Carmen Rane Hudson

That Sharknado was flying all over the Internet, but I managed to find some great content anyway. I didn’t even get bitten!

First up is a post from Jeff Bullas called “How to Create and Write Evergreen Content to Boost Your Business.” This is incredibly important for small business owners to grasp and master.

Now, you need to have a variety of different kinds of content. It’s not a good idea to go 100% evergreen because that can get a little robotic.

At the same time, I work on a fence contractor’s blog right now. What contest ranks and performs the best? The evergreen stuff, hands down.

Small business blogging is different. You’re not necessarily going to build up this huge following full of people who come back again and again, engage, share, tell you how great you are, etc. But that’s not really the point. Get Mrs. Johnson to read 2-3 of your good posts and provide the answers she’s looking for when she’s looking for it and you’ve achieved what you need to achieve. She’s sure as heck more likely to call you than a guy who is just Google+ listing, or who can’t offer her anything more than a bunch of self-serving copy on his website.

Next up we’ve got Marcus Sheridan of Sales Lion, and here’s more on the same theme. I referenced Sales Lion last week too, and I’m seriously starting to think that The Sales Lion is one of THE go-to blogs for small business owners, especially contractors.

This week’s gem? Why “Useful” Beats “Amazing” Any Day of the Week.

“Just be useful” should probably become the new mantra for every small business owner who is diving into the world of content marketing, or for those who manage SMB blogs.

And it’s pretty awesome, because you can just stop stressing over it. People keep crowing, “OMG! Your content has to be AWESOME!” Well, that’s freaking intimidating.

Marcus says, “No, your content just has to be useful.” Yes, yes indeed.

That was the same theme shared by Phil Rozek in 10 Solid Examples of Blogging for Local Business. That was written way back on June 20th, but read it anyway if you want a second opinion on this usefulness thing, as well as a list of bloggers who are getting the job done right.

#3 on today’s round-up comes from Darren Slaughter, who is, of course, another go-to guy for contractors in particular. “Struggling with Conversions on Your Website? Click Here Still King.”

It’s another object lesson on how it’s just pretty much important to avoid overthinking stuff. One amazingly simple conversion strategy, well worth reading, and applicable to any type of small business.

#4 was a local SEO post, a bit of news worth hearing about. Phil Rozek announced the return of 5 star ratings to Google+ Local pages.

And there you have it! Some great online marketing posts from all over the web. What did you find this week?

Yesterday, I talked about how you could continue to submit guest blog posts without shooting yourself in the foot. But if you also accept guest posts there are other things you need to think about.

Why? Because if you accept the wrong guest posts your site could be just as penalized as if you’d submitted lots of terrible guest posts. So how do you avoid this problem?

Tighten Your Standards

And I don’t just mean content quality standards either, though obviously content quality should be your primary concern. I’m talking about checking out the blogger who is proposing to generate content for your site.

Think about it. You wouldn’t let just anybody into your home, so you shouldn’t let just anybody onto your blog. Take some time to check out the writer’s credentials. Pay attention to what they’re doing on the Internet.

Is this writer spreading a ton of low-value blog posts wherever he or she can do so? Then you might want to skip that blogger. Google seems to do a lot with “guilt by association.”

Now, I’m not saying that every guest blogger you invite needs to be famous. Because that’s silly.

I am saying that you should make sure that they aren’t mass producing a lot of mediocre content and that they seem to be authoritative in the niche they’re proposing to blog in.

You run a landscaping business and your blog is all about landscaping. Someone from the local fence industry who has mostly written on their own blog and maybe in one or two other places wants to guest blog. Go for it.

You run a landscaping business and someone who sells a dodgy weight loss product wants to guest blog, and that person has written some stumbling, fumbling content on just about every site known to man? Skip it. That person doesn’t really know the first thing about landscaping and your site isn’t relevant to their site. And that person is just the sort of person that Google wants to penalize.

Always ask: what’s the value to my readers? Is this post bursting with value? Does this blogger bring value wherever he or she goes?

In fact, you can even seek out people who have impressed you and invite them to your blog. You don’t have to wait for them to come to you.

Use Copyscape

Don’t make a big deal out of using Copyscape, because that’s going to be a little bit insulting to serious bloggers, but use it. The last thing you want is to publish spun or duplicate content, and Copyscape is the quickest way to spot either.

Cultivate Regular Contributors

When you do this you’ll get a steady stream of content from people you trust. You can offer them a lot of value by letting them link to their own sites in the body of their posts instead of in the targeted author boxes (when and where appropriate).

You can trust to your own eye to tell whether the link is promotional, spammy, or useless. If it brings value, leave it. If it annoys you, then make the blogger cut it.

A trusted regular contributor will almost never present this problem, however. And your audience will appreciate high-value regular contributors as well.

Keep Thinking of Your Readers

If you’re accepting guest posts for the sake of packing your blog full of content that you didn’t have to write then you are already off-track. There’s only one real reason to accept a guest post: you think that it will provide something of value to your readers.

If that hasn’t been your strategy to date then make it your strategy now. Otherwise, you’re better off not accepting any guest posts at all.

I’ve been hearing more and more buzz around the fact that Google will be targeting guest posts on their next algorithm update. So how safe are your guest posts, and thus your website, from Google’s newest push?

For example, hisWebMarketing recently suggested adding the “no-follow” attribute to links in author bios. If you don’t know already, a “do follow” link tells Google’s bots to count the link as part of your overall link profile. Google does not count “no follow” links, but humans can still choose to click on the link in order to follow it back to your website.

A couple of months ago, James Finlayson posted on Moz.com and offered a graphic representation of the ways that guest posts can skew a link profile. He was full of great advice about keeping your head above water when it comes to avoiding penalties.

I’ve been doing a lot of my own thinking on the subject of guest posts, and I’ve come up with a few takeaways of my own. Here’s how small business owners can continue to pursue guest posts without losing the benefits of guest blogging.

Build Your Author Rank

I’m getting the impression that people with a higher author rank will have a lot less to worry about when it comes to seeing penalties on their guest posts.

Consider this Matt Cutts video, also featured in the hisWebMarketing post:

I’m getting the impression that people with a higher author rank will have a lot less to worry about than people with a low author rank, or no author rank. So post great content no matter where you post it, and make sure the content is attributed to you.

No doubt Vanessa Fox and Danny Iny can both expect to have a pretty awesome author rank. I’m finding it hard to believe that Google would ever want to penalize their guest post efforts.

And the only way Google could distinguish a “star” or “high quality” author from those who are perhaps not so amazing would be to use author rank.

Develop a Handful of Good Relationships

What’s better? Making 30 posts on 30 blogs in 30 days or making 30 posts on one highly trustworthy blog in 30 weeks?

I’m guessing that it’s going to be 30 posts in 30 weeks on 1 high quality blog. 30 posts in 30 weeks is a more natural progression, and it speaks of providing solid value to readers.

30 posts in 30 days on 1 high quality blog (your own) would also speak of providing solid value to readers. No penalties there.

but 30 posts in 30 days on 30 guest blogs smacks of smearing low-quality content all over the Internet. And avoid “services” which farm out guest blog posts to whatever blogger seems willing to take them…they’re just trouble waiting to happen. The results will be low-quality blogs that may not be entirely relevant to your content, stuff Google can spot as garbage a mile away.

Remember, too, that guest blogging isn’t just about creating “link juice.” It’s about building an audience and a following, which leads me to my third point.

Yes, Guest Posts are Still Useful

Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water. Don’t assume that Google’s penalties will strip all the value out of guest posting.

You don’t need to get fixated on grabbing hundreds of do-follow links. They’re nice, but no-follow links still provide value.

And guest posts still contribute to your web presence. They help you create a following and build your brand. So build a relationship (or hire someone who can build a relationship) with a good blog’s followers and you should see some of those followers over on your own site.

Tomorrow, I’ll talk about what you should do if you have decided to host guest posts of your own, since hosts can be penalized too.

What are your predictions for guest posts and how Google will treat them? Let me know in the comments below!