3 Reasons Guest Blogging Isn’t as Dead

The recent declaration by Matt Cutts, a renowned American software engineer, that guest blogging is dead has left lots of bloggers wondering whether to continue guest blogging or quit guest blogging completely.

Bearing in mind that Matt Cutts is the head of Google’s Web Spam team and also works alongside Google’s search quality team on issues touching on search engine optimization; his announcement definitely carries a lot of weight and credibility.

Whereas there is little doubt that guest blogging is increasingly becoming a spammy practice these days, it however doesn’t mean that guest blogging is dead. But prior to delving into this topic of whether guest blogging is dead or not, it is imperative to look at guest blogging so that you can understand this topic much better.

What is guest blogging? It is a marketing technique that you can use to establish your credibility in your specific niche and also boost your search engine rankings. Guest blogging is when a writer or blogger creates content for another blog that isn’t theirs and then links it to their own blog. It gives bloggers an opportunity to share their expertise with others, and an opportunity to drive more traffic to both parties’ blogs. Guest blogging mainly serves three purposes namely.

• Help expose a writer’s blog to a new audience 
• Help writers/ bloggers establish themselves as thought leaders’ in their field 
• Help bloggers build relationships with fellow bloggers in their respective field 

In as much as guest blogging could be on Google’s radar, it, however, doesn’t mean that it is completely dead. Below are a couple of reasons why guest blogging isn’t dead.

1. Even SEO gets spammy as well, but it isn’t dead 

Every SEO technique is somewhat spammy regardless of whether it is effective or not. No matter how well an SEO tactic may work, it is however bound to become spammier over time. Actually, there is no SEO technique that is spam-proof. Each technique must adapt with the competitive algorithm and landscape. Similarly, guest bloggers need to focus on long-term quality over-short-term effectiveness when it comes to guest blogging. But the fact that guest blogging is getting spammy doesn’t simply mean that bloggers should stop guest blogging. And neither does it mean that guest blogging is dead.

2. There isn’t any technical difference between guest blogging and other types of content 

Algorithmically, Google can’t differentiate between other types of content such as articles and guest blogging. This is simply because websites and blogs aren’t bound by any law to disclose whether anything they publish isn’t a guest post or it is a guest post. For instance, most of the content that is featured on high-quality news sites such as New York Times or other high ranking sites is largely crafted by freelancers. Now, if you write a bylined article for any site that you don’t personally own, then it is apparent that your article isn’t a guest post.

There is definitely no way for Google to establish an author’s motives, regardless of whether they created and published content for purposes of earning money, exposure or pure altruism. But if you are among the many writers/ bloggers who fear that Google will rein on guest blogging, then there are a number of things that you need to do as a publisher. Some of them include.

• Strive at building relationships but not links 
• Stop guest-blogging for guest blogging farms 

3. Guest blogging can still be valuable even when they are no links 

This doesn’t mean that you should eliminate all the links from your guest posts. After all, Google can’t tell the difference between other types of content and guest blogs, and, therefore, there isn’t any way it can devalue links that are embedded in guest posts.

However, avoid spammy links for they only help in ruining guest blogging. Simply create high-quality content and then attach your business name and your name to that content if you want your content to reach a bigger audience. Even if you fail to include links back to your blog or site, your content can still get to a different or bigger audience as you want.

Conclusion 

No one can claim that guest blogging is dead despite the fact that it is a practice that is increasingly becoming spammy each day. But once it is done properly, guest blogging can be a great way of establishing yourself in your own niche and connecting with others bloggers/ writers.