Want to optimize your link-building strategy with guest posting? Need to know how to find guest posting opportunities? Not even sure what guest posting is or what benefits it provides?
This guide is for you regardless of where you fall on the guest posting familiarity spectrum. Below, our search engine optimization experts provide a crash course on all things guest posting.
We explore the benefits of quality guest posting and how it helped us achieve 4x increase in organic traffic. Next, we reveal how you can find opportunities to leverage this effective link-building tactic. We round things up by showing you how using the best guest posting services can expedite your brand-building journey.
What Is Guest Posting?
As you are likely well aware, building your brand’s online presence requires a dynamic approach. Great marketing strategies use tactics like paid advertising and traditional blogging. Guest posting should function as an extension of the latter.
While blogging is a great way to attract organic traffic to your site, it is only part of the equation. You also need to guest post. Guest posting involves writing blogs that will be published on other websites. This infographic sums up the process nicely.
The infographic was designed for individual bloggers, but the same premise applies when guest posting for brand-building purposes. Instead of reaching out to a blogger, you can connect with an entity related to your industry.
For example, you can reach out to a journal or publication that reviews the types of products you sell. You can also network with past clients, suppliers, local business owners in your area, and non-competitors in your industry vertical.
Each site has unique guest posting rules. Some sites allow you to mention your company by name in the post and include a clear call to action. Others require you to be more subtle but will allow you to include backlinks to your site.
What Are Backlinks and Why Do They Matter?
While many SEO terms can be confusing, the phrase “backlinks” is not one of them. Backlinks are links from another page back to your website.
Quality backlinks are one of the many criteria that Google analyzes when ranking web pages. Backlinko found that the number of backlinks a site has had the strongest correlation with its ranking.
Simply put, sites with many backlinks typically rank higher than competitors with fewer backlinks. Backlinko also states that about two-thirds of web pages have zero backlinks. Acquiring even a few backlinks via quality guest posting can skyrocket your ranking on Google.
Benefits of Quality Guest Posting
Quality guest posting can significantly increase the efficacy of your digital marketing efforts. The key word there is “quality.”
Your guest posts must be well-written, educational, and entertaining. Quality is important for several reasons.
For starters, crafting top-notch guest posts will help you set yourself apart from other companies using this tactic. According to recent data, about 60% of companies create between one and five guest posts monthly.
However, 79% of editors state that their guest content is too promotional. Publishers do not want to turn off their readers with ads that are poorly disguised as blogs.
If you can create quality guest posts, you will find that more sites are willing to publish your content. Quality content helps them draw more traffic and keep their current readers happy.
Mastering the art of quality guest posting will also yield benefits such as:
Generating More Organic Traffic
Backlinks increase your organic traffic in multiple ways. These links increase your search engine ranking.
Additionally, backlinks generate traffic by creating an extra avenue to your site. When reading your guest posts, consumers don’t have to open a new browser and search for your company.
Instead, all they have to do is click on that bright blue keyword or phrase, and they will be taken directly to the page that you want them to see.
Expanding Your Reach
Guest posting also gives you the chance to expand your reach. Only your current readership will view the content when blogging on your site. Sure, a few consumers may stumble across your page. But this on-site content will probably not generate enough traffic to move you toward your goals.
When you guest post, you tap into the publisher’s audience. Let’s say that your on-site blogs average about 100 views per month. In this scenario, your reach is pretty limited.
However, you can guest post on a site with blogs that average 1,000 views per month. Congratulations — you have just increased your blog views by 10X.
Guest posting still expands your reach even if the size of the publisher’s viewership closely resembles your own — their audience members will differ from yours.
Growing Your Following
Regular guest posting can help you grow your following on social media platforms. When publishers allow, include links to your social media pages at the bottom of blog content.
Once you have built a strong social media following, you can use these platforms to advertise guest posts and on-site blogs. This approach will lead to more blog views and web traffic.
If your followers like or share your social media posts about your blogs, more consumers are likely to see your content. This mechanism allows you to increase your following even more.
How to Find Guest Posting Opportunities
Now that you know how quality guest posting benefits your business, all that’s left to do is start networking with publishers and ask them to post your content.
Not sure where to begin? Not to worry, as we have listed a few ways to find guest posting opportunities. These strategies include:
Just Google It
Thank you, captain obvious. That’s probably what crossed your mind when you read the header for this suggestion. However, we included this tip because there is an art to finding guest posting opportunities on the search engine.
Want to see for yourself? If so, open another tab and search for something like “submit an article” or “guest post.” Be prepared to receive tens of thousands of results, many of which are not related to your industry.
When you want to streamline the search process, try throwing in a keyword before one of the aforementioned phrases. For example, software companies that make a B2C product should search for something like “consumer software guest posts.” Doing so will provide more relevant results.
Find Sites that Publish Content About Your Industry
If you are already familiar with publishers that serve your industry, you can reach out to them directly. Forbes is a great resource, as it allows council members to submit blog content for publishing.
Council members must pay for their membership. Also, Forbes has very stringent content creation guidelines, which you must follow to publish your article on the site.
Network with Business Partners
Good old-fashioned networking is an excellent way to identify guest blog posting opportunities. Reach out to other companies in your vertical, as long as they are not direct competitors.
You could strike an agreement to post one another’s content on your respective websites. This simple agreement is a great way to expand your influence, especially if you and your new publishing partner are local businesses operating in the same city or county.
Ready to Leverage the Best Guest Posting Services?
If you really want to accelerate your link-building and grow your traffic, you should partner with a digital marketing firm that offers guest posting services. While there are many such providers, not all of these firms are created equal.
If you are interested in using some of the best guest posting services available, then you need an experienced partner like Galactic Fed. Contact us today to book your free consultation.
