The end of guest blogging as we know it?

Matt Cutts, head of Google’s web spam team, has suggested in the last couple of days that guest blog posts might not be the best link building tactic anymore.

Claims by Google over the past year regarding guest blog posts seemed to point towards the idea that guest blog posts were losing their effectiveness as a link building tactic and Matt Cutts has given us the reason why this week.

Cutts stated on his personal blog that going forward, guest blogging was becoming more of a spam issue that his web spam team were likely to “take a pretty dim view of” in the coming months.

Cutts went on to say “If you’re using guest blogging as a way to gain links in 2014, you should probably stop.” Cutts blamed the fact that guest blog posts were becoming far more associated with spam techniques instead of genuine content.

He then seemed to completely condemn guest blogging entirely in terms of it being a future link building tactic for SEO by saying “stick a fork in it; guest blogging is done.”

The response to Cutts’ claims has been pretty widespread, with opinions varying on the potential benefits and flaws with guest blogging. Many bloggers agreed that condemning guest blogging as a spam technique would encourage people to search harder for people providing genuine content.

Others weren’t persuaded by Cutts’ theory and attacked Google for penalizing link building tactics recklessly without a thorough understanding of guest blogging.

So what does the future hold for guest blogging? Is it really turning into a poor tactic for link building? What else can we do to improve our SEO tactics?

Why not discuss your next move with Artemis Internet Marketing. We are fully qualified to provide you with all sorts of information surrounding SEO, social media, guest blogging and more. Be sure to make the most of our free consultation service and discover how our help could change your site for the better.