According to statistics, 60% of blogs create guest posts once or more per month.
Have you heard the term guest posting, but aren't quite sure what it is, how it's done, or what it's for?
If so, you're in the right place, because we're about to share with you everything you need to know about guest posting.
Guest posts are a powerful way to boost your SEO, build brand awareness, and more. But to be successful at guest posting, there are a few things you need to know.
Back in the day, guest posting was a pillar SEO and traffic-building technique. Thanks to some shady practices around guest posting, it has gotten a bad rap over the years.
Fortunately, if you do it the right way, you can still enjoy all of the benefits that guest posting offers.
Curious to know how guest posting works and how it can boost your brand? Keep reading.
So first things first, what is guest posting?
If you have heard the term but haven't the foggiest as to what it entails, guest posting is the practice of posting blog content on websites other than your own, in exchange for either a by-line and/or link to your site.
The advantage to the site that publishes the post is they get free content. The advantage to your site is you gain a backlink as well as exposure.
So for instance, if I own a company that sells a organic stain remover, and you have a blog site aimed at organic living, I could approach you and offer a free piece of content talking about chemical-free cleaning, in exchange for a discreet link to my product.
Guest posting has been around for sometime, however recently it has come under increased scrutiny from Google. While legitimate, quality guest posting is still highly beneficial, Google does not appreciating black hat SEO style guest posting. This is essentially when marketers spin or craft very low quality content for guest posts, simply to get a link.
They in turn pay the publishing site to accept these guest posts. This results in low quality content, and does not represent a genuine connection between sites.
Now that we know what guest posting is, let's take a look at why it's still an effective SEO strategy.
Firstly, guest posting garners backlinks to your site. High-quality backlinks from authoritative sites are a strong signal to Google that your content is worth ranking.
Research by Backlinko revealed that the number of domains pointing to a page had the highest correlation to Google rankings.
If done properly, every guest blog post you create has the potential to win you yet another powerful backlink.
According to another traffic study by Ahrefs, 63.3% of sites don't have any backlinks, and 26.29% only have three or less.
What this shows is that if you can successfully establish quality backlinks, you can differentiate yourself from a large majority of sites.
However, backlinks aren't the only thing that guest posts bring. If well executed, guest posts can also have a number of other benefits. One of these is brand exposure.
If you regularly publish a guest blog post on well ranked sites, you will expose your brand and your presence to a wider audience. Besides this, if you create compelling, informative, and valuable content for guest posting, this will also position you as an authority in your niche.
Lastly, guest posting also nets you traffic. If your link appears on a well ranking site that receives a decent amount of visitors, and it's something they might be interested in, chances are you're going to win a certain amount of traffic from that.
Guest posting is a powerful strategy to combine with SEO copywriting. However, you need to ensure that it's done right. Otherwise your efforts and resources will be wasted.
Here are a few tips for ensuring that your guest posts effectively work to boost your page rank, exposure, traffic, and authority.
When looking for potential publishers for guest posts, it's essential that you pick publishers who will provide you with a valuable backlink.
If you pitch a low grade site that participates in black hat techniques, this is not going to transfer much authority to your domain.
Of course, on some occasions you might be willing to guest post for a small site that you believe has good potential. However, generally you should aim to do guest blogging with sites which have a domain authority of 30-40 if you are getting started.
Once your brand and presence matures, you should then target sites with a domain authority of 40 and above.
If you want to land guest posting opportunities on quality sites that rank highly, then you should consider personalizing your pitches. These sites often get multiple guest post pitches per day. The pitches that stand out are bound to be the ones that are personalized to their site and niche.
If you can find out the editor's name, even better.
Once you have sourced some quality sites to submit guest posts to, the next step is to craft the content. Always make sure that any guest post content from you has highly clickable titles.
If you submit posts with uncompelling titles, this means your post won't get as much traction. This reduces its impact, and means you get less traffic, less exposure, etc. Spending a little extra time on the titles is a cheap and easy way to maximize your guest posting strategy.
And lastly, create outstanding content. When it comes to mastering content marketing, high-quality content always comes out on top.
Your guest posts should be clear, informative, well-written, and maybe even humorous. Make sure that they contain images, internal links, source links, and a killer intro.
Strong intros that hook readers are essential for retaining them until they get to your link.
Also make sure your sentences scannable, include bullet points where possible, and break up your text with headers.
Although guest posting has gotten a bad rap in the past, there's no denying that, if done right, guest posts can increase your backlinks, reach, and online authority.
Would you like to incorporate guest posts into your content marketing strategy? If so, take a look at our guest post market place where you can access turnkey guest post services.
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