Writing guest posts is one of the best ways to attract a lot of traffic to your website. I write guest posts on several blogs and these always attract a lot of interested readers to my website.
Guest posting is also a great way to earn high-quality backlinks , which will help your SEO efforts.
What is guest blogging and its benefits?
Guest blogging (also known as guest posting) is a marketing technique well known to bloggers and businesses alike, where the author must find other websites where they can contribute as a guest author.
Here are the benefits of guest blogging:
Backlinks:
2022 Update: Guest blogging is no longer a valid way to earn backlinks. Recently, a Google spokesperson announced that you should mark all links published through guest posts as “Nofollow” or “rel=sponsored”.
The problematic part is the links — if you provide content/links then those links should not pass signals and should have rel-sponsored/rel-nofollow attached. It’s okay to think of it as a way to reach a wider audience.
— 🐄 John 🐄 (@JohnMu) June 11, 2020
Guest posting used to be one of the most effective ways to generate inbound links to your website. These links can be earned in the author profile or in the articles. Normally, it is difficult or almost impossible to build such links to your product pages (if you are in the e-commerce field), but it is easy to build links to your resource pages, case studies, or even simple blog articles through guest posting.
Brand and authority:
By publishing guest posts for your personal brand or even your business, you will build authority and increase brand awareness. The key here is to get your guest posts published on authoritative blogs in your niche. Even if you are completely unknown in your industry, publishing a few guest posts on highly relevant sites can help you get known by the right audience.
More business and quality traffic:
Since your guest posts will link to your own resources, you are more likely to get high-quality, converting traffic. If you dig deeper into your analytics, you’ll notice that referral traffic from related sites usually spends longer on average and has a high conversion rate. In the case of guest blogging, you are taking a proactive approach to getting similar referral traffic. You can always develop a guest blogging content strategy that introduces your products/services, which will increase awareness and therefore improve your overall conversion rate.
The first thing to do before you start guest posting:
What is your purpose as a guest blogger?
At this stage, it is important to define your goals upfront.
Defining this well will make life much easier for you or anyone who guest posts on your behalf. Here are some well-known reasons for guest posting:
- Build links to your website
- Establish authority
- Direct traffic to specific landing pages on your website
- Grow your email list
If your purpose is to build links, then it’s a good idea to prepare an Excel sheet with links pointing to your website pages + anchor text. As you grow in the guest blogging game, these steps will help you speed up the process.
Criteria for selecting websites for guest posting:
Now you’ve decided to start guest posting.
Should you randomly select a few blogs in your niche?
No!
This is a mistake most newbies make, wasting their time, money, and energy. In this guide, you will learn all the effective and actionable steps you should follow.
To make your guest posting effective, you should carefully select high-quality, relevant guest blogging sites. The best way to get started is to create an Excel sheet and list the blogs/sites you are considering. Now, analyze these target sites based on the metrics listed below:
Similar Niche/Topic Relevance:
Your guest post should be published on similar niche sites, otherwise it will not be effective from an SEO or even traffic perspective.
Domain Authority:
This is Moz's domain ranking mechanism, which ranks web pages on a scale of 1-100. You should aim for a 40+ domain authority. You can read about domain authority here .
transportation:
Traffic growth is another key indicator of whether the target website is healthy and growing. Make sure the target website is updating or publishing new content, otherwise there is little point in guest posting.
If your goal in guest posting is to build authority and fame, make sure the brand provides author bios. Without this, you only get backlinks but not the branding you want. However, sometimes there are exceptions, when you are featured on a highly authoritative website that does not provide author bios but uses your name.
No link farm:
A quick look at the last 5-10 posts on a target website will tell you whether these blogs are set up for guest posting or offer quality content. Many blogs accept guest posts for a fee and do not weed out bad links. Investing energy in such sites is useless in the long run and you should avoid doing so.
The above checklist will help you focus on high-quality websites.
How to find guest blogging opportunities?
Okay, now it’s time to find a list of websites where you can guest post. Here are a few ways you can find such blogs:
Use Google search operators:
To find guest posting opportunities, you can use these search operators.
Keyword "submit guest post"
Keyword "guest post"
Keyword "guest post"
Keyword "accept guest posts"
Keyword "special writer"
Keyword "What do you want to write"
Keyword "This article was written by"
Keyword "contributor guide"
Here is a list of quality blogs that accept guest posts.
Once you’ve decided on a blog, you can get started.
Step 1. Write a guest post.
So, once you have decided on a blog for which you want to write an article, you need to write the article.
But before you do that, look at the topics that have already been covered and make sure you are not writing something that has been written about before. Make your content new and unique.
Also, try to imitate the blogger's writing style. This will increase the chances of your post being accepted.
Don't be afraid of being rejected by a blogger. If your guest post is rejected, you can submit it to another blog or publish it on your own blog.
If you get rejected, don’t hesitate to ask for feedback. Most bloggers are in the business of helping others, so they will be happy to tell you why your article isn’t a good fit for their blog.
- How I Got My First Guest Post Published in 3 Days
General tips for writing great posts:
- Highly unique.
- Write down what you know.
- Provide high-quality outbound links (not necessarily from your own blog!).
- Provide the best value you can.
- Make sure the post is relevant to your blog readers.
Make sure you also optimize your guest post for specific keywords. Since you are guest posting on a high-authority website, your article has a higher chance of ranking.
Here are two guides you should refer to:
Step 2. Contact the blog owner.
If you know the blog owner, just ask and I'm sure they will be happy to let you post. If you don't know the blog admin's contact details, follow this tutorial:
If you don't know the blog owner, then you should write an introductory email and attach your guest post in Microsoft Word format.
Don’t forget to include your email ID and social network information in your signature.
Your email should look like this:
Here’s also a copy-and-paste template for guest post promotion:
Hey $Name
I've been following $name for years, and finally, I want to ask. I would love to write a guest post for you, something that would really inspire your readers.
The topic I thought of was "$Topic"
We all run awesome blogs and make a living from it, and it's always good to remind people why it's so great. I'm sure your readers will enjoy it.
Not sure if you’ve read any of my posts, but in addition to running $Yourblogname, I’ve also been on SEMRush, Pro Blogger, Coschedule, and many other blogs.
If you would like to please let me know and I will start drafting it as soon as possible.
Have a great week!
Your name
Write the following in your signature:
- Your name
- Blog address
- Twitter account
- Facebook Account
Blog owners want to see that your blog and brand offer something valuable to the readers of their blog.
Editor's Note : A smart strategy is to contact the owner and ask if they accept guest posts. Include links to some of your best articles in your query letter and mention the title and a two-sentence brief summary of your proposed guest post.
Step 3. Capture traffic after your guest post is published.
It's party time!
Now you can enjoy the instant blog exposure that this guest post brings.
Your blog traffic will increase and you might get a lot of blog subscribers (depending on your blog content and quality).
Try to attract this new audience by making the first post a visitor sees your best post yet. Write a great roundup post with lots of links and a ton of valuable content.
This will keep your new visitors for a while.
Step 4. Promote your guest post.
You should promote your articles on social media sites like Twitter and Facebook.
Don't wait for the blog owner to tell you; do it yourself as soon as the post goes live.
Additionally, you may also want to place an outbound link to another blog in your guest post. You can then tell that blog owner that you linked to their work and they will consider promoting your guest post to their readers. This is really a great strategy to build authority and get other people to like you.
But don’t add links just for the sake of building backlinks. Blog owners will disapprove of your post if you’re just trying to build backlinks.
Step 5: Respond to comments.
You need to respond to comments on your guest posts.
There is nothing more irritating for a blog owner than to give someone free publicity and then have them walk away when readers want to contact them.
Be a good customer service person and respond to all reviews and questions. Interact with reviewers.
This will help build your authority and ultimately bring you more traffic and more guest posting opportunities.
How many times should you guest post?
There is no limit to the number of guest posts you can submit.
You can do one or two, or you can do several. It all depends on the exposure you get and how much time you are willing to spend writing guest posts.
Some blogs help you get tons of traffic, while others don’t. Find the blogs that work for you and develop a consistent guest posting strategy to help grow your traffic, subscribers, and authority.
One thing I always suggest to marketers is that it’s better to guest post on different blogs than on the same blog, especially if your purpose is to build links.
What strategies do you have for getting guest posts on quality blogs? Let me know in the comments below.
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