Guest Posts: Are They Losing Favor?

About a half a decade ago, all incoming links were important, and the best way to get incoming links was to buy them or comment on articles. You could generate dozens of links in little time, and you didn’t have to do much for it to work.

Then everyone was doing it and Google stopped rewarding it.

Only a few years ago, the best way to get incoming links was through article marketing. You could post in article directories and get countless incoming links from high pagerank websites.

Then everyone was doing it and Google stopped rewarding it.

Within the past few years, the best way to get incoming links was from guest posts. You could email a website, ask for permission, and be featured as a guest post on their website. You could also go to websites like MyBlogGuest and set up articles to be posted on other sites as needed.

Then everyone was doing it and Google may have stopped rewarding it. But have they?

The World of Guest Posting Has Changed

There is no denying that guest posts have fallen out of favor, at least slightly. After a recent Google update, guest posts were devalued, and as soon as they were devalued there was a mass exodus of SEO companies that agree to use them (as well as websites that accept them). But that may have been a little hasty:

  • Your websites still need incoming links.
  • Google has stated they still like guest posts.
  • Natural incoming links would look like guest post to Google.

Google didn’t really punish guest posts, because guest posts still often indicate site value. Quality websites won’t link to other websites if they aren’t also high quality. So if you can get a guest post, it establishes expertise that shows value to the user, and to Google.

Google would never punish guest posts completely. What Google punishes now are:

  • Guest posts on low quality sites.
  • Low quality guest posts.
  • Guest posting as the ONLY way to get incoming links.
  • Guest posting on websites that only post guest posts.

Google wants to see variation in your incoming links, they want to see that your own writing is valuable, and they want to know that you had to earn your way towards a guest post on that site. If everyone can post there and the website is otherwise not very good, or if your own guest post is low quality, then Google isn’t going to reward it.

So guest posting isn’t as valuable as before, but only if you still spam your website on any blog that will have you.

Guest posting still has tremendous value if you can get a guest post on quality websites – websites that write their own high quality content and only accept guest posts from experts. Guest posting will also continue to have secondary benefits, like attracting visitors from the initial website that may become customers, and having the guest post itself show up in search engines.

Guest posting may have changed, but it’s definitely not worthless, and still a valuable part of marketing.

Author

  • Micah Abraham

    Micah Abraham is the owner and lead content writer at Great Leap Studios (https://GreatLeapStudios.com) and High Volt Digital (https://HighVoltDigital.com).
    Micah has over 15 years of content writing and digital marketing experience, and has owned and operated Great Leap Studios since 2013 and High Volt since 2022.
    He has a degree in Psychology from the University of Washington, and has researched and written content on a wide range of topics in the medical and health fields, home services, tech, and beyond.
    Micah lives with his family in California.

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