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.
Elena is an SEO and Keyword Research enthusiast, Contributes to the blog section, and manages the chat system at 1stpageKWs. She loves spending her precious time with the family.
