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<\/p>\nThe good news is that guest posts are still good for SEO \u2014 that is if it’s done correctly. Those who are new to guest posting might not know it but guest posting isn’t a sure-fire way of getting high-quality links. A lot can go wrong if you don’t do it properly.<\/p>\n
In this post, you’ll learn when guest blogging isn’t an ideal strategy for link building.<\/p>\n
So how can guest blogging be bad when every online marketing expert tells you that it’s great for SEO?<\/p>\n
You see, guest blogging has been around a long time. And Google has updated its algorithm a lot over the years. If you think you can still get away with using an outdated link building strategy, you’re sorely mistaken.<\/p>\n
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To better understand the consequences of bad guest blog posts, you’ll first need to learn about the concepts of white hat and black hat SEO.<\/p>\n
Explaining all the differences between white hat and black hat SEO will take up its own article. However, it can be simplified as such:<\/p>\n
White hat SEO refers to strategies that do not go against Google’s guidelines. Meaning they don’t try to manipulate the system and are generally fair to other users. Black hat SEO tactics are the exact opposite. Instead of relying on organic traffic, they’ll resort to questionable means to get to the top of the search results.<\/p>\n
Google penalizes anyone caught using black hat SEO strategies. And the punishments can be severe. For example, domains caught cheating the system are dragged all the way down the search engine results pages or SERPs.<\/p>\n
The problem is, sometimes people don’t know they’re engaging in black hat practices. This is especially true for people who aren’t SEO-savvy.<\/p>\n
What’s the relevance of black hat SEO to guest blogging?<\/p>\n
People who aren’t experienced at guest blogging can end up committing the same mistakes as black hat guest bloggers. For instance, paid guest posting is not something Google encourages. If Google finds out that a blogger receives compensation for your backlink, you’ll both get penalized.<\/p>\n
Getting backlinks from gambling sites, adult entertainment sites, and other questionable sources can also hurt your SEO performance.<\/p>\n
Knowing what rules to follow is the key to guest post link building. It pays to work with experts in guest blogging for SEO.<\/p>\n
There are other problems with traditional guest blogging. And these too can impact the effectiveness of your marketing campaign.<\/p>\n
There are two types of backlinks: dofollow and nofollow. Dofollow refers to links that Google is allowed to inspect. By default, all backlinks are dofollow. But not all links are set to dofollow.<\/p>\n
Nofollow backlinks are the opposite. When a blogger sets a backlink to nofollow status (usually through code), it’s basically telling Google to act as if the backlink doesn’t exist.<\/p>\n
Nofollow links are bad because it defeats the purpose of obtaining links pointing to your domain.<\/p>\n
You will encounter bloggers who set their backlinks to nofollow. And the bad news is that you can’t do much when that happens.<\/p>\n
Publishing a guest post won’t bring in more referral traffic either, especially if you get published on low-quality sites. With guest blogs, you only want to work with high-authority sites. And unfortunately, that is easier said than done.<\/p>\n
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To get the most website traffic, you’ll need to learn how to filter out guest post opportunities and weed out those that have little to no SEO value. You can do this by checking out a website’s domain authority through a third-party website or tool.<\/p>\n
The amount of time and resources you’ll have to put into getting guest post links is no joke. And if you’re doing it on your own, then you better have a lot of patience. Not only will you have to do a ton of research, but you’ll also have to pitch ideas to every website owner as well as create high-quality content once they accept your offer.<\/p>\n
You can hire an in-house team of marketers, graphic designers, and writers. Or you can look into working with a freelance guest blogger. But either way, you’ll be paying for a lot of employees with no guarantee if your SEO strategy will deliver results.<\/p>\n