It’s come as no surprise to us that Google have recently listed ‘low quality guest blog posts’ as one of the official violations of their guidelines. But what is the real impact of this for SEO?
The addition only serves to reinforce Google’s policies surrounding low quality link building practices. Although guest posting in this instance has been singled out, there’s really no difference between this link building strategy and other doomed tactics such as using link networks or comment spam.
Guest posting in its own right has marketing advantages. Creating a personal brand, establishing expertise or simply raising awareness through new channels are all legitimate goals that can be achieved through guest posting. However, to truly reap the rewards of guest posting, you must write good quality blog articles and post your content to trusted, popular websites.
Unfortunately, over the last few years, spammers have taken advantage of guest blogging as an easy way to build links. Floods of guest blogging requests and the eruption of poor quality, untrustworthy websites filled with spammy blog posts have engulfed the internet.
This doesn’t mean that guest blogging is dead. The same rules still apply – good quality content posted to high authority websites that have genuine value is still a valid marketing tactic. However, if you’re posting content in this way purely for SEO purposes, it is time to re-evaluate your strategy to maintain a healthy link profile.
Google will most likely be cracking down on commercial anchor text links from these channels. Ensure you’re opting for natural looking links and perhaps even avoid commercial anchor text altogether in favour of branded terms. When completing our own website audits, we ourselves have witnessed unnatural amounts of ‘no followed’ links from low quality guest blog posts which could also be an indicator Google will pick up on.
Don’t be scared to link back to your website, just make sure you’re doing it in a natural, non-spammy way.
If links are what you’re after then there are plenty of better ways to achieve a healthy, natural link profile. Explore creative link bait tactics that deliver value to your customers and they’ll reward you with those all important links!