How To Use Guest Blogs For Effective Link-Building?

Guest Blogging is one of the most cost-effective and potent avenues of digital marketing. An integral component of both inbound and online content marketing, well-written guest posts boost brand authority and awareness and drive substantial quality traffic.

While the consensus around guest blogging being an effective link-building strategy may be polarized, the right kind of guest posting strategy can shoot up one’s reputation, authority and credibility to a whole new level.  Coupled with comments and social media shares, a quality guest post can be the perfect link building platform for almost any online business and professional, from a freelancing essay writer to services offering remote coursework writing help.

However, an acute and well-thought-out development strategy is necessary to turn guest posts into link-building mechanisms. Therefore, this article dives deep into the basics of using guest blogging for link-building.

How To And Not To Use Guest Blogs For Link Building?

One of the first things any guest poster must remember is that blog articles are NOT media for acquiring backlinks from reputed blogs. If that is your sole and ultimate aim, then be ready to lose SERP ranks and get rejected by almost every blog site of authority out there.

• The first DON’T of guest posting is relatively straightforward. Guest posts should never be used as a spamming tactic for acquiring coveted backlinks from reputed sites. Doing so will bring down reputation faster than any object dropped from the top of the Burj-Khalifa.
• The first DO of guest blogging for link-building involves delivering quality content and establishing a solid professional relationship with well-known blog sites across the Web.

While developing some content of value is a major process (and generally differs from writer to writer), establishing a good rapport with blog site owners & the like is KEY to link-building.

• Every guest post must be written with the utmost care and with the audience in mind. Writing with care involves:
• • Conducting detailed research
  • Gathering data from credible sources
  • Collating information from multiple sources
  • Analyzing the topic well and crafting appropriate content
  • Developing an engaging narrative while keeping the audience in mind
  • Referencing other quality blogs in your domain
  • Editing and proofreading everything to perfection

 Guest posts written with such care is bound to catch the eye of readers and blog owners all over, leading to a stellar rise in reputation, authority and new links & contacts.

• Finding the perfect guest blogging opportunity is another crucial aspect. Whatever the domain, informative write-ups on the lats trending topics have a considerable probability of attracting enormous amounts of quality traffic.

The Google Search method(using keywords with search phrases like ‘guest post’, ‘contribute’, ‘guest column’, etc.), the influencer method (searching for posts by renowned guest bloggers in a domain), analyzing competitor backlinks, searching for trending topic ideas on sites like BuzzSumo are some potent ways to scope out guest blogging opportunities.

•  A high-quality, authoritative post in a renowned blogging space will not only result in people noticing you, but they will also like to link with your article. It is as simple as that.

Google’s search engine algorithms analyze the quality of back-links or external links on a web page and content and use that metric to determine its SER ranking.

 Here’s an example.

Take some time to go through this helpful & enjoyable article by Larry Kim, the CEO of MOBILEMONKEY on INC.COM. You will notice around 40 internal links to his other posts and affiliate links to several major websites.

Do a quick search with relevant keywords, and you will find this five-year-old article still ranking at 4^th position,  thanks to the valuable content and strong backlinks.

• Finding an authoritative blogging site to post is a crucial factor. While many websites allow guest posting, choose websites with a high Domain Authority According to Moz.com, the formulators of this particular metric, sites with higher DA ranks high in Google’s SERP.

A high quality guest post on an authoritative and renowned blogging site will naturally have more people noticing it, besides the targeted audience.

• Guest Posting is an exceedingly powerful technique for building links, boosting search engine rankings, and gaining quality leads.

The following section offers a quick glimpse of the right approach to guest blogging that will boost reputation, authority and bring in substantial traffic & leads.

The Right Approach To Guest Blogging For Link Building

 Step 1: Write Blogs To Build Authority And Earn A Reputation.

Publishing blogs on websites with high DA will require sensational writing that engages and provides something of value. If you pitch to such sites for just building backlinks, the chances are high that your pitch will be rejected.

Use guest blogs to build authority, influence and reputation,  not just for SEO.

Step 2: Send Your Writing Pitches To Reputable Blogging Sites.

As mentioned, reputed sites with high DA and top search engine rankings as the best places to send your writing pitches to. Things work best when you post on sites in your niche or with the biggest names in the blogging business.

Here’s a list of some of the most famous blogging sites today:

• com
• The Huffington Post
• com
• HubSpot
• OutBrain
• Sitepoint
• Mashable
• SingleGrain
• Content Marketing Institute
• Copyblogger
• Business Insider
• Social Media Examiner

Step 3: Build Links & Relationships To Obtain More Guest Blogging Opportunities

Getting your pitch selected on any of these sites is not that easy, however. Every one of the above sites is extremely nit-picky regarding the content they intend to publish. Therefore, your pitch must be perfect, and the write-up meets & exceed their quality requirements.

Make sure you portray yourself as a capable professional, not an SEO spammer. For example, share info about your social media handles, previous publications & testimonials, your best-performing guest post, contacts, legal pages, etc.

Increase the chances of getting your blogging pitch selected by:

• Sending a direct email to the blogging site authorities.
• Sharing and commenting on the articles of a target site.
• Follow them on Twitter.
• Staying in touch and working towards building long-term relationships.

Step 4: Align Your Guest Post Ideas With Your SEO Requirements

 Last but not least, think about how you can best acquire backlinks through your high quality content. For example, use SEO keywords of your domain to improve contextual relevancy and use them to backlink to a well-designed landing page with impressive UI. It can be an OPT-IN form, a free giveaway or a catalog of products & services pertinent to the subject of the guest post.

Do not spam keywords for a backlink, as Google and all reputed blogging platforms dismiss such content as low quality.

And that rounds up this article. Guest posting is and will remain a dominant force in digital marketing. Highly cost-effective and exceptionally potent when published with the perfect strategy, guest blogging can boost brand reputation, authority and awareness to a vast extent, all the while attracting substantial inbound traffic and boosting Google SERP ranking.

Hope the information in this write-up help readers craft perfect guest posts for building authority links and long term working relationships all around.

All the best!