A Google Exec Declared Guest Blogging 'Dead' in 2014, But Here's How to Make It Pay Dividends in 2022 and Beyond

Ever since 2014, when Matt Cutts proclaimed the death of guest blogging, ethical marketing professionals have been reluctant to pursue this strategy in their digital marketing plans. After all, when the chief of search quality for Google says guest posting is “a more and more spammy practice” and asserts that people who engage in it frequently are “hanging out with really bad company,” you tend to err on the side of caution. 

However, Cutts didn’t mean all guest blogging. He was referring to one particular type, usually involving questionable guest post exchanges in an effort to build backlinks. The right kind of guest posting is identical to regular content marketing. That is, it creates useful, informative and authoritative content that your audience members want to see. There’s an exception though: It gets published on someone else’s blog or website, not yours.