Guest blogging is an essential part of any SEO strategy. It allows a company to highlight its expertise, which in turn helps them obtain greater exposure, authority, and new clients. More good news: there is a significant demand for quality guest posts.
Running a blog is a great way to create a reputation as an authority in a niche because it generates traffic for a business. Thanks to the merits of guest blogging, we can no longer just focus on publishing blog posts on the company’s owned media. In addition to the benefits you get from blogging in general, guest blog posts generate valuable backlinks that are important for a company’s overall SEO strategy. In this day and age, it pays to publish your blog posts on other blogs in addition to maintaining your own blog.
This article will look at the definition of guest blogging. We will also look at how guest blogging has evolved, some frequent pitfalls, and how to develop a guest blogging strategy.
What Is Guest Blogging?
Guest blogging is the process of having a company’s blog post published on a blog or publication that the company does not control or contribute to regularly, usually to enhance its brand, expand its exposure, or obtain backlinks. The primary advantage of guest blogging is that it allows businesses to expand their online reach and authority by utilizing the impact and reach of a blog that is considerably larger and more authoritative than their own. For example, let’s assume a company’s website now has only ten views per month. In that case, it could be able to guest post on a blog with 100,000 monthly visitors, rapidly boosting brand exposure and domain authority.
The Evolution of Guest Blogging
Guest blogging has evolved in the same way that banner adverts have. Did you know that the first banner ad ever deployed on the Internet was clicked on by 44% of those who saw it? The average banner ad now has a click-through rate of 0.05%, meaning that less than 1 in every 1,000 individuals will click on it. This is because of a syndrome called “banner blindness.” Banner advertisements have gotten so common that most people don’t notice them anymore, even if they don’t use an ad blocker.
Guest blogging used to be incredibly effective, regardless of how a company approached it. Even those who weren’t terrific writers claimed significant success. However, times have changed, and earning thousands of views is no longer as straightforward. You must now put more work into guest blogging than before to enjoy the benefits. Companies could raise their ranks by publishing simple guest articles on low-quality sites, and they would witness a rapid increase in keyword rankings and organic search traffic to their site. In contrast, businesses must generate unique content and have it published on high-quality websites to move the SEO needle these days.
While guest blogging isn’t as popular as it once was, it’s still very effective with the right strategies. Savvy marketers and organizations are enjoying the rewards of executing the correct guest blogging strategy.
Common Guest Blogging Mistakes
Although the premise of guest blogging is simple, getting content published on a credible blog is not. Businesses could, of course, get their guest pieces published on any blog that accepts entries. However, that would defeat the purpose of guest blogging. Instead, companies need to guest post on blogs with strict editorial guidelines. Keep in mind that well-known bloggers are frequently bombarded with guest posting requests. As a result, businesses must make an effort to stand out, get their name heard, and get their guest posts published.
In order to get an edge over other brands asking for guest posting opportunities, businesses must avoid making the kind of mistakes that will take them out of the running. Let’s look at some frequent guest blogging mistakes to avoid and how to get around them.
1) Failing to Follow Guidelines
In order to deal with a surge of requests efficiently, many blogs will lay out precise instructions for brands and individuals who are interested in submitting a guest article. Even though these standards should be easy to follow, many would-be guest posters manage to violate them. This is a surefire method to your guest post rejected. After all, why would a busy blogger review a company’s guest post if they are incapable of following simple instructions?
2) Pitching Generalized Content
One of the most typical guest blogging mistakes is pitching with generic content that is available on hundreds of blogs and easily accessible on the Internet. This may anger a blog owner to the point of rejecting a blog posting pitch for no apparent reason.
The most successful guest posters supply blog owners with with outstanding guest posting ideas. With a guest post that contains new – even surprising – information, a brand can even get their pitch accepted on high-authority blogs such as Forbes and The Balance, among others. Companies must constantly post something new and original to give value to the blog where they intend to have their guest post published and bring genuine traffic to their own blog or website.
3) Failing to Personalize Guest Blogging Requests
Along with developing fresh and unique material and distributing it to high-quality blogs, businesses must also send out a personalized email pitch to accompany it.
When it comes to guest posting, quality always trumps quantity. Unfortunately, many aspiring guest bloggers make the mistake of assuming the opposite is true. Instead of personalizing their emails to a specific blog, they’ll simply send a bulk email asking for a guest posting opportunity and hope for a response. The issue with this strategy is that most blog owners are overwhelmed with generic offers on a regular basis and they are unlikely to pay attention to yet another generic email that looks like the same old news they receive every day. In fact, if you do this, you might as well route your company’s email to the recipient’s garbage folder and save them the trouble of having to do this themselves.
In contrast, a company’s goal should be to customize each pitch so that it stands out from the rest. You can utilize a template for your emails. Even so, you should customise the final email to each blog that you are pitching your guest post to.
Companies must develop relevant guest post ideas for the blog’s tone and explain why they believe their guest post ideas will help the blogger’s audience. It’s true that the time required to personalise each email in this manner will reduce the number of bloggers you can reach. However, the higher response rates will make your efforts worthwhile.
4) Writing for The Wrong Blog
Guest blogging will only produce the desired outcomes if done correctly. When writing as a guest blogger, you should always choose blogs with high authority and relevance. If you write for blogs that don’t align with your specialty, you will be making the worst guest posting blunder. To find high-quality guest blogs, businesses frequently need to invest important time in conducting effective searches. Instead of depending on online guest posting blog lists, they should try to find and contact the site owners directly to build real partnerships.
5) Lack of Content that Blog Owners Want
Companies that write their own content instead of what the blog owner requests are performing guest blogging poorly. This is one of the most obvious guest blogging mistakes to avoid.
Instead of publishing a post about ‘Amazon best sellers,’ the blog owner should ask a company to write about ‘blogging advice.’ Companies must choose the right and most relevant posts to get the most out of their guest blogging efforts.
6) Poorly Written Bio
A badly worded ‘about the author’ paragraph of the guest blog post is one of the most prevalent guest blogging mistakes that prevent a company from flourishing. Instead, a biography should be well-written and persuade readers to visit a company’s website.
They must highlight their primary abilities and knowledge in the sector and then notify the readers about the amazing information accessible on their site and how visiting it may help them. Businesses should keep the ‘about the author’ part of their own blog succinct and appealing to improve readership.
7) Rejecting the Changes Made By the Blog Owner
Companies that refuse to accept adjustments made by the site owner or editorial staff to their blog posts are also committing a guest posting sin. Keep in mind that bloggers care about their audience and have a better idea of what kind of content their audience enjoys.
Don’t be shocked if the blog owner modifies the submitted article – fighting these changes will get you nowhere. Worse still, rejecting editorial changes will probably ruin your relationship with the blogger and thwart any chances you have of getting your guest post published. This means that businesses must allow blog owners to make minor modifications to posts for readers to align to their standards. Most bloggers will most likely approach the company before making major modifications or edits to the piece, but smaller modifications are routine.
8) Not Replying to Comments
User engagement is crucial in a company’s overall SEO operations. Companies that do not respond to reader comments on their guest blog post on another blog or website are committing yet another huge guest posting mistake. This mistake is so serious that it might even affect the success of your future guest posts. After all, once readers realise you have no time to engage with them, they are unlikely to pay any more attention to your content.
Replying to comments and answering follow-up questions is beneficial to the value and quality of the host blog. At the same time, it may also help a company obtain more clients or readers for their own blog or website.
How To Create A Guest Blogging Strategy
1) Set Guest Blogging Goals
Like any other marketing approach, a good guest blogging strategy begins with a clear knowledge of the objectives.
The advantages mentioned previously are consistent with the traditional goals of a guest blogging approach. We’ll summarise them below:
- Driving visitors to a specific landing page to increase the number of leads and sales.
- Increasing brand, product, and service visibility
- Obtaining inbound connections to boost SEO
- Developing a company’s expertise so that it can be quoted more frequently and granted speaking opportunities
- Increasing the size of a company’s email list or social media audience
2) Find Guest Post Targets
As we previously said, before companies begin writing their guest posts, they must first identify the appropriate blogs to target. Let’s take a look at some strategies people can use to find guest posting opportunities.
- Search strings: Performing targeted Google searches can help businesses to reach the relevant audience. “Keyword + guest post,” “Keyword + submit blog article,” and “Keyword + become a guest blogger” are a few examples of searches that you can use..
- Follow the guest post path of a specialized influencer: Some writers disclose the other blogs for which they write, which might result in businesses acquiring an exclusive list of high-quality blogs in their industry.
- Image Search: Using Google Image search to uncover other similar works of a target blogger is another option. Simply copy and paste the URL of the author’s headshot from the author bio of a blog post into the Google reverse image search box.
- Search on Social Media Platforms: Using different search keywords on various social media networks can yield drastically different results.
- Reverse Engineering: Backlink tracking tools such as Ahrefs, RankWatch, SEMrush, Majestic & Moz, and others can be used to track the top referral link sources of first- and second-page competitors.
While a company and its in-house PR staff (if they have one) can complete the work of searching for guest post targets, it can take a significant amount of time and effort that could be spent on other activities inside the organization. As a result, many businesses may hire a public relations agency to not only help them narrow down media contacts but also to construct a customized media list so that they can contact them personally.
Pressfarm is a public relations agency that helps startups and businesses of all sizes to create quality content that can be disseminated to media professionals and on their channels. In addition to guest posts, the Pressfarm team also has experience with creating email pitches and press releases. Having worked with hundreds of brands across different industries, this team has what it takes to create engaging content for different niches. The team at Pressfarm then goes one step further to distribute this content widely, getting it published on respected media outlets. In this way, signing up with Pressfarm can help you boost your online visibility and help you stand out from the competition.
3) Zero in On Target Blogs
After the creation of a list, a company’s next responsibility is to filter it and retain the prospects who will be most helpful to them. Companies can pay specific attention to:
- Quality Metrics: Several technical aspects influence the ability of a business to target the most lucrative publications for guest blogging. Google Pagerank, Domain Authority, and Alexa Score are the top three measures for determining the quality of a blog.
- Single-Out Seasoned Blogs: Consider the following: the blog should be relevant to its niche, attract qualified visitors, and have actual subscribers.
4) Form a Connection with the Site Owner
Before approaching site owners to submit a guest post, businesses must first create a relationship with them (a process known as “pitching”). Many website owners have had enough of irrelevant pitches and poor-quality content and will only accept guest contributions from people they know, like, and trust. To begin, businesses should become acquainted with their site and the type of content they post by. One way to do this is by subscribing to their site or following them on Twitter, where their content is widely disseminated.
Then, for a few weeks, or more, they must read the content regularly to understand what is important to them and their audience. Then, if the website has this content listed on their website, look at their top-performing or featured content.
5) Choose a Winning Topic
Once companies have a clear idea of their target site and what is important to the site owner, it’s time to choose a topic to pitch.
Companies should be aware of how popular the site is. They must now evaluate how they can provide value by doing the following:
- Taking action as a result of what is on the website
- Adding to the discussion of a popular topic
- Writing something unique on a topic the audience will likely enjoy.
Buzzsumo is an excellent resource for businesses looking to narrow down their options. For starters, it can help them find already popular content on the site to which they are pitching. This serves two purposes. Firstly, it assists them in developing a related topic that is likely to be popular. It also prevents them from annoying the blog owner by pitching an idea that they have previously published.
6) Make the Pitch
Companies wishing to thrive with their guest blogging strategy should avoid generic guest posting pitches. Instead, companies who have done their research will be able to construct a winning pitch that is personalized to each site owner.
The first rule is to keep pitches succinct and to the point. Don’t waste the time of site owners who get a lot of pitches, especially those with authoritative sites. Second, use the owner’s given name to address them. The majority of website owners will not read proposals from people who are too lazy to look up basic contact information. Third, include the post’s title. You can even use this title in the email subject line and as a supplementary header in some of your pitches.
When businesses utilize Buzzsumo or other platforms to select a topic, they also get a glimpse of popular headlines. They should utilize this as a starting point for their own and this list of headline tools to strike the perfect title. If the person they’re pitching likes their title, they’re halfway to a successful pitch. Following that, provide a brief description of the position. State what it will cover in a few sentences or bullet points. Explain how this piece of content will benefit their target audience. This should all be easy once a business is already familiar with the blogger’s existing material. Finally, companies must show why they are a good contender for a guest posting opportunity.
Conclusion
Blogging is a terrific way to establish authority in a field because it produces traffic and acts as a useful source of backlinks for a business. However, we can no longer limit ourselves to posting on a company’s owned media. We must also publish content as guests on other established blog. Guest blogging is an integral part of any SEO strategy. A good guest blogging strategy will help a business to highlight its expertise, as well as get greater exposure, authority, and new consumers. When done appropriately, guest blogging can improve a company’s image and, as a result, its online visibility.