Apart from boosting your backlink portfolio and allowing you to build natural links, this practice also lets you stand out and brand yourself as an authoritative online resource.

Not to mention greater online visibility and traffic your site will gain. Here are a few reasons why you should invest more in guest blogging.

Strengthening your backlink profile

In 2019 and beyond, backlinks remain one of Google’s most important ranking factors. Given that, it’s logical that link building will be your central off-site SEO tactic.

Now, there is a bunch of ways to build links, from leaving comments on multiple websites to link reclamation and broken link building. However, the most effective and natural way to obtain quality backlinks is the contribution to authoritative sites in your niche.

When inserting your keywords and links into a guest article, do so organically. Google assesses the link between your anchor text and the landing page when indexing backlinks. It wants to understand the context and determine whether the link is relevant. 

Instead of adding an exact-match keyword and link it with your home page or product pages, be more creative. Produce relevant and valuable content that will engage a reader and insert your keywords where it makes sense.

For example, you could link back to your blog article, case study, or ultimate guide – anything that may serve as an additional source of information for your audience.  

Apart from the quality of your content, you also need to consider the quality of the guest blogging opportunity. There is a bunch of factors to consider. First, pay attention to SEO factors, such as the site’s rankings, domain authority, traffic. Second, assess their industry relevance and check whether they target the same audiences.

Also Read: Why guest posting is a crucial parameter in SEO?

Finally, observe the overall quality of their posts and their engagement rates (blog comments, social shares, social comments, etc.). Publishing a quality article on a spammy site no one reads can only hurt your backlink portfolio.

Increasing industry authority

The digital marketing landscape has become increasingly competitive. More and more businesses are starting to understand the importance of digital marketing and investing in it. To set yourself apart from hundreds of similar brands in the digital ecosystem, you need to start producing high-quality content, both on your site and outside of it.

Similar to your blog posts, your guest articles should be helpful and valuable. Never optimize guest posts for search engine crawlers. Focus on making your target readers happy.

According to The Guide to Link Building in Health and Fitness Industries, researching audiences is a great starting point for guest bloggers. You need to understand your industry and your readers to create content that resonates with them.

To grab people’s attention, you will first need to come up with an engaging title. Then, you need to keep them engaged while reading your posts. Each guest article needs to be backed up with relevant research and highly valuable to a reader. It should inform a reader, educate them, or provide actionable tips on how to solve specific problems. 

Starting to see the value of the content you produce, people will memorize your name and start perceiving you as a valuable resource.

Data-backed, fresh, authentic, and insightful content is more likely to be noticed by industry experts. You will soon start earning loads of valuable mentions and backlinks, positioning yourself as an industry authority. Many big names in the digital industry, including Brian Dean, Larry Kim, Neil Patel, and Gary Vaynerchuk established an immense personal brand by blogging.

Maximising brand reach

Guest blogging gives you an amazing opportunity to expand your online community. Namely, every time you publish a guest article on a credible website in your industry, you will put yourself in front of their audiences.

Most importantly, by publishing your guest article, influential blogs in your niche are vouching for you and promoting you as a quality online resource. 

That’s exactly why you should always choose sites that target the same audience groups. Those are people who will gladly read your content, search for you online to read more from you, and share and link your posts with their online network. And, with the growing brand awareness and reach, you will soon see a spike in your organic website traffic, leads generated and, hopefully, conversions. 

Gregory Ciotti’s example supports this statement. Namely, when the Help Scout was launched, Ciotti focused on producing quality content on popular sites to generate more leads. This practice proved to be effective, as it helped him gain 36,733 new email subscribers.

Gaining loads of social shares and following

I’ve stated before in the article that contributing to a website with a wide audience and a solid social media strategy helps you increase website reach and put yourself in front of their audiences. When live, your guest article will get a tone of free promotion, as a blogger will share it on their social profiles and relevant online groups.

Also Read: Travel startup BeMyGuest appoints Blanca Menchaca as new CEO

This is how they will make your post visible to the right audiences. Most importantly, seeing that a credible blog has published your article and that it’s promoting it, their online community will like and share your post, maximizing its visibility. And, a greater reach on social networks means more followers and greater brand awareness. 

Getting new opportunities to network

Today, getting in touch with influential people in your niche is difficult, especially for new brands. That’s where guest blogging can help. Some websites strive to engage their contributors and even encourage them to work together.

In some cases, you will get an opportunity to join their exclusive group on Facebook or participate in an email thread, where site contributors discuss potential content ideas. 

This is a chance for you to introduce yourself to other respected people in your niche and foster stronger relationships for them. Who knows, maybe you will work together on a co-authored study, whitepaper, or article. Or, if the site is quality and it targets the same audiences, you could conduct an expert interview with a blogger or ask them if they’re interested in content cross-promotion. 

Sure, to get the most out of this opportunity, you need to be active in the community. Always share valuable comments and insights and show that you really know what you’re talking about. Your goal is to gain other industry experts’ trust and not to promote your website or company.

Over to you

Guest blogging may sound complicated right now, but you should definitely give it a shot.

It will benefit your online presence in multiple ways, from enriching your backlink portfolio and boosting your organic rankings to maximising your reach and gaining audiences’ trust. Sure, to achieve this, you need to focus on finding authoritative guest blogging opportunities and writing top-notch content that stands out.

How does guest blogging help you? Are there any tips you would like to share? We’re listening!

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Image Credit:  Nick Morrison

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