The Debate on Guest Blogging…

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I was planning on writing on the topic of “guest blogging” and how great it is, now I am not so sure how great it really is.

I mentioned in an earlier post that in my search to finds ways to generate more traffic to my blog, I came across the concept of guest blogging, and it seemed great! They highly recommended it.

I have finally had enough time to go back and do further investigation on this “guest blogging” idea and what I found was a whole lot of controversy. So much controversy that even Google is involved.

Here is how I saw guest blogging working; 

1. You would look for high traffic quality websites that allow guest bloggers.
2. You would apply with a well written piece.
3. They accept! Let’s be positive here J
4. They post your piece and it is now exposed to their much larger following than your own blog.
5. Those followers fall in love with what you wrote click through to your site from the host site and start following you!! Yay!!

Love it, so simple! Not so fast…

Here is what Matt Cutts – Head of Google’s Webspam team had to say about Guest Blogging, February, 2014.

 “Okay, I’m calling it: if you’re using guest blogging as a way to gain links in 2014, you should probably stop. Why? Because over time it’s become a more and more spammy practice, and if you’re doing a lot of guest blogging then you’re hanging out with really bad company.”

As you imagine this statement stopped me in my tracks, I needed to go back and do further investigation. I have no idea what “gaining links” is and how does guest blocking lead to spamming?

Here is what Wikipedia says about Blog Spamming –

“Spam in blogs is done by posting (usually automatically) random comments, copying material from elsewhere that is not original, or promoting commercial services to blogs, wikis, guestbooks, or other publicly accessible online discussion boards.

Adding links that point to the spammer’s web site artificially increases the site’s search engine ranking on those where the popularity of the URL contributes to its implied value, an example algorithm would be the PageRank algorithm as used by Google Search. An increased ranking often results in the spammer’s commercial site being listed ahead of other sites for certain searches, increasing the number of potential visitors and paying customers.”

So how do you stay out of trouble with Google?

1. Write high quality guest posts.
2. If you write for more then one website use unique posts for each one.
3. Pick sites that relate to your blog, this will allow natural and appropriate linking.
4. Most importantly, build relationships not links.

Am I discouraged from trying Guest Blogging? Believe it or not, I am still going to give it a try.

For one thing, I have no desire to trick anyone into following my blog or joining my challenge. Secondly and most accurately, I wouldn’t even know where or how to start to game Google or any other search engine. And for the effort it would take me or anyone else to learn these skills, we can instead be building real connections in support of our business efforts.

After all Google wants us to be successful on the internet, they just want us to do it an honest ethical manner, I think that is what we all want.

Happy Friday Night everyone! Have a great weekend!

Karen

If you know anyone who would find this blog useful, helpful or interesting please share.

Would love to hear any of your thoughts on Guest Blogging!! Feel free to leave a comment.

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