The Ultimate Guide To Guest Posting

Would you like higher search engine rankings, an uptick in targeted websites traffic to your blog, and a stronger reputation in your niche?

Although it might sound like a pipe dream especially if you have only recently started your blog and looking for increased targeted traffic and powerful backlinks, this has been made possible with guest blogging.

With guest blogging, you can accomplish these feats quickly without incurring a dime. Here, I will tell you everything you need to know about guest blogging.

What is Guest Posting?

Guest posting (guest blogging) presents a great way to utilize the limitless potential of the internet to build links and online presence.

The main idea behind guest posting is to write articles for someone else’s blog with the aim of growing your website, generating traffic, gaining exposure to a targeted audience, and building natural links for your blog.

With guest posts, you will be addressing a larger audience than your own hence will be required to create unique pieces of content – one you have not published on your blog before.

How Does Guest Blogging Work?

Today, more than 70 million blog posts are published each month, hence becoming increasingly competitive to reach and retain a large blog audience.

Bryan Harris did a guest post and got 73% new visitors to his blog. To make guest blogging work for you, you will need to ask other webmasters if they are accepting guest posts and send out your pitch.

How to Get Started with Guest Posting?

Here is a step-by-step guide on how you can get started with guest blogging.

Find Guest Blogging Opportunity

If you Google “blogs that accept guest posts’, you will find an unexhausted list. After all, you do not need 150 random blogs that accept guest posts.

Instead, consider your target audience and think about blogs that cover similar content to narrow down your search. Here are a few ways to look for guest blogging opportunities.

Google and Social Media Searches:

Google and social media searches are a great way to start in the search for guest posting opportunities.

You can search for keywords beginning with the main keyword followed by “guest post,” “guest bloggers wanted,” and “contributing writer” at the end.

Use keyword research tools to help in finding the exact target blogs. If you need a suggestion, try LSIGraph.

Let’s say you’re a plumber. So, you should type in something like “plumbing guest post” and you’ll see articles written by guest posters and sites looking for guest posts on that topic.

It also works for social media. Simply make the same search and you’ll see several sites that accept guest posting!

Guest Blogger’s Author Bio:

Know of any prolific guest blogger in your industry?

If you do enough research in your industry, there will be names you familiarize with. For instance, Jennifer Slegg is an expert in search engine marketing.

Her author’s bio will reveal all the sites that she has guest posted. You can then try requesting a guest post opportunity from these sites.

Google Search: Sites to Guest Post:

Numerous pages share a list of blogs that accept guest posts. Websitehostingrating is one such website with a list of blogs looking for guest posts.

It tells you the Alexa rank of the top blogs as well as domain authority, difficulty, and link to the website.

Ask for Guest Posting Opportunity:

Now, what if there’s a nice site you’d like to guest post on but you haven’t seen any articles from a guest post on it.

Well, you can pitch directly to websites asking for a guest posting opportunity. They may accept your request or let you know that they’re not accepting any guest posts. There’s nothing to lose here! 

And these are few ways you can find guest post opportunities.

So, what’s next once you’ve found the opportunity? 

Read their guidelines

What most people get wrong with pitching is the use of generic emails that they think they can use for every website.

The best way to pitch is to craft a personalized email that directly addresses your target website. Begin by reading that blog’s content.

Know who they are, how they write, and whom they write for, then compare your content with the most popular post that they already have and see if you have what it takes to make a cut. Here’s an example of a guest post guideline: SEOPressor’s Guest Post Guideline.

Prepare a pitch

If you meet the qualifications, the next step is to introduce yourself. You have to appeal with short and relevant content about yourself because, unlike machines, people have preferences and emotions.

While ensuring that the content is short and simple, do not leave the most important information about yourself.

In addition, show commitment by submitting new topic ideas to add to your previous works and assure that your content is unique.

Write your Guest Post

Now that they’ve seen your past works and accepted your request, you should start working on your guest post.

If you need tips on writing good content, you can always refer to our blog. We’ve covered a few topics like writing in a conversational tone, Google Docs add-ons for content writers, and how to write good content for blogs.

Keep in mind that blog posting is not about your business; hence it should be strictly informational and not an advertisement for your products.

Format posts to resemble those on the website in regards to the quality, word count, images, and links.

Craft an Author’s Bio

The most important part of guest blogging for you will likely be your guest post bio. This is usually the only place you are allowed to include self-promotion links back to your website, blogs, products, and services.

If your goal is to get links, make sure your bio includes a link back to your website with your target anchor text. If your goal is to get traffic back to your website, you might want to consider where that traffic goes.

Here’s an example of an author’s bio crafted by one of our recent guest bloggers. You can see that he has a clear introduction about him, his company, and the actions he wants readers to take.

Follow up

Once your guest posts have been published on their website, you will need to do a follow-up.

Check for replies and comments from the audience and respond to them as a way of engaging and building authority.

If your goal is to build traffic, the results of your guest posting should be measured using a UTM source code or Advanced Segment of Google Analytics.

Getting Guest Bloggers to Your Site

Do not forget that guest blogging is a two-way street. It is tough to work on your blog content while guest posting on other websites.

At the end of your guest posts, always put a call to action opening invitations for guest bloggers to write on your own blog. This will create a win-win situation for:

Fresh content

Guest bloggers will bring new ideas on board, ensuring that you have fresh content and perspective on your blog

Increase in Website Traffic

Growing your website traffic is a key metric to know if the target website is healthy and growing.

Opening invitations for guest posting increases your website traffic, since new visitors can open links directed towards the content on your website.

Conclusion

Guest posting is a win-win situation. It does not matter if you are guesting for your website or for other people.

Having told you of the benefits of the two, you can sit back for sweet success on guest posting.

If you did not achieve any success in the past, give these tips a try today!