Is Guest Posting on Other Blogs Now Considered Spam?

While I was on Twitter reading through tweets from others, I came across Matt Cutts (Head of Google Search Spam) tweet about the Decay and Falling of Guest Blogging.  I immediately clicked on his link since my blog does offer guest posting from other bloggers.

Basically guest blogging has been becoming out of hand and people are really abusing it just to build links and page rank to their spammy website. 

In Matt Cutts's blog he says, "So stick a fork in it: guest blogging is done; it’s just gotten too spammy. In general I wouldn’t recommend accepting a guest blog post unless you are willing to vouch for someone personally or know them well. Likewise, I wouldn’t recommend relying on guest posting, guest blogging sites, or guest blogging SEO as a linkbuilding strategy."

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I think guest blogging is a great way to gain new readers and followers but if you're only using it for SEO purposes and writing spam articles all over the place then that is consider spam and you will get penalize.

I get so many SEO companies emailing me every week trying to send me crap articles to post on my blog's to help their clients gain backlinks and approve their pagerank.  Stay far away from those companies or you may suffer the hit from Google spam and your website may fall off Google SERPs!

I just hate it when something good which helps a writer build up his/her following and helps bloggers bring helpful informative post for their readers get abused by spammers.

With this now going on and the internet world at a frenzy about this, I wanted to get opinions from other bloggers about this subject.  I visited MyBlogGuest community on Google+ to get their thoughts on this and Shannon Hutcheson (MBG Moderator) gave some good advice about guest posting.  Here are her tips about having guest bloggers:

 Shannon Hutcheson  writes:

 As with everything Google, the key is moderation +Louida Martin .  

If a person is only offering low quality (craptastic) content just to get a backlink, yes, this is going to get
your content flagged as spam. It may even get the publisher site flagged as low quality and spammy too.

How do you make sure your content is not low quality? 

1. Make sure it is truly something readers need or want to know. It must be helpful, useful, relevant, answer a question, fill a need, etc. 

2. Stats have shown that longer articles are shared more often. Read too? Well if there are proper sub-headings and interesting photos or creative images included to break up walls of text.

3. Adding more than a single link in the article. A single link is a clear and obvious red flag that
this article's only purpose is to get a backlink. Adding many helpful and relevant resource links, or including citations (where you found your information) sends trust signals to Google. They also help validate the article.  Lay out the facts, state where your "proof" is or where it came from.

4. Do not use keyword rich / exact match anchor text that aims at manipulating search results to create your self-serving link. These links should not help you rank. This is a major red flag for Google right now. Vary your link anchor texts, use non-keyword rich words instead. And make sure that all anchor
link text reads naturally in the sentence it is in. 

5. Including a real author name (many don't, or make them up) that uses ?rel=author in
their G+ URL (or includes another social media profile link) sends trust signals to Google as well. A real person behind the article makes everything more believable. Using your G+ profile link in the byline also help build authority in the field you are in, helps build your reputation and networking efforts.

6. Creative commons images (or royalty free) with clear and direct URLs to their source also sends trust signals to Google. Yet another way to prove to your readers that you've done due diligence in sourcing relevant and interesting content (photos) for your article.

7. Only offer your content to really good websites. While understanding what is a good quality website is
sometimes unclear, there are some true indications (that do NOT include PR - page rank).  Look for Domain Authority, Page Authority, MozTrust, Alexa Rank and so on. I use www.Moonsy.com for this. It's free, browser based, user friendly, and super fast to use.

It all adds up, right? If you did all the above, your content is not likely to get flagged as spammy. Regardless of being a guest post or not.

Even though guest blogging is getting frown upon by Google, I'll still continue to allow guest post on my blog but will be doing major research about the guest blogger before I add their blog post.

Rules will still stand:  

1. Article must be about 300 words or more.
2. Original, unique content that has never been spunned.
3. What you blog about must be legitimate!  NO SCAMS!  No topics or links about gambling, dating, drugs, pharmaceuticals, and paid day loans.
4. You can blog about your work from home business or ways for people to save money, debt management, coupons, pretty much anything related to this website.
5. You can add your pictures, and link to your website.  Your website must be PR 1 or higher with
Google.
6. Must show me a link to your previous guest article posting.
7. Must show me that your article has passed Copyscape.



Are you a blogger that allows guest bloggers?  What are your thoughts about this?