Before we discuss the do’s and don’ts of guest posting, let’s explore the endless benefits that guest posting activities can bring to your site.
There is a common misconception that guest posting is a mere link-building tactic that’s fast getting outdated. Even though it’s a link-building strategy, guest post offers a lot more, and let me clarify it to you, it’s not going to kick the bucket anytime soon.
Even though guest posting helps in securing backlinks from relevant websites, it can also get you brand recognition, referral traffic and authority on the web.
Link building is essential because Google considers it as one of the crucial factors to rank your website on the SERP.
Google has laid out specific guidelines regarding the quality of guest posting and backlinking activities, according to which, it will penalize any site that executes low-quality guest posting or link building activities.
Therefore you must carry out guest posting activities with proper precaution and care. Of course, there are guest posting guidelines to help you with it, which we will discuss later in the post.
Guest posting can benefit your website in more ways than you can imagine. Guest posting helps you to build an authority in your niche. The more informational and well-researched your post is, the more audience it will attract.
There will be other authors in your niche who can also learn a thing or two from your blog and incorporate them into their content. In return, you can expect backlinks and mentions about you and your website.
Guest posting also helps you to build your brand name. Once you establish yourself as an opinion leader in your niche, people will automatically wait for your opinions and suggestions before making a purchase decision.
While you develop a strong authority with guest posting on one side, on the other hand, you can expand your network through it, grow your social media following, and generate qualified leads.
As you cannot ignore the importance of guest posting to help your site generate traffic and leads, here’s a 7 step guide for you to secure links, traffic, and authority from high authority niche-specific websites.
Step 1: Determine Your Guest Posting Goals
Before you learn the guidelines for guest blogging, you need to determine why you want to do guest blogging in the first place. Generally, website owners carry out guest post activities to position themselves as an authority site in their niche or to build quality backlinks to generate leads.
If you are trying to accomplish any one of the above goals or trying to meet all the targets, you first need to find high-quality blogs that have a vast audience base and are open to accepting guest posts. If you are more focused on building backlinks, you can check the Domain Authority of a given website using Small SEO Tools or Website SEO Checker. Doing this will help you to shortlist blogs where you can carry out your guest posting activities.
Step 2: Finding Guest Blogging Opportunity
The first thing that you need to do is to find sites in your niche with good domain authority. You also need to explore these sites and find out how is the user engagement and what is the frequency of guest blog posting. Do the audience comment on the posts published? Are the guest posts shared widely on social media?
Relevance is significant while looking for guest posting opportunities. If you are from the automobile industry, you cannot strike a chord with a website that deals with gardening, even if it has a high user engagement and commendable DA. So, here’s how you can begin looking for guest posting opportunities in your niche from scratch.
Google Search
What could be a better way to find guest posting opportunities then to utilize Google search to look for keywords like “guest post,” “submit a guest post,” “guest posting sites,” “guest posting guidelines,” etc.
There is another technique known as Google Reverse Image Search, where you copy the link of the image of a famous author in your niche (from the author bio) and paste it in Google image search option. The result will give you a list of all the websites where the author has done guest posting.
Connections With Other Guest Bloggers
Are you familiar with any guest blogger in your industry? If you read your niche blogs often, you might know the ones who blog frequently. If you do a quick google search by “Guest post by (insert the blogger’s name),” you’ll discover the sites where these top bloggers have posted their content, and you can contact those sites for guest post submission.
Competitor Backlinks Tracking
If you have ever executed a backlink analysis of a competitor, chances are you’ve found backlinks that your competitor has got from a guest post. Tools like Open Site Explorer also helps you to look at the backlinks of your competitors to spot any sites they have written guest posts for.
Social Searches
Another effective way to find out guest blogging opportunities on different websites is through social media. You can post your requirements on social media and any site that accepts guest posts may contact you if they come across, or you can do an online search to find out if there are any guest post requirements available.
Alternatively, you can also read articles that lists top sites to guest post for various niches. You can then contact them individually and see who is ready to accept and who isn’t
Blogging Community
You can find useful communities of guest bloggers online like My Blog Guest, where you can sign up for free and look for blogs accepting guest posts. You can also choose to post about your interest in guest blogging, and relevant website owners/bloggers will find you and contact you.
Step 3: Getting Ready with Guest Post Pitch
Now that you have the idea about how to find guest blogging opportunities, next comes the task to pitch your proposal in the right way. If you are a known face in the guest blogging community, it gets easier for you to get your requests approved as most of the other blog owners in your niche will be already familiar with you.
However, if you are relatively new to guest blogging, you need to study the site thoroughly before writing a guest post to understand what type of content gets good views, shares, and comments on the site. Based on that, you have to decide the topic you want to write about and of course, the format of the content.
The toughest part of any guest blogging activity is the pitching. Every day hundreds of authors approach websites with requests to guest post on their site. If you stick to generic pitches, your email is going to end up in the spam folder or worse; it will never be opened!
To avoid that, you need to write a killer pitch. Some elements that you can add to catch the site owner’s attention instantly are:
- Talk about something specific about the website you want to guest post
- Make your pitch compact and to the point
- Mention your experience and published works
- Try to soft sell
- Give them a list of 3-5 guest post topics to choose from
Step 4: Creating the Guest Post
Once the site owner responds and finalizes on a topic, you can go ahead and start writing your post. Most site owners will reply with guest posting guidelines that you need to follow on their site. This may contain information like the word count of the guest post, what types of links to add, etc.
Incorporate the guidelines within your guest blog and make sure your post has similar elements like that of most guest posts on the site. Guest posts should be non-promotional and must be intended to offer information above all. Add keywords within your guest post smartly and remember to add links within the content. If you quote someone or recommend any product or services, add a link to them as well. End your guest post with a favorable call to action that will prompt users who read it.
Step 5: Acing the Author Bio
Once you are done writing the guest post, you also need to write the Author Bio. This is the only place where you are free to self-promote (subtly) and gives links to your website/published works/ book, etc. It is better to add a maximum of two links in your author bio and to figure out which links would work better, here are some considerations you need to make.
If your focus is to get a link back, remember to add a link to your website in the author bio. If you want to promote a product or service, you can link a particular landing page in the author’s bio section. If you’re going to increase your social media followers, remember to provide links to your social media channels at the end of the bio.
Step 6: Follow Up
Here are a few things you can do to get the most out of your guest posting efforts. Once your post gets published on a given website, don’t assume that is work is done. It is only half done. Once the post is live, you have to keep a tab of the comments flowing in and reply to each of them individually. Try to reply to almost all the comments, if not, do reply to the comments you get within 1-2 days of publishing the post.
You should also promote your guest post on social media and encourage people to give it a read. Another unusual practice to follow is to send a thank-you note to the site owner as soon as your post is published. This will make the relationship stronger and help you to get approved the next time you plan to guest post on their site.
Step 7: Track the Performance
Finally, you need to track the performance of your guest post. The best way to do so is through Google Analytics, where you can measure the referral traffic to your site and other essential performance metrics. If you want to have a general overlook of your guest blogging strategy so far, you can also compare all the referrals from the guest posts you have written till now to see how successful you’ve been so far.
Step 8: Bonus Tips for Pro Guest Blogging
You may argue saying guest posting is all about building backlinks and getting traffic to your website, but have you ever considered giving value to building your email list? To create your email list through guest posting, you need to try the Expanded Guest Post, which is a three-step process to follow.
You first need to create a bonus resource, like a video or an ebook, and it should be on the same topic as the guest post you’ve written for someone. Next, create a page for people to read your guest post specifically. This is the page that will give access to the bonus resource in exchange for email IDs. Finally, pitch your bonus at the end of your blog post to prompt readers to visit your page and share their email to access it.
Mistakes People Make When Guest Posting
1. Setting unrealistic / no goals
Before you even go ahead with your campaign, you want to have a blueprint in place. Having unrealistic goals, or no goals whatsoever can cost you time and effort.
You can’t compromise on your goals if you need to build user traffic. Say, if you’re rooting for a specific keyword, your content needs to justify that by creating a write-up that revolves around it.
Start by having your content published on blogs that rank for keywords in a particular niche, and which have a high metric score, like Trust Flow, Domain Authority, Page Rank.
That being said, if you’re looking for richer outreach and increased user traffic, you want to put your money on blogs that already have a huge fan following.
2. Don’t try breaking barriers with the blog’s guidelines
You don’t want to mess things up by overlooking the crucial guidelines of a blog you’re targeting. Ignore this, and you’re already on your way out.
The guidelines will help you come up with an ideal post for that blog. Information such as what to do and what to leave out from your post will help you deliver content that’s perfectly aligned to the blog’s metrics.
Most blogs will only publish your contributions if they are flawless and true to the guidelines. You want to make sure that you have lapped up their do’s and don’ts thoroughly before sending it across.
However, if the blog doesn’t have a set guideline in place, make sure you read through the existing posts to get a feel of what they are looking for regarding writing style, linking policies, and of the sorts.
3. Not knowing your audience
It’s customary that before you get down to writing, you understand who you’re writing for, and who’s your audience?
Unless you understand your audience and their preferences, guest posting won’t be doing justice. It’s the very same theory that holds well in the blogging community.
When you’re posting on someone else’s blog, your audience might differ, and so will their preferences.
This is challenging, but not impossible. All you got to do is align your posts to the blogger’s audience and not your current audience so that they can relate to it.
Say, you provide B2B services, but now you want to take the plunge by taking it to consumers as well. To make this work, you’ll need to tweak your approach and make sure you write with the new audience in mind, which are consumers, and not businesses.
4. Don’t recycle your content
If you think since it is not your blog, you can go easy with the quality of the content you submit, think again!
Quality cannot be compromised on any account; the texture, tonality, and presentation of your content need to be sublime and top-notch.
Guest posting is a way of driving traffic to your website or blog and see them converted. That’s not going to be possible without excellent content that your audience will find useful.
Unless there is something on your post that’s helpful and informative, people wouldn’t be interested in exploring your handy work.
5. Not giving enough time and ample prospects
Guest posting doesn’t happen overnight! It demands time, in fact, a whole load of time that could stretch over days or weeks.
Don’t be surprised if you don’t get a response at the get-go; publishing a post takes time. Give adequate time, and while you’re waiting for an answer, make sure you’re also keeping busy outreaching to other blogs.
It takes about four to six weeks to get a blog published. Don’t lose hope; keep writing, and make new connections with other bloggers while you’re at it.
6. Follow up with e-mails
Your task does not end with sending across your blog post; you need to follow up with e-mails if you don’t hear from the blogger.
Remember, they are dealing with hundreds and thousands of guest posts, and it’s possible that yours got overlooked.
There’s no harm and checking on the status after about two weeks or so; be sure not to spam the blogger.
7. Not responding to comments
So you think it’s done and dusted after you have submitted a fantastic post? Absolutely not! The real deal demands that you stick around to respond to comments and participate in discussions.
You can’t disappear into thin air when somebody has taken the trouble to leave you a comment. Furthermore, here’s the chance for you to get up, close, and personal with your audience.
It’s a fantastic way of building a relationship and establishing trust. Also, remember to reply to the follow-up comments, they are equally vital for developing a good rapport with the audience as well.
8. Being laid back with maintaining records
Ensure you keep a detailed record of your blog posts; blog title, date of submission, URL, contact details, Page Rank, Domain Authority, and much more, and yes, also the date it was published.
It’s a great way to understand what works and what doesn’t, and you want to work around it. You need to iron out and perfect your posts in such a way that they generate the maximum user traffic.
Conclusion
This step-by-step advanced guide to guest blogging is going to be helpful for all marketers who want to ensure maximum success in it. The guest blogging guide takes you to the basics of guest blogging, starting from what it is and why is it essential to how to do it the right way. Read through this advanced guide to learn about the small tricks and tips that will make your guest blogging efforts successful. If you are unable to implement the strategies due to lack of time and resource, contact a guest post service provider to assist you.
Hey!
Can you suggest any idea how to get a website on which we can do guest blogging?
Hi Gina,
The best way to find contextual guest positing opportunity is to find the sites that provided backlinks to your competitors. Hope this helps.
Hay,
May I know what do you think is the best search operator for finding guest posting opportunities organically?
May I know is there any tools for guest posting outreach?
Hi Patricia,
I would recommend you use BuzzSumo. It’s a very good tool to identify influencers and bloggers. Hope this info helps.
Is there any online platform where we can connect to bloggers for guest posting?
Hi,
Can you suggest a few parameters of the blog website to be considered while going for guest blogging.
Hello Dileep,
Why do a few websites don’t have blogs for guest posting?
Hi,
What does guest posting do for the Host Site?
Hi Ammy,
Answer is Traffic – both organic and through social media.
“Hi,
Is there any other way to make backlinks as for us guest posting is out of budget.”
Hey,
Thank you for sharing this guide, I am a beginner in this SEO field. Your guest blogging guide has helped me a lot.
Hi John,
Great to hear that the content helped you. Please keep reading more of our articles.
Hi,
Great Article!! Many websites only accept content but not author bio, is it ok to hand over all the control?
Hi Vicky,
It’s always good to give the credit to the people who deserve.
Linkbuilding has now become the most important factor in SEO. Thanks for sharing these useful guidelines.
Great to hear that Robert. Please keep a tab on our blog section for more updates.
Recreating blog posts on sites like blogger.com etc… and then linking them to your website. Do they work?
Hi Christopher,
I think you are talking about Web 2.0 properties. They used to, but now I don’t think it will work.
Guest posting with links in Author bio will worth?
Hi Shreoshe,
Is guest posting still an efficient SEO strategy? I mean exchanging them with strong niche related blogs and not buying them.
Instead of guest blogging, Can we buy backlinks from other good DA websites? Is that a good thing?
Hi Angelina,
That may fall under the grey hat. If you do it strategically it may work, but if Google figures it out, chances are that you may get penalized.
Helpful and informative. Thanks for sharing this guide.
Hi Mary,
Great to hear that. Please keep visiting our blog.
Thanks for the brilliant article. I got a lot of new ideas on how to get high-quality blogs to approve my guest posts. I heard that Matt Cutts said that Google probably ignores backlinks in the Author Bio section. Is that true?
How do you suggest getting into guest blogging if you are just getting into blogging and do not have too many credentials quite yet?
Hi Javier,
Why don’t you start your own blog and publish a few articles (really high-quality and engaging ones). Pitch websites with the links of these articles to begin with. Hope this tip helps.
Maybe guest blogging is also a two-way benefit, the guest can have a link back to his website while the blog owner will have an additional article in his niche, a win-win situation. I’m right..?
Well, that’s not ethically the best practice.
Nice article and a great resource! It certainly takes time but valuable and unique, fresh and completely non-generic content goes far with guest blogging and posting.
Hello Dileep,
Do you think paid backlinks are worth the investment?
Also, I have promised my blogger that I will increase traffic through my guest post within a month. Can you please provide me tips to keep up this promise??
I own a website, where we accept guest posts and we usually give do-follow links to all the external links in our posts. Will this affect my site backlinks and rankings in any case?
Hi Janet,
If the posts are good and informative there should not be an issue. Also, the links that you provide must be to relevant website.
Hello,
Great information, Would you please suggest me any tips & tricks to write awesome subject lines.
Great article once again. I have pitched with one of the relevant sites who is ready to publish my blog on his website but he is giving only no-follow links, shall I publish a blog post on his site for no-follow backlinks??. is going to add any value to my website??.
Hi. that depends upon your preference since it’s not a ranking factor
Thank you for the great article. This is all I need to succeed in guest posting. Kindly include Cute Writers https://cutewriters.com/submit-guest-post-write-for-us/.
The website accepts guest posts in digital marketing and SEO niches.
Thank you, these are really useful tips. I do use guest blogging as a part of my article marketing strategy, I like how you talked about determining guest posting goals. I think this is something that many people need to check out before starting guest blogging.
Hi Enrique,
Great to hear that.
Hi,
I use Ahrefs and in that one-parameter Domain Rating is there why can’t we consider that instead of domain Authority for finding the quality websites.
Hi Shreoshe,
I’ve been implementing a lot of these tactics, but I am struggling to get the requisite responses from guest posting prospects. I’m following them socially and commenting on blogs before reaching out, but I don’t appear to be standing out. Is there any way that I can really stand out from the crowd?
Hi,
Great tips!
Do you have any suggestions on how to convince a blogger who ask us to pay for guest posting?
Thank you for sharing this great information about guest blogging.
Hi John,
Great to hear that.
Hi Shreoshi, I’ve been implementing all these techniques still I couldn’t convince bloggers for free backlinks. Can you please share with me any tips or techniques that you’ve been using so far?
Hi Shreoshe,
Very thorough and informative article and covers so many aspects. My blog’s niche doesn’t have a lot of blogs to guest post. Should I guest post on unrelated blogs like Content writing/blog tips etc?. That will help to build backlinks but not direct traffic. Is it worth the effort?
Hi, really great info! Thanks for sharing. I appreciate your efforts for sharing this list with us. Keep it up.
Thank you Payel.
Hey, thanks for an amazing post! Link back from Author’s Bio is considerable?
Hi,
It is such a wonderful article. Anyone who has interest in guest posting will be highly beneficial from this post. Thanks alot for sharing such a knowledgeable content. Moreover there are various types of niche to submit the guest post like Business, Home, Garden, Technology and many more niche.
Thanks
I’m still a supporter of guest posts, but I definitely agree – the link needs to add value to the user
A great information you have shared keep it up.
Thanks for the content. Google gives many search penalties for blogging platforms as nofollow, thus I think it’s very risky to digging deep into the blog postings. It’s true that guest posting is a good way to build backlinks. But google needs high-quality guest posting ,that is a time-costly means to get links
Hi Jacob, I agree with you 100%. You need quality guest posts and that can be only done by experts. By the way we do blogger outreach here at Stan to help businesses build high-quality backlinks.