Guest posting refers to writing an article and publishing it on another person’s blog. Guest posts have no specific structure. Therefore, they could be opinion pieces, simple interviews, or in-depth industry topics – everything under the sun can be discussed and covered by a guest post.

It’s said that people have been guest posting since the beginning of blogging. Guest posting can help you get traffic and brand awareness back to your website, boosting your online presence. It also allows for other benefits to your website and the site you guest post to. 

There’s much you need to know about guest posting. Below is a guide highlighting the basics you need to know about guest posting as a beginner:

Benefits Of Guest Posting

Guest posting is said to bring multiple benefits. Some of them are discussed below. 

1. Link Building

Guest posting is majorly intended for search engine optimization (SEO) purposes. In simple terms, your search engine results pages (SERPs) rankings become better when more domains are linked to your website. Search engine algorithms consider the number of websites pointing to yours when determining the importance and usefulness of your content. Hence, guest posting can help you get more links to your website.

2. Referral Traffic

You can boost your audience reach through guest posting on a website with a sizable number of monthly blog traffic. These new visitors might be interested in your posts, hence visiting your website to read more. Yet the quantity of referral traffic depends on the size of the monthly following of the other site, how you attract visitors to your site, and how good your post is.

3. Exposure

You need to set up a name for yourself to have a profitable blogging website. Guest posting can help your website gain popularity by offering you exposure within your specific niche. You can be well-known in the industry through consistent and constructive guest posting.

4. Building Industry Connections

You can make friends through guest posting and boost your overall business by connecting to like-minded individuals. Further, connections and relationships can be forged through high-quality blogs and including new monetizing methods, collaborations, and events on your guest posts.

Stages Of Productive Guest Posting

Doing guest posting is a process. Each step should be treated with importance for eventual success. The following are the stages of guest posting:

1. List Potential Websites

Before creating a guest post, it’s crucial to get a list of websites you want to write for. You need to consider websites that accept guest blogging. You can look through these sites to see if they have published guest authors on their blogs. Some that allow guest posting also have guidelines that outline guest submission.

2. Assess The Value Of Each Blog

Focus on quality rather than quantity when it comes to guest posting. Therefore, it’d be better to guest blog for ten high-quality, high-traffic websites rather than blogging for 30 poor-quality, low-traffic web pages.  

When assessing the value of these sites, it’s crucial to check the domain authority, traffic, and social media following. The domain authority considers factors like the number and quality of links to that domain. Checking the traffic shows you how much traffic the site gets. Social media following shows you the number of followers the site gets across all social media platforms.

3. Create Content Ideas

Your guest blogging process can be more manageable by creating a list of content ideas.

You need to sort out the topics you want to write about and assess the ones that can resonate with your target audience and should be as relevant as possible to them. The content should also be unique and likely to generate more traffic for the blog owner. You can also include interactive content to engage your audience, increasing traffic. Getting more traffic means more referrals for you.

4. Reach Out To Other Blogs And Secure Guest Posts

You secure your guest blogs by connecting to other blog owners. However, when writing an outreach to other blogs, you need to consider making it personal, keeping it short, and demonstrating your ability. By so doing, you make it easier for these other blog owners to say yes.

You can then start sending emails to content managers or blog owners. Their websites contain their contacts, guest posting guidelines, and details on how to submit guest blogs. You also need to have a specific number of blogs to send or opt to send in batches. A follow-up email to blog owners who don’t respond can be a good idea. After getting feedback, you can respond to them and secure a blog to guest post for.

5. Write Your Guest Post

Writing a guest post is similar to writing a blog for your website. Nonetheless, specific guidelines for writing guest posts differ from writing a blog for your website. Your guest post should:

• Be high quality, shareable, and SEO ready;
• Include links, images, headings, and subheadings;
• Have links to your website;
• Have links to other related influencer sites; and
• Have a short author biography. 

6. Promote Your Guest Post

You can promote your guest post by posting it on your social media platforms. You can also send it to your email list to increase traffic on the site. If you’re a member of several groups, you can send it to them. Responding to the comments your guest post attracts can enhance credibility, sending more people to check out your blogs from your site.

Conclusion

Guest posting can be challenging for beginners. Yet with proper knowledge about what to do and how to do it, you can benefit from guest posting and start creating blogs for your website quickly.