Guest posting is a fantastic link building strategy that helps to increase your website’s reputation and organic rankings.
Although large-scale guest blogging with exact-match anchors is not recommended for link building, it is still a great strategy if done in moderation and with branded or natural anchors.
Apart from building links to your website, there are several other advantages of guest posting, which are beneficial from an overall brand perspective.
In this article, I will tell you why guest posting is considered an effective SEO strategy and why companies still prefer to leverage this technique to elevate their marketing efforts.
Is Guest Posting Still Effective?
Yes, guest posting is effective if done properly. However, guest blogging should not be done solely for link acquisition. In recent years, Google and other search engines have become more sophisticated in detecting manipulative link building practices, which include guest posting.
In its link scheme guidelines, Google warns that large-scale guest posting with optimized anchor text can harm both the publishing and the linked site.
Guest blogging is an effective strategy for branding because it brings in referral traffic, helps you network with people relevant to your industry, and also assists in your link building efforts.
Hence, you should not consider guest posting as a solo link building tactic because there are numerous other advantages that make guest blogging an invaluable marketing technique.
Benefits of Guest Posting
Guest blogging is a cost-effective marketing strategy. It allows you to leverage the audience and reach of established websites without significant financial investments. As a result, you can maximize your content's impact without stretching your marketing budget too far.
Here are the top benefits of guest posting:
Get Exposure to Another Audience
Guest posting allows you to tap into an audience that may not be familiar with your brand or website. This exposure can lead to increased visibility and brand awareness among a new group of potential customers or readers.
By selecting relevant websites for guest posting, you can ensure that your content reaches a highly targeted audience interested in your industry or niche.
This targeted approach can result in more engaged readers, leading to better conversion rates.
Build Links
When you write a guest post for another website, it often includes contextual links within the body of the article. These links naturally point to relevant content on your website, adding value to the reader's experience.
Contextual links having natural anchors within well-written, informative guest posts can be highly effective for SEO.
Building a diverse backlink profile helps to keep your site safe from any search engine penalties. Guest posting allows you to acquire links from different sources, websites, and industries, adding variety to your backlink profile and making it appear more natural to search engines.
Moreover, high-quality guest posts tend to attract natural backlinks. When your guest post provides valuable and authoritative information, other websites may link to it as a source, which adds to the link equity of your own website.
Improve Domain Authority
When you write guest posts on websites within your niche or industry, you reinforce your website's relevance and authority within that field. Search engines recognize these topical connections, and over time, your website is perceived as an authoritative resource within your niche, contributing to higher domain authority.
Guest posts having dofollow backlinks pass link equity from the publishing domain to the linked domain, which directly increases the authority of your website.
Image source: SEOBuddy.com
Moreover, publishing high-quality guest posts on reputable websites enhances your website's credibility and trustworthiness. As your content gets associated with trustworthy sources, search engines recognize your website as a credible entity, leading to an improvement in domain authority.
Generate Leads
When you publish your content on sites related to your industry, your prospects will read them, which could lead to them following you or reading more about your services.
Some readers might be interested in your service offerings or products, which can lead to new sales.
Hence, guest blogging is an excellent way to increase your brand visibility among potential customers, resulting in more qualified leads for your business.
Improve Search Engine Rankings
Guest posting can significantly contribute to improving your search engine rankings. When you publish guest posts on authoritative websites, you earn high-quality backlinks, which are a crucial ranking factor for search engines.
Image source: VictoriousSEO
These backlinks signal to search engines that your website is valuable and trustworthy, leading to better search visibility and improved rankings for your target keywords.
Increases Referral Traffic
Another significant advantage of guest blogging is an increase in referral traffic.
When you regularly guest blog on different high-traffic websites for several months, you will gradually see an increase in referral traffic to your domain.
This happens when quality guest posts begin to rank organically in search engines. Since these guest posts have links pointing to your domain, people click on them and visit your site.
Not only does this extra inflow of relevant visitors boost your website's traffic metrics, but it also creates the potential for converting them into loyal subscribers, customers, or advocates. The initial engagement and impression made through your guest post lay the foundation for building lasting relationships and fostering brand loyalty.
Reach Ideal Buyers
By targeting specific websites that have established themselves as trusted sources of information within your niche, you tap into an existing audience that is already interested in the topics you cover.
These websites already have a loyal following of readers, who regularly visit their platforms seeking valuable and relevant content. When your guest post is published on such reputable websites, it benefits from the authority associated with those platforms.
Improves Credibility
Being published on respected and authoritative websites through guest posting enhances your credibility and authority in your industry.
When potential customers see that you are featured as a guest author on reputable industry-specific publications, it instils trust and confidence in your brand, making them more likely to consider your products or services.
How to Write Effective Guest Posts
Writing effective guest posts requires careful planning, research, and attention to detail. Here are some steps to help you write guest posts that resonate with the audience and provide value to the publishing website:
Keep Track of All the Data
Give your Google Sheet a relevant name, such as "Guest Posting Data" or "Guest Post Tracker."
Set up columns to organize your guest posting data. You should have the following columns in your guest posting sheet:
- Website Name: The name of the website where you plan to submit the guest post.
- Website URL: The URL of the website.
- Domain Authority: The domain authority (DA) of the website to ensure you are submitting guest posts on high-quality sites.
- Organic Traffic: The total organic traffic the website gets because high-traffic websites are more valuable.
- Contact Name: Name of the contact person or editor for guest post submissions.
- Contact Email: Email address of the contact person.
- Status: The status of your submission (e.g., Pending, Accepted, Rejected).
- URL of Guest Post: The URL of the published guest post.
As shown in the above image, start entering your guest posting data into the corresponding columns. Input the information for each website where you plan to submit guest posts.
Research Relevant Guest Posting Opportunities
Utilize search engines like Google, Bing, or Yahoo to find websites that accept guest posts in your niche. Here are some powerful search queries to find good guest post opportunities:
- Your keyword + "write for us"
- Your keyword + "submit a guest post"
- Your keyword + "guest post guidelines"
- Your keyword + "guest post opportunities"
- Your keyword + "contribute an article"
- Your keyword + "become a contributor"
- Your keyword + "submit content"
- Your keyword + "guest post by"
Write for Their Audience
Before you start writing, thoroughly research the guest blogging website's content, style, and audience. Understand the topics they cover, their writing tone, and the preferences of their readers. Tailor your guest post to align with their existing content to increase the chances of acceptance.
Choose a Relevant Topic
Select a topic that is relevant to both your expertise and the guest blogging website's audience. Be sure to provide your own unique take on the topic to make it better than the ones already ranking on Google for that topic.
You can also share some latest stats, case studies, or personal experiences to increase the level of engagement in your article.
Provide Value
Focus on providing value to the readers. Offer actionable tips, insights, or solutions to their problems. The more valuable and practical your content, the more likely it is to be shared and appreciated.
Include Data and Examples
Backup your points with data, statistics, and real-life examples to add credibility to your guest post. Supporting your arguments with evidence makes your content more persuasive and authoritative.
While researching, include the newest statistics, since outdated numbers do not attract audiences and people are always looking for recent studies.
Use Relevant Internal Links
Incorporate relevant and helpful links to other resources, both from the publishing website and external sources. Linking to reputable sources enhances your credibility and benefits the reader by providing additional information.
Webmasters love to accept guest posts that have 2-3 internal links pointing to different pages on their own website. Hence, apart from adding your own website’s link, make sure to add internal links to the site you are writing for.
Include Contextually Relevant Links to Your Own Website
Including contextually relevant links to your website within your guest post is an essential aspect of effective guest posting.
Ensure that the contextual links you add in your guest post add value for the reader and should not look forced.
While adding a contextually relevant link is beneficial, avoid overloading your guest post with excessive links, 1-2 links is the ideal approach to follow.
Follow Their Guest Post Guidelines
If the guest blogging website has specific guest posting guidelines, make sure to follow them meticulously. Ignoring guidelines may lead to your guest post being rejected.
Each website has its unique style, tone, and formatting preferences. By following the guidelines, you ensure that your guest post aligns with the host website's content and maintains a consistent reading experience for their audience.
Add Relevant Images
Add engaging and relevant images to improve the user experience and readability. People are more likely to engage with an article having images compared to one that doesn’t have any.
Add descriptive captions to your images to provide context and complement the surrounding text. Captions are often read even if readers skim through the article.
If possible, include infographics, charts, or graphs to present data or complex information visually. Visual representations can make your content more digestible and shareable.
Include an Author Bio
An author bio is an essential element of a guest post. It allows you to introduce yourself to the host website's audience and provides an opportunity to build your credibility and authority.
You can share a brief overview of your achievements or any notable publications. Incorporate a personal touch to make a connection with the readers.
If the guest post website allows it, you should also include a professional profile picture in your author bio. A photo adds a human touch and helps readers connect with the author. For example, here is a guest author bio on Relevance.com:
Send Your Article For Review
The final step in guest blogging is sending your article to the editorial team for its review. The editors will check your content for accuracy and relevance. They can send back the content if there are any corrections or revisions required. If no changes are needed, they will provide a date for article publishing.
You should wait patiently for at least a week before you expect a response after submitting your article. If no response is received, you can politely follow up after a week or two.
Conclusion
Guest posting offers some fantastic benefits, and you should leverage them to improve the reach and authority of your business website.
Remember, high-quality guest posting takes time. So, ensure to follow the guidelines discussed in this article to do effective guest blogging that helps you acquire new customers on a consistent basis.
