Google\u2019s head of webspam, Matt Cutts, caused an uproar in the SEO community yesterday when he published a blog post on his personal blog claiming guest blogging for SEO purposes is dead.<\/p>\n
In his post, Cutts offered a history of how guest blogging has moved from being a reliable source of high-quality content to now being overrun with spam.<\/p>\n
\u201cGuest blogging is done; it\u2019s just gotten too spammy,\u201d wrote Cutts. \u201cIn general I wouldn\u2019t recommend accepting a guest blog post unless you are willing to vouch for someone personally or know them well.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n
As Cutts\u2019 words spread across the web, many SEO bloggers took to their own blogs to offer their take on the demise of guest blogging.<\/p>\n
With so much being said on the topic, we\u2019ve put together a round-up of industry reactions, summarizing comments from a selection of popular SEO bloggers.<\/p>\n
Blogger Christopher Penn wasn\u2019t surprised that an \u201cautomated, low-quality, easy-to-outsource\u201d SEO tactic like guest blogging is on its way out.
\nIn his post titled, \u201cBe Happy that Guest Blogging For SEO Is Dead,\u201d Penn advises bloggers to continue as if there were no Google: \u201cWould you still pursue guest blogging if there was no SEO, if Google wasn\u2019t looking over your shoulder? Yes, absolutely.\u201d<\/p>\n
Penn writes that the death of guest blogging for SEO is a \u201cgood thing\u201d for content marketers<\/a> focused on creating quality content:<\/p>\n If you\u2019ve been relying on spammy guest blogging practices for SEO purposes, then it\u2019s time to move on. If you\u2019re still bringing in guest bloggers who you know, trust and vouch for personally, then chances are Google isn\u2019t going to hurt you.<\/p>\n Andy Beal is another blogger who is happy about Cutts\u2019 announcement. \u201cI\u2019ve grown tired of the gazillion guest post pitches I receive every day,\u201d writes Beal, \u201cSeriously, it\u2019s become worse than the paid link spam emails.\u201d<\/p>\n Beal claims he had already stopped taking guest posts unless he knew the author personally. He goes on to write that he believes guest blogging for exposure \u2013 a tactic Cutts vouched for when he updated his post \u2013 is still a valuable tactic, \u201cThere\u2019s nothing like a quality guest post to get your name in front of a different audience and generate direct traffic back to your site.\u201d<\/p>\n (Cutts later updated his post to clarify that guest blogging is still worthwhile when trying to gain exposure, branding, increased reach, and community.)<\/p>\n Some weren\u2019t as thrilled about the news and even took offense to Cutts\u2019 post. Phelps claims Cutts isn\u2019t talking about actual guest blogging tactics when he says \u201cGuest blogging is dead,\u201d but is instead referring to manipulative, spammy techniques.<\/p>\n \u201cLumping those who legitimately contribute to real websites with spammers isn\u2019t fair and it\u2019s not something Google can even enforce unless you\u2019re engaging in spammy techniques,\u201d writes Phelps.<\/p>\n Ann Smarty, who also runs the MyBlogGuest.com service, wrote a post on SEOSmarty.com claiming she isn\u2019t concerned with Google. \u201cGoogle is NOT your friend or your partner,\u201d writes Smarty, \u201cIf you grow big enough, Google is likely to become your competitor. Do you really want to depend on Google?\u201d<\/p>\n Smarty tells beginning bloggers that if somebody likes your content and wants to publish it, there is nothing broken. \u201cIf someone wants to contribute to your blog and you LOVE what they have to say? Do you need to be on your own because Google wants you to be alone?\u201d asks Smarty.<\/p>\n She later updated her post, clarifying bloggers should not go against Google guidelines. \u201cWhat I was really trying to say,\u201d writes Smarty, \u201cDo marketing as if Google didn\u2019t exist,\u201d echoing Penn\u2019s advice to continue as if there was no Google.<\/p>\n Copyblogger\u2019s Jerod Morris cut to the chase, writing, \u201cGuest blogging is not done, dead or destitute. Have standards, do right by your audience, and play to win in the long term. In short, don\u2019t act like a spammer.\u201d<\/p>\n Morris pointed out that Google will fail as a search engine if it begins penalizing sites with quality content in the form of a guest post. \u201cQuality always wins,\u201d write Morris.<\/p>\n Search marketing software provider Wordstream published a post on its company blog with similar sentiments. Wordstream\u2019s Elisa Gabbert argues that any SEO tactic will fall victim to the same spammy charges overtime, not just guest blogging.<\/p>\n She says publishers concerned with being penalized by Google should: 1.) Only publish good guest posts; 2.) Don\u2019t label the posts as guests posts; and, 3.) Build relationships, not links.<\/p>\n \u201cGoogle has always stressed that quality, unique, user-friendly content is the key to search engine rankings,\u201d writes Gabbert, \u201cMy guess is, sites that publish content that meets all those criteria won\u2019t be penalized, whether or not some of those content pieces are guest posts.\u201d<\/p>\n The founder and CEO of SEO consulting agency Yoast.com agrees with Cutts: \u201cThe latest tactic being hammered by Matt Cutts is guest blogging,\u201d writes de Valk, \u201cAs the owner of a fairly popular blog, I can only agree with him: it\u2019s gone too far.\u201d<\/p>\n De Valk\u2019s post focuses on the link building attributes of guest blogging, claiming, \u201cBranding is the new link building.\u201d He expands on the idea that guest blogging is out:<\/p>\n So SEOs have a choice: now that Matt has said guest blogging won\u2019t work anymore, are they going to try and find the next disposable tactic? Will they remain tricksters? Or are they going to become real marketers? I think that as an industry we\u2019ve been relying on crappy tactics enough by now.<\/p>\n De Valk goes on to emphasize how brands need to rely on a variety of tactics \u2013 and not just rely on one \u2013 to optimize their SEO efforts.<\/p>\n Ryan Jones shares de Valk\u2019s opinion on tactics versus strategies on a the OutSpokenMedia.com blog.<\/p>\n \u201cGuest blogging is a tactic, not a strategy,\u201d writes Jones, \u201cIt\u2019s time our industry took a step back from the \u2018what\u2019 and started taking a longer look at the \u2018why\u2019 of SEO tactics.\u201d<\/p>\n He goes on to say: Jones believes that while spammy guest blogging is dead, quality guest posts are not. In his post, Jones outlines a number of SEO tactics that have fallen from grace, from link directories, to press releases, comments and infographics.<\/p>\n \u201cYou wouldn\u2019t turn down a column on CNN or an editorial in the Huffington Post if they said you couldn\u2019t have a dofollow link, would you?\u201d asks Jones, \u201cIt\u2019s about the audience, not the HTML.\u201d<\/p>\n Note<\/strong>: This article original posted on Search Engine Land<\/a> .<\/p>\n \n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Google\u2019s head of webspam, Matt Cutts, caused an uproar in the SEO community yesterday when he published a blog post on his personal blog claiming guest blogging for SEO purposes is dead. In his post, Cutts offered a history of how guest blogging has moved from being a reliable source of high-quality content to now … Continue reading “Keep Writing Quality Content: SEO Bloggers React To Matt Cutts\u2019 Claim \u201cGuest Blogging Is Dead\u201d”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8912,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-seo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.braintechnosys.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.braintechnosys.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.braintechnosys.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.braintechnosys.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.braintechnosys.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5711"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.braintechnosys.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5711\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9059,"href":"https:\/\/www.braintechnosys.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5711\/revisions\/9059"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.braintechnosys.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.braintechnosys.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.braintechnosys.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.braintechnosys.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Andy Beal: www.MarketingPilgrim.com<\/span><\/h3>\n
Kevin Phelps: www.GuestBlogPoster.com<\/span><\/h3>\n
\n\u201cEven after Matt Cutts\u2019 well thought out response toward guest blogging, I believe they [Google] penalize link building techniques (as opposed to strategies) out of the sheer fact that Google obviously doesn\u2019t even know what guest blogging is,\u201d writes Kevin Phelps on GuestBlogPoster.com.<\/p>\nAnn Smarty: www.SEOSmarty.com<\/span><\/h3>\n
Jerod Morris: www.CopyBlogger.com<\/span><\/h3>\n
Elisa Gabbert: www.WordStream.com<\/span><\/h3>\n
Joost de Valk: www.Yoast.com<\/span><\/h3>\n
Ryan Jones: www.OutSpokenMedia.com<\/span><\/h3>\n
\nIt seems whenever an SEO tactic becomes popular, Google decides to take action on it\u2026Google hates automated tactics that provide little value to actual website visitors such as creating links and content just to increase search rankings.<\/p>\n