Remember the excitement of finally landing your first guest post on a high-authority site? I do. As a novice and eager content marketer, I imagined a domino effect: an increase in traffic, a flood of new prospects, and immediate brand awareness. My guest post was published, but the expected traffic explosion never materialized. It felt like I’d put my heart and soul into something that had vanished into a digital black hole.
The truth is that guest posting can be an effective marketing technique, but it is not a miracle cure. Many marketers become trapped in a rut, creating generic content for websites with doubtful relevance. This strategy rarely produces results.
Strategic outreach and relationship-building are key to effective guest posting. It’s about providing high-quality content that appeals to a certain audience and identifies you as an industry thought leader. The advantages are undeniable: higher brand awareness, better SEO, and important backlinks that raise your website’s authority. According to a recent study conducted by Backlinko, websites with many backlinks score higher in search engine results pages (SERPs). This is organic traffic gold for any marketer.
But here’s the thing: most websites focus on the fundamentals of guest posting, such as discovering relevant websites and creating guest post pitches. Here I’ll take you through the deep secrets of guest posting.
What is a Guest Post?
A guest post is a medium where someone publishes their articles or work on someone else’s blog, or simply an article written by an external individual publishing their work on someone else’s blog site or website, for the sole purpose of promoting their brand and driving new audiences their way.
Key Takeaways
- Successful guest posting involves not just creating content but strategically building relationships with sites that cater to your target audience to establish yourself as an industry thought leader.
- It is more beneficial to produce high-quality content for well-aligned websites than to generate a high volume of generic posts for sites with dubious relevance to your brand.
- Guest posting on reputable sites with high domain authority can significantly enhance your SEO by providing valuable backlinks that improve your site’s search engine ranking.
- When choosing sites for guest posting, it is essential to select those that are relevant to your niche and have a solid audience base, which can be more effective than simply targeting sites with high traffic.
- Effective guest posting requires a long-term commitment to regularly contribute valuable content, which helps in building sustained relationships and maintaining a steady flow of traffic from these efforts.
Does Guest Post Help With SEO?
A guest post certainly helps with SEO. Writing on another well-known platform with your website link helps bring more audience members or readers to your site, thereby encouraging people to ask questions about your product.
Where Can You Make a Contact for a Guest Post?
There are many websites and blog sites that publish guest posts. A few blog websites accepting digital marketing guest posts are On Crawl, Contact Pigeon, Click Z, and Media Post
How To Choose Your Next Guest Post
Note that it is not essential that the guest blog or website has high traffic or that it’s very well optimized. Getting a blog site with your needed niche audience is important.
#1. Know your niche
To reach the correct audience, find a guest posting site that is relevant to your sector. For example, if you sell furniture, you may attempt a guest writing site focused on home remodeling or interior design. If you sell commercial insurance, you can use a website that collects business tips.
#2. Know where to look
Sometimes you don’t have to look far to find a guest writing site that fits your niche. Try out the search terms you want your website to rank for. Then, search through the top results. whether you locate non-competitor websites in the top results, check to see whether they accept guest posts.
A more straightforward approach to finding a guest posting site is to just search for it. Include your industry and location in the search query. You’ll then get a list of guest posting sites to consider. The next step is to sort through them.
#3. Choose an established guest posting site
Imagine how frustrating it would be to work on a guest blog only to discover months later that the guest posting site is no longer available. This is why you should use a guest posting site that has been operating for a while.
Being established has an impact on the site’s traffic and domain strength, which are both important criteria to consider.
#4. Look for credible guest posting sites
A website’s legitimacy is vital since when you write a guest blog for it, you are linking your company to that institution. Credibility is also vital because it influences the size and quality of the guest posting site’s readership. Keep in mind that credibility may or may not be obvious for websites.
For example, Forbes is a well-known business publication. They also accept guest posts. This type of guest posting site has a well-established reputation. For lesser-known sites, you should conduct a more detailed analysis of their traffic, domain strength, and existing content quality.
#5. Perform a Quick Traffic Analysis
If your company has been doing digital marketing for a long, you could already have a paid tool for traffic analysis. If you don’t already have a paid tool for this, you can attempt free (or freemium) alternatives like as SEMRush and SE Ranking. The larger the monthly traffic to the guest posting website, the better.
A tablet displaying web traffic data is an important factor when selecting a guest posting site.
#6. Investigate the Site’s Domain Strength
Other elements to consider while considering a guest posting site include domain strength, domain authority, and domain rating. SE Ranking’s free tool displays this on its results dashboard. Other tools, such as Moz and Ahrefs, can assist you in determining this. The guest posting site’s SEO improves as its domain strength increases. As a result, sites with a strong domain authority are ideal for guest blogging.
#7. Review and update existing posts on the guest posting site to ensure high-quality content.
High-quality, regularly updated content improves SEO and keeps traffic coming to the site.
#8. Choose guest posting sites with good website experience.
Another thing to consider is the reader’s experience with the guest posting platform. Readers are unlikely to stay on a website that is inadequately formatted, difficult to navigate, and crowded with advertisements. If that’s the case, they’re unlikely to stay long enough to read your guest article.
Another important feature to consider is mobile optimization. After all, more than half of all search searches are entered on mobile devices.
#9. Select a guest posting site with guidelines that you agree with
After you’ve evaluated a guest posting site’s reliability, traffic, domain strength, content quality, and user experience, review the guest posting guidelines. If these terms work for you, get ready to write!
#10. Look for Additional Perks
This final element to examine can be useful if you’ve located several acceptable guest posting sites and are attempting to decide which one to write for first. You might wish to consider the additional benefits to assist you decide. Some guest writing sites may pay you, while others will share your piece on social media. These small things can make a significant difference.
How To Pitch A Guest Post
Now that you have done deep research and built a relationship with the blog owner, you can proceed to pitch.
When writing for a website or blog, there are certain guidelines to be followed for your work to be accepted by the editor amidst the masses of other people’s pitches.
- Make sure to insinuate that you’re familiar with their website in your pitch.
- List a couple of your favorite articles on their website and explain how your articles fit in with their publications.
- Mention that you will write your guest post by yourself and make the required edits. Make sure to state that you will source your quality images too.
- Stick to any format that is accepted by the blogs; your article could quickly get scrapped otherwise.
- Stick to the required deadline as well; it could destroy your relationship with the website if you make a bad impression or truncate your chances of getting your articles published on their site.
Tips How To Write a Guest Post
- Make sure to write explicitly in your guest post: Search engines only recognize words that are up to 2000 words, making them pop up when searched. So far, it has the right optimization prompts.
- Make sure to publish your best work: People tend to keep their best works to themselves or post them on their blogs and post mediocre or ridiculous works on their guest blogs.
- Make sure to use SEO or SEM: As emphasized over and over again, SEO is a tool used to search for words or prompts that will make our work pop up when searched. SEM is a paid version of SEO.
- Make sure to write articles relevant to your product: Writing articles that are irrelevant to your products may not be effective in your digital marketing.
Tips To Ensure That Your Guest Post Is Successful
#1. Research keyword phrases
Everyone likes it when their content ranks well in search engines; hence, picking the keyword could help the blog owner place their website or blog on top, driving traffic to their sites.
#2. Edit professionally
Apart from the fact that you have promised the blog owner in your pitch that you will be submitting a properly edited article, a mediocre article won’t look great on your brand if published.
#3. Craft a stellar headline
Make sure your headline is compelling, convincing readers who glance at it to get curious as to what your article is about. Or in a way that meets their basic need at that point.
Make sure there is emotion and a call to action.
#4. Promote yourself in your bio
Your bio is the actual reason you are on another person’s blog in the first place. It’s where you include the link back to your site. It could be a link to your site or a particular page on your site, or you can get lucky and include a link to your site and your social media.
There are also a few blog owners who don’t put limits on the link in their bios, but the most common often let you put a link to your site and a social media
#5. Make sure to include relevant images
Apart from reformatting, finding suitable images for a blog can be stressful. And as you have also offered to include images in your pitch, you should include relevant images in your guest post. Unless the owner would prefer to do it themselves, this is another way of helping out
#6. Make sure to submit your article in the right format
This fact can’t be overemphasized. Editors detest correcting formats; the articles might end up getting trashed
#7. Make sure to respond to your reader’s comments
Answer questions that are to be answered, accept compliments well, and do not insult criticizers. Responding to your reader’s comment is also a way to connect with your new audience.
Besides the fact that it will make the blog owners happy and satisfied, it can lead to tracking your blog’s progress. Especially if you can subscribe to comments on the guest post so that you will be informed at any mention of your blog or new comments.
#8. Thank the blog owners
It is important to send a text to the blog owner, probably via email or other means, to appreciate them letting you be a guest blogger on their site
#9. Tag other bloggers
Tagging other bloggers, especially in your field, can help boost your digital marketing audience.
After publishing, continue to post on multiple social media platforms, including the link to your guest blog. Put the right optimization prompt.
Promoting your content can help get more audience to your guest blog, which in turn makes the blog owner happy. It will also drive more traffic to your site. Your social platforms, especially the ones you use to promote your products, could help.
You can also post it on your blog. Encourage the readers to comment and share. Keep doing this.
#11. Continue to do guest posting.
Search for another platform that accepts guest posts, pitch properly, and publish your best work. Wash, rinse, and repeat.
The more you post, the more presence and authority you have, and then it will lead to one invitation to write on a guest blog and another and the next. And that will essentially bring a new audience to your site, and you will get more people subscribing to get your products from you.
Guest Posting Template: A Time-Saving Ally
Creating appealing guest post pitches can be time-consuming. To make the process easier, consider using a guest blogging template. This template should not be a fixed script; rather, it should serve as a framework for tailoring your outreach emails.
Here are some crucial items to add to your guest post template:
- A compelling introduction emphasizing your knowledge and the value you bring to the website’s viewers.
- A brief description of your blog or website, including its relevance to the intended audience.
- 2-3 high-quality guest post ideas that are consistent with the website’s content strategy and solve reader concerns.
- A call to action expressing your interest in working together and offering to discuss the ideas further.
Using a template can save you time while ensuring your outreach emails are tailored and targeted. You can use our free template below.
4 Common Guest Blogging Issues and Troubleshooting Tips
As with any blogging attempt, there will be problems, obstacles, and blogging mistakes along the way. But that’s okay. We are all here to learn and improve.
Hopefully, the host blogger will appreciate your guest post draft immediately and respond with a “This is perfect!” “I’ll publish it on Monday.”
However, there is a good probability that at some time throughout your guest blogging trip, you will encounter one of the following hurdles.
#1. No Response to Pitch
Bloggers are busy, so it’s common to not hear back after a week or so. However, if it has been two weeks or more, you should double-check that your pitch was received safely.
You could send an email as follows:
Hello, [First Name].
Just checking to see whether you received my guest article pitch a few weeks ago. Here it is again, in case it got astray.
Please let me know if you believe it’s a good fit.
[Your name]
Try using one of my favorite blogging tools (such as Gmail’s Snooze Reminders) for automated email follow-up reminders.
You may also send the blogger a message on Facebook or Twitter.
However, avoid doing this in public because it may appear forceful and pressing.
#2. You Do Not Hear Back After Sending Your Draft.
Sometimes you receive a great reaction to your pitch, only for the blogger to become silent once you hand over your manuscript.
Busy bloggers may take some time to evaluate your guest post, especially if they are undecided or considering perspective adjustments. Don’t be too eager to follow up (but also don’t wait several weeks or months in case they forget).
If you haven’t heard back within a week or so, I’d suggest sending a follow-up like this:
Hello, [name].
I was wondering whether you had a chance to look at the draft of my guest post. (Don’t worry if you don’t; I understand you’re quite busy!) If you want anything changed or added, please let me know.
Thanks!
[Your Name]
If you still haven’t received an answer, wait another week and try again.
After that, you’re free to take your guest post and pitch it to other blogs that would be a good fit.
#3. The Host Blogger Wants Many Changes to Your Draft
In other circumstances, the host blogger may wish to publish your post—but with a lot of alterations.
Sometimes the host blogger will make the modifications; other times, they may ask you to revise your draft. It’s unusual to be requested to undertake substantial rewrites for a guest post (the site will most likely reject it if they believe it requires that much work), but you may be asked to add references, revise a paragraph or two, include more details, and so on.
At this point, it is up to you to decide how to respond.
Do you get a lot of edit requests for your guest blog article submission? It is up to you to decide how to respond.
In most circumstances, it makes sense to simply accept the changes because you’ve already engaged in this guest blogging adventure—even if it means a little more work for you. Once your post has progressed this far, it is almost certain to be published if you make the necessary modifications.
However, if you have particular adjustments that you wish to revert, it is usually acceptable. If the host blog requests so many changes that you believe your guest post will not be something you are glad to have your name associated with afterward, you can remove it entirely.
#4. The Host Blogger Removes Your Links
What happens if the host blogger removes all (or most) of the links you provided to your blog?
This most likely implies that you’ve gone a little beyond in linking to your material, and as long as at least one or two of your connections stay in place, it typically makes sense to go with the guest post anyway—since that’s still a significant benefit.
However, if you want to push back on a specific link or two you’d like added back in, you should write an email like this:
I noticed you removed the link to [page]. I realize that’s my work, but I felt it would be excellent background material for your readers. Would it be acceptable for us to reintroduce it into the article?
Be prepared to hear “no,” but as long as the link isn’t directly competing with a piece of material on your host blog’s site, I recommend giving it a shot.
While you can remove your guest post from consideration at this stage, doing so would most likely reduce your chances of ever obtaining a guest post on that blog again. If you’re okay with it, no worries—just move on.
Most bloggers will expect you to write a guest post in exchange for a bio link (and possibly one more link in the body)—but with no assurance of more links inside the content.
It is customary not to include your affiliate links in your content (doing so will likely come across as stupid, arrogant, or greedy). If you mention specific products/services with an affiliate program, the host blog may use their affiliate links, which you must agree to.
Conclusion
Are you ready to quit the generic approach and gain the benefits of strategic guest posting? With the correct mindset, a little ingenuity, and a helping template, you can position yourself as an industry thought leader and watch your website thrive. What unique guest posting methods have proven to be beneficial for you? Please share your tips in the comments section below!
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