Are you struggling to get more visitors to your website? It’s tough out there. These days, just creating excellent content isn’t enough. You need to go beyond your site and get your message in front of a bigger audience.
That’s where guest posting comes in. By publishing your articles on other sites, you can drive more traffic to your site and position yourself as a top player in your field. But you can’t just wing it and hope for the best. It would be best to have a solid guest posting strategy to make it work. This post will give tips and tricks to help you create a guest posting strategy to blow your content marketing out of the water.
Introduction: What is Guest Posting?
Writing an article for another blog, commonly known as guest posting, is one way to develop your brand, reach your target audience, increase traffic to your site, and create natural backlinks.
Although there are some exceptions, you will nearly always be writing for a site with a larger audience than your own when you write a guest post. Guest posts must typically be original content you have yet to write on your blog or anywhere else previously.
The act of writing and publishing one or more articles for other websites is known as guest blogging, and it is a form of content marketing. These articles have your byline and are frequently noted as “contributors” or “guest authors” by the editor of that website (or publication).
How Does Guest Blogging Benefit Your Business?
For any business, guest blogging offers several advantages. You can position yourself as an authority figure in your industry, network with other thought leaders, and reach a new audience by contributing your knowledge to other businesses websites.
Additionally, publishing guest posts on your blog will enable you to provide your audience with original viewpoints and new content. Including guest posts is a great way to keep readers interested. We’re all guilty of getting bored with the same old material and routines, not to mention the promotional boost from your guest bloggers sharing their blogs with their networks.
The Benefits of Using a Guest Posting Strategy for Your Brand
The following are some of the main advantages of guest blogging:
- Create a reputation for yourself as a thought leader in your industry.
- Expand your brand
- Increase your audience (social media subscribers, followers, etc.)
- Enhance SEO results
- Establish reputable backlinks
- Create connections and encourage new business ventures, such as job offers and co-marketing.
- Drive referral traffic
- Improve a company’s brand awareness.
- Get more leads, users, and even customers.
How Can It Help You Reach Your Business Goals?
Because it benefits both the business that contributes to the guest post (the writer) and the business that hosts the guest post on their website (the publisher), it works well as a marketing strategy. Instead of relying on begging or paying, you’re providing something of value in exchange for exposure. Here are the ways it can benefit your brand/business goals:
Building backlinks that benefit SEO
In exchange for your content, website owners who accept guest posts frequently let you include a backlink to your website. It is an excellent way to boost your backlink profile and raise your domain authority.
Expanding audience (and traffic)
Your brand will be exposed to a new, focused audience by guest posting. You’ll be able to demonstrate your expertise and introduce your business to people already interested in your sector.
Expanding your network
Suppose you or someone at your company has a byline on another publication. As a result, you’ll probably start receiving more requests to connect, and you never know where those connections might take you in terms of business opportunities or alliances.
Increasing your social media audience
In addition to tagging you when they share the article on their accounts, many publications will allow you to include links to your company’s social media accounts in your contributor profile or bio.
What Is the Best Way to Begin Guest Blogging?
Before you begin, clearly understand what you hope to gain from the guest blogging experience. Find industry blogs written by businesses that are not your competitors so you can provide readers with accurate insight.
It’s no secret that many spam surfers are on the web. It’s your job to ensure you’re not posting to these blogs or publishing spammy content on your blog.
Focus on finding writers within your niche and market from a respected business or background within your niche and market. Additionally, you should support what they are saying in their post and ensure that the message is consistent with the interests of your personas. Guest blogging can immediately and detrimentally affect your business if the content is inconsistent with your personas, brand voice, or business.
What Makes a Good Guest Blogging Opportunity & How to Find Them?
Find websites that allow guest posts in your niche once you have a place to keep your data organized. Depending on how your business is set up, you may search for a more extensive collection of websites or only concentrate on those that cater to your target market. Remember that a backlink from a relevant site has more weight than one from an irrelevant site.
The backlinks of your rivals can also be reverse-engineered. You can get a list of all the websites that link back to your competitor’s website by entering the URL into tools like the free backlink checker on Ahrefs.
Make sure you know the difference between do-follow and no-follow links, then find out which type of link the publication accepts (you can look at past guest posts on their website to learn this). Although they shouldn’t be a deal-breaker, no-follows are less valuable than do-follows.
5 Tips for Crafting an Effective Guest Posting Strategy
Set specific, achievable goals.
Setting attainable and measurable goals is the first step to starting a successful guest blogging process.
These objectives may be connected to your company’s success (like acquiring more leads or customers) or the success of your website (like increasing search visibility or referral traffic).
Whatever your objective, make sure it is SMART. Choosing topics to write about, blogs to publish on, how frequently to write, and other factors become much simpler when you have a clear goal. Most importantly, a SMART goal will tell you if this tactic suits your business and how much you should invest.
Pick subjects that will advance your business objectives.
Guest bloggers frequently fall short because they concentrate too much on the publications rather than the content. Although that is a great way to guarantee publication, the objectives of the publishers are served rather than your own.
You should create a successful guest blogging program by selecting topics that support your ultimate goal: referral traffic, SEO performance, leads, or clients, whether you’re an experienced blogger or just learning how to start a blog.
Find reputable guest blogging sites.
Now that you’ve organized your content ideas, it’s time to look for pertinent publications and guest blogging platforms.
Here are some tips for finding guest blogging opportunities and building your list:
- Make a list of the websites you want to target first. Use Google search to look for lists of top websites that accept guest posts.
- Check your competitors’ backlinks.
- Ensure you only pitch blogs with high domain authority and thorough editorial processes.
Draft your guest blog post.
Even if your pitch is accepted, you must function at the top of your game to be published. Additionally, you want to ensure that anyone who reads your article is impressed and curious to learn more about your company if it is accepted for publication.
Here are crucial pointers for writing guest posts, whether you’re an experienced writer or just getting started:
- Follow guidelines. The editor may send you a copy of the writing guidelines, or they may be located on a page on their website. Do what they advise to increase your chances of publication.
- Replicate their style. Read their blog posts and become accustomed to how they write because you should always adhere to the format and style of the guest website. The editor will be more likely to accept an article if there isn’t much work involved in getting it published.
- Write something unique. Refrain from regurgitating the same information in every post on the topic. Instead, it would be best to offer a unique angle or a more comprehensive guide, including a personal story, quotes, or stories from friends and influencers, to make your post personable and relatable or add templates the readers can follow.
- Write compelling, lengthy content (at least 1,000 words), and divide it into manageable paragraphs.
- Put in internal links. It demonstrates that you are a thoughtful writer by including internal links to their blog, which decreases the likelihood that they will take down any links to your site.
- Add links to your website. Ensure that the links you include are relevant to the topic of the guest post. Links to your home page, sales pages, affiliate links, and other pages that don’t provide the reader with any value should be avoided. Those will be eliminated, and you might have nothing left over.
- Grammar and spelling check. A typo isn’t a big deal, but it can create a lack of trust in an editor. You can use free writing tools like the Hemingway App and Grammarly.
- Embrace visuals. Use your designs or unique images and graphs to increase the content’s linkability (Canva is an excellent tool for beginning designers). Include original screenshots rather than value-less generic stock photos. Although the editor might decide not to use these images, it demonstrates your desire to provide the reader with the most helpful content.
- Add your bylines and explain what makes you an expert on that topic, then follow through with a C.T.A. leading up to your blog or content.
If you’ve picked a passionate topic and have the expertise, you must set time aside and start typing.
Hiring an editor to review your draft is acceptable if you’re uncomfortable with your writing. I’d highly recommend it, even for experienced writers. It’s always good to have fresh eyes to pick your article apart and make suggestions.
Remember to include your author information when sending your final draft to the editor: your full name, a brief bio, links to your social media accounts so readers can connect with you, a headshot, and your website. You can now hit “send” to submit your guest post to the editor.
Track your posts’ activity and results over time.
Tracking your results is the last but most crucial step in creating an effective guest posting strategy.
You should continually evaluate your progress concerning where you were at the start of the process.
You can use various SEO tools to track different metrics depending on your objectives. Organic traffic performance, changes in the number of backlinks, referring domains, and even the keywords the website ranks for on Google can all be monitored using a tool like Ahrefs.
Guest Blogging SEO
It’s crucial to talk about the SEO component of guest blogging. According to many digital marketing experts, the best way to develop a backlink profile is through guest blogging (or posting).
Because websites that accept guest posts typically permit authors to link back to their content or resources as long as it makes sense for the reader, guest blogging is a well-known SEO strategy. The link is typically in the article’s body or the author’s bio.
Don’t do too much guest blogging to get too many backlinks. You will probably harm your SEO performance and reputation if you ignore content quality and user experience. You’ll get better results if you write for your readers’ education and entertainment. Here are some top tools you can use to monitor your guest blogging metrics and performances:
- BuzzStream
- Respona
- BuzzSumo
- RocketReach
- SurferSEO
- Ahrefs
- SEMRush
- SimilarWeb
- Google Analytics
- HubSpot CRM
Tips for Guest Posting Success
Once you get the gig, here are ten tips to help you write an excellent guest post that will get you invited back.
Write for the readership.
Although I’ve said it before, it bears repeating: remember your intended audience when writing to a blogger. They will pay attention to you when your content offers value to the blog owner’s audience (and does so with a much more significant impact).
Comply with Their Brand
Each author has a unique brand. Your company’s brand communicates to customers, “Here’s what I have to offer, and here’s how it can help you.”
Knowing your audience, message, and areas of expertise—all the elements that went into your outreach message—will help you build the strongest brand possible.
Each blogger has their brand, just like every author does. They approach ideas with a particular tone, perspective, and manner. They specialize in a particular field and cater to a specific audience.
The most effective guest posts combine the author’s and the blogger’s brands. In other words, your content ought to contribute to the growth of your message.
The tone of your post should match that of the blog. Refrain from interrupting the conversation with a dense academic post if the site is written from a light-hearted, humorous perspective.
Adapt to their blog’s format.
Your guest posts should follow the blog’s standard format. Follow their instructions carefully. Sometimes, the site owners will give you explicit guest posting guidelines. Make sure to divide your article into three parts, keep it under 1,000 words, and add five internal links. Here is a guide on how to enter the data into WordPress, etc.
As a guest poster, you aim to satisfy the audience’s needs, the blogger, and yourself. So, you should pay attention when the blogger, an authority on their readership, advises you on what to do and what to evade doing.
Additionally, you should be aware of any unwritten rules. For instance, every blog has a distinct writing style. Although you don’t have to copy it, blend in as much as possible.
Provide Actionable Content
Don’t just give readers a 12,000-foot view of your topic. Give them something accurate and useful. After reading the article, give them something they can use to continue their lives.
Every time they employ your strategies to attract a new client, compose a persuasive email, or do anything else you instruct them to do, you’ll come to mind first.
They’re much more likely to seek and follow you if you remind them how your knowledge can change their lives.
It’s Not About You
Although you are writing guest posts for publicity purposes, remember that the best form of publicity you can obtain is by giving readers something of value. Your audience will want to connect with you more as you offer more value.
Nobody wants to read articles that read like spam or are filled with self-promotion. A blatant sales pitch will always turn people off.
Include a Killer Byline and C.T.A. (Call to action)
Make sure you nail your call to action (C.T.A.) because you only have one chance to explain what you stand for. Spend some time crafting a catchy byline.
Your byline includes two components: the choicest tidbit about who you are and where readers can find out more (your C.T.A.). Your C.T.A. should be the best place readers can reach you.
If I’ve nailed the first impression, what do I want my second impression to be? That’s where your C.T.A. link leads. Are you on Twitter? Link there. Do you have a great website?
How to Evaluate the Performance of Your Guest Blogging Initiatives
How frequently can you include a link to your blog in a guest blog post?
There isn’t a set number of links you must include in your content, but if your guest blog post is between 2,000 and 3,000 words, 2 to 4 links should be about right.
Also, include links to reputable blogs and publications in your niche. If you only link to your content, it will appear self-serving (and even if the host blogger keeps all of your links, it might not seem very objective to readers).
Conclusion
Remember, you are a guest poster, not a ghostwriter. The blogger chose you over all possible guest posters because you share a unique solution, expertise, or story.
While trying to blend in, avoid losing who you are. The key to writing engaging guest posts is authenticity.
