thought it was that extraordinary. Nor pursuing back-joins each one in turn. That is an exceptionally tight concentration today. I consider general advancement of my image and my items. So no, I could never visitor blog on somebody elses website for a back-interface, yet I would submit articles to surely understood and regarded productions for the general advancement of my image.

jeffscott
06-06-2018, 12:17 AM
Guest blogging is still worth it but still be fair and focus on your target audience not to solely for search engine in a way that you will submit lots of content just to expose your link.

MiaSeattle
11-10-2018, 07:57 AM
The problem with guest blogging is that the more popular bloggers get a LOT of requests from other bloggers to carry their articles, and unless you have an absolutely fantastic, wonderful, unique article, you'll get turned down 95% of the time. So we're going to start using a strategy we recently discovered, called "reverse blogging" -- let's say you own a flower business called Jenny's Fantastic Flowers -- of course you sell flowers for dozens of different occasions such as weddings, birthdays, anniversaries, etc.

1. Choose a subject -- like weddings. Then do a general Google search for wedding bloggers, and make it local, as in "wedding blog Sacramento", and check out a few blogs.

2. Making your search local will allow you to find mid-level bloggers, not someone that's nationally known (nationally known = too high-and-mighty and too busy), and obviously owns a real business (in other words, has a blog for his or her own business, not for a publication like a wedding magazine).

3. Find one who includes links to other businesses in their posts -- in other words, is used to giving backlinks to other businesses (obviously understands the SEO value of backlinks).

4. Once you've found a good blog, you then write a simple article on a related subject -- let's say it's about how a future bride could get flower ideas for her wedding. Then somewhere in your article you put a link that would read like this -- "Andrea Smith, owner of ABC Weddings in Sacramento has a great article on how she helps brides to come up with unique flower arrangements".


5. Then immediately reach out with an email to that blogger -- "Hi Andrea, I read your blog and loved your post on helping brides to choose their flower arrangements so much that I linked to your page here (<< this would be the link to YOUR blog page, as in http://jennysfantasticflowers.com/blog (http://jennysfantasticflowers.com/blog) -- so she can click on it in your email and verify that you have linked to her page in your post) -- and I wonder if you'd consider writing an article of your choice that I could put on my blog? Of course I'd give you credit and a link to your website. You're very entertaining and full of great info, so I hope you find my blog to be worthy!" Andrea will be totally flattered and it's much more likely you'll get an article from her, and because people love linking to stuff they've written, your website will more than likely get a great link.
6. Then when you do get an article from Andrea, be sure to give her credit under her article, with a link to her site.

In addition to both of you getting great links, another great aspect of this strategy is that you can get quality content and links with very little effort on your part -- you don't even have to write a long, time-consuming, fantastic article. Why beg someone to publish your article on their blog when you can flatter someone and put their article on yours?
If you like this idea, consider adding me as a friend on the forum?
Mia
Waxing Services in Seattle WA (https://simplymias.com)

sbcbd
11-20-2018, 10:12 AM
I would say it is still a huge factor for SEO.

maidanez
12-17-2018, 04:09 PM
My personal opinion is guest blogging has to hit your target audience in a big way and not be too concerned with SEO. Developing that killer article is hard though, and if you spend all your time building that killer article and don't have at least a couple more awesome posts on your blog any traffic will quickly drop off. However if you have a great article that causes people to click through and find other recent posts that are just as good I'd wager there is real potential to pick up a few extra backlinks just from interested people. I find that the blogs I frequent often end up linking to each other somewhat circularly not on purpose, but just because each one has a post of note.

jordanmcclure
12-24-2018, 04:07 AM
Yes, Guest blogging is still worth for SEO. It is best for traffic, keywords ranking, backlink. The following points you should remember when you write guest post.
1) Only Write for Relevant and Popular Blog
2) Use Proper Anchor Text
3) Avoid Keyword Stuffing and Always Keep Audience on Your Mind
4) Only Write for the Blog Websites Where Content Manually Reviewed
5) Don't use Spoon Content
6) Write for users not for links or SEO purpose.

JackAbram
02-06-2019, 01:57 AM
Yes, it's still worth it, but it takes time if you do it right. By "right", I mean presenting your own ideas on important topics for your customers. You will then have every chance of being featured by influential websites and bloggers.

davidlee21
02-07-2019, 05:27 AM
If you are doing guest blogging on the website which have similar niche as your and good domain authority, then without a doubt it will benefit you.

Lewis-H
11-19-2019, 03:23 AM
In short, the answer is yes. There are many benefits of following guest blogging best practices such as brand awareness, building links and improving your website's domain authority.

Regards,
Lewis

chrismarklee
03-09-2020, 03:40 PM
Blogging is very important. You need to focus on relationship building one at a time. If you get a five percent response, this is A plus.

blackpropeller
03-17-2020, 03:07 PM
Yes, Guest Blogging is still helpful. However, you want to make sure to use quality content.

Riley Lueilwitz
08-27-2020, 09:31 AM
Yeah! I believe that guest blogging is helpful in sending organic traffic to websites.

Melisasmith
05-01-2021, 08:52 AM
Yes, guest blog still played important role in SEO to generate traffic and ranking of your website.

chrismarklee
05-06-2021, 07:06 PM
Leaving back links for SEO is becoming less important.You need plugins on your website.

profitlabs
05-29-2021, 03:07 PM
Guest blogging is mostly a relic of the old school internet when it was easy to get attention. Now the key to getting organic traffic is through producing quality content for your own website. However, there are still situations where guest blogging can be worthwhile, such as establishing a relationship with an influencer.

Matt Cutts recommends guest blogging only if you want to link back and they have told you that they accept guest posts with their agreement on them linking back accordingly.

More important is consistency in blog posts which gets people used to following your blog and looking at what you have been posting up on social media so they are more likely to click through or visit your content that way too!

3M Safety Glasses
06-08-2021, 07:43 AM
Hi, Guest blogging for SEO in 2020 is absolutely worth it, as long as you're prepared to put in the time and leg work.” “In terms of link quality, guest blogging is still the best link-building strategy. Guest Blogging allows you to target high-quality websites and improve your chances of successfully securing backlinks

journalist55
02-25-2022, 03:39 PM
I think today blogging has gone a bit dead. Unless you a referring to "blogging" as posting content on social media platforms or a website that has a good following.