With a host of Google algorithm updates that have punished black-hat SEO practices, Google have made it clear that they’re looking for sites which promote relevant, informative and original website content.
This has been a trigger in the rise of guest posting as a popular link building strategy.
Guest posting involves writing blog content for other websites that are closely linked to what you’re involved in and/or your target market. These posts will normally include a byline and a link back to your website and often prove to be highly valuable in your link-building practices. What is more, guest posting is hugely cost effective link building method as it usually costs nothing (apart from your time).
Links
Having links to your webpages from quality website is a valuable way of boosting your search marketing results, especially combined with other SEO copywriting techniques. Guest posting also helps generate a natural link profile, meaning the link building effect is optimised and the threat of being penalised by Google is removed.
AuthorRank
With the introduction of “rel author” guest posters can connect their Google+ accounts with articles they post on the internet. By guest posting in this way, you can begin to build your AuthorRank which in turn can increase your relevancy and page rank. Articles written by reputable sources are considered more trustworthy by Google and are more likely to rank well. This makes guest posting a virtuous circle, with impact growing exponentially.
Traffic
Placing a link to your website in the byline to your guest post is not just about link juice, it’s a direct driver of traffic. Write a guest post that piques someone’s interest and they could well visit your website to find out more. This helps you develop your reputation in your sector and among your audience, growing the number of natural links you are likely to attract and the number of name or brand searches, all of which will combine to increase traffic.
How to start guest posting
Getting a guest-posting campaign up and running can be difficult if you intend on posting on reputable websites. It’s always advisable to sit down and think of sites you would ideally like to be posting on i.e. a similar search marketing blog.
There are many ways to find appropriate blogs, with Google or Twitter being the best way of finding blogs that accept guest posting. Isolate keywords that you’re after as well as the term ‘guest post’. This will most likely bring up a lot of irrelevant sites but with some hard work you will inevitably find something appropriate.
At that point, read the blogs to get a feel for them and interact on the comments sections, and drop the webmaster or blogger a line to introduce yourself and your idea for a post.
If you’re looking for a guest-post service, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us today.