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The Dos and Don’ts of Guest Posting

Here are some guests posting dos and don’ts that you need to consider if you want to generate leads for your business.

Guest posting is a proven means of reaching new prospects.

If you are good with your guest posting strategy, you can get these prospects back to your website and convert them to leads.

In this article, we will consider some of the dos and don’ts of getting your guest posts on websites to ensure that the posts generate lots of new leads for your business.

What are Guest Posts?

Guest posts (also referred to as guest posting)) involves publishing an article on another person’s website.

It is done to get more brand awareness and traffic (i.e. referral traffic).

Benefits of Guest Posting

If you use content marketing as one of your marketing strategies, a guest posting strategy can be essential in boosting your traffic and marketing ROI.

According to the Content Marketing Institute, guest posting is an important part of your funnel since it provides offsite professional content.

Guest posting plays a key role in building brand awareness since the content you publish on other websites helps new audiences to know about you. These new readers may decide to visit your website thereby attracting new subscribers and boosting your lead generation results.

Also,

Guest posting builds trust.

When you are trusted, authoritative websites will publish your content. Regular guest posting will help others perceive you as an expert; this is great for your brand’s reputation.

More so,

SEO is one of the key benefits of guest posting. One of the major SEO ranking factors that will improve your website’s ranking in organic search results is building links from high-quality websites.

You are not the only one that will gain from guest posting. The site that is hosting your content will also gain. Guest posting helps website owners to overcome the challenge of content marketing by helping them to meet their content needs.

Why Guest Posting is Not Dead

Everyone benefits from high-quality content.

Businesses need it to survive.

As a business owner, your goal should be to keep your readers engaged, willing to return to read your next post, and eager to share your content with their audience.

This means you may need to go beyond your pool of knowledge and bring in experts that can write about your niche. When done right, guest posting is another means of generating positive PR for your brand, coupled with the extra benefit of generating a link back to it.

The Dos of Guest Posting

When deciding to write a guest post, the first thing you need to do is to consider the website you want to publish the post on. Many factors make a blog ideal for the type of content you want to publish.

Listed below are some of the dos of guest posting:

DO read some posts from the blog before you send yours

You have the best chance of having your guest post published if it looks like what the site accepts.

Some of the things you need to pay attention to include the word count, the reading level of the audience (i.e. beginner versus advanced), and the voice of the content (serious, snarky, jovial, etc.).

If there are guest posting guidelines on the website, ensure you read them.

DO build a relationship before writing

Although this is not strictly necessary.

However, if you want to guest post on a more exclusive blog, you will have a higher chance if the editors are already familiar with you. You can establish a relationship by commenting on the blog, engaging with editors on Twitter, and linking to the blog from yours.

DO pay attention to the ranking factors

Ensure you consider the ranking factors when you are looking for a platform to publish your guest post on. The two things you need to pay attention to are the Domain Rating and Domain Authority. If both have high scores, it implies that the website should be considered for guest posting.

DO create quality content

Irrespective of the type of content that you create for your guest post (text, video, or audio), ensure you do a good job. Ensure your guest post is amazing and valuable.

Don’t forget that the aim is to provide valuable information to the site hosting your content and to your blog.

The quality of your guest post will influence the amount and quality of traffic that will be redirected to your blog or website.

DO write a captivating title that suits the content

There are some instances where we get guest posts that do not match what the title promised.

For instance,

don’t submit a post titled “How Much Time Should You Dedicate to Keyword Research?” and then create content that talks about how to do keyword research. A strong title that portrays what a blog post offers, coupled with some subheadings that are strategically placed, can make a post give better results even without altering the content.

DO send image(s) with your guest post

Depending on the type of guest post that you want to publish, try and include one or two images in your content. For instance, if you are reviewing software, include a screenshot of the software.

If the guest post is about a case study, ensure you include a graph or table to make your data more cogent.

DO send guest posts to blogs that focus on areas you’re knowledgeable in

Editors can easily know if a post is hastily researched.

If you don’t have much expertise in a topic that the blog you want to publish covers, you may end up writing content that already exists.

If you are trying to build links, ensure the links are relevant.

For instance,

if you are a commercial real estate agent and you want to send your guest post to a digital marketing blog, you can write about how commercial real estate agents generate leads.

DO proofread your content

Don’t make the mistake of submitting a guest post without proofreading it diligently.

You don’t need to be a professional editor to get this done.

All you need to do is to take the time to read and re-read the post to ensure that it is error-free and has no dead links.

When you submit poorly written content, such content is likely to be rejected by the host blog. A good practice that will help with proofreading is to read your content out loud. With this, you will hear how what you wrote sounds more clearly and will be able to spot mistakes in the flow.

 

The Don’ts of Guest Posting

Unlike the do’s, the don’ts of guest posting are fewer.

However,

They can hinder you from getting the required results from your content marketing. So it is advisable to pay attention to them and avoid them in your guest posts.

DON’T spam

Irrespective of its form, people hate spam. You will lose your credibility and authority with readers within the blink of an eye if you stuff your post with links to your blog.

Ensure you only link to your blog wherever necessary and ensure you do it naturally. This won’t usually be in the body of the content but the author’s bio.

DON’T submit the same guest post to different blogs

You may be tempted to make some simple changes in your post (such as changing the post’s title or slightly changing a few words). This can affect the quality of the content.

Your host deserves something better and your blog’s reputation depends on the uniqueness of content you share on different blogs. Focus on creating unique content.

DON’T stuff links in your post

If your introductory paragraph has like four backs back to your blog, your post may be rejected.

Don’t portray your editor as being cheap and used with your post. Only link back to your blog in an area that is relevant to the topic.

Whatever you want to link to should govern what you want to write about. Links from a single web page often reach a point of diminishing returns. So only use links when necessary.

Otherwise, save the links for your bio.

Wrapping Up

Guest blogging is an effective form of PR.

In this case, you are using a blog instead of newspapers or magazines. Also, you are working with bloggers and webmasters instead of journalists and authors.

But the strategies are the same.

You must always strive to create excellent content that will engage your audience and drive them to take action.

Getting a link from the hosting site should not be the main reason for guest posting.

Focus more on providing value.

Pay attention to the guest posting do’s and don’ts discussed in this article.

By considering them when creating content for your guest post, you will become an expert and will also have a higher chance of your post being accepted by other sites.

 

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How to Boost SEO by Updating Old Blog Posts

Do you want to boost your rankings in organic search results?

The strategy in this article will help you increase your rankings without any stress.

You can’t publish new content every time. So the best way to offer your site visitors fresh content and keep them engaged is to regularly update your old posts.

According to a study published on HubSpot, updating old blog posts played a key role in increasing the monthly views via organic search.

Another article on Search Engine Journal also confirmed that an updated content can yield better search rankings, more traffic, increased social shares, more links, and new clients.

This is why one of the major priorities of B2C content creators is to update their old content.

However,

What most people do is update the date on an old article to a new date.

You need to do more than this if you want to get the maximum benefits of updating old posts (i.e. better organic traffic, ranking, engagement, and conversion).

Should You Improve or Remove Old Content?

If you prefer revising your content to creating a new one, then you might be wondering; should you improve or remove the old post?

You may need to remove your content when the link-building efforts on a particular page are yielding poor results and the content cannot be salvaged. Removal may also be an ideal option if no keyword relates to the topic. While doing these, don’t forget the purpose of a page.

The removal of content from your website should be as a result of any of the following reasons:

On the other hand, you may need to improve content when you can benefit from revising it rather than removing it.

How Can Removing Old Content Help Your Website?

In the SEO industry, getting rid of the old content is also referred to as ‘content pruning.’ Pruning may appear destructive but if you do it properly, it can enhance your rankings and improve your website’s SEO.

Content pruning plays a key role in:

  • Improving user experience
  • Making good use of the time and resources spent on making search engines crawl your site

Here are the different reasons why you need to remove old posts from your site:

Reduce the occurrence of the same keyword phrase on multiple web pages

Also known as keyword cannibalization, the presence of the same keyword phrase on different pages hurts ranking. When you use the same keyword phrase many times, you are simply competing with yourself.

This lowers your authority.

Also, in 2019, Google announced that its algorithm will get rid of multiple listings from a single domain to enhance site diversity.

If you want to publish new content, ensure you don’t have an article that is targeting the same keywords you intend to use.

Remove the page if you do.

Get rid of irrelevant pages

Irrelevant web pages offer no value and they serve no purpose to the search engine crawlers or readers.

Instead,

They waste crawler time on pages that offer little to no keyword value or traffic conversion.

If you keep wasting crawl budget on your site, search engines will be discouraged from revisiting your site and indexing your content.

For instance, if there is a product page for items that you’re no longer selling, you need to remove such a page. You should also remove headers or sections that are not relevant to the content on your web pages.

Remove web pages with low quality

Just like irrelevant pages, low-quality web pages serve no purpose on a site.

These pages do not rank for meaningful keywords, they draw little to no traffic, and they do not play any role in link-building.

All the pages on your site don’t need to offer SEO value.

However,

You should keep content that does well on social media, updates loyal customers, or attracts targeted traffic. Ensure you have a good reason behind each of the pages on your website. If there’s no good reason for having a particular page, then remove such a page.

How Can Improving Old Content Help Your Website?

There are different reasons why you need to improve the old content on your site. These benefits are usually centered on creating a better user experience and promoting the use of better SEO strategies.

Here are the benefits you stand to gain from updating old blog posts:

Correct grammar and spelling errors

Although grammar and spelling do not have a direct effect on Google rankings, error-free content creates a great user experience.

Having many misspelled words in your content can create a negative user experience; this can end up hurting your rankings.

When you go through your old posts, you will be able to detect these mistakes and correct them.

Revising your content can also make the content clearer and more concise.

Go through your content to find content that is too long and shorten them.

 

Get rid of broken links

A useful resource that you linked to when you published your content years ago may no longer exist; leading to a broken link. Apart from hurting your rankings, this can also reduce user experience.

Your readers will not want to find a broken link when all they expect is a valuable resource.

The good news is that it is not hard to fix broken links.

You can carry out an in-depth SEO audit of your website to detect issues with links and other issues that you may need to pay attention to while refreshing your content.

Link to newer resources

You need data to support the claims you make in your content.

However,

Data can quickly get outdated.

For instance, if you published an article in 2017 and you cited a resource from 2014, chances are you can find newer and better resources. The old resources could be reporting information that has been proven to be false.

Mark up any piece of content that requires citation as a page that you will need to revise in the future.

Your content needs to meet up with the ever-evolving research.

Improve internal links

Apart from including new resources, you should also improve your internal links.

Think about the content you have created.

Use your top-performing content to highlight the new pages. Don’t this will help in reinforcing your link-building strategy and also increase the traffic you attract from search engines.

Optimize for the right keywords

The behavior of searchers changes with time.

What you believed to be a valuable keyword six years ago may no longer be today.

This implies that keyword research that was done in the past (in most cases) does not present the best opportunities for searchers. Improving your old content helps you to re-evaluate your keyword research strategy and also optimize for the current keywords that take into consideration the intent of the searchers searching for such keywords.

Boost your click-through rate

The top-ranking results usually contain content published in the last few years, depending on how urgent the query is. With time,

Information becomes more accessible and people are more likely to go for recently published articles.

This still emphasizes the importance of content freshness.

For websites that have been around for a long period, they need to be revised to improve the click-through rate. Changing the date is not the only thing you need to do.

You can also update the title tag and meta description.

To have a compelling meta description, ensure you write something that addresses the main point and also promises that the page has detailed and valuable content.

Add rich media

Using different types of media improves the SEO of a site.

Images, videos, and other forms of media attract more links than web pages that do not have them.

When your page attracts links, then search engines will see your site as being valuable and trustworthy.

As a result, your site will be favored in search rankings.

Make the content mobile-friendly

Your old blog posts may not be mobile-friendly.

Thus,

You need to revise your posts to ensure that they are optimized for mobile devices; this will go a long way in expanding your audience. You can do this by changing your page design.

Wrapping Up

If you want to improve your website’s SEO, then you need to consider updating your old blog posts.

Don’t see updating old posts as an opportunity to paste newer date on it.

Instead,

Follow the strategies discussed in this article to update it so that you and your audience can get more value. This is a great way to boost the traffic your site attracts from search engines.

It will also improve your content’s rankings in search results.

If you want to start, then create new content in addition to the old articles on your site. Include new and more valuable resources, fix broken links on your site, and include graphics and other multimedia.

Also, improve your content’s accuracy and ensure the content is relevant and meets up with the latest trend.

Once you have improved your content, make it meet the latest requirements of Google’s algorithm.

More so, repurpose your post to different forms of media to expand its reach. You should also consider changing the keywords that your posts were optimized for.

Once you do these, then share the content.

Promote the content the same way you did when you published it for the first time. This helps you show new value to your readers.

By carrying out these updates on your content, your website and content will be able to enjoy better search engine rankings.