What is Guest Blogging?
Guest Blogging is one of the best things a blogger can do to build a personal brand for himself.
When you write a blog post for some other blogs other than yours, and in exchange, you’ll get an author bio with a link pointing to your blog.
Guest blogging is all about relationship building. These relationships need to be mutually rewarding and continually grow to work out.
It’s also helping the other blogger since you’re providing quality content and encouraging others to visit their blog.
Guest blogging can be a valuable asset in your toolkit, whether you’re a blogger, writer, podcaster, or small business owner.
It’ll help you gain new followers in your niche or build you as a thought leader if you publish on the right blogs.
Guest blogging is a content marketing strategy. It’s designed to leverage the high traffic of popular websites to boost the traffic to your own website. It may generally involve:-
- You can pitch your blog post ideas to a popular website that attracts the same audience you want to target.
- You can craft a relevant and engaging piece of content that will hopefully get accepted and published on that website.
- You can recommend readers to visit a landing page on your own website using an author bio at the end of your post.
- You can capture new visitors with an appealing lead magnet and turn them into subscribers with the ultimate goal of turning them into customers.
Guest blogging is a method made use of by blog writers to increase blog traffic. The blog writers compose articles to be published on other blogs.
# Publish Guest Posts on Other Blogs – A blogger can increase the reach and exposure of your blog. You can enhance your knowledge by writing posts and publishing them on other blogs.
A guest post is not necessarily promotional object. It can be on any topic which is interesting for the blog readers.
You can include a link or reference to your blog at the end of the guest post to drive traffic and users to your website/blog.
# Allow Guest Blogging on Your Blog – You can allow bloggers to guest post on your blog. You’ll no need to update your blog all the times when you’ll have content or posts from other bloggers.
The post on your blog should be interesting for your readers, not only a promotion. The guest blogger can add a link at the end of the guest post to drive traffic and readers to their website.
Why Guest Blogging –
Guest blogging is a huge opportunity to get backlinks from other websites to your website. These links stay for a very long time unlike directories link or reciprocal link which are updated and cleaned regularly.
Guest blogging will help to drive traffic and users to your blog along with quality backlinks. The active blogger should use guest blogging to promote the products/services.
It gets quality backlinks which help improve your website rank in search engines. It’s also good for branding.
Guest blogging may be a slow process, but it’ll help in your SEO efforts. Your guest posts should be related to your website’s blog where you get your post published.
Guest blogging provides a ton of credibility for your brand, and build awareness. Guest blogging drives traffic to your website and gets more readers to your blog.
The Benefits of Guest Blogging –
Guest blogging is a great place for all parties involved. Blog owners win because they get excellent and free content for their website. Bloggers always win because they get more links and subscribers on their blog.
The benefits of guest blogging are several as:-
# Increased Traffic – Guest blogging isn’t only a way to get one fundamental of the weblinks, but also another fundamental i.e. traffic.
An important aspect of guest blogging is the increase in traffic to your website. An increase in website traffic means more people are coming to you to learn about your products/services.
You should write a guest post for a high DA website and you also share that blog content on social media. Then it’ll result in more organic website traffic.
You should guest post in relevant places across the internet with a link back to your website and readers will click-through to get more from you.
# Followers – Some blogs accept guest posts allow customizing author bio with links back to your website and social media handles. It encourages readers to click-through to learn more.
# Targeted Audience – You get exposed to new people who are part of a relevant audience when you write a guest blog on high DA website in your niche.
Your audience will appreciate seeing a new perspective in addition to the topics that you write about. Your audience wants different perspectives on the same topics for great content.
# Authority – Many guest bloggers are out to build authority. It means that they want their name to be seen by a lot of people in their niche.
Guest blogging is a form of online marketing to get others to trust your brand. You can prove yourself a credible source of information.
Guest blogging is a big opportunity to build your authority as an expert in your field.
You can post on trustworthy guest blogs and others will follow you via informative content which reveals your niche expertise. It’ll demonstrate authority by showing your expertise in an area.
# Subscribers – Readers of a blog are more important than anything else. Subscribers are the life and soul of a great blog.
If you can get in front of an audience on another website, then you can get a subscriber to your feed. Guest blogging exposes your writing skills to the other blog’s subscribers.
When you share your post to your own followers, you expose them to another website. It increases the chances of subscription conversions for both.
# Generate Leads – You can target both audiences and hopefully convert a percentage into leads. You’ll connect to like-minded individuals by exposing yourself to new members of your target audience.
Visitors that read your blog post can turn into new leads for your business. The visitors that are exposed to your guest blog post might be impressed with your knowledge and reach out to you for more information.
Your target audience will be interested in what you’ve to offer which can help you convert readers to sales. A wider audience and more subscriptions mean more leads will pass to your sales team.
# Backlinks – Guest blogging can help with SEO through the backlinks which will point to your website when your articles are published. Building links are an important SEO ranking factor.
The backlinks that are being built as part of the guest blogging process are extremely beneficial for your SEO. It’ll help your website’s rankings in the long-term.
The backlinks from high DA websites are crucial which improve your website’s position on SERPs. It’s the main purpose for guest blogging to submit posts to allow do-follow links.
Guest blogging is a fairly way to get custom anchor-text, high-quality one-way backlinks to your website.
#14 Keys to Writing Great Guest Blogging Content –
It’s depending on your knowledge and the blog where you want to publish the guest post. There are a few tips to follow:-
# Find the Websites – If you’re going to publish a guest blog on other websites in your niche to enjoy some of the benefits. Then you need to find websites to write for.
There have a few quite tactics for helping with this process:-
##### Google Search – You can do a Google search of websites that accept guest blogging opportunities. You can search using your “Target keyword” + “search value parameter” to narrow down it.
You can search queries about interest area in writing posts as:- “Digital marketing” + “write for us”, “Digital marketing” + “guest post opportunities”, “Digital marketing” + “contributor guidelines”, “Digital marketing” + “submit a guest post”, “Digital marketing” + “be a guest blogger”
##### Contact Authors – Every blogger should know at least 10 other writers in their community. You can get in touch with the influencers in your niche and ask for your free content.
# Right Blog – If you want to write a perfect blog post, you need to know who you’re writing it for. It’s talking about the people who visit that particular website.
The failure to identify and develop a relationship with the blogs and websites market will ultimately reduce the impact.
The success of your guest posts depends basically on the blogs you choose to target:-
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- The popularity of the blog among your target audience
- The average level of engagement on its content
- The domain authority of the blog
- The editorial standard of the blog. If a blog publishes promotional content only and links to dubious websites, then good to stay away from it.
# Right Topic – You’ve to keep up with both industry news and the conversations happening among Internet users to explore current trends.
Once you’ve identified websites to guest post, the next step is selecting the right topic. You should never recycle what others have written about multiple times before.
You can offer new insights and different interpretations to add your own flavor. You need something valuable:-
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- Appeals to the publisher
- Works for your business
- Provides value to the reader
# Expertise – You should build your credibility and boost your status by focussing on your knowledge subject. Guest blogging is a chance to establish your authority and increase your impact.
You don’t have to give away every detail behind your process or way of thinking. But you can provide a window into your world.
Each guest posting opportunity presents a challenge to find the right balance of story, data, and examples. You’ll need to display expertise through a combination which depending on your audience:-
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- Story (how you did it)
- Data (proof)
- Example (the final product)
# Relevant Keyword – Most guest post blogger focus on taking traffic by doing some keyword research and implement the chosen keyword.
You can easily research keyword in Google Trends through appropriate keywords for the blog. Google Alerts tool can keep you up to date with the latest trends and the hottest topics.
It’ll impress the blog owner. You’ll find a more natural inclusion of the desired keyword occurs if you try hard to use a focus keyword.
You can use your focus keyword while writing:-
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- Post title
- First paragraph
- Body copy (a couple of times)
- Meta description (it’s not required in a guest post)
# Headlines – You should make an amazing headline out of your keyword. Your title should attract your readers and giving them a reason to read further. A common blogging mistake is creating a quality post with indifferent titles.
# Read the Guidelines – You must read the guidelines set by the blogger very carefully. They can reject your post if you ignore the guidelines.
Your guest post has the best chance of being accepted if it obeys the rules to all the guidelines.
The guidelines generally include the rules about:-
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- Images (Includes acceptable sources)
- Author biography and headshot
- How many links you’re permitted to include in the post
- Word count
- Tone, style, and the level of formality
# Use Quotes and Case Studies – Sharing the results of your research or through case studies that give fresh insights is a good idea.
You should verify your arguments with scientific studies or authority references and statistics. You should always prove your facts.
# Search Engine Friendly Structure – Google prefers a certain structure for blog posts. The best practices are as follow:-
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- Don’t use H1 header tags except for the post title
- Use short, clear paragraphs
- Bullet point for clarity when applicable
- Number your instructions or steps
# Backlinks – You should never forget to link to other authoritative websites while putting a backlink to your own website.
It’s also best practice to include an internal link which is a link to another blog post or page on the website.
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- Link to trustworthy and established sources in your niche
- Link to your previous guest posts
- Link to your website
# Niche Markets – You should get a list of blogs you’re your potential customers read, know, and respect perfect for pitching.
We play in a room that is all about content marketing and there’s a lot of posts and websites. Our room is extremely competitive when it comes to guest blogging.
If you’re in a niche market, you have a strong possibility for guest posting to getting a broader reach.
# Use Social Media – You can social media networks like Facebook, Twitter to search for guest blogging opportunities. You can promote your content here after publication.
You can try executing a Twitter search for the term like #guestblog, #guestpost, #bloggerswanted, #bloggersrequired.
The results will include tweets from contributors sharing their published guest blogs. Twitter has become a hub to find opportunities related to a variety of fields from tourism, food, fashion, etc.
You can try following the trending hashtags and land yourself some great opportunities.
# Look at Your Competitors – You can also look at where your competitors are guest posting. You can find guest blogging opportunities by checking where authors in your niche have already contributed.
If you’re not familiar with influencers and bloggers in your niche, you can search on Google ‘top <your niche> bloggers’ or look through top blogs and check who write guest posts for them.
You can look at their backlinks if you use any SEO tool. You can also apply Google search strings like “author name” + “guest post”.
You can also search on Google using footprints like ‘guest post by <influencer name>’ and check a list of results.
You can perform the same process using different names in your industry and make a list of potential opportunities for further outreach.
You can also keep a list of guest blogging websites or directories for easy references. Here you can find guest blog opportunities and keep track of your niche area.
# Use Author Bio – Popular blogs usually allow 2-3 line author bio. It should briefly describe you as professional and contains a backlink to your website.
It also uses this opportunity to impress the editor. You should use the language that vibrates your target audience and describes you as a potential solution to their problems.
You can keep your bio short and to the point with a clear call-to-action. You can learn from the top bloggers in your niche and see how they describe themselves in the author bio section of their posts.
What to Do After Guest Blog is Published –
Once your guest post is published. You’re not done, because you need to be a good guest blogger by:-
# Promote Your Blog – You should share a guest post with your audience who already follows you. The more successful your post is, the more likely you’re to be invited to guest post to the website again.
You should never burden the blog owner with doing all promotion of your post. You can use all your marketing channels to show off your new publication.
You can post in on social channels along within your weekly newsletter, etc. You can promote your guest post through some ways as:-
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- You can share it with your email list subscribers. Don’t worry about sending visitors to an external website. It’s your own post, and will only strengthen your reputation with your readers.
- You can share it on Twitter, Facebook and repeatedly share it in different time zones.
# Be Responsive – You should be replied to comments and mentions. Because it’s a way to create connections with the new audience.
It’s always great to provoke a discussion. You should engage with people sharing their thoughts on the common section.
It’ll be difficult to track new comments on all your great posts, but try to be active at least the first week after publishing.
Conclusion – Guest blogging is win-win for both the host blogger and the guest blogger. But it’s a complicated process that requires a lot of effort and dedication. Guest blogging is a proven SEO tactic when done correctly and benefits everyone involved.