There will be more algorithm updates coming for the ranking in the search engines in the future and updates like Google panda and Penguin has already impacted the speculation of the search engine optimization to a stage where SEO’s needs to be develop into content marketers. The one of the important methodology of content marketing is guest blogging and it is also recommended by Google’s core member Matt Cutts. Here are some of the tips which I think are the backbone of the successful guest blogging.
Before you enter in to guest posting process, you first make sure that your site is well developed and optimized. Get some identity for your website on online by performing well at platforms like social networks and communities. Have a complete website which gives complete information, which will helps the site owner to get an idea about what you are in to.
1. Finding the blogs/Websites
Before you write any guest post on the topic that you wanted to write, I would say look out for the blog or website first as it will give you good enough idea to write a proper content and save your efforts and time.
Search query: This is important factor which will help you to find good and relevant blogs and websites in short time which allows guest posting. You can use Google blog search which is a good tool to find recent updated blogs for your search category. Below are some queries that I mostly use to find guest blogs.
intitle:”write for us” & inurl:”write for us” “Your Category”
“write for us” + “Your Category”
“become a contributor” + “Your Category”
“write for me” + “Your Category”
Blog/website analysis: Once you found good relevant blog and website to write on the next thing to do is analysis of that website or blog. After all, a link from quality site is what you looking for. SO, analysis is must before you think to write for any site. This analysis consist some factors which we need to find out and then accordingly take a decision to write or not.
Page Rank: Website quality is measured by its page rank which can be found on Google toolbar. Though, it hasn’t updated since 4th February 2013, but still we can consider it a factor for old websites.
Alexa Rank: Guest post on a popular website will send you traffic and regular visitors and that can be determined by its Alexa rank. If you go to that site’s Alexa page then you can find some in depth information as visitor types, age and popular queries.
Domain Age: Older the domain you find for site you searched, the more reliability and significance you get for your domain. You also get to know the owner information is some cases to update the contact details.
Links count: This is the count of back links that site has, which shows the market value of it and ultimately the link juice that you can get from it.
Presence of Guidelines: One of the most important factors to watch for is the guidelines for the guest posting. As the site which do not have guidelines for the guest posting will not be considered as a professional one as there are some factors which keep guest posting on high level by its moderation over spam.
Guest post quantity: This is one thing I do lookout when I find any site for guest posting as it gives me fair idea about what kind of guest post that site allows and approves. Do lookout for the frequency of the guest posts as too much guest posts on the site lead to a site which more article directory than a quality site.
Other guest authorship: When you found other guest posts on the sites then do look out for that author’s credibility which also gives a fair idea about what sort of quality that site is looking for. The more high quality writers on the blog you find the more value you can get for your link.
Contact information: This can be found on the website easily but sometimes you need to do domain lookup. The important contact information is the email address that you will need when sending the guest post request.
Maintain a sheet: All above factors about a site that you found for the guest posting need to be save in a sheet so that you can sort and make your work easy. Another benefit is to get a track of your guest posting status.
2. Writing the post
When you select a site for guest posting according to the analysis, you need to check out some things before starting to write the post. Most of the blogs gives the registration option for the bloggers who can directly post their article and submit for review.
Read guidelines carefully: Each site has its own guidelines and you need to write according to that and that includes article length, link allowance and author details. There are some constant guidelines that you will get to know on each site that allows guest posting which are quality content, not published elsewhere, author bio.
Choose the topic of interest: Given in the guidelines or the categories of the site select a topic to write your post. Relevancy of the content is one of the important factors when it comes to the value distribution. So choose the topic which is relevant to your site and the site for which you are writing the post.
Post length: Most of the blogs has a limit of more than 500 words for the guest post. But, I do consider that the more content you write and provide in depth information on any platform gives more value than the other posts.
Links agreement: There are sites with the policy against the link allowance in the post content and the author bio. So, make sure you read it carefully as if you provide extra link or an anchor text to a link which is not in the guidelines then that can get a bad impression on the site owner.
Write creative and useful content: People search on the internet for the information and used to get on the blogs to follow the instructions. Make sure you do not write a long boring stuff in the article which ultimately increases bounce rate and avoidance.
Garnish your post: It is important that you don’t give a chance to make changes for your post by the owner of the site as he only need to click that publish button. This will change the way of owner treatment towards you as you have saved his time and efforts. So, make sure you send a complete edited and tagged content to the site owner.
Sending request to the owner: Most of the times you need to send request in the form of submission forms and email. Make sure you put the right information about yourself and about your website. Do include that you are regular visitor of the site owner as this can be done by doing some commenting and replying on the social networks. While sending email, keep in mind that your message is short and simple and includes little appreciation.
3. Maintaining the relationship
This process starts right from the analysis of the sites that you have found for the guest posting. Guest blogging will work effective only when you have good relationships with other bloggers. So, you need to be focus on the bonding which can be created in several ways.
Respond to the comments of your post: You need to be active and take participation in the discussion on the guest post which is live on the site that you requested. This will ensure the reliability from your end to the site owner and improve the trust factor.
Share to social: Promote your writing by sharing on your social networks like Facebook, twitter and Google plus. This will not only increases the shares on the post but gives good exposure to your followers about your work.
Keep sending new content: To maintain the relationship and create bonding with the site owner send the occasional new content which will boost the bonding factor. It will show your consistency towards a followership and make you stand out from the other guest bloggers.
Make an impression: Write content which is creative and useful for the visitors and improve the engagement towards the site which eventually sends traffic to your website as well. Giving response to the owner updates and posts by active participation in the comments will create an impression which helps to build a good network through owner.
I hope you will like the tips about guest blogging and it will help you to bring the best out of the efforts you are going to put. Keep posting your ideas and suggestion on the guest posting as I may have missed on to something’s. Happy Blogging!
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Thanks for this good post Darshan.. and also agreed on the part that we seo’s need to be develop into the content writers and that is the current need. I like the analysis part where there is need to find out the guest bloggers credibility and quality.
Thanks Gina.. i appreciate you like them.
No one can make people understand in a very simple and logical way. Thanks Darshan.
Thank you Chintan!
Nice post Darshan,
This post is very informative to every blogger who want to make good reputation at online marketing and presence. you have covered almost all points in it that from this any one can do and plan accordingly for guest blogging.
Yes Rahul.. i hope this will help for your guest posting.