Guide To Guest Blogging To Boost Your SEO And Drive Insane Traffic [Video]

The act of writing and publishing blogs for a third party is called Guest Blogging. It is a widespread technique of SEO and content marketing.

Guest blogging is a two-way street arrangement that can benefit both content writers and publishers. Authors need a platform to demonstrate their field of expertise. On the other hand, publishers are looking for high-quality content to keep gaining online traffic. Guest blogging is somewhat similar to the inbound marketing strategy. Read my article on what inbound marketing is to know more.

Six reasons that will motivate you to do guest blogging:

If you think why to put your hard work and skills to write content for someone else, then here are some of the compelling reasons.

1. Increase your brand authority: Digital marketing revolves around trust; you can benefit from genuine readers than a random audience. By publishing your content on some other credible blog website, you can prove that trusted brands recognize you. As a result, you will get more receptive traffic on your website.
2. Gain online targeted traffic with ease: If you write a high-quality post on some popular website, then you can attract traffic flow to your website.
3. Increase your social media followers: Whenever your content gets published in a popular blog having a good social media outreach, you get many shares on your post. This can further increase your following on social media provided you have included a link to your social media account in your contributor profile. 
4. Make new connections with influencers and grow your network: You can use guest blogging to connect with the influencers related to your niche with ease.
5. Test your content writing skills: You can publish your content on a popular website only if your content is par with their standards. Your content is reviewed, so you have to be creative, use the right writing voice, and only provide relevant and useful content. This allows you to improve, learn, and grow.
6. Increase your sales conversions: You can shorten your sales cycle just by posting on a popular website. Your brand’s awareness will increase, and you can target potential customers immediately. Remember to check the niche relevancy first before posting your guest blog. Make sure to find those sites that help you connect with people who are already interested in the kind of services or products you provide. If this is not the case, then your guest post will be nothing but a distraction.

Do read my blog for Lessons from Top 10 famous bloggers to notch up your blogging.

Now let’s explore how you can find the right guest blogging opportunities.

Finding the right guest posting opportunities

What comes to your mind first? Google right? 

It is an excellent place to start your search for guest blogging opportunities. Let me tell you some keywords that you can use to look for such websites. What you need to do is to replace “$” with your relevant keywords from your expertise. 

Method 1: Search the web

• $ “submit a blog post”

• $ “contribute to our site”

• $ “guest column”

• $ “guest post courtesy of”

• $ “guest posting guidelines”

• $ “become a guest blogger”

• “$ “guest blogger”

• $ “guest post”

• $ “write for us”

• $ “guest article”

• $ “guest post opportunities”

• $ “This is a guest post by”

• $ “contributing writer”

• $ “want to write for”

• $ “guest posts wanted”

• $ “looking for guest posts”

• $ “guest posts wanted”

• $ “guest poster wanted”

• $ “accepting guest posts”

• $ “become a guest writer”

• $ “become a contributor”

• $ “submit a guest post”

• $ “guest author”

Now I will tell you a cool trick to find guest posting opportunities.

Method 2: Using reverse search with images:

If you are a blogger, you might be knowing someone who writes many guest posts. You can use image search to look where he publishes his guest blogs. You have to copy the URL of the headshot used in the author’s bio and place the URL in google images search. A page will appear showing the matching pictures of the blogs written by the author.

Method 3: Use social media and join communities:

You can easily find some bloggers who share their guest posts on social media such as Twitter. You can follow the various backlinks to know which blogs are accepting guest posts.

Moreover, there are some communities of guest bloggers as well, such as MyBlogGuest. Let us see what all you can do here:

• Here you can find collaborations and get your content cited.
• You can change your point of view by brainstorming with other experts on a topic.
• You can get feedback from other members after posting your draft.
• You can also build connections by contributing to other’s content.

Method 4: List of websites accepting guest posts:

Here is a researched list of top websites you can visit to look for guest posting opportunities.

• http://www.makealivingwriting.com/
• http://afineparent.com/
• http://www.cracked.com/
• http://listverse.com/
• http://knowledgenuts.com/
• http://www.toptenz.net/
• http://thewritelife.com/
• http://beafreelanceblogger.com/
• http://writenaked.net/
• http://www.fundsforwriters.com/
• http://blog.iwawine.com/
• http://www.bootsnall.com/

How to filter the various websites and pick the best one:

You can only publish your guest post on a single website, so it might be a little confusing to choose between so many options. I am here to help you out in picking up the perfect website for your guest post. You have to look for the answers to the following questions, and you will have the ideal website for you.

Question 1: Who are the other guest bloggers? Finding the answer to this question will give you an idea of other bloggers are invited to this website. You will also know about the standard and popularity of guest bloggers posting on the website by looking at their bios.

Question 2: Are the other guest bloggers doing well? Know how many shares, comments, and replies their previous guest posts have. The more interaction you get, the more traffic you attract.

Question 3: How relevant is your post to the content of the website?  You have to make sure that your keywords are in the target blog’s content.

Question 4: Are they beginners or experts?  Knowing the level of the audience will help you position your content.

Now it’s time to move to the next step that is pitching.        

Pitching your favorite website:

Using the previous four methods, you have picked up some sites. Afterward, you have selected the perfect one for your guest post. Now the question is how to pitch them? It might also be the case that you have a favorite website that does not post guest blogs yet, or it does not have any provision to invite guest blogging, then what can you do to pitch them.

1. Look for guidelines: Some sites advertise that they want guest posts. If applicable, you can know the format they want, how many words they want, and the steps to contact them.

2. Sending your pitch through email: Popular website owners receive many emails daily regarding guest posts. So, you need to make your email stand out. Write a mail in not more than 200 words. Be polite and soft; it is good to start with something specific to their website. Here is an example for your reference:

Hi XYZ, I am one of your long-time followers on Twitter. I would love to contribute a guest post on your esteemed website. I think my blog post can add a lot of value to your website content. Write briefly about your guest post ideas. I can guarantee that my content would be free from plagiarism and will be of high quality. You can refer to my blog to learn about my recent posts. Cheers, Your name

Handy tips to remember while sending your guest posts to the hosting website:

Let’s suppose that the website’s owner accepted your post pitch, and now you have to send him a copy of your guest post. Should you send one of your best posts? Or how many words to write and images to add? The answer is simple. Look at the content of your targeted website and follow a similar trend. I have covered some other essential aspects as well:

• Try to make your post somewhat similar to the format of the posts on your target website. Look for how much headers are typically used, bold/italics text used, and how many images and screenshots are provided. Try to keep similar formatting.
  • Do not advertise yourself by giving too many of your backlinks. Instead, you can provide some backlinks to the owner’s website to show your interest and prove loyalty to the owner.
  • Don’t forget to write a short and concise byline at the end of your article.
  • Always try to inculcate conversations through shares, comments. You can include a CTA as well for comments. And make sure to reply to all the comments as well. The owner will appreciate more user engagement on your post.

Smart tricks for experts:

I will give you three creative tips that you will appreciate after trying them.

1.The power of comments

Previously, I had posted a blog on 13 Must-have Email Marketing Software to Grow Revenues. There I received some comments.

Mostly, these are not just random people; they are themselves bloggers and website owners. After digging a little deeper, I can even find their niche. If their place is similar to yours (which is most of the time), then you can find another guest posting opportunity for you. Moreover, those commentators are already familiar with you and can easily be pitched to host your guest post.

2. Wondering how many external links should be provided in a guest post

The number of links depends on individual sites and guest posts. Although there is no restriction on the number of external links, I will suggest that for every 1000 words of content on the post, you should include 2-4 links. By doing this on your post, you can achieve SEO benefits.

Read my article on Insane SEO Competitor Analysis Tips To Grow Your Website!

3. Always keep a check on your results

You should track your guest post to know how much they are working for you. There are tools like Google Analytics that gives you an insight into how much traffic your website has attained through your guest posts. By knowing these stats, you can decide which guest posting website is working for you more. You can determine if you want to post more blogs on that website or not. In case you are not satisfied with the response from that hosting website, you can switch to some other website or improve your content accordingly. This can help you in deciding future guest blogging strategies. Read my post to know more about google analytics and other digital marketing tools.

Know the misconceptions about guest blogging before you regret them:

Here are the three most common misconceptions that people make about guest blogging:

1. Guest post is not a product review:  I have seen many guest posts where more focus is given on detailing the author (who he is, what he does) rather than providing quality content. This nullifies the aim of a guest post, which is to provide readers with good content. Will you ever post such blogs on your website? No.
2. Don’t use guest posts just for link building: You are WRONG if link building is your only aim for doing a guest post. If you feel so, then you might end up degrading your content quality. Indeed, providing backlinks is fruitful for you, but it should come naturally instead of being randomly enforced.
3. Don’t use guest posts to distribute articles: Writing blogs means putting so much hard work. So, many people are tempted to think that ‘let’s post our blog on several websites and get multiplied benefits.’ Such an approach can spoil your image and relationships with other bloggers in your niche. Playing by the rules and creating trust-based relationships always pays well.
4. 4.     Learn the correct way of writing Bylines: Have you seen a short note or paragraph written after a guest post that tells you about the author? These concise and short paragraphs are called bylines. Bloggers emphasize bylines as they contain links to the author’s sites. I will illustrate my view-points through examples.First, I will give you examples of greedy Bylines. Afterward, I will demonstrate a short and sweet Byline model.

A bad byline example:

The guest post is by Xyz, a blogger, father of two sweet daughters, and a digital marketer. Xyz is from Delhi and graduated from an engineering college. Xyz wanted to be a teacher and was passionate about becoming one. So he moved to Delhi and started writing blogs and teaching people digital marketing.

None of the readers is interested in knowing about your past academics and your marital status. You can find posts where some authors have written 300-500 words describing themselves. Writing such articles won’t make you a criminal, but it sounds entirely off-topic and irrelevant.

An example of a greedy byline:

Xyz,  an SEO expert, had written this blog. If you want to fix an affordable SEO consultation, feel free to contact me. Xyz also blogs on Social media and SEO. Xyz writes about fitness, travel, and a lot of other cool stuff in his free time. Moreover, you can follow Xyz on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.[1]

 Such bylines that have a lot of backlinks can prove to be impolite to the readers.

A concise and short byline example:

You should follow the following critical steps while writing a perfect byline for your post:

• Firstly, you should mention your name followed by a line of your description.
• Secondly, you deserve to give your backlinks but try to provide only one backlink to your main website. Don’t be greedy.
• Now, you should mention your main topics of interest and expertise.
• Lastly, you should attach a link to your social media handle along with the types of posts you upload there. Here is an illustrative example:

This guest post is by Xyz, an entrepreneur. He writes about SEO and Digital marketing on Xyz.com. If you want Xyz to share his SEO and blogging findings, you can follow him on Twitter, where he regularly posts similar useful content.

Whether to accept guest posts on your website or not?

There are both ups and downs to posting guest blogs on your website. You don’t have to write the content on your own. Instead, you can get it from someone else. By doing this, you can increase the number of blogs on your website, which will lead to increased traffic. You should be aware of the following while approving a guest post for your website.

• The guest post should be high quality, free from any plagiarism and duplicity.
• Guest posts should not contain irrelevant and low-quality external links.
• The guest post should contribute something valuable to your audience. The reason you are accepting a guest post is to fill in the content gap. For example, if you are selling olive oil, then you can receive a guest post on the advantages of olive oil over refined oil from a general physician.

Guest blogging is a debatable topic; some people consider it a waste of time, while for others, it plays a vital role in their marketing strategy.

Conclusively, guest blogging is a boon for only those who do it the right way. I have tried to cover every aspect you need to get started with guest posting the right way. If you feel that something else needs to be added, please comment or reach out.

Summing up:

• What exactly is guest blogging? The act of writing and publishing blogs for a third party is called Guest Blogging.
• Six reasons that will motivate you to do guest blogging. You can increase your brand authority, gain online traffic, increase social media followers, improve your skills, and increase sales.
• Finding the right guest posting opportunities. Four cool methods are mentioned.
• Handy tips to remember while sending your guest posts to the hosting website.
• Three Smart tricks for experts. Comments, links, and analysis.
•  Common Misconceptions about guest blogging: Misconceptions on bylines, product reviewing, article distribution, and link building are mentioned, so you will never have them.