Google’s Perspective on Guest Posting explained in 5 minutes
Is Google against guest posts? How can google catches a backlink build via guest post? Read this 5 minute guide to learn things you were doing the wrong way.
SEO is all about learning from mistakes. Among the different types of backlinks in SEO, guest posts are perhaps the most focused.
If you ask 100 SEO specialists about different backlink types, they will all include “guest posts” as their main method and strategy.
In 2014, Matt Cutts wrote an article titled “The Decay and Fall of Guest Blogging for SEO.”
Now, who is Matt Cutts?
He used to work for Google as a software engineer and regularly interacted with SEOs.
This was the first instance when someone officially announced the decline of guest blogging for SEO.
But the question here is, after 10 years, “What is Google’s perspective on guest posting?”
I will walk you through this debate because many people frequently ask this question. But first, let’s see what John Muller says about it.
In 2020, John Muller declared in a tweet that guest posts are problematic and said, “Google devalues them.”
Now, let’s discuss this in more detail.
Does Google really devalue backlinks via guest posts?
Yes, Google is strong enough as a search engine to detect backlinks that are created solely for the sake of building links.
Just like with PBNs, Google’s algorithms are capable of detecting backlinks from guest posts.
After detecting them, Google will not give such links the value they are supposed to get.
However, this whole situation depends on several factors.
SEOs have been doing so many things that even Google can’t always stop or detect.
For instance, Google will only devalue guest posts if they find traces.
An important thing to consider here is, “What are those traces?”
This is something SEO specialists call “footprints.”
Discussing footprints Google can follow for guest posts
For years, SEOs used to find guest post websites by applying a series of filters such as:
"write for us"
Searches for pages that invite guest posts (e.g., "write for us" solar energy).
"guest post"
Locates websites offering guest posting opportunities (e.g., "guest post" technology).
"submit a guest post"
Finds sites accepting guest posts (e.g., "submit a guest post" lifestyle).
"contribute to"
Looks for sites seeking contributors (e.g., "contribute to" business blog).
"become a contributor"
Finds websites with contributor guidelines (e.g., "become a contributor" travel).
inurl
Searches for URLs with "guest-post" (e.g., inurl marketing).
intitle:"write for us"
Locates pages with "write for us" in the title (e.g., intitle:"write for us" finance).
"submit an article"
Identifies websites open to article submissions (e.g., "submit an article" health).
"guest post by"
Finds articles that are guest posts (e.g., "guest post by" real estate).
"guest article"
Searches for guest articles on specific topics (e.g., "guest article" education).
Now, an interesting thing to note here is that the websites appearing at the top of those search results are the ones that have optimized themselves!
This means those typical websites want SEOs to find them using similar search operators.
When a simple person can find and trace a website, what makes you think Google can’t trace them?
Note: If you’re an SEO agency struggling to build backlinks for clients, try our white label link building service to build quality backlinks quickly.
What makes Google hate guest posts?
The main algorithm behind Google’s “PageRank” was designed to promote websites with higher backlinks (plus a few other factors).
However, when people started abusing backlinks, Google decided to move away from that and applied a lot of filters.
When websites tend to get a higher number of backlinks, it creates problems for Google.
Its algorithms have to distinguish between natural backlinks and those created through spam.
How can Google find backlinks created via guest posts?
Google is capable of following footprints to determine whether a backlink is created via a guest post or not.
And this is actually easier for it to detect!
Here are some footprints Google follows to determine if backlinks are built via guest posts:
- The article is on a website that is asking for people to “Write for Us” or “Submit Guest Post.”
- The website has a high number of backlinks already, which increases its domain rating or domain authority.
- The website is general, meaning you can find categories like health as well as crypto.
- The website has many blogs published but very little traffic.
- The website has extremely poor internal linking.
- Almost every post has one or two backlinks pointing to the same website.
- The content is either spun or written using an AI tool.
- There’s no information related to the author or editorial process of the website.
- The website was recently hit by Google.
When a backlink within an article comes from a website with the above characteristics, it’s easier for Google to recognize it as a “guest post.”
What happens when Google catches a website who does guest posting?
Google can figure out websites doing guest posts, but not all the time. At repute post, we recommend using the best practices for guest posts to make your backlinks valuable.
When caught, Google decreases the value of the backlinks or sometimes takes manual action!
That affects the ranking and performance of the website.
Guest posts done the right way
Remember, Google is against spam in the form of guest posts or any other type of link-building tactic like acquiring forum backlinks, profile submissions, etc.
However, many SEO professionals are doing guest posts the right way. Here’s how you can rinse and repeat:
Find a website that is relevant to your niche. Don’t always go after general websites. Try repute post marketplace to find quality guest post opportunities.
Write quality content that can help your website as well as the one on which your article is going to be published.
Internally link previous pages and politely ask the webmaster to add internal links to the page after your guest article is published.
Add reference links within the article. Make sure your guest post isn’t pointing to just one external link!
These are some of the main things — if you manage to implement them, your guest posts will instantly be more valuable.
Wrapping up
Google isn’t specifically against guest posts, but it warns you not to spam. If you want to build genuine backlinks and help your website grow, do not ignore other backlink types. Not all backlinks carry the same weight. For example, Web 2.0 backlinks can work for a few things, but a relevant niche edit can help your website grow faster. As far as guest posts are concerned, they aren’t dead at the moment. There are some things that Google is now capable of detecting. Make sure you avoid those things to help your website leap higher on SERPs.