Daccanomics
If you have been blogging for a while you probably already know that backlinks are the most important ranking factor. If you want to improve your blog SEO and build quality backlinks from high authority websites there is no alternative to guest blogging.
Guest Blogging
Guest blogging is the surefire way of generating more traffic for your blog. Every blogger would love to have organic traffic on their blog. Guest posting not only helps to increase blog traffic it also improves your SERP ranking. It can give you a headstart and help you build credibility in your niche.
Guest blogging might not be efficient but surely the easiest way to get more backlinks.
Building backlinks is the toughest part of SEO and without backlinks, it is nearly impossible to rank on search engines. It is a struggle for every blogger to look for ways to build quality backlinks. So instead they focus more on content creation and let go of SEO.
But what most bloggers fail to realize is the opportunity of guest blogging. Guest blogging is the most effective SEO strategy to get backlinks without spending a dime. Guest posting can give any blogger a competitive edge. If you want to increase your online presence, guest blogging is the right way to do it.
Most online marketers and SEOs heavily rely on content marketing. There are a lot of benefits of guest blogging apart from just SEO. So if you still haven’t started guest posting, you should consider doing it right now.
In this blog post, I am going to share the benefits of guest blogging and all the strategies involved that will help you improve your SEO and build high-quality backlinks.
What Is Guest Blogging
In the SEO community guest blogging or guest posting is referred to articles that you write for someone else’s blog to gain more exposure, build credibility, and generate traffic for your blog.
Guest posting can help you reach out to your target audience through someone else’s blog. Also, you get quality backlinks to your blog which will help you with off-page SEO.
The guest post that you write for other blogs will have to be unique and insightful. Something that is not published on any other sites.
Most bloggers often target websites with high traffic and domain authority to write a guest post. Make sure the site you pick to guest post is relevant to your niche and has a larger audience than your blog.
Guest blogging is free of cost. You write quality articles in return for quality backlinks from that site. This is the easiest method of getting backlinks without spending any money. Although you will have to spend a lot of time reaching out to potential blogs to guest post.
Why Guest Blogging Is Important
There are over 2 million blog posts published every day. With so much content published, it is getting really difficult to reach out to potential audience.
To compete with their peers most bloggers try to publish as many quality articles as they can. But sometimes it is hard to create new content. So they offer other bloggers to write articles for their blog in return for a shoutout and a backlink. This way they get free content without paying for the writer.
This is a win-win for both publisher and writer.
A guest post not only increases your credibility online but also help you gain more traffic.
Guest posting can also give the readers a new perspective on topics that they are familiar with already. By posting on other established blogs you can turn the readers of those blogs into your website visitor and eventually your loyal audience.
When they find your contents compelling, you will turn those visitors into returning visitors. With Guest blogging, you can get the highest return on investment, which is your precious time. Not only you build backlinks and increase your online presence, but you also get a loyal following of readers and customers.
Benefits of Guest Blogging
There are a lot of benefits to guest blogging. You can share your expertise with the readers of other blogs and establish your credibility within your niche. You can also build relationships with other industry leaders and expose your brand to their audience through guest posting.
Here are some of the key benefits of guest posting –
1. Free Traffic
When you share your experience through a guest post and people find it insightful, most of them are likely to click on the link you provide. It is because they found your content to be relevant and unique. So they will visit your website to read more of your post and probably become a subscriber. To get the best out of it:
- Write a unique guest post that provides valuable information
- Provide relevant outbound links to your website, and
- Get free blog traffic on your landing page
- Bait visitors with free PDF
- Convert visitors into email subscribers
2. Target Audience
Most of the traffic you get from your guest blogging will be a curated audience within your niche. They are more likely to follow your content. As most of your guest posts will be relevant to your blog content, visitors from the other websites will also be interested to read your stuff.
So before you write a guest post on a website make sure it matches your niche and has a higher audience than your blog.
3. Improve Online Presence
Guest blogging is one of the easiest ways to improve your online presence and create brand awareness. When you get a shoutout from industry-leading blogs you can expect a good amount of traffic to your blog.
The more you guest post the more exposure you will get. Even if you do to get traffic overnight, you will eventually see more traction as you are more visible to people online.
Social media share act as a catalyst to guest post. When your guest post is shared on another blog’s social media page it will create brand awareness and increase your credibility within your niche and as a blogger.
As your post gets older it will receive more traction and traffic from various sources.
4. Increases your Authority
Guest blogging is a proven way of increasing brand authority. Most bloggers and amateur marketers are unaware of this fact and often miss this opportunity. If you want to increase your online presence and build authority there is no alternative to guest posting.
It takes time and a lot of effort to establish a brand. Guest blogging can fast-track this process and get your brand the exposure it needs. A recent study done by Amazon shows that 70% of B2B purchasers research a brand online by reading content about that brand before they decide to engage with it.
When you or your brand is featured on other websites it reflects your quality of work and validates your brand. Guest blogging increases the trustworthiness of the readers. It increases your reliability online as people will find your content on many websites.
Nowadays, People rely on promoted content rather than a direct advertisement
People who guest post on other websites usually have a deep understanding of the subject they share. Most guest posts are very insightful and backed by facts and data. Thus readers view guest posts as reliable content.
5. Boost Your Portfolio
Guest posting allows you to connect with other bloggers and brands on a personal level. Because of the extra exposure online it opens up the opportunity to collaborate with other bloggers and brands. Guest blogging can boost your portfolio by adding more work experience.
When you write guest posts for other bloggers it opens up a lot of opportunities to work. Some bloggers might pay you to guest blog for them when they find your post informative and useful. It adds more exposure to your work and allows more people to follow.
When you guest post for top-tier bloggers it grabs the attention of other bloggers and brands. It shows that you are an expert in your niche and has the ability to collab with others. You can do brand endorsement with your blog and much more.
6. Improves Writing Skills
When you write for other people it also enhances your writing skills. Acclaimed blogs only accept posts that are very informative and unique. They look for people who can add different perspectives and quality to work.
So when you keep blogging for other top-tier bloggers you will automatically try to improve your writing. Also, when you collab with them they will add pointers to your post to make it better. So when you learn from experienced bloggers and writers it will help you to improve your own writing skills. This way you can apply everything you have learned and apply it to your own blog.
Here is an infographic explaining the benefits of Guest Blogging –
How To Land A Guest Post
Now that you know what are the key benefits of guest blogging it is time for you to look out for guest blogging opportunities. You should know to approach other blogs to allow you to guest post for them. Also, it is important to know how to land a guest post.
Not everyone you approach will allow you to write for them. Don’t lose hope. You don’t need hundreds of guest posts to be successful. Sometimes a single guest post can do all the work for you. That being said here is how you can make the perfect guest post and start guest blogging.
1. Stop Procrastinating, Start Today
While working with other bloggers one thing I often notice that they fear rejection too much. Most of them are afraid of hearing ‘No’ from established bloggers. They think that just because they don’t have a lot of followings online and a well-established blog, no one would accept guest posts from them.
This is the reason most bloggers don’t reach out to people for a guest post or building backlinks.
So you will have to stop procrastinating and start today. You don’t need to have 4-5 well-established blogs and you don’t have to be an industry-leading blogger to write a guest post. Just reach out to other bloggers and simply pitch them your idea. Tell them you want to write a guest post for them. Some people might ignore you but it will work 2 out of 3 times.
Landing a guest post is not that difficult as most people make it sound. All you got to do is make sure you know how to write well and choose a blog that already accepts guest posts rather than chasing blogs that don’t.
2. Find Perfect Blogs For Guest Posting
Finding the right site for guest posting is as important as writing a good piece of content.
When you search ‘guest posting sites’ you can find lists of thousands of websites that accept guest posts. After all, everyone would love to have free quality content on the website. Just because you know how to write a compelling post doesn’t mean you should write on every site that accepts guest posting. It is important to know which site to target and which sites to avoid.
The simple way of deciding it is by creating a list of sites within your niche that accept guest posts. You don’t have to reach out to random sites. All you need is one authority site that will let you write guest posts for them. It will give you the headstart and then you can slowly look for more sites related to your niche.
Look for websites that you already follow and reach out to them offering free quality guest posts. But before you do that you need to make sure you are already an expert on the topics you want to write about and have a standard portfolio, to begin with.
When reaching out to sites for guest posting, make sure those sites match these criteria below –
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Sites you follow
Before you ask to write for a site, make sure you have a connection with them. It makes it easier to land a guest post when you have an older connection. Reach out to them through social media. Appreciate their work (Do not fake your appreciation. Tell them your honest opinion.) Follow their work and ask for advice. The best way to reach out to another blogger is through blog commenting. When you write a well thought out comment on a blog it works as a conversation starter.
Here is an example of how you can write a well-crafted blog comment :
Hi [Bloggers Name],I hope you are doing well.
I have been reading your articles for a while and it has inspired me a lot to write for myself. In your last article, you wrote about how guest posting helped you with SEO. I already knew how it can boost my website traffic but was unaware of the fact that how it can improve my SEO. It certainly helped me a lot and gave me a better understanding of guest posting. I think blog commenting is also another great way to drive free traffic on any website. Most bloggers tend to miss this opportunity.
Having said that I want to contribute a guest post article to your website that may interest your readers. I want to write an article specifically about blog commenting and how it helped me drive tons of traffic to my website.
It would be of high quality and free of cost. I have some really good ideas and would love to collaborate with you on this topic. Also, let me know if you have any other topics in mind.
Hopefully, we can connect!
Regards,
Josh Radman
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Sites With Larger Audience
It is better when you target a site that has a similar niche and larger audience network than yours. Yes, sites with fewer visitors will also give you an edge but instead of wasting your time on smaller sites try targeting websites that are roughly five to ten times the size of your own. A website with 150,000 email subscribers will have at least a 4 percent click-through rate. This means more than 6,000 people are likely to read your guest post. Out of those 6,000 people, the majority of people are likely to click on the external link pointing to your website. But don’t be too ambitious on your first try. It will take some time before you can write a guest post for goliaths like Forbes or Huffington post.
Target websites within your reach and do it one step at a time.
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Sites With Similar Interest
If you are a food blogger there is no point in guest posting on a site that reviews gadgets. Yes, you probably know a lot about gadgets but people won’t be interested in the crossover. Also, the backlinks you will get from that site won’t be of much value. Google loves backlinks from sites with similar niches. So try to blog within your niche and find websites with similar interests.
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Do-follow Backlink Sites
Always go for sites that offer do-follow backlinks with a guest post. There is no point in wasting your time writing for other websites if you don’t get anything in return. Although most websites that allow guest posts also allow a do-follow link but some sites don’t do that. Some websites only allow a no-follow backlink which is of no use when it comes to SEO. Make sure to check the guest posting guidelines before you start writing content for other blogs. If the rules are not stated clearly, check their older gues post and see if the links provided within the articles are “do-follow” or “no-follow”
3. Create Unique Content That Adds Value
Most bloggers just try to scour the internet and look for content that has been there for a decade. Then they just reshuffle the words and turn it into a farrago of misinterpretation. Doing this won’t get your guest post published anywhere.
And if it somehow gets published, you won’t have any credibility as a writer or blogger. Rather than looking for topics that have been discussed over a thousand times, look for new ideas that are yet to be discussed.
Try to find your own voice among all the mediocre bloggers. Write something unique. Bring freshness to your content. Make sure to offer a different perspective and be bold with your statement. Talk about facts rather than opinion. Provide as much data as possible. Even ff you write about topics that are widely written, make sure to ensemble words that will affect your readers’ thought process.
It is important to provide quality content over a long-ass article.
Bottomline
You now know the benefits of guest blogging and how can you land a guest post. When you reach out to others for guest blogging, make sure you have a top-notch article that is worthy of publishing on your own website.
Happy Blogging!
