On January 20th, 2014, Matt Cutts posted something that many people found was as a bit shocking: he declared that guest blogging for SEO was about to fall apart at the seams. The debate raged until his prediction began to unfold when Google went so far as to penalize MyGuestBlog on March 19th for that very practice. Google was trying to put the lock down on guest blogging as a spam tool, which on the surface made sense. But the most shocking aspect of this was that MyGuestBlog was not designed with spam goals in mind: people were simply using it that way.
The problem that was arising from the guest blog tactic was the approach. People were pursuing maximum domains which led to trouble. In short, by trying to reach maximum domains, the content landed on sites that are deemed weak or bad in the eyes of Google as having actual authority on the subject. In other words, relevance harmed the guest blog with this approach.
Does this mean guest blogging strategies for SEO are officially dead? Not necessarily. Press releases were once used for SEO but have become a criticized practice in recent times. However, they can still allow media to learn about your business which has its benefits. High-authority sites have larger audiences and may lead to increased social shares for your content. This presents the opportunity to receive exposure from other industry audiences and influencers.
If you focus on high authority columns, your boost in reputation and visibility is far more likely when a high authority site publishes your article. The interest drawn toward you as a great blogger has intrinsic value that leads to greater exposure. Though guest blogging is not a primary strategy, it should not necessarily be considered dead either.
Source: Search Engine Land