Matthew Woodward Interview – Blogging, Link Building & Future of SEO

Matthew Woodward needs no introduction!

Yes, if you are into any type of digital marketing then you must have heard about him. Matthew claims that he had started his very first website way back around 2005; even before Google and YouTube existed. He just used to write game reviews.

Today, he is considered among the top SEO and digital marketing gurus.

And, this article is basically a quick interview with Matthew Woodward. I’ve asked him various questions related to:

• How he got started in the field
• Future of the blogging
• Future of the SEO
• High-value content creation
• How to create backlinks effectively
• How to promote blog posts
• Niche sites vs authority sites
• Opinion about guest blogging, etc.

He has answered all these questions a bit briefly, but still, I found a lot of value in this interview of Matthew Woodward, and you would too.

You can access his website matthewwoodward.co.uk here.

So, here we go then…

If you are in a hurry and do not have time to read this, then you can skip to the tl;dr section at the bottom of this post.

Interview with Matthew Woodward

Q. 1: Hi Matthew, welcome to the digiTechnolog. Of course, you’re known to all the people in the blogging world but please take a minute to introduce yourself to the readers who are just starting up in the field.

Ans: Hi, I am Matthew Woodward, I’m an award-winning SEO and digital marketer and known best for my blog – matthewwoodward.co.uk. I started the blog in 2012 as an experiment to see whether you can rank without link building and I was completely taken by surprise by its popularity and it has grown from there.

I focus on providing answers to my audience which helps them improve their online business from an SEO & marketing point of view. SEO is my passion and I look forward to sharing some of the things I have learned here with you today.

Q. 2: If I’m not wrong, you entered into the digital marketing field around 2005. So, is matthewwoodward.co.uk the very first website you started? And, please tell us about the challenges you faced in making the site so successful.

Ans: Before starting the blog I worked in the corporate world of digital marketing for a number of years, which taught me some really valuable lessons.

However, I got tired of all the boxes that needed to be ticked and approvals that needed to be signed just to complete one simple task. Internet marketing is a fast pace environment that the corporate world was not suited to at the time.

My very first website was built before things like Google even existed and I had no idea you could even make money online. It was a gaming review site which was my passion and I had a paper round to pay for the server!

Q. 3: How do you see blogging in the next 10-15 years? Will people still be reading articles and watching YouTube videos, or prefer some new content format?

Ans: I think that the online/blogging world will continue to grow as the amount of time people spend online continues to grow.

I think how people prefer to receive content changes within different niches but as long as you listen to what your audience wants and then you give it to them, you’ll keep up with the fast-moving online world.

For example, I listened to my readers in my last common sense SEO audit, and I am now making more videos than ever before as well top quality content full of value-adding graphics.

Q. 4: It seems Google core updates are becoming tougher by each coming year. So, what are your mantras to stay safe from these updates? And, should bloggers be worried about the future of SEO?

Ans: Honestly… it’s a never-ending battle. But that’s why I never get bored as things are constantly changing and there are new challenges to face and overcome.

The way I work to stay ‘safe’ is to always try and do what is right by your customers first, and then optimize from there depending on the current search climate.

Many people do it the other way around but my view is that Google is prioritizing user experience more and more, so give them what they want.

Q. 5: All the pieces of content that you create are informative and outstanding. Can you share your secrets to creating such high-value content?

Ans: Simply put, I listen to what my audience needs and create the content in the way that they want it.

I maintain the high standard of every piece of content published by having process’ set up for every stage of the content production. This applies to writers, content editors, graphics team, video editing, and myself. Everyone knows the role they play, the level of quality expected, and the time scales in which they complete their part.

Q. 6: How do you create backlinks for your websites and which backlink strategy do you find the best? Also, please share your thoughts on the PBNs.

Ans: Ok I need to try and limit my answer because I could talk about this subject for hours.

The best way, in my experience, to build backlinks is to do competitor backlink analysis. This basically means that you use a tool like Ahrefs, stick in your competitor’s URL (comparable to the one you want to build links to) and have a look at their best backlinks. Then find out how they got those links and replicate it.

I have made this even easier to do as I have an intelligent spreadsheet available (free) which will do all the analyzing for you. Just enter in your data from Ahrefs and the spreadsheet will produce a list of the best links for you to target.

With regards to PBNs – if you set them up properly, then they are a very valuable asset to have.

Q. 7: How do you promote your blog posts? Can you please share a list of tasks to do after publishing a great article on any topic?

Ans: We do a number of things to promote a new blog post:

• Set up social media sharing schedules
• Email subscribers
• Contact anyone featured in that post
• Set up various outreach campaigns
• Review performance closely and engage with people commenting on the article or on any social media channels

Q. 8: How do you see niche sites? And, what are your views on niche sites vs authority sites?

Ans: Well for me, niche sites and authority sites are two of the same thing, not much separates them.

What I would say though, is that instead of building niche sites or authority sites, you should focus on building a business.

Q. 9: In a few recent years, there has been a lot of buzz around guest blogging, some people say guest blogging is dead. What’s your opinion?

Ans: I guest blog all the time. It’s a great way to build links AND add value to the site you are posting on.

You just need to be a bit pickier about which sites you decide to write for. Articles posted on sites that are obviously link farms or even promote that they accept guest blogs, I generally avoid as Google is wising up to these kinds of things (no matter what the level of authority that site may be).

And usually, anyone asking for money to publish a guest blog is doing it for the wrong reasons so I avoid those too, (but this may be necessary if you are just starting out).

Q. 10: Of course, I have hundreds of questions for you, but can’t ask all here. So, lastly, what message would you like to deliver to our readers who are just starting up in the blogging field?

Ans: My message is a pretty simple one. Don’t fall for the obsessive link-building disorder until you have built a site on strong foundations!

The main problem I see today is sites that have been thrown together, rubbish rushed content published with no understanding of basic SEO principles. All anyone cares about is building links, but no one is going to link to a site like I just described unless you are prepared to pay a lot of money, and even then… your visitors ain’t gonna be hanging around for very long.

So focus on creating a solid foundation, listen to your target audience, and give them what they want with awesome content! Then the links will come rolling in naturally and you’ll find link building to be much much easier.

Related: Programmatic SEO Guide — Create 1000s of Landing Pages at Once

Wrapping it up

So, that was it.

If you couldn’t read all of this interview with Matthew, then here are the quick key takeaways:

✅ Listening to your audience and creating content that they love is always a good option.
✅ You should focus more on creating high-quality video content.
✅ Google is prioritizing user experience more, so create content based on the “customers first” strategy.
✅ Link building by doing competitors’ backlink analysis by using tools like Ahrefs is the best option.
✅ PBNs are a very valuable asset, but only if you set up them correctly.
✅ After publishing a new post: share it on social media, send emails to your subscribers, contact anyone featured in the post, set up outreach campaigns, and review the performance closely.
✅ Instead of building niche sites or authority sites, focus on building a business.
✅ Guest blogging is great to build links and add value to the site you’re posting on.
✅ Avoid guest posting on websites that openly advertise that they accept guest posts.
✅ First, focus on building your site on strong foundations before you go for the link building.
✅ Create a solid foundation, listen to your audience, and give them what they want with awesome content.

Got any related queries? Feel free to let me know by dropping a quick comment right now.

Also, share the article with the people who you think might be interested in reading it.