Guest Blogging as a Link Building Strategy? Google Warns Overdoing it

This article was updated on August 6th, 2020 at 05:58 am

Guest blogging has long been used as a successful link building strategy by online marketers. But Google warns, that if you’re over doing it, you might just be wasting time.

Typically, guest blogging is done by reputed authors, where they are invited by the “host website” to write about a topic they’re expert at. Some are even paid for it.

We’ve seen many mainstream top quality blogs and magazines work entirely on guest blogging platforms, where experts from related industries contribute articles to the community. It is generally a win-win situation for both guest bloggers and the host website, as often the articles contributed are top quality and generates quality discussion within the community while giving the guest blogger a chance to share his knowledge and expertise at the subject matter.

But this “formula” is being over done for the sake of link building.

Content publishing websites or magazines, do have their stipulated guidelines and quality control measures when it comes to guest blogging.

Article length and depth

Typically top quality content publishing platforms (websites) recommend that the article should be of a stipulated length, ex: 1000 words.

This ensures that the article is not written for just the sake of getting links but more inclined towards contributing whole heartedly to a community or topic.

Author Bio with No Follow Links

Mostly, reputed websites do not encourage guest blogs with dofollow inks, they either nofollow it or avoid them completely.

This is a good step to avoiding possible wrong page rank attributions via link manipulations.

No Sponsored Links within articles

Most reputed websites will have an editorial process that will ensure that there are no external links to other sites within the article.

If needed, a very relevant link or two, but irrelevant and inserted links are a strict no-no with many websites.

The thumb rule is that do not write guest articles just for the sake of links.

If you’re an authority in your niche, you would naturally be approached by other folks inviting you to contribute articles to their websites.

Overdoing it with article spinning or outsourcing from cheap sources will not only give you bad links, but give you a bad reputation as well. Check the video from Matt Cutts here on Guest Blogging (YouTube Link).