Guest blogging has come a long way from merely being a method of spreading the word about your blog. Now, it is used as a powerful SEO tool. From small blog owners to multi-billion dollar corporations, everybody is employing guest posts as a valuable marketing strategy. Even names such as Intel, Salesforce, and Xbox regularly post guest blogs!
This article will answer the question, “what is guest posting?” Then, we’ll delve into how this strategy is being utilized to achieve a multitude of benefits on individual and organizational levels. Furthermore, we will reveal our most effective techniques to ensure that you pitch a solid guest blog that helps your blog and business grow.
Guest Blogging: Explanation
Alternatively called “guest posting,” guest blogging is the act of posting on someone else’s blog or website. Generally, guest bloggers write posts for websites with a similar niche to their own. The purpose of guest blogging is to attract traffic to one’s own blog and improve brand visibility through networking with others in the industry. Guest posts are a valuable tool for reputation marketing and are mostly used for embedding backlinks.
On the surface, it might seem counterproductive to spend time writing blogs for another website (that could very well be a competitor) and generating traffic for it. Many would argue that you could be spending this time and effort on your own website, creating and improving posts. However, the sales and SEO opportunities that you can get from guest blogging can far outweigh the input that goes into this process.
Simply knowing what guest posting is often does not reveal the full picture. After all, how much good can come from publishing a post on another company’s website? To fully understand how guest posting can boost your SEO rankings, let’s take a look at its benefits.
Guest Blogging Benefits for Business
Guest blogging can boost a business in multiple ways and, when implemented correctly, can become a major part of the marketing strategy. Here are a few of the most significant benefits of guest blogging for businesses.
- One of the prime guest blogging benefits is that it brings high-quality traffic to your website. Getting high traffic through the right keywords, phrases, and social media strategies is not very difficult. The real goal is to bring in visitors who will benefit from your content and are likely to make a purchase. By guest posting, you can reach your target audience – people who will likely be very interested in your content.
- Another common reason for guest blogging is to build your authority. The more quality material you put out, the more you and your brand will be respected in the industry. Authority is one of the key elements of a strong marketing strategy in an industry where misinformation is rampant. In fact, domain link authority has a very strong correlation with Google rankings. Therefore, the more links you get from guest posts to your website, the higher your domain authority would be.
- The benefits of guest blogging for SEO would be incomplete without the mention of how it impacts social media growth. Most brands share content from their websites to their social media handles and include mentions. This gives you a great chance to earn more followers and visitors. Your brand or website might even be followed by the website where your guest blog, leading to a snowball effect that eventually gains you a larger social media following.
- Guest blogging is also regarded highly by many because it helps build backlinks. Relevant and high-quality backlinks are crucial for building a high authority website and ranking well on search engines. This is because many search engines, including Google, value backlinks in their rankings. Relevant backlinks with similar kinds of information on both ends can be a huge boon to SEO. Guest blogging allows you to choose anchor text that can better optimize your backlink profile. To learn more about how high-quality backlinks are successfully established, you can check out our link-building services.
- Increased brand awareness is among the most important benefits of guest blogging marketing. Guest posts are usually made on websites that have a similar niche and target audience as your own. For example-your business provides ipad application development services, so website for guest blog must be about ipads or iOS in overall.Thus, your content and brand get exposure to people who are potential visitors and customers. In fact, most Millennials do not trust advertisements. Thus, you need to make your mark and leave a lasting impression with your guest blogs since the readers can possibly become your viewers or customers.
- Many bloggers also engage in guest blogging to grow their portfolio of work. Portfolios are necessary for businesses and individuals alike since consumers are more interested than ever in the impact a brand makes. By posting blogs on other websites, you branch out and engage with an audience that you do not have. This makes your work accessible to more people, bringing more attention to your website or brand.
- Guest blogging for SEO can also expand your network and online influence. Businesses rely heavily upon networking and connections that can boost your following, improve your authority, bring collaborations, and enhance your brand image in the market. This can lead to professional relationships and networks where your content is being promoted even when you are not involved or aware. Networking is an invaluable skill in business, the results of which can sometimes be unfathomable.
- This is also an excellent opportunity to build credibility. Guest blogging means that the owner or administrator of a website or blog in your niche deems you an authority on the relevant topic and trusts your opinion on the matter. Being vetted by experts in the industry enhances not only the author’s credibility but also the reputation of their blog.
Where to Post Guest Blogs
Choosing the right place to post your guest blog(s) is a crucial decision that can largely affect the results of your entire guest blogging strategy. Guest blogging for SEO demands utilizing the most useful opportunities, which means choosing websites or blogs that meet certain criteria.
- Look for blogs that are in the same niche and industry as your website. This is because you can best find your target audience and establish relevant backlinks from websites based around similar content as yours.
- Ensure that the audience of the blog is interested in what your website, blog, or brand has to offer. Sometimes, even when the industry is the same, the audience of a blog might be uninterested in what you have to offer. For example, even if two blogs are about technology, one of them might exclusively discuss Apple products, and the other might focus on smartphones from multiple brands. Thus, even though these blogs are based in loosely similar niches, their audiences are not looking for the same material.
- You can most benefit from guest blogging if the host blog has an engaged readership. This can be gauged by posts that are socially shared and commented upon.
- Some websites allow you to guest post for free, whereas other kinds of blogs would require payment to be featured. Therefore, assess your budget and requirements and choose the type of guest blogging accordingly.
- Ideally, the owner of the blog should be active on social media in order to promote your content well.
If you are completely new to guest posting, you can start by searching on Google with the keywords “submit a guest post,” “accepting guest posts,” and “guest post guidelines” to find some good options for beginners.
Guest Blogging Guidelines
Just being aware of the ways guest blogging can be beneficial for business and knowing where to post your guest blogs is not sufficient. If you are not implementing the right strategies to make the most out of your guest blogs, you will not see a real improvement in the performance of your website.
To get the most of the benefits of guest posting, try to incorporate the following techniques in your guest blogging process. Focusing on these can help you save time by avoiding ineffective actions.
- Before pitching any guest blog post, get to know the content of the host blog. It is important to know more than the niche of the blog. Learn the level of the audience (beginner, intermediate, advanced). Also, look into the type of audience, whether it is made of individuals or businesses, and make sure your content matches your audience type. Pay attention to the type of content the blog posts (general concepts, tutorials, listicles, etc.). Knowing these aspects of a host blog will ensure that you are spending your time and efforts at a place where the odds of success are high.
- When guest blogging for SEO, it is equally important to analyze how well other guest blogs do on your chosen host blog. Even if the host blog meets all the aforementioned requirements, you need to see if other guest bloggers are doing well on that website. Check whether the guest posts get the kind of engagement that blogs by the owner do. If the audience is only interested in content by the owner and does not engage well with guest blogs, the results of guest posting will not be positive.
- Another helpful trick is to find the kinds of posts that perform the best on the host website. For example, if listicles are the most popular kind of blog, your detailed, expert tutorial might not be enjoyed by the audience. Evaluate whether you can craft a post accordingly; otherwise, look for another website that suits your writing style more. To facilitate you in this search, use websites and tools such as Digg, Buzzer, and Oktopus, all of which provide useful analytics and metrics regarding the performance of a post.
- You should also consider the level of expertise the blog owner requires. Some blog owners prefer certain types of individuals over others. Check whether other guest bloggers on your desired website are freelancers, business owners, or consultants. This is important for when you pitch your own post to the blog owner.
- As per guest blogger guidelines, guest posts should be pitched at the right time. This can be when a blog makes a mention of your website, blog, brand, or even yourself on their social media. Apart from this, if a blog lists your product or brand in their brand, you should immediately pitch them your post. Other good times, additionally, can be when a blog publishes a guest blog or advertises that it is open for guest posts.
- Make sure you include a call to action for comments towards the end of your post. This will prompt the readers to leave their opinions, which could start a discussion about your content and perhaps your business. This is a very simple but effective way to ensure people talk about your work or brand.
- Although this might seem slightly counterintuitive to you, minimize discussion of your business or blog in your post. Guest blogging is an implicit advertisement of your blog, so there is no need to make it explicit. In fact, the more you advertise your blog, the more readers will be put off by the content. Information related to your business and any advertisement should be left for the author’s biography. A guest blog is supposed to be informative and authoritative, not an advertisement. That being said, it is completely acceptable to include anecdotes or mentions from your blog occasionally – but try to avoid any blatant advertising of your products or services. If all of this seems slightly intimidating, you can use high-quality SEO services, which will prepare an example guest blog for you and detail “What is guest posting in SEO”.
- Another useful tip is to format your post the way posts on the host website are written. If they are divided into multiple sections and headings, follow that pattern. If there are occasional images or expert opinions included, try to incorporate those. This is because apart from the content, the audience also regularly visits a blog because of how easy and familiar the structure of the posts are. Since they are used to a specific format, it is recommended to craft your posts in the same manner.
- To get the benefits of guest blogging, remember to maintain a balance when it comes to the size of the host blog. You should aim for sites bigger than yours, as the goal is to get an influx of new visitors and potential customers. However, do not pitch to a website or blog so much larger and more well-established than yours that your request would be ignored.
- Lastly, do not spam multiple blog owners. Once you have shortlisted the blogs you want to pitch your guest blog to, customize each outreach email. Add the name of the owner and the website, along with the reason why your pitch should be considered. Try to include why and how the host blog could benefit from your guest blog.
Conclusion
Guest blogging is increasingly becoming an invaluable part of SEO marketing strategies. Not only does it generate high-quality leads and traffic along with building your website’s authority, but it also expands your network, aids social media growth, and increases brand awareness. However, to avail of these benefits, it is necessary to closely follow guest blog guidelines. While there are many details to pay attention to, it is imperative that you conduct your research well before making any guest blog pitch.
With how significant guest blogging has grown as of late in terms of SEO, any business can employ this strategy to enhance their website performance and increase their sales. For instance, even a casino can now utilize SEO casino services to professionally improve their content and SEO marketing strategy.
