Any time someone asks me, “What is the best way to increase traffic and brand awareness?” I tell them guest blogging because if you find the right opportunities, a single post can generate thousands of niche relevant visitors. However, I’m beginning to see a huge change in guest blogging from when I first started and I’m afraid to tell you it’s NOT for the positive. Many of you will disagree with my comment, but I’ve been in the business long enough to know when it’s beneficial or when it’s simply a waste of time. I’m not saying you won’t be able to benefit, but recent changes have decreased the value and this is where things get a bit tricky. I’ll run through a few quick factors that I feel are making a huge IMPACT in reference to guest blogging.
Let’s get started…
The Announcement
The practice of guest blogging in my eyes started to decay when Matt Cutts announced it won’t be as effective in building backlinks as it once was. The sad thing is once this announcement was made, many people went online and started to ask questions about the practice and lost interest in guest posting. First, I find it very hard to accept people don’t write content passionately anymore. I continue to guest blog “now” as much as I did before the announcement because I’m passionate about my niche. I love what I do and this is EXACTLY why I continue to write content but knowing people want to stop because of it NOT being accepted for backlinks is very difficult to accept. When you start doing something in return for something else, I believe you’re undermining the whole concept.
Anyway, I started to notice a decline in guest blogging when the announcement was made, but even more, I realized why Google was going to stop accepting links from guest posting. Google started to notice how spammy the practice became and people would simply write content for links and NOT provide actual value. New bloggers were exchanging money for backlinks and this became a huge issue. Starting a blog can be done within minutes and this meant more opportunities to get published on a blog WITHOUT adding value for visitors. This whole “guest blogging” dilemma has changed our mentalities, which is what’s bothering me the most and I’ll tell you why.
Degrading the Value
Guest blogging has gone from one of the best traffic methods that provided value and traffic to a spam practice. First, many people are NO longer considering guest blogging as a way to build a buzz to their blog and when I recommend it to my clients, they don’t even consider the idea. I have to push them to write guest content and have to encourage them to find the right blogs. Secondly, authority bloggers are having a hard time finding genuine writers to post content on their blogs and when they do, they have to think hard about the main purpose of their content. They have to question if it’s…
- High quality
- Genuine
- For link building
- For affiliate commissions, etc.
I’ve had “3” people hand in content for my blog WITH so many links and providing no real substance. I thought long and hard about why this was the case, realizing it’s the “definition” associated with guest blogging. For example, it being considered a spam practice had decreased the effort and value people add into their content. Instead of them feeling privileged for the opportunity, they think they’re doing the blog owner a favour….LOL. Anyway, I’m actually writing this piece of content to get your opinion on guest blogging and how you think it has changed over the last couple of years. Would you recommend the practice and if so, then how would you approach searching or accepting guest blogging opportunities?
You feedback is greatly appreciated.