Guest Posting – Ultimate Guide

If you own a business enterprise, and you’re looking for an effective off-page SEO tactic that can get you targeted traffic and powerful backlinks, then guest posting should be at the forefront of your mind. Although there have been many speculations about guest posting being dead and gone, this tactic remains one of the most effective methods to get quality backlinks, increase your domain authority and promote your business. 

Guest posting as an SEO tactic requires proper planning and strategy to be able to successfully execute it. Most people often ask “how much will it cost to plan and execute a guest posting strategy?” When it comes down to SEO pricing, guest posting is one of the cheapest and most effective SEO tactics you can deploy to improve your site’s influence and authority. 

When it comes to guest posting, most people get bothered with questions like “how do I find a site to guest post?” Or “what kind of content should my guest post contain?” if you are like most people, worry no more. Today’s guide contains the necessary information you need to plan and execute an effective guest posting strategy.

What is Guest Posting?

Guest posting or guest blogging can be described as the act of contributing a blog post or content to another brand’s website or blog. In other words, guest posting can be seen as an off-page SEO tactic that involves creating quality content for another website or blog that will be viewed by your target audience and has the potential to expand your business reach and influence. The guest post submitted must also support the host website’s marketing, PR and SEO initiatives.

Benefits of Guest Posting

Guest posting is a digital marketing strategy that benefits both the publishers and the writers. When high-quality content is delivered, the publishers get to offer their audience fresh and resourceful contents they will enjoy and appreciate, attracting more traffic to their website. While as a writer of the guest post, there are several benefits you can enjoy, including:

• Boost domain authority
• Builds brand awareness
• Grows your email list
• Builds a good relationship with the publishers
• Reach wider audience
• Drives traffic to your website
• Build quality backlinks that boost your site’s SEO efforts
• Grow your social media influence

How to plan and execute an effective Guest Posting strategy

Guest posting as an off-page SEO tactic requires strategic planning to be able to effectively execute. In other to build a successful guest posting strategy, you’ll need to carefully follow the steps below:

1. Determine your Guest posting goals and target

You can’t launch any marketing strategy without outlining your targets and goals. Knowing the results you wish to get from your work will help you create a clear road map for the actualization of the set goals. After analyzing what can be accomplished through guest posting, you’ll be able to determine which goals best suit your marketing objectives. Some possible goals include:

• To increase your brand awareness
• Improve your social media visibility
• Get more people to know what your brand offers
• Enhance your SEO efforts with quality backlinks
• Build your site’s domain authority, etc.

2. Look for guest posting opportunities

To get possible host sites for your guest post, use the following tactics

• Search for websites that attract and interest your audience
• Search for possible host websites via Google search using keywords like “guest post, write for us, guest posting sites, submit an article, etc.”
• Look for other guest bloggers in different blog posts, and identify the authors that frequently post on various sites. Now search the authors on Google, and you’ll be able to get a list of the sites where they post their articles.
• Find where your competitors are posting

3. Select guest posting sites with good Domain Authority 

Once you’ve successfully identified a list of potential guest posting sites, it’s time to start qualifying them. Look for sites that have good domain authority, but also fit your strategy and goals. The minimum domain authority should be set at 25. The selected websites must have the right target audience you wish to reach and a good size audience too.

4. Develop quality and relevant guest post topics

After selecting the host site that fits your guest posting criteria, it’s time to create and develop quality blog topics. Ensure that the topic not only fits your goals and strategy but also serves the need of the publisher and their readers. Look for topics that would be a good fit but not yet covered. Fill in content gaps and ensure that the topic connects to you and your goals.

5. Construct a perfect pitch

Guest posting isn’t as easy as you may think, most sites get guest posting requests all the time. For your content to be published on their blog, it must first capture the attention of the publisher. To do that, you need to create a perfect pitch. You can send your pitch via email to their webmaster.

6. Write quality contents worth publishing 

Once your pitch is accepted, you’ll be requested to write a post that will be published on their site. If the work delivered isn’t good enough, the publisher wouldn’t want to work with you again. Hence, ensure the contents sent to the publishers are of high quality.

7. Follow up on the Guest post

After submitting your guest post, try to build a good working relationship with the publisher by following up on the post after it has been published. Help promote and manage the post by sharing on social media, and responding to comments made on the post. Doing that will make the publishers work with you on a long-term basis.

8. Keep track of your results

Finally, you need to keep track of the results from your guest post. You can’t fully know or understand what you gain from the guest post if you don’t monitor the marketing ROI of your work. Always track the metrics that are most relevant to your set goals and targets. These could be:

• Number of new website visitors
• Number of new leads
• Amount of referral traffic
• Number of social media shares
• Changes in SERP placement
• Number of brand mentions or links

With these metrics, you can determine if you’ve met your set goals, and identify any site that missed the mark. From the results obtained, you can further re-strategize to boost the results further.