Is Guest Blogging A Good SEO Strategy?

Guest Blogging

A couple years ago, guest blogging was one of the most popular ways SEO companies built links for their websites. Write an article for someone else’s blog, publish it, and gain exposure. The concept is fairly straightforward, but following that idea in today’s internet marketing world could be detrimental to your website. If you are stuck on guest posting for link building, it may be time to update your online marketing strategies.

What Is Guest Blogging?

Guest blogging, also known as guest posting, is a process where business owners and bloggers write articles to post on other people’s blogs. In most cases, the guest posts will include links to the author’s website, which will act as a directory for readers and a way to boost the number of backlinks a website has online. At one point, the number of backlinks a site had played a significant role in how it ranked in search engines, but several of the recent Google algorithm changes have almost eliminated that idea entirely.

Why Guest Posting Used To Work

In its heyday, guest blogging served several different purposes:

  • Give A Website Access To A New Audience (Hopefully In A Similar Niche)
  • Boost A Website’s Search Engine Ranking
  • Become Part Of A Network Of Websites That Share Links With One Another
  • Gain Exposure In Untapped Areas Of The Web
  • Establish The Site Owner Or Business As An Entity Of Authority
  • Share Helpful News With The World
  • Subtly Promote A Business’s Products, Services, And Expertise

Sounds like the perfect plan, right? All you have to do is find people willing to accept your blog posts and then gain a ton of new visitors for your website. What could possibly go wrong?

Why Guest Blogging Failed

Sadly, guest blogging has transformed from a once thriving marketing strategy into an easy ticket to failure. This is because people began abusing the system, and Google caught on – fast. Rather than naturally building links through honest collaborations, people began to post their backlinks all across the web. There are several websites still in business today that connect site owners with one another in giant guest blogging networks. The result is a sea of links that have little to no value for the reader.

Yet another issue that arose with guest blogging was that websites with high PageRanks began to charge other people to get a link on their site. A link from a high ranking website held more value than one from a low ranking website, so they were desirable and in high demand. Paying for exposure is completely against Google’s quality guidelines, and doing so could get your website removed entirely from the search engine’s database.

Continue to Part 2