Google Issues a Warning About Guest Posting to Build Links

Google has issued a warning to remind site owners about the dangers of publishing content on other sites for the purpose of building inbound links.

The company doesn’t frown on guest posts or syndicated posts in general, but lately there has been an increase in spammy links stuffed into these types of posts. That’s the reason behind this sudden warning from Google.

Distributing content on a large scale when the main intention is to build links back to your own site is strictly prohibited under Google’s guidelines on link schemes.

What Google does allow are guest posts and syndicated posts which “inform users, educate another site’s audience or bring awareness to your cause or company.”

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Google goes on to explain other article writing and distribution practices that are against its guidelines.

Stuffing keyword-rich links to your site in your articles.

Having the articles published across many different sites; alternatively, having a large number of articles on a few large, different sites.

Using or hiring article writers that aren’t knowledgeable about the topics they’re writing on.

Using the same or similar content across these articles; alternatively, duplicating the full content of articles found on your own site (in which case use of rel=”canonical”, in addition to rel=”nofollow”, is advised).

This probably goes without saying, but Google reminds being caught publishing articles with spammy links could affect the perceived quality of a site and thus affect search rankings. Site owners should be vigilant in their vetting of guest posts, and nofollow any links that appear questionable.

Google will also take action on websites creating the content in violation of Google’s guidelines. The company points out to site owners being harassed about publish content they can submit a complaint via Google’s spam report form.

SEO Competitive Analysis – How to Spy on Your Competition

At this point in the SEO tutorial, you’ve discovered which sites are your main keyword competition. Next you’ll play detective and take a closer look at these top-ranked websites. Here’s what to look for when you do SEO competitive analysis:

• Keywords: What other keywords is the competing web page optimized for?

• Content: How much content is there for the keyword you’re targeting (words on the page and pages on the site)?

• SEO: How is the web page ranking for this keyword? Does it seem intentional and according to SEO best practices?

• Authority: How much authority do the page and website have (based on links, social media shares, etc.)?

• Weaknesses: What weak areas do you see that could be opportunities for you to compete?

Here we’ll cover the SEO tips (and a free tool) you need to put on your detective hat and start doing SEO competitive analysis. It’s critical that you identify the best search terms and keywords used on your competitors’ sites so that you can evaluate how your pages can better compete.

Spy on Your Competitors’ Keywords

It’s actually not difficult to get a closer look at your top competitors’ web pages and see what keywords they are focusing on. The free SEO tool below makes it easy.

The goal is to find out which keywords the competing site is optimized for. You want to see not just the one keyword that led you to discover that page, but the set of keywords that, together, signal relevance. Search engines examine over 200 factors that indicate a page’s relevance to a search query. Having content focused on the right keywords is an essential ingredient. For that reason, as you look at the top-ranking websites’ keywords, you may find clues to additional supportive words and phrases you need on your site.

Don’t miss out on these keywords that could help bring converting traffic to your site. Spy them out and add them to your keyword list.

1. Enter the URL of a competitor’s web page that is ranking for your desired keyword.

2. Scan the reports to identify the keywords that appear frequently or prominently on the page.

3. Keep track of the top keyword phrases the competitor uses if they are new to your keyword research list and applicable to your site.

Next, the SEO tutorial will show you how to combine keywords and sort your keyword list in order to match targeted, high-conversion types of searches.

Now that you’ve spent some time choosing the best keywords, combining them and organizing your keyword categories, you probably have a better idea of where your website content may be lacking. The next few steps in our SEO tutorial lead you through creating new content that uses your keywords appropriately. Read on for what to consider before writing content.