Google’s John Mueller replied to a tweet related to guest post outreach. He says that paying a company to outreach for guest posts might result in unnatural links.

Guest Post Outreach

Guest posting is when a publisher agrees to publish an article written by someone else. The article has the link to the website that is offering the article. Mueller’s comments were in response to SEMRush’s new service for obtaining guest post links. The tweet says that SEMRush does not buy links from publishers rather they are asking websites whether they want to publish the articles.

Tweets That Initiated The Discussion: 

SEMRush is selling links now? Make it make sense… pic.twitter.com/YLbfkpWEwK

— John Locke (@Lockedown_) June 3, 2020

SEMRush Explanation: 

“Using manual outreach, we will secure a guest post on a high-quality site and include your link in a relevant position. We will then write and publish your article on the blog with links to your site.”

The SEMRush customers are not paying anything to publishers for the link.

John Mueller Says It’s Unnatural Link:

That's an unnatural link – the kind the webspam team might take action on. https://t.co/kfQQithCnK & https://t.co/q5GmAxx2YM have more. Making sure the links use rel=nofollow / rel=sponsored would still allow sites to get visibility without having to worry about manual actions.

— ? John ? (@JohnMu) June 3, 2020

SEMRush Response:

Hi, John! Talking about Marketplace Guest Post service we can assure you that it’s not about links/slots buying, and we do not pay to the blogs for publications. [1] -Eka

— Semrush (@semrush) June 3, 2020

Twitter Response:

I cannot even fathom the thought process that went into this. Wow.

— Ben Huber (@vtgrad2010) June 3, 2020

Twitter Also Responded This:

Is it April 1st again already?!

— Will (@willdropphoto) June 3, 2020

Recommendation: Google Local Ranking Changes In Early May Was A Bug And It Fixed The Issue

What Is An Unnatural Link?

Owner of LinkFish Media, Julie Joyce who is an expert in link building says about unnatural links.

“There has been so much argument about what constitutes an unnatural or paid link over the years… and many people don’t seem to think that they are buying links.

If I pay to have a webmaster put a link into an article on their site, how is that any different than paying someone to place a guest post on their site?

If you’re paying to get a link, it’s a paid link in my opinion.

The problem isn’t just with paid links though. According to the Google Webmaster Guidelines,

‘Any links intended to manipulate PageRank or a site’s ranking in Google search results may be considered part of a link scheme and a violation of Google’s Webmaster Guidelines. This includes any behavior that manipulates links to your site or outgoing links from your site.’

I think that many times some people assume all paid links are bad and all unnatural links are paid, when that isn’t the case.”

All unnatural links are not generally paid.

Be Aware Of The Unnatural Links

If Google considers these links as unnatural then statements by John Mueller have saved a so many businesses from receiving a manual penalty. Manual penalties related to links takes so much effort to have removed. Unnatural links surround a big range of link building tactics and it is best to keep the mind open whether these links may not be good.