I'm hearing complaints from bloggers getting slammed, banned because they were using "unnatural outgoing linking techniques". The cases I've heard of resulted in PR getting slammed down to zero, Google SERPs sinking, visitor numbers diminishing,... Is anyone experiencing guest posts-related penalties? Google is apparently harshly punishing blogs publishing guest articles with outbound links.
Google slammed low quality directories, guest posts, articles websites, blogs, etc. Just avoid low quality websites.
Exactly this. If you go for high quality, and high relevant guest posts, you should be fine. One quick test to think about is would the users that read this guest post be my target audience? Would they click through and want to read more from my site? If you try to get guest posts that could lead to quality traffic from interested users, it's a good strategy.
Exactly, Google is now rewarding authority sites and downgrading everyone else. But to keep it all in perspective what Google is really trying to do is to remove the organic search ability of commercial sites since they really want you to be using AdWords. They don't make any money from organic listings. So try to look very authoritative, don't link to non-authority sites, and try to look less commercial especially on the home page. Of course Google is not the only game in town, you can still use non-Google friendly techniques if you are focusing on other search engines like Bing.
Yep they are, thanks to the disavow tool that everyone has been using in droves. That data is a goldmine to Google, props to whoever thought of that and implemented it at the big G. They're just now using that data for the new Penguin, finding networks, and implementing penalties. Guest posts can work, but not in the old school traditional sense.
Google Only penalized the low quality guest contents. So, There nothing to be panic, Just check the quality of your posts.
If you will publish your content on low quality blogs, then surly Google will effect your website. Always try to get links form high domain authority blogs with good page rank.
Well, I'm not focusing much on PageRank lately, but rather on Moz indicators. I posted this thread specifically because someone I know owns a high quality site and he was slammed by a harsh Google penalty. They killed his PageRank, he lost visitors etc. And that was a good quality site with strong readership. He said Google sent him a message about "unnatural outgoing links". He could not understand what they meant by that - from what I saw, he had almost exlusively "nofollow" outgoing links.
Write high quality and niche relevant content and publish on high quality blog (real blog), because there are many blogs generated only for guest post purpose, and it will definitely affect your website.
Guest posting is not dead! It is still a great way to build your authority, drive traffic to your website and get quality backlinks. The problem is when people still focus on guest posting for backlinks. They will crank out a ton of guest post on low quality sites which is unnatural and will get you penalized. I think first we have to change our thought process when it comes to guest posting. When should focus on guest posting on sites related to our niche that has a loyal fan base. If we do this and submit a quality guest post, we are able to tap into their fan base. If the site with high authority, we will automatically be associated with being knowledgeable in our niche, just because we were able to get a post published on the site. This in turns boosts your own authority. Then gets people curious to know who you are and visit your site increasing traffic. Finally, getting us some backlinks because of the quality post on our own sites. We just have to put more effort in the quality of our post and the sites we target for our content. We still get the backlinks we desire with the potential to get many more backlinks than just the one low quality link.
Emphasis mine.... About once a week I read something that is actually true(whereas everything else is ridiculous). This is that post for the week lol... Well stated sir. Nigel
Indeed, I also think posting on real blogs is essential. Google is measuring the traffic through the blog post to your site. Still, getting links is also important - especially on high authority sites.
Haha very true and well said. Guest posts are still of huge value to online businesses. It's only when they're made purely for the sake of back-links that the content suffers and the posts lacks any real value to anyone. I've always found in business that if you try to give value in everything that you do, the value will be returned 200%
I don't think that guest blogging is going to be stopped. If the content you want to publish on some blog is informative and provides value to the people than you can engage in guest blogging activities.
Content is king so people should think about good quality posts. This kinda articles which are made very well google doesn't punish