The 411 On Guest Blogging
Creating a business blog for your company is a great way to draw visitors to your site and expand brand awareness. But what if you don’t have an established audience and you want to reach new potential customers? Guest blogging offers the opportunity to get your content seen not only by the right audience but by an audience that isn’t already familiar with your brand. By posting an article on an authoritative website, you can increase your website’s traffic, backlinks, and visibility. In this post, learn about the fundamentals of guest blogging, how to find relevant opportunities, and review 8 tips to ensure your content is a success.
The fundamentals
Guest blogging is a content marketing strategy that involves writing and submitting pieces of content to third-party websites for publishing. By posting content to websites other than your own, you'll be participating in a mutually beneficial relationship; the hosting site receives fresh content and you gain access to their platform to promote your content. Guest blogging is beneficial for businesses as it puts their content in front of a relevant, established audience – this is particularly valuable if you're a new business or one lacking an online presence. Advertising your business to people who already know about your business is important, but it's just as important, if not more important, to introduce your company to those who don't already know you. That's the key to growing your business. If you can master the art of guest blogging, you'll be riding on another successful blog's momentum. Getting your content in front of a large targeted audience will improve your company's visibility, positioning you as an authority figure in your niche market. Aside from having potential customers learn about your company, guest blogging is an excellent way to secure backlinks (links directing readers back to your website) – driving referral traffic to your site. If you're not overly familiar with backlinks, the most important thing to understand is that the more high quality backlinks your site has, the better its chances are for ranking highly on Google.
How to find guest blogging opportunities
Now that you know the basics of guest blogging, it's time to find opportunities that are well suited for your business. You can do this easily with a few simple Google searches. Try typing the below lines into Google, substituting “keyword” for the specific keywords relevant to your business. For example, if you run a dog-sledding company, suitable keywords would include 'dog-sled' 'dog-sledding' 'winter activities' 'sledding' 'outdoor adventures', etc.
Keyword “write for us”
Keyword “guest blog”
Keyword “guest post”
Keyword “guest post opportunities”
Keyword “become an author”
Keyword “become a contributor”
Keyword “accepting guest posts”
Keyword “submit a guest post”
Once you've created a list of guest blogging opportunities, you'll want to dig a little deeper to ensure each site you've added will assist you in achieving your company's guest blogging goals. Most companies are interested in achieving at least one of these three main guest blogging goals:
Increasing visibility
Securing backlinks
Elevation as an authority in their industry
To start with, it's important to understand your main goals. Think about what you want to accomplish by guest blogging. If for example, your main goal is to secure backlinks, be sure you review each blog's guest post instructions, usually listed as “contributor guidelines”, “submission guidelines” or similar. You may find that some blogs do not allow any contributor links or may only allow one link back to your site. If this is the case, it would be best to look for a different blog to contribute to that will help you reach your backlink goal.
8 Tips to ensure your guest post will be successful
Finding a list of suitable guest post opportunities is a start but, most importantly, you'll have to get your post accepted. Follow these tips to ensure your post is both accepted and successful.
1. Read the guidelines carefully.
The very first step towards getting your content accepted is to ensure you follow all instructions to a T. Most blogs that accept contributors will have a guidelines section with suggestions or requirements on how to get your content accepted. Each blog's guidelines will often dictate what type of content they are looking for, who is allowed to contribute, and how content needs to be formatted. This is particularly important because some blogs only take content from specific professionals. For example, a blog discussing physician finances may specify that they only accept content from those with MDs or DOs. It's also quite common for word count to be specified in these guidelines. For example, a blog may only accept articles between 1200-1400 words, where another may only take content that is 800 words or less. Another important topic usually discussed in the guidelines is whether or not potential contributors are allowed to contact a blog's manager or editor to pitch ideas. Some blogs are very strict, and only want you to contact them once you have a fully finished article. Others are more relaxed and will allow you to reach out to them first to pitch a few ideas before submission. If this opportunity is presented to you, always take it. It's a great way for you to let the editor know what articles you're working on or thinking of writing and they can give you the yay or nay on whether that topic is of interest to their readers. Be sure you check in the guidelines regarding the type of content they are looking for first. It'll be quite embarrassing to ask if they'll take your piece about the different flavours of ice cream when their guidelines specify they don't take content about desserts. It'll also set you off on the wrong foot with the editor, so always read first and ask questions later. If you can't find any guidelines posted online, as long as it's allowed, feel free to reach out to a blog's listed contact person to ask.
2. Don't re-use content.
This is a big no-no in the world of Google, in fact, it's so frowned upon that Google dishes out penalties for duplicate content. In the case of guest blogging, that means penalties for your website, if that's where the content was initially published, as well as the site that hosts your guest post. These penalties can really hurt each site's traffic and ranking on Google, so never, ever re-use published content. The only exception to this rule is if you wrote a piece of content that you published previously, but for whatever reason, you ended up removing it from your website. You could always use this as a starting point, revamp it, and submit a polished version.
3. Write about what you know about.
Remember, one of the main advantages of guest blogging is the ability to establish yourself as a leader and authority figure in your field. If you run a real estate company, don't write about jogging clothes, write about real estate. You want readers to value what you say and they'll value it if they believe you know what you're talking about. Your years as a realtor is what is going to make them see your content as reliable and therefore valuable.
4. Get your content in front of the correct audience.
If you're running a doughnut shop, getting your piece about donuts posted on a website focused on desserts would be perfect. However, posting a blog about doughnuts on an insurance website would be pointless – it's essential that the RIGHT audience, not just any audience, sees your content for the guest blogging strategy to be successful.
5. Don't overcrowd your piece with links.
Many sites that accept guest posts will also allow relevant links to be embedded in that content. This means an opportunity for you to link back to blogs hosted on your own site, funnelling large amounts of traffic your way. With that said, don't get carried away with adding links at any and every opportunity. Always write for your audience first, and add in a few relevant links after – but only where it's natural and doesn't disrupt the flow of the piece. Remember, whatever you write needs to provide something useful to its intended readers. You can pretty much guarantee that your piece will be rejected if it's clear you threw something together just to fill it with links.
6. Add your bio if it's allowed
Adding your company bio to the start or end of your piece is a great way to help readers remember your company and brand. If it's allowed, you can often include a blurb about yourself or your company – such as your mission statement or vision – in addition to a link back to your website.
7. Promote your entry.
Once your content has been accepted, make sure you find out when it will be live. This is essential because it allows you to advertise your new post on all of your social accounts, boosting the piece's buzz and visibility. It's also a good idea to see if the hosting site will also feature your content on their social media accounts. If so, send them your company's social media handles to ensure cross-promotion on and after publish day.
8. Maintain all relationships.
If one of your posts has been accepted by a blog, especially if it was a hit for them, your chances of them posting another one of your pieces will go up dramatically. For this reason, you want to make sure you maintain a great working relationship as this can result in your content getting repeatedly published on their site. Be courteous in your interactions, thank them for posting your content, and keep on providing them with fantastic, well-written content. Google looks favourably on these relationships because an authoritative blog repeatedly linking to another site is in a way “vouching” for that site.
At Blue Wolf Digital, content marketing is one of our specialties. We have a vast amount of experience creating content, including guest posts, for our clients.
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