There is no denying the fact that guest blogging is one of the most important aspects of SEO strategies. For increased brand exposure, build authority, and help people discover your company, then this is the best way.
This is not only about blogs with high-quality affiliate links. The blogs that have good pedigree will help you get more exposure and help in increasing your popularity. Now, in this blog today, we are going to share with you the complete details on guest blogging. So, let us start with the basics.
What is guest blogging?
Guest blogging is a simple process of submitting articles or blogs to a website/publication/organization that you don’t own. The advantage of it is you will be able to reach a wide audience and it will also increase your online authority. For instance, if 1,00,00 people reach your content, it automatically increases your popularity.
Did you know that the first banner ad on the internet was clicked by 44% of the people who saw it? But now, the click percentage of an online banner ad is 0.05%. This means less than 1 out of 1000 people will click on it. The same is applicable for guest blogging as well.
When guest blogging started, a huge number of people, who were not good writers, got huge success through it. But things have changed now. it is not so easy. You have to put a lot of effort to see results through guest blogging.
The same is true for backlinks as well. A simple blog post on a low-quality website with a backlink of a website with high domain authority would draw the link juice. This would increase organic traffic. Now, you have to create top-class content and place it on high-quality websites to get SEO results.
Even though guest blogging is not so easy nowadays but it is still one of the best ways to obtain brand authority.
Why should you focus on link building?
The reason why you should focus on link building is that creating custom content for highly-targeted websites can increase conversions. How? A keyword-rich anchor text that points back to the highest converting pages will increase the organic traffic on your website. Within a short time, you will be able to reach the first page of the search engine results page.
Valuable guest posts for the niche sites that are linked with the highest converting pages along with high-ranking keywords in the anchor text, pay off. Not only there will be an increase in keyword ranking but the conversions will increase as well.
What are the common blogging mistakes to avoid?
If you are planning to start guest blogging, then there are certain things to avoid. Here are some tips for you to follow.
- Always target high-quality backlinks. Never ever target low-quality backlinks! Remember that more links are not better. A website with a hundred high-quality backlinks will surpass a website with a thousand low-quality backlinks.
- The conversion structure of your website structure should not be flawed. If you are running an online business you will not have the time to guest blog just to improve the traffic and visitor count. But guest blogging will not help you if the website is not optimized to capitalize on the increased traffic.
- Understand how the process of guest blogging works. it is not only about backlinks and contents. guest blogging has evolved with time. If you are not updated with the changes, it will not work for you.
How to find opportunities for guest blogging?
There are certain ways to look for guest blogging opportunities. Let us have a look at them.
Firstly, you have to find out your target audience. The target audience should always be at the center of attraction. Create your audience profiles and buyer personas. The data about your target audience and potential customers will come from different sources like web analytic, social media analytics, and more.
Secondly, you have to identify the goals. For instance, if the aim is to get a lot of signups, then your approach will be different than someone who is looking for high-quality backlinks. Your end goal should be to build a website authority through backlinks.
Thirdly, figure out the kind of tactics you want to use for your guest posts. The approach to guest blogging can be based on quantity or quality. Do not focus on a single attribute.
Fourthly, you have to research and find out the publications that will accept the guest posts. Now, if you find there are lesser blogs in your niche, then you can identify the umbrella category for your niche and find out other blogs in such a niche. You can also write for mainstream publications where niches with fewer blogs too, get published. You can try and bridge different niches.
Vet the blogs for quality purposes and analyze the content that is trending. You will increase the chances of publication if your articles are created after the articles they have recently posted or their most popular/common articles.
How can you come up with content ideas for the guest posts?
A good idea to get content is to keep an eye on the comments section of the blog. If there is something that a lot of them are asking for then writing content on it will get the attention.
Depending on the goals, you can create different types of content like case studies, success stories, and resources. Bloggers love case studies and success stories because they can relate to it.
How to create great blog posts pitches with guaranteed acceptance?
To begin with, focus on the way you are pitching the content to your readers. There are a lot of digital marketing companies that would offer content writing services. But what makes the content better than the rest is the way it is presented to the audience.
In the same way, when you make a pitch for guest blogging, you have to pay special attention to the headline. The next thing is to include an article in the pitch. keep it short yet informative/descriptive.
This will tell the editors what you will be writing on. Then, you can add multiple article ideas on the pitch. This will increase your chances of getting accepted.
Make sure you add a personal touch to your pitch. This will show that you know them and their blogs. People are in general more receptive to someone who knows about them. This is a significant benefit of working with a digital marketing agency for a long time.
How to optimize your guest post for best results?
The end goal of guest blogging is to generate traffic to your website or increase conversions. Thus, the first thing to do is link with your website. Make sure you have an anchor text with a search term with which you want to rank your website.
Use a strong Call to Action. If you are guest blogging to get more referral traffic then you have to rely on something more than your bio. Try and get the readers to act within the guest post itself, especially before the conclusion.
Finally, make sure that you interact with your target audience. When you are creating a blog post, imagine you are writing a letter to your audience. This will help them feel a real connection with a one-on-one conversation.
