Does guest blogging still work for SEO?

There is a lot of conflict over whether or not guest blogging is still an effective tactic for SEO. As recently as a few months ago, guest blogging was the go-to link-building method of all SEO companies as a way to build and maintain a good solid link network. However, with Google’s new rules and speculation that it may now be at best ineffectual and at worst harmful for your SEO campaign, what is the real situation?

If you pay for your links on guest blogs, this is strictly forbidden and if discovered, you will be penalised heavily by Google. Paying for links is a classic way to trick the system into believing that your site is more influential and powerful than it really is by soliciting links from sites with good reputations, and of course, it is far better to earn a great link than to pay for it.

However, that being said, this doesn’t mean that it’s time for us all to run in the other direction when an opportunity to guest blog comes along. The focus is, as ever, on the quality of the content. If you can create a well crafted, well structured post that is genuinely relevant, interesting and entertaining, virtually nobody looking for guest posts would mind a single link.

This might mean you have to ditch the keyword-rich anchor text and stick to the type of language you would naturally use when talking about a topic, but this shouldn’t matter if you can get your link on that one amazing website you’ve been eyeing up for a long time. Keep your post relevant to their blog, and remember that you need to adapt to them, because their blog certainly won’t morph into something more relevant to your link just for the sake of your post.

So, the message is simple: by all means, guest blog, but go about it in the right way. Don’t pay for links, don’t engage in anything which could resemble spamming and keep it relevant and in keeping with the style of the rest of the blog. The blogger is ultimately doing you a favour by agreeing to accept your post, so make it worthy of a spot on your blog, and reap the benefits when other websites and social media sites pick the content up and it is shared around the internet.

If you would like to find out more about guest blogging opportunities for your website, contact Artemis who will be able to tell you more about the article writing services on offer.