How to Use Guest Blogging for Effective Link Building
Guest posting has been around for years and is without a doubt one of the best ways of building solid relationships and networks with bloggers.
Guest posting is an effective way to market a website, but among the many reasons why people contribute to blogs- the most effective reasons why people write guest posts is to build backlinks.
What are backlinks?
‘Backlink’ is one of the most commonly used words in the SEO world. Those of you who are new to the world of blogging will often struggle to understand what a ‘backlink’ actually is. Fear not young Skywalker- we are here to fill your mind with SEO knowledge.
Let’s start with the basics: Backlinks are incoming links to a webpage. If a webpage links to another page, then it’s called a backlink. These are very significant for ranking your website in search engines.
When a webpage links to your blog or website then ‘link juice’ is passed on and improves the domain authority. Sometimes bloggers stop passing link juice by using a no-follow link.
No follow links are not very useful when it comes to adding value to the ranking of a page as they don’t generally contribute to anything. Do follow links are the ones that pass on link juice to your site.
Backlinks come in a range of different ‘qualities’ from low to high quality. Many SEO companies believe that ‘a link is a link’ but this just isn’t the case. Some experts in the SEO world may choose to buy backlinks.
These links can come from harvested sites, automated sites and spam sites which can do far more harm than good. This is main reason why you should be extra careful when buying backlinks.
Guest posts and more specifically- link building is hard work. However, inbound links are still the most important ranking factor to Google and other search engines. This is why it is fundamental to build great links if you intend to rank for competitive keywords and guest posting is one of the best ways available to do this.
Here at dapa, we know that other digital marketing and SEO companies alike struggle when it comes to the ‘guest posting process’, and we are not about to give our secrets away but we’ll gladly share with you the general steps you should take when searching for and writing the perfect guest post:
Step 1: Research
When you are ready to use guest blogging to build links to your website you’ll need to start with conducting research to identify all the blogs and websites you could potentially post your guest post on.
Things like: subject, keywords and category will need to be taken into consideration when undertaking research. This is to ensure the blog/website is relevant for the guest post.
Find a handful of blogs that are specifically focused around your topic using carefully selected keywords. Once you’ve figured these out you’ll have enough to get going with.
Step 2: Idea
This is where you allow your creativity to flow. After you have done enough research you can then start writing down your ideas for your blog post, even if you just start with a mere title.
It is important to start generating your ideas very early on in the guest posting process. Producing ideas is also important for when you are pitching your posts to potential bloggers.
This will show that you have initiative when it comes to thinking up original content and your guest post is more likely to make an impact to those who are reading a compelling e-mail.
Step 3: Outreach
If you are new to guest posting, then this is without a doubt one of the most important things you will need to get right. After you have found a suitable blog for your post, you’ll need to contact the administrator of the blog via the ‘Contact Us’ page on the website. Start off by introducing yourself very simply and explain to them why you want to write a guest post for their site.
Don’t tip-toe around what you want, be straightforward and honest- bloggers are more likely to trust you this way. Believe it or not, bloggers are actually happy to receive content that is free and in exchange for this content they are happy to link back to your site.
As you build more of a network you should keep each website documented to help you track the progress and status of each blog you have reached out to.
Step 4: Write
This is the fun bit where you can start writing your articles. Do this as soon as you start receiving replies from the blogs you have contacted, sending your blog over in a timely fashion proves that you are serious about your guest posting antics.
Make everything in your document easy to understand so no problems occur when it comes to actually formatting and uploading your guest post onto the site.
The easier it is for a blogger to understand your post – the sooner your post is likely to be publish. Remember the key to writing a guest post for SEO purposes is to include your link within the text.
Step 5: Track Your Post
Now the hard work is done, this is where you can track the progress of your guest post using an analytic package. This will enable you to track visits, leads and the SEO benefits of your guest post.
This guide will help you understand the steps it takes to gather valuable inbound links to the key pages on your website in return for quality content.
As well as adding value to your SEO campaign, link building has a range of other benefits including spreading brand name and recognition. By sharing your content on social media you can also expose your post to new audiences and this plants the seeds for your SEO campaign.
