Guest posting or guest blogging is writing and publishing an article on someone else’s website, and the articles that are written in this case are christened as guest posts. Why do people do guest posting? They do guest posting to get more traffic back to their website and to boost the brand presence. Traffic from such sources is acknowledged as referral traffic.
How one can get started with Guest Posting?
Before getting started with guest posting, it is very crucial to be clear about what you want. Determine your guest blogging goals, which is the first important step in the process. Generally, these are some of the guest blogging goals such as –
. Building reliability in your industry as a thought leader
. Getting traffic to your website and accumulating brand awareness
. Building backlinks to your website
Once you have determined these guest posting goals, time to research and find guest blogging contingency. Some of the few ways to find guest posting/blogging opportunities are such as –
Also read: On-Page SEO: The Definitive Guide (2021)
. Google searches using strings
As we all know that Google has almost answers to everything. Google is one of the finest places to search for guest posting opportunities. Here is an intelligent way to do a keyword search on Google such as –
The format is an essential “keyword” “write for us”. Here the keywords can be anything significant to your industry or business.
. Searching for the top blogs
The preeminent way to get the list of top blogs of an industry is by using Google. Search for the queries such as Top E-Learning Blogs List, Top Marketing Blogs List. Once you obtain this list, go through each blog and analysis its content and domain authority. You will search for a lot of blog posts this way, but not all might accept guest posting. Ensure you do competitor research and do not approach your competitors.
. Searching for popular individuals
Another way to do this is by searching for some of the favored blogging individuals who have good followers and brand presence. A few of the preeminent influential marketing guest bloggers are Neil Patel, Jenny Halasz, Brain Harnish, Andy Merchant, and Larry Kim. A guest post on prolific bloggers like this will increase your credibility and assist you to reach new audiences.
Also read: The beginner’s guide to Google’s pay per click advertising
. Competitor Analysis
This is another way to do a competitor’s backlink analysis as part of your SEO approach. There is a high chance that you will search for the guest post links. You can do this by using tools such as Moz’s Open Site Explorer or by doing a Google search link i.e. www.domain.com “guest post”.
Note – domain.com can be the domain of your competitor.
You can also analyze external links for a domain with the Screaming Frog tool. This can also assist you in hygiene checks and safeguard that the websites you are linking to exist and are not returning a 404 error or redirecting to different content.
Proven strategies to enhance guest posts
Now that you know how to write a guest post and submit one, here are some more tactics to enhance the guest blogging strategy such as –
. Keeping track of the Guest Post’s performance
After submitting some guest blogs, monitor whether the posts are delivering more traffic to your website or not. Doing so can notify whether the content is engaging enough that readers are engrossed in learning more about you. Track this result by using Google Analytics. After signing in to an account, one needs to go to Acquisition > All Traffic > Referrals. This report will showcase to you how much traffic comes from referral sources.
. Adding visual elements in the Guest post
Featuring images within the article can assist you to break up long chunks of text, making the content much more appealing. They can also assist you to visualize some complex information in a more digestible way. There are various types of images to add to a blog article. Infographics and charts are enormous for projecting some data and supporting claims. Screenshots can also assist with highlighting online quotes from experts, providing examples, or writing software-related tutorials.
Also read: Online reputation management services
. Encouraging engagement with a call to action (CTA)
Ending the post with a call to action (CTA) can boost engagement. It is a sentence that invites readers to take your opportune action, such as commenting or sharing the article. Engagement is crucial for SEO as it means that the blog is active and readers are enjoying the content. How much time users spend on a website is also contemplated as a ranking factor.
. Be active in online communities
In addition to social profiles, online forums and communities are enormous places to bolster guest posts. Find sites or groups that are admissible to your niche and target audience, and mention the article when appropriate. For instance, if you are writing guest posts about iPad tips and tricks, contemplate joining the iPad and iPad Pro subreddit. When someone starts a thread about maximizing their device usage, acknowledge sharing some knowledge and linking to the articles you have written.
Wrap Up
Now that you know how to write a guest post all that is left to do is to take the first step. Guest posting or guest blogging is an important part of your SEO strategy, and guest blogging on popular sites with high credibility gives you extensive leverage over your competitors in the industry. In other words, guest blogging is one of many marketing strategies to assimilate into your content marketing and SEO plans.
