Guest blogging is currently one of the most talked about techniques in content marketing however has been met with both positive and negative comments and discussions in recent months. With this in mind, we wanted take a look at whether guest blogging is still a sustainable content marketing technique and why some industry professionals have been quick to slate it as the next spam technique.
To start on a positive note, guest blogging is still one of the most effective way to both obtain natural and organic links as well as increase your online brand awareness quickly and efficiently. A high quality guest blogging opportunity will not only do wonders for your organic search positions but will also ensure your name gets talked about within your circles, encouraging readers to take note of what you’re saying, visit your website and perhaps follow you on one or more of your social media profiles. All of the above positives, however, only happen when guest blogging is done naturally and high quality linkable and shareable content is produced and submitted. The sole purpose of guest blogging must always be to submit a high quality, useful, informative and relevant post to the hosts blog which adds value to their content and is found to be an interesting read by their readers. When the sole focus is submitting a fantastic article, you simply cannot go wrong with guest blogging and there’s no doubting that it can, and will, do wonders for your online presence.
After looking at the above, how could guest blogging be perceived as a spammy SEO tactic and why are many industry professionals slating it?
The reason, of course, is that black hat SEOs are getting their hands on it and looking for ways which they can utilise this highly valuable technique on larger scales and through automated methods and what is the result when they do this? Low quality articles which don’t in any way, shape or form add value to the hosts blog and constitute of nothing but web spam. It’s the same type of spun, nonsense articles which were hit hard with the roll out of Google Panda way back in 2011 and these so called marketers are at it again, trying to tarnish a technique which has ultimately always been about creating and sharing valuable, high quality content. When guest blogging doesn’t add value and doesn’t focus solely on creating content which is nothing short of fantastic then yes, guest blogging is a technique which is susceptible to penalties from Google the same way as any other low quality and automated technique is. Will people stop using these low quality techniques and tactics? Probably not, but that doesn’t mean you should stop what you’re doing and stop guest blogging using high quality and value adding content!
So long as you continue to produce fantastic content, you’ll have absolutely no problems with Google penalties and algorithm updates and you’ll see a natural link profile built up! When done properly, guest blogging is an extremely sustainable and high quality content marketing technique and one which is highly recommended if you want to grow your online presence!