Is Guest Blogging Still a Viable SEO Strategy?
We’ve all heard the news that Google has declared guest blogging dead, but is it really? Former head of web spam at Google Matt Cutts’s announcement was met with skepticism, and further changes like the new sponsored and UGC (user-generated content) link attributes have only added fuel to the fires of confusion.
The reality of the matter is that guest blogging is alive and well as an SEO strategy. We wanted to understand just how prevalent this link-building strategy is in the SEO industry today, so we asked the experts and more than 100 responded!
As it turns out, the vast majority of SEOs agree that guest blogging is a highly-effective SEO strategy, despite what Google might have you believe. The biggest things to keep in mind are that quality will always outweigh quantity and relevance is key.
Here’s what SEO experts and business owners from around the globe had to say about guest blogging as a link-building strategy:
Yes, Guest Blogging IS an Effective SEO Strategy
“Guest blogging can be an incredibly effective SEO strategy; especially when first starting out. That being said, guest posting is not as easy as it once was. Websites with higher domain ratings are becoming overwhelmed with requests, and often simply no longer respond to requests. This can be frustrating. We have found more success reaching out to relevant websites within our niche that possibly are not getting the requests when compared to the bigger or popular websites. These websites are quite happy to receive a well written, unique article that will add to their current content.”
– Jannah Haas, Co-Founder and CMO, Angry BBQ
“Guest blogging remains a viable SEO strategy; however, it requires proper strategic planning, as cheap/spammy link building can actually harm SEO.”
– Charbel Coorey, Digital Marketing Specialist, cricblog.net
“Guest posting is still a viable option for 2020, but only if sites have the stomach to continue guest posting without seeing any visible results immediately. Frequency and consistency are both critical, but marketers should keep in mind that guest posting doesn’t guarantee short-term success. The effects of guest posting are cumulative, and the fruits often appear several months, sometimes years, for businesses to see the benefit.”
– Max Harland, CEO, Dentaly
“The best way to make SEO guest blogging effective is to not be trollish with it. As long so you generate great quality and original work for reputable websites, then you won’t have any challenges and your SEO approach will succeed.”
– Matt Scott, Owner, Termite Survey
“Guest blogging as an SEO strategy is still very effective provided that you do it properly. Mass guest blogging on sites that have big Write for Us tabs in their menu bar is not recommended; contributing relevant content to other sites that pertain to your niche is a very effective strategy.
– Jared Bauman, CEO & Founder, 201 Creative, LLC
“Despite Google coming out to say that backlinks no longer have the sway they once did, guest blogging remains a crucial aspect of SEO in general. Guest blogging is one of the most effective ways to build backlinks that can help boost your domain authority. Writing guest posts on other websites will always prove beneficial if you want to improve your SERP rankings especially for new websites.”
– Ejike Umesi, Editor, 9javillage!
Almost a decade later, guest blogging is still commonly used by digital marketers. A survey by Authority Hacker found that guest blogging is “by far the most popular link building tactic.”
“Back in 2014, someone said guest blogging was done and over with as an SEO tactic. Fast forward to 2020, guest blogging is still very much alive. In fact, even more people are now using it to draw links and increase website traffic. An SEO industry survey done last March 2020 placed guest posting as the third most popular SEO tactic.”
– Malte Scholz, Co-Founder, Airfocus
“Guest blogging is an excellent strategy to utilize for SEO as long as is being done correctly. Guest posting on other websites can be super helpful, but you want to do a little research beforehand and look at the metrics of that site before. Ensure that they have a healthy trust score and DA (domain authority) so that your company name is tied to a website that is well-respected.”
– Casey Adams, Client Success Manager, All My Web Needs
“Guest blogging can be a very effective strategy if you have specific goals you want to reach and a strategy in place to achieve them. For example, get a certain number of backlinks with a certain anchor on a monthly basis. As for our own results, we get 5-10 links per month from guest posting, and we don’t even do it that diligently as we could. It can be time intensive and you can lose a lot of time going back and forth with editors; however, it’s still a valid strategy to build links in 2020.”
– Petra Odak, CMO, Better Proposals
“Guest posting can help your SEO if you follow these three rules:
- Focus on quality rather than quantity (i.e. it is better to contribute 1 awesome guest post per month than 4 mediocre contributions)
- Focus on contributing to high authoritative websites as measured by Moz Domain Authority and other industry metrics
- Verify that the website is relevant to your website (e.g. contributing a marketing article to a sports website would probably not be relevant).”
– Bruce Harpham, SaaS Marketing Consultant, BruceHarpham.com
“When guest posting to other sites, it’s key to vet possible sites and only choose sites that are a good fit. For example, if you’re a marketing agency, you’ll want to have your guest posts placed on sites focused on business best practices and marketing.”
– Amanda Lanier, SEO Copywriter, Cape & Bay
“I have enjoyed huge success with B2B guest blogging but I have to warn you that it’s a cumulative effect and that newbies shouldn’t expect to see rank-busting results for at least two years. Having said that, it will be worth the wait. When done right, B2B guest blogging can help you to build on your authority and reputation as well as building your network. Guest blogging for SEO is absolutely worth it, as long as you’re prepared to put in the time and leg work.”
– Milosz Krasinski, Speaker & Blogger, Chillifruit.com
“In terms of link quality, guest blogging is still the best link-building strategy. Guest Blogging allows you to target high-quality websites and improve your chances of successfully securing backlinks. What’s even better is that once you guest post on one website, you can create lasting relationships and contribute regularly to get more backlinks.”
– Kazi Hassan, Account Manager, COdesign Limited
“I believe guest blogging still has its value if you post to a related industry site that’s also local.
As a roofer, I can guest blog for a home interior renovation or patio deck installation company that also serves my city. This way, I get both SEO value and attract readers within my local key demographic.”
– Zach Reece, Owner, Colony Roofers, LLC
“Guest blogging can be a very effective strategy for SEO, if you do it correctly. In other words, only guest post on high-authority sites that are super relevant to your niche. Place a natural link or two back to your own content within a guest post to send authority signals to the search engines.”
– Kelly O’Hara, Founder, Copy Goals
“Guest blogging as an SEO strategy is extremely effective. Not only does creating guest content on other sites help your SEO, it also exposes your content/brand to a new audience as well as providing backlinks to your website.”
– Richard Carthon, Founder and CEO, Crypto Current
“Guest blogging can be a great way to get your name out there, share your thoughts, and get a relevant backlink (or two). You can use the posts you get published as your portfolio. Guest blogging is not a good idea if you want quick SEO wins or immediate results such as improvements in organic traffic and keyword rankings. Overall, it’s a great supplementary tactic for SEO and content marketing, but I wouldn’t use it as my one and only SEO tactic.”
– Stefan Smulders, CEO, Expandi
“Guest blogging is a very effective SEO strategy. Backlinks are still the number one way to get your site to rank, and guest blogging is a great way to do that. Plus, it helps you or a staff member solidify their place as an expert on a particular topic.
Be careful, though. Guest blogging can be harmful to your SEO if you let money become a factor. Paying someone to get them to post your guest blog or asking for payment to be featured on your blog can run you afoul of Google. These posts have to be labeled as sponsored posts and all links tagged as sponsored. This doesn’t help SEO as much as a plain dofollow link, and if it’s not tagged correctly and Google even suspects foul play, it could result in a manual penalty being imposed.”
– Jason Boyd, Editor in Chief, Fictionphile
Want to find an SEO provider for your business?
We’ve researched and compiled a list of the best search engine optimization (SEO) companies in the United States so you can find the perfect partner for your business.
“Building links is much more difficult and different than the way it used to be before. While before, you could easily build links to your site by sending hundreds of outreach emails, now, needless to say, those strategies are fruitless.
This is where guest blogging shines.
With guest blogging, you can get high authority links to your blog that increase your site’s authority.”
– Khris Steven, Owner, Khrisdigital
“Guest blogging as an SEO strategy is effective only if it is done right.
To do it right, follow these rules:
- Come up with informative content that offers value
- Do not write a post whose only goal is to redirect readers to your site (the readers will see right through you)
- Post on sites with content that is similar or aligns with your service/product
- Post on authoritative sites.
Following these tenets allowed me to enjoy increased traffic.
Guest posting on other sites will either help or hinder your SEO. It depends on how you do it.”
– Mark Hayes, Head of Marketing, Kintell
“Guest blogging is still an effective SEO strategy, as it’s still one of the easiest (and cheapest) methods of getting high-quality links to your site; however, not all links are created equal. I recently received two guest blog links to my site that met my criteria (relevant niche and monthly organic traffic over 1000 visitors). One did nothing to my stats, the other increased my total impressions by around 80%.
The difference?
The monthly organic traffic for site two was huge (several million visitors per month), with the results showing that guest blogging can still be worth it!”
– Mark Hemming, Founder, Libra Translation
“How effective is guest blogging as an SEO strategy? It depends.
If you have a team member who will guest post on behalf of your brand, than it’s effective at getting new links, new brand recognition, and trickles of referral traffic along the way; however, if you’re a one-man team and you can’t outsource content creation, then guest posting is not a viable way to boost your SEO.
It takes too much time to first look for prospects and then create content tailored to their sites and audiences. That time is better spent publishing content on your site and going for links that don’t require new content from you, for example niche edits, broken link building, link roundups, resource page link building.”
– Nikola Roza, Owner and CEO, Nikola Roza- SEO for the Poor and Determined
“Guest blogging, when done properly, has its place in SEO. When blogging for another website, make sure it’s relevant to your niche and that the content your providing would be useful to their readers. There’s no benefit in trying to land as many guest posts as possible especially if those websites have nothing in common with your products or services. The big takeaway here is quality over quantity!”
– Todd Hooper, Founder, Prerender.io
“From the perspective of generating traffic and backlinks to your site, I think manual, high-quality guest posting is worthwhile.
In the past month I have managed to build (for free) over thirty links from niche relevant blogs to my site. These links are sending a steady trickle of traffic to my site and my Google rankings are also increasing.
If you can spend the time finding good quality sites, to reach out in a win-win manner and to create high quality content, I think it is a great strategy for website and business promotion.”
– Scott Jones, Owner, Pupster Passion
“We have found guest posting to undoubtedly be one of the best practices to improve our SEO and it forms a large part of our SEO strategy for 2020. A Moz survey found link building to be the number one local ranking factor that influenced higher search rankings.
The best way to build links? Guest posting.
Many search optimizers argue that SEO has become increasingly difficult over the years and we certainly agree with that statement. Google’s frequent changes such as Panda, Penguin and Hummingbird make it more difficult with each update. Guest posting has consistently been a good ‘white-hat’ approach to improving SEO and we see it as continually being a good tactic well beyond 2020.”
– Chris Sheward, Founder and CEO, Repuzen
“When it is done correctly, guest blogging is a very effective way to positively impact your SEO. It has changed drastically over the last number of years, but it can still be done in a way that will help your website’s SEO.
I would recommend looking for opportunities to exchange guest posts with other like-minded people, and you will find a ton of great opportunities that could lead to other collaborations. Do it organically and find real opportunities and guest posting can be a huge positive for your website’s SEO.”
– Donny Gamble, Founder, Retirement Investments
“Guest blogging is absolutely worth it for your business if you do it right. Do it first for the exposure and credibility you’ll build by showing up on the blogs of other authority figures in your niche. SEO and backlinking are great bonuses. Choose the place you guest blog wisely as who you associate with in this way could, of course, negatively affect your business.”
– Eric Sachs, CEO, Sachs Marketing Group
“Guest blogging is effective if done correctly. Make sure to check the domain authority of the site prior to posting, as lower DA sites will not result in quality backlinking. Additionally. make sure the backlinks a website provides to its guest posts are follow rather than no follow. Doing the research prior ensures your efforts impact your SEO.”
– Ben Aston, Founder, The Digital Project Manager
“Guest blogging was and to some extent is still a viable marketing strategy. The problem is that it’s been abused so much as a tactic that it’s less effective than it used to be. “
– Samuel Hurley, Co-founder, NOVOS
“Guest posting remains as useful as ever before, even increasing in popularity and continuously showcasing new ways to harness its power.
Establishing yourself as an expert through guest posting on high-traffic sites is an innovative way to develop trust with customers, one thing that is not always so easily attained. And with the backlink that you receive from the post, you will also see your site ranking higher and higher on the search engines. It really is that simple.”
– Chris Gadek, Head of Growth & Marketing, AdQuick
“I would say that there can be value in guest blogging so long as you do it in the right way and for the right reasons. If you are simply throwing out low-quality content to as many sites as will accept it then you probably won’t see too much from it and you may even cause yourself some backlink problems in the future; however, if you are genuinely providing high-value content to sites that have an audience that genuinely benefits from your content than I think that will work in your favor in the long run.”
– Adam Jackson, Digital Marketing Manager, Big Leap
“Guest blogging is absolutely a strategy that you should be pursuing. Just this year, a guest blogging campaign we did, helped 6 of our keywords jump to the first page. We also have multiple clients that we link build for and guest blogging is at the top of that list. One of them has seen a 300% increase in search traffic over the course of 9 months with nothing done outside of onsite and offsite content creation efforts.”
– Sean Dudayev, Founder, Brawl Bros. Co.
“Posting guest blogs on other sites can help or hurt your SEO strategy. Make sure the inbound backlinks you are creating are on credible sites that relate to your business or industry. If not, Google may see these as spam because they are unrelated and it can actually hurt your link juice and search engine results. Overall, guest posting can still be an effective SEO strategy.”
– Nathan Claire, Owner, Buying Jax Homes
No, Guest Blogging IS NOT an Effective SEO Strategy
“Based on the latest news and speculation, guest blogging for SEO benefit may be dead. That doesn’t worry me, as I’ve always advised my clients to be wary of the tail wagging the dog when it comes to SEO. Any short-term gains from grey hat SEO tactics, which can include guest blogging, rarely justifies the effort. Instead, we recommend formalizing partnerships with industry websites, blogs, and publications to become a regular contributor with a byline. A longer-term partnership benefits everyone, and mitigates any potential downside from an SEO perspective, as the content is authentic, as is the relationship.”
– Kent Lewis, Founder and President, Anvil
“If done sparingly and there’s a natural fit with the guest blog audience then it’s OK but as a main SEO backlink technique, I would advise to avoid guest blogging. The reason being, Google is well aware of it as a backlink technique and, according to reports in the likes of Search Engine Journal from February of this year, has been cracking down with manual penalties in place. It’s been overly abused by many SEOs to the point where its seen as an artificial link scheme.
– Alistair Dodds, Co-Founder and Marketing Director, Ever Increasing Circles
“Guest blogging has limited effectiveness as an SEO strategy. In June 2020, Google’s John Mueller stated that Google has been devaluing guest post links for the past several years. Google believes that guest post links are unnatural since the article writer essentially places them on the site. Strategies like broken link building, HARO, and unlinked mentions are more cost- and time-effective, and more likely to result in SEO benefits than guest posting is.”
– Axel DeAngelis, Founder, NameBounce
This post was originally published on July 24, 2020 and updated on February 8, 2023.
About the author
Jordan is the Manager of SEO & Social Media at UpCity. With almost a decade of experience designing websites and writing copy, Jordan has helped countless brands find their voice, tell their story, and connect with real people.
We’ve all heard the news that Google has declared guest blogging dead, but is it really? Former head of web spam at Google Matt Cutts’s announcement was met with skepticism, and further changes like the new sponsored and UGC (user-generated content) link attributes have only added fuel to the fires of confusion.
The reality of the matter is that guest blogging is alive and well as an SEO strategy. We wanted to understand just how prevalent this link-building strategy is in the SEO industry today, so we asked the experts and more than 100 responded!
As it turns out, the vast majority of SEOs agree that guest blogging is a highly-effective SEO strategy, despite what Google might have you believe. The biggest things to keep in mind are that quality will always outweigh quantity and relevance is key.
Here’s what SEO experts and business owners from around the globe had to say about guest blogging as a link-building strategy:
Yes, Guest Blogging IS an Effective SEO Strategy
“Guest blogging can be an incredibly effective SEO strategy; especially when first starting out. That being said, guest posting is not as easy as it once was. Websites with higher domain ratings are becoming overwhelmed with requests, and often simply no longer respond to requests. This can be frustrating. We have found more success reaching out to relevant websites within our niche that possibly are not getting the requests when compared to the bigger or popular websites. These websites are quite happy to receive a well written, unique article that will add to their current content.”
– Jannah Haas, Co-Founder and CMO, Angry BBQ
“Guest blogging remains a viable SEO strategy; however, it requires proper strategic planning, as cheap/spammy link building can actually harm SEO.”
– Charbel Coorey, Digital Marketing Specialist, cricblog.net
“Guest posting is still a viable option for 2020, but only if sites have the stomach to continue guest posting without seeing any visible results immediately. Frequency and consistency are both critical, but marketers should keep in mind that guest posting doesn’t guarantee short-term success. The effects of guest posting are cumulative, and the fruits often appear several months, sometimes years, for businesses to see the benefit.”
– Max Harland, CEO, Dentaly
“The best way to make SEO guest blogging effective is to not be trollish with it. As long so you generate great quality and original work for reputable websites, then you won’t have any challenges and your SEO approach will succeed.”
– Matt Scott, Owner, Termite Survey
“Guest blogging as an SEO strategy is still very effective provided that you do it properly. Mass guest blogging on sites that have big Write for Us tabs in their menu bar is not recommended; contributing relevant content to other sites that pertain to your niche is a very effective strategy.
– Jared Bauman, CEO & Founder, 201 Creative, LLC
“Despite Google coming out to say that backlinks no longer have the sway they once did, guest blogging remains a crucial aspect of SEO in general. Guest blogging is one of the most effective ways to build backlinks that can help boost your domain authority. Writing guest posts on other websites will always prove beneficial if you want to improve your SERP rankings especially for new websites.”
– Ejike Umesi, Editor, 9javillage!
Almost a decade later, guest blogging is still commonly used by digital marketers. A survey by Authority Hacker found that guest blogging is “by far the most popular link building tactic.”
“Back in 2014, someone said guest blogging was done and over with as an SEO tactic. Fast forward to 2020, guest blogging is still very much alive. In fact, even more people are now using it to draw links and increase website traffic. An SEO industry survey done last March 2020 placed guest posting as the third most popular SEO tactic.”
– Malte Scholz, Co-Founder, Airfocus
“Guest blogging is an excellent strategy to utilize for SEO as long as is being done correctly. Guest posting on other websites can be super helpful, but you want to do a little research beforehand and look at the metrics of that site before. Ensure that they have a healthy trust score and DA (domain authority) so that your company name is tied to a website that is well-respected.”
– Casey Adams, Client Success Manager, All My Web Needs
“Guest blogging can be a very effective strategy if you have specific goals you want to reach and a strategy in place to achieve them. For example, get a certain number of backlinks with a certain anchor on a monthly basis. As for our own results, we get 5-10 links per month from guest posting, and we don’t even do it that diligently as we could. It can be time intensive and you can lose a lot of time going back and forth with editors; however, it’s still a valid strategy to build links in 2020.”
– Petra Odak, CMO, Better Proposals
“Guest posting can help your SEO if you follow these three rules:
- Focus on quality rather than quantity (i.e. it is better to contribute 1 awesome guest post per month than 4 mediocre contributions)
- Focus on contributing to high authoritative websites as measured by Moz Domain Authority and other industry metrics
- Verify that the website is relevant to your website (e.g. contributing a marketing article to a sports website would probably not be relevant).”
– Bruce Harpham, SaaS Marketing Consultant, BruceHarpham.com
“When guest posting to other sites, it’s key to vet possible sites and only choose sites that are a good fit. For example, if you’re a marketing agency, you’ll want to have your guest posts placed on sites focused on business best practices and marketing.”
– Amanda Lanier, SEO Copywriter, Cape & Bay
“I have enjoyed huge success with B2B guest blogging but I have to warn you that it’s a cumulative effect and that newbies shouldn’t expect to see rank-busting results for at least two years. Having said that, it will be worth the wait. When done right, B2B guest blogging can help you to build on your authority and reputation as well as building your network. Guest blogging for SEO is absolutely worth it, as long as you’re prepared to put in the time and leg work.”
– Milosz Krasinski, Speaker & Blogger, Chillifruit.com
“In terms of link quality, guest blogging is still the best link-building strategy. Guest Blogging allows you to target high-quality websites and improve your chances of successfully securing backlinks. What’s even better is that once you guest post on one website, you can create lasting relationships and contribute regularly to get more backlinks.”
– Kazi Hassan, Account Manager, COdesign Limited
“I believe guest blogging still has its value if you post to a related industry site that’s also local.
As a roofer, I can guest blog for a home interior renovation or patio deck installation company that also serves my city. This way, I get both SEO value and attract readers within my local key demographic.”
– Zach Reece, Owner, Colony Roofers, LLC
“Guest blogging can be a very effective strategy for SEO, if you do it correctly. In other words, only guest post on high-authority sites that are super relevant to your niche. Place a natural link or two back to your own content within a guest post to send authority signals to the search engines.”
– Kelly O’Hara, Founder, Copy Goals
“Guest blogging as an SEO strategy is extremely effective. Not only does creating guest content on other sites help your SEO, it also exposes your content/brand to a new audience as well as providing backlinks to your website.”
– Richard Carthon, Founder and CEO, Crypto Current
“Guest blogging can be a great way to get your name out there, share your thoughts, and get a relevant backlink (or two). You can use the posts you get published as your portfolio. Guest blogging is not a good idea if you want quick SEO wins or immediate results such as improvements in organic traffic and keyword rankings. Overall, it’s a great supplementary tactic for SEO and content marketing, but I wouldn’t use it as my one and only SEO tactic.”
– Stefan Smulders, CEO, Expandi
“Guest blogging is a very effective SEO strategy. Backlinks are still the number one way to get your site to rank, and guest blogging is a great way to do that. Plus, it helps you or a staff member solidify their place as an expert on a particular topic.
Be careful, though. Guest blogging can be harmful to your SEO if you let money become a factor. Paying someone to get them to post your guest blog or asking for payment to be featured on your blog can run you afoul of Google. These posts have to be labeled as sponsored posts and all links tagged as sponsored. This doesn’t help SEO as much as a plain dofollow link, and if it’s not tagged correctly and Google even suspects foul play, it could result in a manual penalty being imposed.”
– Jason Boyd, Editor in Chief, Fictionphile
Want to find an SEO provider for your business?
We’ve researched and compiled a list of the best search engine optimization (SEO) companies in the United States so you can find the perfect partner for your business.
“Building links is much more difficult and different than the way it used to be before. While before, you could easily build links to your site by sending hundreds of outreach emails, now, needless to say, those strategies are fruitless.
This is where guest blogging shines.
With guest blogging, you can get high authority links to your blog that increase your site’s authority.”
– Khris Steven, Owner, Khrisdigital
“Guest blogging as an SEO strategy is effective only if it is done right.
To do it right, follow these rules:
- Come up with informative content that offers value
- Do not write a post whose only goal is to redirect readers to your site (the readers will see right through you)
- Post on sites with content that is similar or aligns with your service/product
- Post on authoritative sites.
Following these tenets allowed me to enjoy increased traffic.
Guest posting on other sites will either help or hinder your SEO. It depends on how you do it.”
– Mark Hayes, Head of Marketing, Kintell
“Guest blogging is still an effective SEO strategy, as it’s still one of the easiest (and cheapest) methods of getting high-quality links to your site; however, not all links are created equal. I recently received two guest blog links to my site that met my criteria (relevant niche and monthly organic traffic over 1000 visitors). One did nothing to my stats, the other increased my total impressions by around 80%.
The difference?
The monthly organic traffic for site two was huge (several million visitors per month), with the results showing that guest blogging can still be worth it!”
– Mark Hemming, Founder, Libra Translation
“How effective is guest blogging as an SEO strategy? It depends.
If you have a team member who will guest post on behalf of your brand, than it’s effective at getting new links, new brand recognition, and trickles of referral traffic along the way; however, if you’re a one-man team and you can’t outsource content creation, then guest posting is not a viable way to boost your SEO.
It takes too much time to first look for prospects and then create content tailored to their sites and audiences. That time is better spent publishing content on your site and going for links that don’t require new content from you, for example niche edits, broken link building, link roundups, resource page link building.”
– Nikola Roza, Owner and CEO, Nikola Roza- SEO for the Poor and Determined
“Guest blogging, when done properly, has its place in SEO. When blogging for another website, make sure it’s relevant to your niche and that the content your providing would be useful to their readers. There’s no benefit in trying to land as many guest posts as possible especially if those websites have nothing in common with your products or services. The big takeaway here is quality over quantity!”
– Todd Hooper, Founder, Prerender.io
“From the perspective of generating traffic and backlinks to your site, I think manual, high-quality guest posting is worthwhile.
In the past month I have managed to build (for free) over thirty links from niche relevant blogs to my site. These links are sending a steady trickle of traffic to my site and my Google rankings are also increasing.
If you can spend the time finding good quality sites, to reach out in a win-win manner and to create high quality content, I think it is a great strategy for website and business promotion.”
– Scott Jones, Owner, Pupster Passion
“We have found guest posting to undoubtedly be one of the best practices to improve our SEO and it forms a large part of our SEO strategy for 2020. A Moz survey found link building to be the number one local ranking factor that influenced higher search rankings.
The best way to build links? Guest posting.
Many search optimizers argue that SEO has become increasingly difficult over the years and we certainly agree with that statement. Google’s frequent changes such as Panda, Penguin and Hummingbird make it more difficult with each update. Guest posting has consistently been a good ‘white-hat’ approach to improving SEO and we see it as continually being a good tactic well beyond 2020.”
– Chris Sheward, Founder and CEO, Repuzen
“When it is done correctly, guest blogging is a very effective way to positively impact your SEO. It has changed drastically over the last number of years, but it can still be done in a way that will help your website’s SEO.
I would recommend looking for opportunities to exchange guest posts with other like-minded people, and you will find a ton of great opportunities that could lead to other collaborations. Do it organically and find real opportunities and guest posting can be a huge positive for your website’s SEO.”
– Donny Gamble, Founder, Retirement Investments
“Guest blogging is absolutely worth it for your business if you do it right. Do it first for the exposure and credibility you’ll build by showing up on the blogs of other authority figures in your niche. SEO and backlinking are great bonuses. Choose the place you guest blog wisely as who you associate with in this way could, of course, negatively affect your business.”
– Eric Sachs, CEO, Sachs Marketing Group
“Guest blogging is effective if done correctly. Make sure to check the domain authority of the site prior to posting, as lower DA sites will not result in quality backlinking. Additionally. make sure the backlinks a website provides to its guest posts are follow rather than no follow. Doing the research prior ensures your efforts impact your SEO.”
– Ben Aston, Founder, The Digital Project Manager
“Guest blogging was and to some extent is still a viable marketing strategy. The problem is that it’s been abused so much as a tactic that it’s less effective than it used to be. “
– Samuel Hurley, Co-founder, NOVOS
“Guest posting remains as useful as ever before, even increasing in popularity and continuously showcasing new ways to harness its power.
Establishing yourself as an expert through guest posting on high-traffic sites is an innovative way to develop trust with customers, one thing that is not always so easily attained. And with the backlink that you receive from the post, you will also see your site ranking higher and higher on the search engines. It really is that simple.”
– Chris Gadek, Head of Growth & Marketing, AdQuick
“I would say that there can be value in guest blogging so long as you do it in the right way and for the right reasons. If you are simply throwing out low-quality content to as many sites as will accept it then you probably won’t see too much from it and you may even cause yourself some backlink problems in the future; however, if you are genuinely providing high-value content to sites that have an audience that genuinely benefits from your content than I think that will work in your favor in the long run.”
– Adam Jackson, Digital Marketing Manager, Big Leap
“Guest blogging is absolutely a strategy that you should be pursuing. Just this year, a guest blogging campaign we did, helped 6 of our keywords jump to the first page. We also have multiple clients that we link build for and guest blogging is at the top of that list. One of them has seen a 300% increase in search traffic over the course of 9 months with nothing done outside of onsite and offsite content creation efforts.”
– Sean Dudayev, Founder, Brawl Bros. Co.
“Posting guest blogs on other sites can help or hurt your SEO strategy. Make sure the inbound backlinks you are creating are on credible sites that relate to your business or industry. If not, Google may see these as spam because they are unrelated and it can actually hurt your link juice and search engine results. Overall, guest posting can still be an effective SEO strategy.”
– Nathan Claire, Owner, Buying Jax Homes
No, Guest Blogging IS NOT an Effective SEO Strategy
“Based on the latest news and speculation, guest blogging for SEO benefit may be dead. That doesn’t worry me, as I’ve always advised my clients to be wary of the tail wagging the dog when it comes to SEO. Any short-term gains from grey hat SEO tactics, which can include guest blogging, rarely justifies the effort. Instead, we recommend formalizing partnerships with industry websites, blogs, and publications to become a regular contributor with a byline. A longer-term partnership benefits everyone, and mitigates any potential downside from an SEO perspective, as the content is authentic, as is the relationship.”
– Kent Lewis, Founder and President, Anvil
“If done sparingly and there’s a natural fit with the guest blog audience then it’s OK but as a main SEO backlink technique, I would advise to avoid guest blogging. The reason being, Google is well aware of it as a backlink technique and, according to reports in the likes of Search Engine Journal from February of this year, has been cracking down with manual penalties in place. It’s been overly abused by many SEOs to the point where its seen as an artificial link scheme.
– Alistair Dodds, Co-Founder and Marketing Director, Ever Increasing Circles
“Guest blogging has limited effectiveness as an SEO strategy. In June 2020, Google’s John Mueller stated that Google has been devaluing guest post links for the past several years. Google believes that guest post links are unnatural since the article writer essentially places them on the site. Strategies like broken link building, HARO, and unlinked mentions are more cost- and time-effective, and more likely to result in SEO benefits than guest posting is.”
– Axel DeAngelis, Founder, NameBounce
This post was originally published on July 24, 2020 and updated on February 8, 2023.
About the author
Jordan is the Manager of SEO & Social Media at UpCity. With almost a decade of experience designing websites and writing copy, Jordan has helped countless brands find their voice, tell their story, and connect with real people.
