Guest posting. Guest blogging. Same difference.
It is the act of writing and publishing an article on someone else’s website or blog
My guess is that what you really want to know is:
“Why should I partake in the whole guest blogging phenomenon and what, if any, are the benefits of guest posting to my business and my brand?”
Well… That’s a lengthy question but I’m going to break it all the way down for you and give you just the facts. Then I’ll let you decide if you think it’s worth your time or worth your business’/brand’s while to submit a guest post for publication on ConvoMe.com.
So, there’s this guy named Matt Cutts who used to be the head of Google’s web spam team. That’s really all you need to know about him for the purposes of this article, but if you really want to learn more about him, you can knock yourself out here.
Back in 2014, Matt said that guest blogging had become a “spammy practice” and that if you were doing a lot of it, you were hanging out with bad company… That’s just a really really brief summary of what he said, but that’s the general gist of it.
So why pray tell would a little non-Google employee like me tell you that guest posting is beneficial? Better yet, why should you even believe what I say about the topic if it may appear to run contrary to what Mr. Cutts said?
Here’s why…
Some Truths About Guest Posting
Guest posting is really good for:
- Driving traffic, particularly long tail traffic, to your website or blog
- Increasing the authority of your website (as well as your authority as an expert in your field >> boosting your online reputation)
- Building positive relationships with other bloggers
- Introducing you, your brand, and your business to members of an already-established community (as long as you’re providing them with real value and engaging with them in a meaningful way)
- Growing your brand, and
- Increasing sales
But… It MUST be done the right way!
Guest posting doesn’t work when:
- Posts are published on irrelevant blogs i.e. the post has nothing to do with the theme or topic of the site that it is posted on
- Articles and posts written are low-quality – they provide no information of real value and are merely thrown together in order to get a link from the site it’s posted on
- You try to use it purely as a way of getting your site to rank in the search engines for certain search terms
What Does All This Mean For You?
Google doesn’t and probably won’t ignore guest blogging altogether. However, you have to go about it strategically and in the right way.
Look for ways to get published on high-authority websites that have editors that review the content submissions before they get published. Here’s how you can make the cut and get your own content published on these high-authority sites:
- Ensure that the articles you submit are of the highest quality and above all, are educational to the audience of the website you’re applying to
- If it benefits the reader, then link to other sites, including sites that belong to your competition
- Link to your own website but only if it’s relevant and beneficial to the person reading your article
- Try not to use too many, if any at all, hyperlinks for search terms you’re trying to rank for – this is the type of thing Google frowns upon and will likely get your post rejected from publication
Bottom line: Do what is best for the reader
General Guest Blogging Best Practices
So now you’re probably wondering how you should go about tackling the whole guest posting thing. Here are some tips I pulled together from Neil Patel of QuickSprout and Jeff Goins of Goins, Writer as well as some other authorities on the topic:
- Be selective about the blogs you post on – choose relevant sites that are also hopefully bigger than yours
- Links galore – be liberal with your use of outgoing links in your post; if linking to a site will benefit the reader, then do it
- Follow the rules – be sure you read the guest posting guidelines and follow them closely before submitting an article for publication; doing so will increase your chances of having your article published. *If you’re interested in guest posting on this site, then check out the guidelines here*
- Provide genuine value to audience of the blog – I think I sound like a broken record now, but if everyone is saying it, and it does make sense why, then it’s worth repeating
- Invite the reader to engage with you – at the end of your post include a definitive call to action for comments; open up the floor for lively banter… If your post generates lots of discussion, that’s all the better!
So are you convinced that this is something you ought to do for your own business and brand? If so, and you have an idea for a post that is in line with the theme of this site, I invite you to submit a guest post here.