Biggest Guest Post Myth

In this post, I’ll destroy the biggest guest post myth and share with you 5 tips for doing guest posting the right way for maximum benefit.

But first, here’s a story that mirrors how Google operates in relation to links…

Imagine you’re selling your $40,000 car sports car; one that you haven’t been thrashing around town for the last 2 years 😉

And the buyer asks for some vouches for your character and driving style…

If you roll out 10 of your best buddies to back you up, then that might look suspicious, right?

[surveyslam id=13322]

It might not be, but your buyer can’t be sure.

And that suspicion erodes trust and the sale may slip away.

But if you get references from a mechanic, a car sales guy, a local policeman and a bunch of people that know your driving habits, then things look better.

The recommendations from these people are impartial and from a wide range of sources, some of which have authority.

Trust is more likely to be established and you have more of a chance of making the sale.

And if you want Google to trust your website, it’s exactly the same.

Every link from a site unconnected to you is a vote or a recommendation that your site can be trusted – links from your mates or from yourself don’t count.

The question is, do guest posts serve that purpose?

The biggest myth is that all guest posting is bad for SEO and is a path to a penalty.

But the truth is Google doesn’t hate ALL guest posts; guest posting isn’t dead, and they don’t ALL get you penalties.

But only if…

Your sources are credible – as in the story above, AND you deploy them with SKILL.

Remember these 3 simple facts about Google…

• Google wants and needs content.
• Bloggers need your content.
• Readers want to find your content.

So guest posts are great for everyone but…

What Google doesn’t want is crap!!!

Automated, spun content is hated by all.

Drivel with keyword-rich anchors serves nobody.

Plagiarised or blatantly copied content is bad.

As are unnatural backlinks from content pointing to irrelevant pages.

However, quality guest posts form a part of any smart link strategy.

Five easy to action tips to help you do guest posting right

1. Choose sites that have at least some organic traffic (SEM Rush 100 minimum is a good rule of thumb) and are publishing content at least once a month. It shows they are in Google and visible.
2. Supply well-written content to the host site (content length is not always important, but delivering answers and matching keyword intent is). You want your content to stand out as genuine and not just a link vehicle when it is read by users and indexed for search by Google.
3. Don’t submit a ton of guest posts (more than 50) in a short period unless you are promoting yours or your client’s site in other ways. Why? Because unless the guest post sites authors are psychic, there’s no other reason why they would all link out to the same place at the same time! It’s a big red flag and an easy footprint to track (Tip: a well-timed press release can help with this because it raises awareness and makes acquiring other backlinks justified).
4. As the story above shows, diversify your link profile. It is way more natural for a site to get links from a mix of niches than it is to get them from one. When a story breaks, it often gets picked up by mainstream media and bloggers, not just the niche the story is related to, so don’t only contact cooking sites to promote your chocolate fondue kits.
5. Don’t chase one metric too hard. DA, DR, TrustFlow, and others are useful, but not in isolation. Look at as many metrics as you can as some will have high DA but low traffic – a sure sign of spammy link building. Our M-Flux formula focuses on 5 metrics to ensure those slippy ‘high DA’ built for links and Google manipulation sites don’t get through.

In the next email, you’ll discover the most common (and most pointless) tactic that won’t go away.