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Recently, we told you about Google’s changes to the ways it values guest blogging as part of an SEO strategy. I explained how to continue submitting guest posts around the web without risking penalties from Google—now, I’m going to take a look at how you can continue posting guest blogs from other writers on your own website.
Our sister website, Clickx, has a form where bloggers can submit an article to us for a guest post opportunity. However, we mostly receive emails and submissions from spammers, similar to the email Matt Cutts received.
Here are a couple of examples of the submissions we receive:
This person attempts the flattery approach by claiming to have spent several hours reading our website.
They want us to feel good about our work, and to feel like they really connected with the information we have provided.
However, it is very obvious they spent zero time reading our website because the email is very generic. It’s easy for spammers like this to copy & paste the same generic email and blast them out to as many websites as they can find, in the hope that someone bites and takes the bait.
Another example:
This outreach message is a little more creative, but it’s still a generic copy & pasted email. And many times, they will include links to articles they have posted on other websites to show they are legit. That isn’t always a bad thing.
It’s good to see that other webmasters have posted their work, but the red flag is raised when he asks for a DoFollow backlink to his website.
I’ve Received Emails Like These—What Do I Do?
If you’ve received similar outreach emails asking for guest posts and backlinks, you could simply not respond or politely decline the offer. If it seems sketchy, then it’s probably best to stay away.
And be sure to read the email carefully and check for broken English and strange phrases. If there is a lot of poor grammar in their email, it is a sign that a company is possibly outsourcing their guest post link building strategy. Again, it’s probably best to stay away completely.
How to Spot a Legitimate Guest Post Offer
Oftentimes, a legitimate guest post offer will come from an actual reader and fan of your blog. Maybe it’s someone that has commented a handful of times on your previous posts. Maybe it’s someone you met at a conference and they decided to offer your blog great content—someone you know in real life, or someone you actually have a relationship with.
That is why Google has been preaching for years about creating and building relationships with other webmasters. If you are creating and sharing your content with people you know, you will be cutting out the generic spam from random people on the Internet.
Also, a legitimate guest post offer should at least include your name. Spammers include “Dear sir/madam” because they are copy & pasting emails. A real offer should at least address you by your name, such as “Hi John”.
And a legitimate guest post offer would probably mention something specific about your website or a blog post, because they have actually spent time on your website and read the content.
Spammers include generic messages such as, “As an avid reader of your website, I would love to read about topics that you have published.”
Conclusion
Matt Cutts’ announcement about a possible guest posting penalty shook things up in the SEO community. If you have been using guest posting the correct way, though, you shouldn’t have to worry.
However, if you have been using guest posting to receive anchor text backlinks, you might want to be proactive and ask webmasters to change those links, or have them add the rel=”nofollow” tag to your links.
Thanks for reading and please share your comments below. We would like to hear your thoughts about guest posting.
