Matt Cutt’s unusually titled The Decay and Fall of Guest Blogging (Do you think he meant ‘Decline and Fall?’) hit the headlines this week. Google’s spam warrior launched an all out attack on the practice of writing posts on other peoples blogs, purely for the purpose of getting a link. My feeling on this is certainly not one of surprise. If buying links from other sites is bad, then finagling a link within some quickly written content is scarcely any different. All too often, when running competitive analysis, we discover guest blogs on sites with little or no relevance to the site linked in the author bio. Why on earth would a writer promoting a music site, for example, contribute to a teaching blog? These kind of practices are exactly what Cutts is talking about and, rightly, belong in the past.
Is SEO Dead?
With one more SEO method in the grave, what can we do now, as webmasters, to help our sites succeed.Firstly, let is be said that guest blogging, in its purest form, is still a valid method. Have a look at this video here, in which Cutts acknowledges that it remains a valid means of promoting yourself and your work, if you adhere to certain guidelines.
How Else Can I promote my own Site, post Hummingbird
For now, it’s all about Content Marketing, which is the simple method of writing content so great it earns links on its own. This is literally the opposite of spammy guest blogging in that, for it to work, you have to write something supremely good! That takes either being a good writer, or paying for the services of a good writer. Similarly for great infographics or video: they don’t come cheap. And of course the downside is that, even if you do this, there’s no guarantee of getting good links. It’s a long game, and one which requires patience and hard work, as well as substantial resources to make it work.
Don’t Forget Social Media
Social Media gives you a traffic source outside of Google, so if you master the art of it you’ll never have to worry about Matt Cutts ever again! It’s also an essential for distributing the content you’re creating so get on it today and start creating your own content distribution channels. When you’ve written your piece Socialize your content through LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Google+, YouTube, etc, and use hashtags as appropriate. Extend your social media reach with influencer mapping: our favourite tool of the moment is the supremely good Little Bird, the latest tool in our arsenal and great fun.
What about the links?
Ok so linkbuilding isn’t quite dead. Here are some ways you can still get yourself some links if you’ve got the nouse.
(1) Contests – Everyone loves a competition and, if the premise is fun enough and the prize good enough, you’ll get links from authority sites and news aggregrators along the way.
(2) Relevant niche specific directories – Best of the Web, Dmoz, Joe Ant and a few others are still links worth having. Research your own niche and there’s bound to be some safe, worthwhile opportunities.
(3) Sponsorships – Sponsoring a charity or worthwhile cause is a great way to find a strong link while helping someone who needs it at the same time. We hate to be as cynical as those who would choose their charity by domain authority but, if there’s a sound link in it, there’s an argument to be made in favour of doing that!
