Comments on: Google Wages War on Guestbloggers

By: Neil

Neil — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 23:44:33 +0000

Several comments above suggest that guest blogging is similar to paid links and therefore likely to be penalized by google.

In my opinion this is not the case because of the editorial decision that the blog has to make to include your post on their blog. There is a sense that they have voted for the quality of your contant (both in your guest post and on the site that is being linked to). If google still allows links from article directories and the like (which it does) I don’t think that they are about to stop this form of link building.

By: Ralph

Ralph — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 05:40:15 +0000

Why would I put work into the blog if I wasn’t going to put work into getting the blog noticed. Doesn’t make any sense. Building links is work.

I’m still going to guest post like crazy because my feed subscriptions go up when I do. Lets see Google stop that.

By: Is Guest Blogging Now a Black Hat SEO Technique? | PiggyBankPie

Is Guest Blogging Now a Black Hat SEO Technique? | PiggyBankPie — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 12:42:37 +0000

[...] it now looks like the last benefit – incoming links – could be in question. Google may now be waging war on guest bloggings, with a recent interview with John Mueller, the Webmaster Trends Analyst for Google Zurich, [...]

By: Gina

Gina — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 04:47:04 +0000

I think it’s the Google Standard answer. Even Matt Cutts, the head of web spam at Google, tells you to concentrate on producing content.

It’s true. Content is still very much king.

I honestly don’t think Google wants give away anything that might cause their site to be reverse engineered, hacked or pilfered. Notice how they freaked out when the Chinese government hacked into someone’s gmail account.

I don’t blame them, really, because if Google’s site came down, millions of websites would lose out big time.

It’s kind of like dealing with classified information. Only those who need to know need to know.

By: rob

rob — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 14:42:57 +0000

how are we small people supposed to get any sort of ranking if we cant guest post.just another way for google to make even more money.

By: mk akan

mk akan — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 11:13:57 +0000

i do a lot of guest posting and really believe in it..if Google frowns on it .what happens now.

By: Matthew Gain

Matthew Gain — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 09:41:14 +0000

As some of the commentators above have noted above, I believe the benefits of guest posts in growing your brand and driving traffic back to your blog has more benefit than any negative impact Google SEO could have – at least in most cases.

By: Chris

Chris — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 02:39:44 +0000

I think you might be reading into John Mueller’s answer a bit too much. I think Mueller just expressed a personal opinion that writing good content was better marketing than writing content for another blog. Mueller was speaking out of ignorance (I doubt he runs a successful blog of his own) but he spoke his opinion nonetheless. However, I think it is a very real possibility that guest blogging can be frowned upon in the future.

One thing you need to consider is that guest blogging actually helps Google out by introducing more human factors. When people offer to guest post on highly influential blogs (PR wise), their content is vetted (only the best of stuff is accepted). Because of that, guest blogs containing links back to the author’s blog can actually help Google out. Google is after all looking to rank the best content highest.

By: Missy

Missy — Mon, 31 May 2010 23:07:34 +0000

I think it’s pretty clear that the response was aimed at those with a NEW blog, since that is what the question was.

John clearly mentions that on new blogs, one should be adding value and working on it, to make it great. Why add content as a guest blogger to a new non-established blog.

And what is considered a new blog? A month old blog, a year old blog. To me a new blog is one that is fresh off the presses, and hasn’t much content on it.

Just like you wouldn’t promote a new blog without much content on it, why would one guest blog. To me a guest blog is sort like a mini-promotion, I wouldn’t promote just yet on a (new) blog.

By: Narayanan Hariharan

Narayanan Hariharan — Sun, 30 May 2010 13:20:18 +0000

I’ve always been saying guest posting is as good as a sponsored post/paid links because that’s usually why bloggers write guest posts. Not sure how Google will crack down on these though.