Guest blogging used to be an ideal method for building relevant, quality links to your website.
Unfortunately, heavy exploitation of this trend for Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) has resulted in Google considering linking back to your website as a guest blogger spammy practice.
However, guest blogging is not dead. Writing genuine content on relevant websites still adds value for brand awareness, and builds your reputation as an expert in your field. These two things are good for business and you should continue along these lines if you want to guest blog.
If you do link back to your website as a guest blogger, or if you are promoting clients on your own blog and want to link to their website, you can avoid issues by creating “no follow links” – these are links that work (i.e. take you to the website) but don’t act as spammy links.
We love this article by Matt Cutts for more information about how guest blogging started out as authentic and then became spammy practice: The decay and fall of guest blogging for SEO.
Read Google’s Webmaster quality guidelines.
Learn how to use rel=”nofollow” for specific links.
Please note: we have used “no follow” links in this post.