Guest Posting Best Practices In 2024

Table of Contents

Guest Posting Best Practices

Are you using guest blogging into your content marketing strategy? If you aren't already, now is the time to begin. There's been a lot of talk about guest blogging dying over the years, but it's still one of the most efficient methods to market yourself and your brand. Here are a few instances that demonstrate our thesis.

Elna Cain turned to guest blogging to supplement her freelance writing income. Buffer attracted 100,000 clients by using guest blogging. We'll teach you how to plan and execute a successful guest blogging strategy in this tutorial.

We'll use successful guest blog post examples to demonstrate this. By the conclusion, you'll know how to properly utilize guest blogging to increase your company's and brand's exposure while also increasing lead generation.

Guest Blogging's Advantages

If you're employing content marketing, a guest blogging plan may help you increase traffic and improve your ROI. Guest blogging, according to the Material Marketing Institute (CMI), is an important aspect of your marketing funnel since it provides offsite expert content.

Let's take a look at some additional advantages of guest posting. Because the material you publish on other sites informs new audiences about you, guest blogging is an effective strategy to raise brand recognition. Guest blogging helps you acquire new subscribers and enhance lead generation since those new readers may visit your site or landing page.

Trust is also built via guest writing. When your work is published on reputable, authoritative sites, part of that trust is transferred to you. Guest writing regularly may help people regard you as an expert, which is beneficial to your company's image.

When it comes to the advantages of guest writing, one of the most important is SEO. Building links from high-quality websites is an important SEO ranking component that will help your site rank higher in search results. You're not the only one who benefits from the guest blogging approach as a guest blogger.

The blog that hosts you does as well. Guest blogging assists site owners by making it more straightforward for them to satisfy their content demands, which is a big content marketing difficulty.

Guide To Guest Blogging Strategy

1. Establish Your Objectives

Like any other marketing technique, a good guest blogging approach begins with understanding your objectives. After all, if you want to go anywhere, you need to know where you're going. The advantages outlined previously correspond with the standard aims for a guest blogging approach. They include:

Increasing visitors to a certain landing page (or your whole site) to generate more leads and revenues
Raising brand, product, and service recognition
Increasing inbound links to improve SEO
Establishing yourself as an expert increases your chances of being quoted and speaking engagements.
Increasing the number of email subscribers or your social media following

It's critical to have a goal in mind so that you can properly construct your bio and guarantee that the resource people see when they come provides what you promise. It's the most effective technique to gain the trust of your new audience.

2. Look For Websites Where You May Contribute

You'll need to identify a site that allows guest writers and is actively seeking for material before you create a guest blog post. Beyond that, be sure that publishing on the site will help you achieve your objectives.

Where Can I Find A Site That Allows Guest Posts?

There are several methods to locate websites that welcome guest articles. For example, you may use Google to identify sites that accept guest posts on the themes you wish to write about.

Similar inquiries may also be used on Twitter. Simply search for “guest post” or “guest article” in the search box to view a list of tweets, including guest posts.

Make a note of the sites that are posting the posts, whether you're using Google, Twitter, or another search engine. You'll need them afterwards to determine whether or not the opportunity is appropriate for you. Guest blogging chances may also be found by looking at where your rivals are guest posting.

You may discover it by following your rivals on social media or subscribing to their email newsletter since most individuals publicize their guest pieces to boost their reputation. Another technique to figure out this information is to look at their inbound links.

Log in to SEMRush and go to Domain Analytics » Backlinks. In the search box, type the URL of the site you wish to visit. You'll be able to examine the real backlinks, anchor text, referring sites, and more when you get the report.

How To Evaluate Guest Blogging Possibilities

Finding the locations is just half of the battle. You must also determine if those sites are worthwhile and will assist you in meeting the objectives you established for your guest blogging plan. Here are some things to think about. To begin, choose one of the websites listed above.

To begin, examine the domain authority of the site you're contemplating using Moz's Open Site Explorer. If you guest post there, this will tell you if the site is well-liked online and whether it will deliver high value in terms of links and maybe visitors.

On a scale of 0 to 100, the higher the number, the better. Moz doesn't specify what constitutes a good domain authority score. However, SmartInsights has put up a handy graph showing average domain authority across several businesses.

Check the number of email subscribers and social media followers. If they're significant enough, most site owners will post them, and it'll give you an estimate of the size of the audience you may target.

Whether the site's social follower numbers aren't listed, look at their social media accounts to determine if they have an audience and if they actively promote all of the information they provide (including guest content). You should be able to figure this out after reviewing a month's worth of stuff.

Check site traffic over the previous several months using Alexa. You may receive a fast summary of major traffic data by typing the URL into the on-screen box on the main page.

This will inform you how many people are likely to view your guest blog post, as well as where the majority of the site's visitors are situated. If the majority of the site's traffic is from the United Kingdom, and you want to reach out to prospects in the United States, it's probably not a suitable match for your guest blogging plan.

Examine the postings themselves next. Examine the material to see whether it corresponds to the themes you wish to write about. Don't be concerned if your comment count is low; this is true of many websites these days.

Even if the quantity of social shares isn't high, a site that reaches your desired target group might help you achieve your objectives.

Check the author's biographies at the conclusion of guest articles to make sure you'll be able to provide proper credit and direct visitors back to your website, as seen in the example below from the OptinMonster blog.

3. Establish A Relationship With The Site Owner

You'll need to establish a relationship with site owners before approaching them to recommend a guest post (a process known as “pitching”). Don't be deceived by all the guest post pitch templates you find online; cold pitches won't work for most site owners unless the material is fantastic.

Many website owners are so fed up with irrelevant pitches and low-quality material that they will only accept guest posts from individuals they know, like, and trust. Here's how you may join the ranks of those who are.

To begin, familiarize yourself with their site and the kind of material they post by following them on Twitter, where many people share their content, or by subscribing to their site on Feedly, where you'll be notified anytime new content is published.

Read the material for at least a few weeks to get a sense of what is important to them and their audience. Check out their top-performing or highlighted material if they have it listed on their website. Anyone visiting WPBeginner, for example, may quickly identify what kind of content is most favoured by glancing at the sidebar.

Make social media connections with site owners so you may tag them when you post their information. Share something you're passionate about and provide a remark so it's not simply a link. Leave comments on their blogs, subscribe to their email newsletter, and reply to their emails.

The goal is to establish a true connection with the site owner. Don't try to fool them; they'll find it out, and you'll fall short of your objectives.

4. Select A Successful Topic

It's time to choose a subject to pitch after you clearly know your target site and what matters to the site owner. You should already be aware of the site's most popular topics. Now consider how you may offer value by: – Responding to the site's content.

Adding to existing knowledge on a popular subject
Coming up with a novel idea on a subject that is likely to be popular with the audience

Buzzsumo is an excellent tool to utilize when you're ready to narrow down your options. First and foremost, it may assist you in locating material that is already popular on the site to which you are pitching. This has two benefits:

It prevents you from offending the site owner by presenting an idea they've previously published
It helps you establish a relevant subject that's likely to be popular

To use Buzzsumo to locate popular material, put the site's URL into the search box and the most shared content will appear. The same thing may be done with a subject by putting the topic keyword phrase into the search box. It's a good idea to start your guest blogging approach with a subject that's frequently discussed and relevant to a site but hasn't yet been published on your target site.

Looking for a competitive advantage when it comes to subject selection? In-depth material, articles that leverage proprietary research, and those that offer experiences and life tips are all popular, according to the study. Last but not least, read the site's pitching and writing standards. If you don't, site owners may dismiss your proposal without ever reading it.

5. Develop A Pitch

Avoid basic guest posting proposals if you want your guest blogging plan to work. If you've done your study, as we recommended earlier, you'll be able to quickly construct a successful pitch that's tailored to each site owner.

The first guideline is to make your pitch brief and concise. Don't waste the time of site owners, particularly those with authoritative sites, who get a LOT of proposals.
Second, provide their name in your pitch — most site owners will ignore pitches from individuals who can't be bothered to look up this basic contact information.
Third, include the title of the post. In fact, some compelling pitches have this as a secondary heading in the email body and in the subject line.
When picking a subject, the information you acquired from Buzzsumo also offers you a picture of popular headlines. Use this as a starting point for your own, then use this list of headline tools to strike the perfect title. You're halfway to a successful pitch if the person you're pitching likes your title.
After that, briefly outline the position. In a few phrases or bullet points, state what it will cover. Describe how this piece of content will benefit their audience. This will be simple since you are already acquainted with their previous material.
Finally, demonstrate why you are the best candidate for the job. This isn't a CV; simply highlight a few points. This is not a template for guest blogging. Make up your own pitch for the website you wish to reach out to, using your own natural tone and vocabulary.

6. Create Excellent Content

After your proposal has been approved, you must compose your guest article. You want to make it better than your best, especially if it's your first time writing for a website.

Choose A Great Headline

Start by reviewing your pitch's headline once again. Even if the site owner liked it, it's not a bad idea to think of other alternatives. On the OptinMonster blog, we utilize headlines like this, and our readers adore them! To help you nail your title, here's a primer to crafting amazing headlines.

Keyword Phrases For Research

If your guest post performs highly in search engines and brings visitors to their site, site owners will be overjoyed. So, just as you would for your own content, conduct some keyword research to come up with a few keywords to optimize it with.

Good keyword utilization (rather than term stuffing) signals to search engines that material is relevant, allowing users to locate it – and you. For more information, see our complete keyword research guide.

Appropriately Link

Your guest post should ideally have a strong link profile, which aids SEO and authority growth. That implies the guest article you're producing should have relevant internal and external connections. Link to fantastic material on the site you're writing for and beneficial external resources inside the text.

This contributes to the content's link profile, which is beneficial to SEO and authority development. Make sure you obey any site owner's linking rules. Some connections are restricted, as we'll see when we come to the bio section.

Include Pictures

Unless the site owners want to handle it themselves, make it easier for them by supplying or recommending appropriate photographs for your guest post. These will highlight your significant ideas and split up the material so that readers can skim it more easily. Use our guide to free image sources to find high-quality photographs for your guest blogging approach.

Correctly Format The Post

Finally, format the post to match the rest of the site's content. Note how they employ subheadings, capitalization, bold text, lists, and other elements. You'll be more popular if you leave less work for site owners to complete. Some websites include guest post rules, in which case you just need to follow them.

7. Work On Your Bio

The bio is the reward for all of your hard work in developing your guest blogging strategy. This is because it is here that you may connect to your own website and resources.

There are a few site owners that don't set any limits on links in the bio, but this is rare. You'll be able to connect to a URL of your choosing as well as a social media link in most circumstances.

8. Be Flexible

This next guest blogging strategy advice will be quick and sweet: reply to comments and mentions of your piece. Why? Not simply because it's polite, but that's a good reason as well. But since responsiveness is how you build relationships with your new audience, it may help you achieve some of your strategic objectives.

Blog owners will be pleased if you respond quickly, making it more likely that they will accept fresh proposals or propose ways you may offer more. This brings you one step closer to reaching your guest blogging strategy's objectives.

Subscribe to comments on your guest post if the site owner permits it, and you'll receive an email notice whenever someone comments. A Google alert may also be used to monitor mentions and shares of the article.

I trust you enjoyed this article about Guest Posting Best Practices. Would you please stay tuned for more articles to come? Take care!

JeannetteZ

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