If you just launched your website, you just entered the most competitive search engine landscape. This is why guest blogging should be a key priority when targeting traffic and powerful backlinks in the market. Ever since, guest posting has consistently been cited as among the best way to build high-quality backlinks and a sure way of generating traffic.
But first things first;
What is Guest Posting?
Also called guest blogging, this involves writing an article to be posted in another person’s blog with an objective of growing your website gaining exposure to your target audience, generating traffic, and building organic backlinks to your own blog.
By guest blogging, you will not be the only one benefiting from the strategy. The blog that will host your guest blog will benefit as well. In the current era, content creation is a key content marketing strategy. Guest posting to their website, therefore, helps the website owners meet their content needs. If you are new to this, below is a detailed guest posting guide.
6 Straightforward Guest Posting Steps
If you intend to use guest posting as your strategy, you should do it right. The guide below outlines the crucial steps to succeed in guest blogging.
- Identify Your Goals
Like any other successful content marketing strategy, succeeding in guest blogging starts with identifying your goals. With your goals well outlined, you will have a clear plan of where you are headed and means on how to achieve the goals. Typically, the goals of guest blogging should align with the benefits of guest posting. They include;
- Drive traffic to your landing page to increase leads and sales
- Increase your brand, products and services awareness
- Improve your blog SEO through inbound links
- Increasing your email subscriber lists and social media audience
- Getting placed as an expert in the field
With your goals well aligned, you can easily proceed with your guest posting strategy with ascertained success.
- Find Guest Posting Opportunities
Having outlined our goals, proceed to find guest posting opportunities. Find websites that accept guest authors and actively looking for content. That aside, you should ensure that posting to their website will help you meet your guest blogging goals. The main target when searching for guest posting opportunities is to find relevant sites to your industry/niche. Follow the criteria below when searching for opportunities;
- Content of the website is in line with your industry
- The audience of the blog will likely be interested in your industry
- The website has engaged readership – their posts are being shared socially and commented on
- The owner of the blog is active on social media platforms
There are several methods of finding guest posting opportunities. Google searches, competitor backlinks, and social media searches are just but a few methods to mention. Finding these sites is the first part of this step. The second part is evaluating if the sites are worth the while and will help you meet the set goals. Following this, find a connection with the website owner.
- Choose a Topic and Make Your Pitch
If you have reached an understanding with the website owner, you should then find a winning topic to guest blog on. Find out what is on the website and think about how you can add value to the content. This could be through responding to the contents of the site, providing more insight on a popular topic, or creating content on a new topic that will likely be popular with the website’s audience.
With your topic and good connection with the website owner, it is time to make a pitch. Always keep your pitch short and straight to the point. Describe your intended post briefly and outline how the guest blog will help the website readers. You should as well outline why you think you are the right person to create the guest post.
- Write Great Content
If the website owners accept your pitch, proceed to write the guest post. Since it is your first time writing the post, make sure that you craft a high-quality piece. Start with a stellar headline that will capture the reader’s attention. You can check out this guide on how to write a great headline.
Website owners will like if the content ranks better in search engines and drive traffic to their website. For this reason, make sure that you find and use suitable keyword phrases. Link appropriately, include images, and format the piece correctly.
- Be Responsive and Promote Your Content
As it suggests, you should be ready to respond to comments and mentions in the post. Being responsive and making a connection with the audience will help you achieve some of your strategic goals. If the blog owner allows, subscribe to the post’s comments. Through this, you get email alerts every time a comment is made. You can also track mentions and shares using various tools, such as Google Alerts.
Promoting your content is one of the best strategies SEO agencies in Dubai
- Track Success
Tracking success is the only way to identify if your guest blogging strategy is beneficial or not. To measure success, take advantage of various tools available on the market. For instance, if you want to track leads gained by your landing page, use Google Analytics and SEMRush to check how your content ranks for keywords and inbound links. You can as well hire the best SEO company in Dubai to track your success.
Take-Home Point
Even in 2021, guest blogging remains one of the best ways to grow your web traffic. Writing high-quality posts on other websites within your niche brings forth valuable inbound links, increases domain authority, widen exposure, and build new relationships. With the steps above, you can effectively create an effective guest post.
Nonetheless, you should learn how to avoid content marketing mistakes and other key aspects of content marketing. If you find this challenging, don’t hesitate to employ the services of an SEO company in Dubai for their exceptional services.