With Google’s consistent spam updates, especially the latest one, several link building methods are in danger. Including guest blogging. 

With 60% of bloggers writing guest posts monthly, these updates affect the entire blogging industry. 

Is guest blogging worth it? [2023]

In this article, we’ll cover 4 reasons why guest blogging is no longer worth it. And, we’ll discuss the only way guest blogging is still a viable option. Keep reading.

Cons of Guest Blogging

Here are 4 cons of guest blogging or 4 reasons why guest blogging may not be the best solution to build backlinks.

A rise in competition for guest blogging

Blogging is only becoming popular by the day. More blogs mean more bloggers trying to build backlinks. As a result, more bloggers want to write guest posts. [Guest blogging is just ONE of the 7 ways we cover in our guide to building high quality backlinks]

Only 10% of all websites get organic traffic [Learn how you can start increasing your traffic from 13 methods covered in our guide to building blog traffic]. This means that the rest of the 90% will try to guest post for these sites. 

For example, do you know that blog you recently reached out to for writing a guest post? Yea, there are thousands of bloggers like you who also reached out to them.

Supply for guest blogging raises standards

Since there are so many bloggers trying to write guest posts to build their own backlinks, the blog giants take advantage of this surplus in supply. 

From the example above, since there are 1000s of bloggers waiting to write a guest post for a single blog, they’ll naturally raise their standards. 

It’s a simple method to filter out the best. 

Because of the abundant supply, nothing is stopping these giant blogs from demanding money in return for a guest post [And this isn’t even one of the 14 blogging costs that are deemed necessary].

If you aren’t willing to pay the ransom, there are 100s of others who are. 

Google updates are ANTI guest blogging

With the latest link spam update, Google strictly opposes link building that occurs from an exchange of goods or services. 

Guest blogging is considered an exchange of service for a backlink.

Though, many bloggers bring up the idea of writing guest posts and not making them look like guest posts, at all. 

Simply put, if they’re guest posting, the post shouldn’t say sponsored or guest post. It should look like any other post on their blog. 

The only difference would be the author bio [Discussed later].

Plus, take a look at the following statement from Google’s guide to link to other sites

Google clearly states to ensure that any site you link to is high quality, reliable, and respectable. Here is the meaning of these individual terms:

While your new or old blog can be that, other blogs need a way to know if you are high quality, reliable, and respectful blog. 

And no, they’re not going to go spend time answering those questions about your blog. 

Instead, they’ll want to see the experience from you. Experience in writing guest posts, that is. 

If you’ve read other articles talking about guest posts, they’ll provide you with email templates. 

And, in those templates, they expect you to provide examples of your previous guest posts. But, what if you have none? 

It will only become harder to get accepted by a blog if you’re new. The only way to beat this issue is to try guest posting for extremely low DA blogs. 

Close to or less than your DA. So if you’re a new blog, stick to emailing blogs with a DA of less than 20. That increases your chances. 

Though, it won’t help as much in terms of SEO. But, that’s the only way to start. Read our blog post SEO guide to learn other much useful tasks to tackle first to improve your search engine rankings.

Blogs are becoming more stingy

As mentioned earlier, bloggers are trying to still keep guest posting alive by showcasing them as normal posts. There are a couple of issues that still remain with that:

Displaying ‘Guest Post’ or ‘Sponsored Post’ is a Red Flag

To not make it look like a guest post, the post shouldn’t display sponsored or guest posts anywhere on the blog post. Suppose the blog your guest posting for agrees to do so, let’s move forward.

Author Bio links aren’t worth much

Now, with so many updates breaking down on backlinks, these blogs are becoming far more stingy about giving you a link [They’re so stingy, to begin with]. Most blogs will only allow you to place a link to your site in the author bio. Guess what, Google barely considers them to be linked. So, links in author bios will barely help your SEO.

Google doesn’t want to follow a guest post backlink

Furthermore, Google is consistently reminding us to have guest posts under the nofollow link category. So, not only are these blogs stingy but now they’re being told to not give you a backlink.

Is it still possible to get backlinks from guest posting?

Yes, it is still very much possible to get backlinks from guest posting. But, it will require you to put in a lot more time and effort to get any backlinks at all. 

What I recommend instead, is to spend that time creating more unique content for your own blog instead. 

Create data, case studies, and reports for your blog. You can use those to build backlinks. 

Guest blogging has been the most commonly used backlink building strategy. But, it isn’t the only method to build links. 

Check out our guide to the 7 link building methods you can start utilizing.

The ONLY time guest blogging is a good idea

As mentioned above, it takes quite a bit of time to gain any backlinks from guest posting. 

Because, with all the blogs being so stingy, you need to invest the time and effort to build a strong and personal connection with their writers and editors. 

Neil Patel, Brian Dean, Ahref and other major giants bring up these same points: 

That sending a personalized email or connection with them on social media isn’t enough, you need to:

• Share their content, and tag them when you do so.
• Comment on their blogs and articles.
• Engage in group discussions or social chats where they’re active.
• Cite them, and quote their ideas in your own posts.

And while this sounds great, it’s an expensive time task. So, in reality, guest posting is ONLY a good idea if you have a team & a firm budget. 

You need a team for the manpower to outreaching out to hundreds of blogs per day. [Assuming you’re a new blog]:

• Begin by finding hundreds of low DA blogs 
• Connect with their writers on email, and social media [And potentially through calling]
• Start building connections with their writers [mentioned above]
• Start pitching to write a guest post for them

Often, you’ll have to deal with paying the blogs you guest post for. Which will require more money to spend. 

This is why guest posting is most often used by copywriting agencies or bloggers who hire freelancers and virtual assistants. [Not sure how much it costs? Check out our Guide on blog writing services that’ll provide you with REAL numbers]

Not for blogs run by a single person. For a single person, this is too much work. And many blogs are run by one person. 

Guest posting is not a good idea for a one person blog. For those who run a blog on their own [works for everyone as well], another strategy is to implement topical authority. 

Topical authority has become quite a popular method to rank on Google. This method covers an entire topic in full depth. Read our guide on topical authority to learn how to rank without prioritizing backlinks at all.