Well, I'm sure most of us saw it coming. Last year Matt Cutts,leader of the Websafe team at Google, started sowing the seeds that the days of spammy guest blogging were nearing an end. And now those early warning sirens are ringing out loud and clear. 

The advice from Google is that if you are using guest blogging as a reliable vehicle to gain links ~Don't, those halycon days are over. But is this heads up all bad? I think not.

Guest blogging has established itself as being a valuable asset to enriching the content of your blog. 'Experts' in their field can write a post for your site that interests and engages with your readers. Once, to be asked to write a guest blog, or have your offer of a guest blog article accepted, was a great honour. However, the position of guest blogging has changed. The issue concerning the Websafe team is that guest blogging is now used by many as a way of linking to their spam filled website by offering renumeration, inserting links without you realising and getting around PageRank all in one guest blog post. 

Matt Cutts offers this advice on his own blog;  "guest blogging is done; it’s just gotten too spammy. In general I wouldn’t recommend accepting a guest blog post unless you are willing to vouch for someone personally or know them well. Likewise, I wouldn’t recommend relying on guest posting, guest blogging sites, or guest blogging SEO as a linkbuilding strategy."
 
The Google team have tried to assure the reputable bloggers that 'genuine' guest blog posts are not an issue here, this action is aimed at the blog writers that violate Google's quality guidelines and erode legitimate SEO work.

For companies that have in-house writers providing the bulk of their blogging activities, this should not present any detrimental effects. For companies that rely on low quality guest bloggers to provide the bulk of their blog content, times are changing. Many companies may not even realise the counterproductive affect of these posts, others may just not care as long as they manage to get their site higher up on a web search.

These changes will hopefully go some way towards cleaning up some spam, improving the integrity of the material we have access to online and ensuring sites work their way up google by containing relevant and readable content. There will naturally be winners and losers in these changes, and as a freelance SEO copywriter there could be exciting times ahead. One way to still optimise your site through blog activity could be to employ the services of a reputable copywriter. This would ensure the writing was fresh, original and  PageRank friendly.

Here at Creative Copywriters we provide a fully comprehensive Social Media and Network Writing service. We write blog posts, social media and network updates, all absolutely violation free. Blog posts can be written as a 'one off' project or several  posts can be commissioned to keep your online presence stimulated and enlivened without any of the unsavoury aftertaste spam may leave you with.

Well, it's that time of year again, when writers young and old turn their hand to persuasive writing. Of course some people are using this skill everyday. SEO content and copywriters spend hours writing to persuade website visitors to become new and loyal customers. Some are incredibly good at it, others are particularly shoddy. However, at least there are people writing with gusto and enthusiasm. Sadly, for the rest of society, who never have to write a letter or memo, this enthusiasm for writing is often absent.

Children sit in classrooms  trying to avoid writing at all costs; it is surprising how many trips to the loo, or times you need to sharpen a pencil, can occur in half an hour. But this reluctance to write seems to be forgotten about when they hear the words, " time to write your letter to Santa". Then it would seem there are no holds barred. Out come the gel pens and illustrations. Some young writers put the early monastic illumated manuscripts to shame with the amount of 'bling' they manage to cram on the page. This is good and encouraging as a writer to see. This shows that people know the potential impact their prose ( or early attempts at marketing) can have on the intended audience.  For some, this skill remains with into adulthood.