Hello and welcome to outsourcesem.com blog, and to the next chapter of Ultimate guide to Link Building!
In the first chapter on Ultimate Guide to Fundaments of Link Building we discussed different terms related to Link Building, what is exactly Link Building, why building links are important and a list of the Best Practices for Link Building.
List of Practices for Efficient Link Building:
4. Link Building through Off Page Optimization
• Dofollow Forum Participation
• Directory Submission
• Resource Page Backlinks
• Writing and Posting Testimonials
• Content Promotion
• Brand Monitoring - Link Claim
5. Link Building through Creating Different Types of Contents
• Ego Bait Content Creation
• Posting Infographics
• Newsjacking
• Free Product Creation
6. Link Building Through Different Link Profile Analysis
• Competitor’s Backlink Profile Analysis
• Brand’s Backlink Profile Analysis
7. Link Building Through Broken Links
In the last session, we had a chapter on the first practice; Creating Great Content. In that chapter, we discussed what you can do on your own page to get valuable backlinks. We had an ultimate guide to creating link-worthy contents on your website; “What role ‘Great Contents’ play in Link Building” and what are the components of a good content, what are the benefits and how to create good contents?
Now, at times, it may be noticed that a good content is not getting the due attention and traffic. This is because of the lack of awareness about that content. In that case you need other strategies to create brand awareness to earn higher traffic and backlinks. The same thing may happen to any great product without proper marketing. However great the product is, the customers need to be made aware of it for them to get engaged with the product or buy it. Similarly, great content needs to be marketed well for readers to recognise it and give link to it. For that, there are many other strategies to build links.
Further exploring the strategies to build links, we are going to talk about the second link building strategy from the list given above; ‘Guest Posting’. It will help you in getting links from other websites and pages.
Chapter 3
Ultimate Guide to Building Links Though Guest Posting
Have you ever wondered that why would someone put in so much effort and time to create a content for someone else’s website? Why do people guest post anyway? Well, to answer that question, let us get familiarised with the concept of Guest Posting.
Guest posting or Guest Blogging is like speaking to a different set of audience than the usual. You present your content to a newer crowd. Guest posting or guest blogging is quite a good way of getting your company’s or website’s name on other websites. Not only it widens your brand visibility, it also gets your website major traffic influx.
Definitely, you need to know how to produce amazing content in order to get an opportunity for guest posting and make efficient use of that opportunity. The process of creating Guest Post Content is almost same as that of creating a content. Just that you are creating a content for some other website, not your own. All the concepts and ingredients applicable in creating a great post applies to creation of guest post as well. Plus, you have additional step and process before and after the content creation for guest posting.
The aim of this chapter is to make it useful by providing ideas and techniques to get better in guest posting.
P.S.
Outreaching to other sites for backlinks in exchange for content or monetary benefits is an unfair practice and a violation to webmaster guidelines. It is recommended to avoid getting involved in such practices.
But, an approach with a clear intent for the benefit to the host site and its visitor is acceptable. Consider guest blogging as more about presenting your knowledge and skills to others for their benefit, than about a source of backlinks. Only then you can call it a ‘Fair Practice’. It is very important to keep this point under consideration while guest posting.
Let’s now, talk about the points mentioned below so that it answers all your questions related to ‘Guest Posting or Guest Blogging’.
a) What is Guest Posting or Guest Blogging?
b) Benefits of Guest Blogging
c) How to do a Guest Posting?
d) Things to avoid or beware of while Guest Posting
a) What is Guest Posting or Guest Blogging?
When someone creates and posts a content on other website, other than their own webpage, it is known as Guest Posting. You are creating a content for someone else.
But, getting back to the questions mentioned earlier, why would you create a content for someone else? Why would you invest so much time and resources for producing a post for some other website? What returns would you get out of it?
You guest blog because it is good for your brand. You get to showcase your skills and knowledge to a different crowd than usual. So, in a way you are creating a new source for traffic and conversions.
But, these are with respect to you and your brand. And, here arises another question; ‘Why would other webmasters let you post on their website and what are they going to gain from this whole thing?’. Well, to mention, only if your post is going to add some value to their page, webmasters are going to let you be post as a guest on their site. Always remember this. Your article must add value to the host site and its visitors. Also, then, the webmasters of those sites won’t mind linking back to your site. And, the main aim behind guest posting done by many people is to get backlinks to their site. Again, it is very important to not make this too obvious or noticeable in your guest post. Obviously, there could be other aims like, to increase brand awareness and domain authority. For which, linking may not be required. But it is always good to guest post if you get to post a dofollow link to your business.
b) Benefits of Guest Blogging
Writing and publishing on a relevant website belonging to your industry is one of an important practice for link building. When you write for some other website, you are using an opportunity to reach that website’s visitors.
1. It widens your brand’s reach and creates increased brand awareness.
2. It exposes you to a good amount of social engagement via discussions and comments.
3. You also get to mention references and get backlinks from that website.
4. It is one of the best way to get exposure to a newer audience by presenting your related knowledge, expertise and services.
5. You get access to a larger visitor base from your industry, which leads to higher targeted traffic influx.
6. Targeted traffic influx turns out as a source for potential customers and it increases the probability of conversion rate.
7. Guest Blogging also helps in getting Higher Domain Authority.
c) How to do a Guest Post in Five Easy Steps:
For guest blogging you have to be smart in your approach. Since this involves social involvement, you have to strongly check your social communication protocol.
Below, I have tried to break the process for guest posting into steps to make it easier for you to understand and implement.
1. Find an opportunity for Guest Posting
The first step towards guest posting is to search and reach other sites in your industry that allow guest posting on their websites. With time, you can reach out to big names and industry influencers to widen your reach for higher potential clients.
For finding an opportunity or a target site for Guest Posting, you can use the below mentioned techniques:
Google search: Search with the ‘keyword’ (‘Keyword’ being your industry name or a term from your industry) along with the following terms (or similar terms)
• ‘Guest Blog’
• ‘Write Guest Blog’
• ‘Write for us’
• ‘Writer wanted’
• ‘Become an author for us’
• ‘Guest article’
• ‘Submit guest post’
• ‘Guest Blogger’
• ‘Guest Post’
• ‘Guest Column’
• ‘Guest blog post’
• ‘Submit guest article’
• ‘Become a guest blogger’
• ‘Guest post by’
• ‘Accepting guest post’
You will be able to make a good list of the names of the sites that allow guest posting by the end.
Twitter Search: You can do a similar search on Twitter by searching the phrase ‘Keyword’ plus ‘Guest Post’. You will find a lot of sites here that provide guest posting opportunity.
Find websites for which known Guest Bloggers from your industry have written guest posts for: For this, you need to first find a few well-known guest bloggers who are influencers or experts from your industry. If you read a lot of blogs related to your field, you’ll find a few names coming repeatedly as guest bloggers. List a few of those names and then, find the websites they have written guest-posts for.
You can simply do this by searching the phrase ‘Guest Blog by’ or ‘Guest Post by’ and the Blogger’s name. You will be able to find a lot of sites that allow guest blogging through this search process.
Competitor’s Backlink Profile analysis: Here you study your competitor’s backlinks to find the websites that your competitor has guest posted for. Either you use a tool to analyse your competitor’s backlink profile and find out the websites your competitor has guest posted. Or you can simply use google search, enter your competitor’s domain name along with the phrase ‘Guest post’ You will find a lot of site names which you can target for your own guest blogging.
Posts with list of ‘websites accepting guest blog’: Many people and websites have already posted a list of blogs that accept guest posts. You can find the list relevant to your industry and make good use of it.
Comment section of Blogs: You can actively participate on the comment section of the blog. You may offer to write for the people who comment (if they run their own blogs, you would have to check this before). Only offer to write for them if you are able to strike a conversation with them and they appreciate your work.
Targeting the website for guest post: After you have made all the necessary searches, you would have a huge list of websites that welcome guest posting in your industry. Now, you can target a few of the best for you own guest post.
Important point to note while targeting the website for guest blogging:
• The site should be of your niche.
• Check the important metrics and stats like authority score, referring domains, etc. for the sites you are opting to guest post.
• Choose to guest post for the high authority websites. It should have a high authority link profile.
• Find and reach sites that allow Dofollow links for guest posting. It is worth to write for sites that allow Dofollow links for all the efforts you put in for creating the guest post. Your website link should not just be restricted to the Blogger’s Bio section of the post. You should be able to post links and references to your own webpage at relevant places in the post.
• Website must post only high-quality content.
• Website has a good amount of traffic and has the potential to bring good traffic quantity to your website.
• Website should have a good number of followers on social media.
2. Pre-works before contacting the targeted sites’ webmasters
Once you have narrowed it down to what website you are going to guest post for, you need to know a lot of things before you reach out to the webmaster of those sites.
Certain important and helpful steps are mentioned below:
Study the selected Website’s blog content
You need to study and understand the Blog content of the website. Read the contents available on the site; the ones that are posted by the site owners and the ones that are posted by the guest bloggers. Understand what sort of content is being posted on the particular site by the guests; the topics, the format, the presentation. Read through them, understand and try to follow the pattern accordingly.
• Understand what are the types of blogs they write. Do they have detailed tutorials or specific concepts as their contents? What is the format they follow for their blogs, what length and what level of words do they use in their content?
• Understand the type of audience base of the blog. The audience base is mostly consumers or belonging to ‘business to business’ formats. Get to know the level of the audience.
• Understand what sort kind of posts do well on their page. Know the type of posts that the readers are engaging most with.
• Review Guest Post Guidelines on their website. Familiarise yourself with the specific details the webmasters want you to stick with while writing a guest post for them. Get familiarised by any set norm stated by that website. Thoroughly understand the website’s terms and conditions for guest posting, if any.
• Understand who are the other guest bloggers and what are they posting about. Also, understand what sort of guest posts are doing well.
Selection of Topic for the Guest Post
Before you pitch in yourself as a guest blogger, you must be prepared with a small list of topics suitable for that blog. Select a subject for the guest blogging. Keep the topics that fits the website and its readers. You can also focus on any subject that is missing on that site and would prove helpful for that website as well as its users.
• Read the website’s popular blog topics. You will get an idea about what all things the website is interested in talking about. And, what topic is doing well for that website.
• Read the other related websites’ popular topics. It will help you understand what is that the readers want to know about or are talking about in the industry. It may also help you to find an important topic that may be missing on your targeted website.
• Read about the Trending topics in the industry. Search about the topics that are making news related to your industry. Read then all properly. Relate what is already there and what is missing on the targeted website.
Based on all the studies you do, select a few topics (at least three or four topics) to write for that would be useful for the opted website. You may also frame the outline of your content for those topics. It would help you in pitching forward your guest post to the webmaster.
Familiarize the Target Website with your name
Before you connect with the target website’s webmaster, you should make your name as a familiar one to them. This helps in getting the required attention and action to your guest blog request when you pitch forward.
• Share the high quality and latest posts of the website on social media. Mention their website in your blog posts as references.
• Comment on their blog posts. Make sure your comments are useful and insightful.
• Send them emails. Tell them how their post (with reference to that post) was useful to you or added value to your content.
These steps would help in getting the webmaster familiar to your name. The webmaster would be able to recognise your name and recollect your insightful inputs.
3. Pitch Forward your request for Guest Blogging
After you are done with all the pre-requisites and have a thorough study of the targeted blog, you may pitch forward your request to guest post.
Below are the steps that would help you for the same:
• If they have an inquiry form on their website available for guest posting, send a request by filling out the required form. Or, send an email on the given email address requesting them for guest contribution.
• Keep your message short (not too short), simple and clear. Be polite and sweet in your approach.
• Make a personalized message. It might take some time but find the name of the webmaster and use the name to start the message.
• Start off by talking about something insightful and specific about their website and their posts. Make a few praises for their websites, mention a few of their contents or topics you read and found useful.
• Include a good self-introduction to make a good first impression. Mention some of your good works to showcase your experience and kind of impressive work you do.
• Then, put forward your intention to guest post for their website and explain how your post is going to add value to the website, its owner and its visitors. Make your intention clear that your contribution is for their benefit and not yours.
• Pitch forward the topics you intend to write for. Depending upon the topics, you may just give an idea to the topic or also add a framework of the content along with the idea. Mention reason for selecting those topics and how they are going to add value to the website and its visitors (they may be in trend topics, may be missing on their website, etc.)
4. Creating a Great Guest Post
If you eventually get an opportunity for creating a post as a guest after all the efforts, you need to create a great post for the website. You need to keep in mind the audience base of that website and usefulness of your post to them.
So, before you start creating a content for the other website, think this is as a way to create your authority in your industry, not just as an exercise for link building. With that thought process, start to create an amazing content that does justice to the website and interests its visitors.
As it was mentioned earlier, for creating a good content, it is very important to keep your intentions ‘user-oriented’. Guest posting on topics that are always going to be useful in your industry is going to fetch you great results in the long term. They act as a host to a lots of targeted traffic. Practice this strategy of Guest Blogging wisely.
So, produce an awesome, high-quality blog post keeping all the great post creating components in place.
You may follow the below guidelines:
Content Quality and type:
• Strictly follow the website’s guidelines and terms for guest posting. Stick to the format followed by other guest posts. Keep the blog systematically and logically presented. Talk in steps or bullets. They are easy to read, understand and much easier to implement for the readers.
• Keep the post of a good length. It is observed that a post of 2000 words or more have higher value.
• Only publish high quality and relevant content. Make your post as a valuable source of information for the online visitors.
• Your content should be able to start thoughts and conversation running.
Add Links:
• If it fits the website’s guest posting guidelines, add solid references. You may ask the webmaster for link insertion for related and relevant content.
• Add internal links to good contents of that particular site you are writing for.
• Insert links to your own website’s good contents in form of references or examples.
• Add links to other high authority websites, references, etc. that compliment your guest post.
• Add links to supporting data for your facts and figures.
Add Graphics:
• Add interesting infographics and images to the content of your guest post.
• Add graphs and charts to explain numerical data and comparisons.
• Add flowcharts to make the steps and processes more clear.
• You may add videos and screenshots for tutorials, guides, etc.
Guest Bio Creation:
• Every time you guest post, mostly, you add an author bio to the post introducing yourself and your work to the audience. Hence, it is just as much important to create a great Bio for yourself that would get published along with the post.
• Mostly, the backlinks are added in the Bio. (If the website doesn’t allow linking in the content of a guest post). Backlinks in the bio may consists of links to your company website, your services, your social accounts, etc.
• Go through others guests’ bios and check how they present their bio. Understand how many links and what sort of links you can provide. Accordingly, you create a good bio for yourself.
Finally, produce a fantastic blog, with a good content and a great bio. Recheck each and every detail. There should not be any mistake left from your side. You don’t want to disappoint the webmaster.
5. Follow Up with your Guest Post:
It is very important part of Guest posting if you want valuable outputs. Follow the below steps to be able to get the best out of your blog post.
1. Actively participate in comment section:
Reply to all the comments on the guest post as soon as possible. (preferably within 48 hours of the comment being posted). Acknowledge their comments. Try and answer all the questions being asked by the visitors. Appreciate and express gratitude for any feedback. Be polite with your words.
2. Promote your Blog:
Share your guest post on social media and emails. That way you will send new visitors to that website. It will be appreciated by the webmaster as well.
3. Write a Thank You Note:
Write a Note to the webmaster expressing your gratitude for the guest post opportunity provided to you. You may also share a few insightful comments and conversations that took place after blog posting. Or you may share the data about how good blog is doing, and how other people are talking about it by sharing the post on social media. Again, be polite and always show that you are grateful to the webmaster and the website.
4. Guest Post opportunities in comment section:
As mentioned earlier, you can also interact in your comment section for guest post opportunity. If an appreciative comment is made by a blogger, you can politely ask to guest post for them.
d) Things to avoid or beware of while Guest Posting
• Don’t go for websites that do not allow ‘dofollow link’.
• Don’t appear selfish in your outreach mail, or appear spammy.
• Don’t produce shabby content. No one would want to put it up on their website.
• Don’t forget to make your content useful for the website and its user. Keep your intentions clear.
Remember:
As mentioned earlier, think Guest posting as an opportunity to position yourself and your brand as an authority in your industry. It will drive online visitors to your website. And, always remember to produce guest posts that fits the host site and its audience. It will fetch you unmatched results in long term.
I hope you found this whole chapter on ‘Ultimate Guide to Guest Posting’ interesting and useful for you. And, hope you understood the whole idea behind the practice of creating guest posts. I have tried to explain things in easy steps so that you would be able to implement these ideas to further sharpen your guest posting skills.
This brings us to the end of today’s session. See you soon in the next post where we are going to discuss yet another interesting strategy for building good links.
Until then, Good Bye and take good care!
Cheers!
Click here for Chapter 4: Ultimate Guide to Building Links through Blog Commenting