The Hot SEO Question - To Guest Blog or Not to Guest Blog

Guest Blogging, which used to be a respected and trusted way of gaining visibility, has become one of the most confusing areas for SEO (Search Engine Optimization) professionals all around the world. For those that did not take the warnings from Google’s Matt Cutts seriously, the first major action on a leading Guest Blogging site came as a well-deserved wake-up call. With Guest Blogging enthusiasts launching into debates on whether Guest Blogging is dead, SEO's and bloggers are in a fix on whether to use the technique or not. We tried to analyze the scenario and come up with a conclusion on whether Guest Blogging is likely to become a way of attracting sure shot penalty from Google or is it still harmless.

Even while enthusiasts continued to claim that Guest Blogging should be okay as long as there is good content, Google slammed a penalty on one of the leading and respected Guest Blogging sites. Though it is true that the concerned site, much like any other site, contained half-baked and spun articles too, there is also abundant quality content to be found. Now, we will all agree that once such a site becomes popular, content of all sorts will try to make a way into it. It is practically impossible to ensure that 100% of all the write-ups in a popular Guest Blogging site are unique and smoked in high quality. So, the question that comes into mind is whether your site will suffer due to the few bad write-ups that exist there in spite of the others being mostly good. Well, a concentrated analysis of the reasons, for the action by Google, puts the blame on one simple occurrence – Backlink Spam. The popularity of the site attracting Backlink Spammers is also a primary reason for the existence of poor quality content in the site. Google had one simple solution for this – no follow links – which for some reason or the other, the site refused to implement.

There is a strong possibility that the above event (which experts opine are being done manually as of now) will soon become an all-out attack from Google. It is a very good idea to delete / disavow / no follow links from or leading to poor quality Guest Blogs before that happens. Though lessening Backlinks does not seem like a good SEO Strategy, many Top SEO Agencies have done well without many of them. The idea of Guest Blogging is to share useful content among experts from similar fields. The provision for the Backlinks was made so that they act as bridges for them to communicate. If some of the SEO's have started using them to manipulate search results, and they cannot be stopped in any other way, it is better to blow down the bridge. If the content has interested the audience enough, they will wade through the waters to reach your site.