The Many Advantages of Guest Posting

Every business with a blog has similar goals: engage readers, get more targeted traffic and build authority. You probably know that the best way to achieve these goals is to create high-quality content on topics that your audience cares about. It’s not always easy, however, to consistently create great blog posts yourself. One solution to this dilemma is to publish guest posts.

Cody

Textbroker Marketing and Communications

What Is Guest Posting?

Guest posting is a simple but effective way to improve your content marketing strategy. Content is crucial for SEO as well as engaging your readers. Guest posting simply means publishing posts written by others. This can be another blogger in your niche, a content creation agency or someone you hire specifically for this purpose. Let’s look at some of the top benefits of guest posting on your blog.

• Guest posts give you more content to publish. Perhaps the most obvious reason to use guest posting is that it provides you with content that you don’t have to write yourself. If you’re a business owner, you’re already busy with a myriad of tasks. It’s great if you find time to blog as well. However, it’s nice to take a little pressure off yourself by publishing guest posts as well.
• Guest posting increases traffic and reach. By publishing content more frequently and on a wider range of topics, you can greatly expand your audience. Your guest writer may also bring followers of their own over to your blog.
• Give your readers diverse points of view. Even if you’re one of those efficient bloggers who finds the time to publish content regularly, your readers will probably appreciate some different points of view. Through guest posts, you can introduce them to ideas they wouldn’t have otherwise encountered or you may not have thought of yourself.
• Guest posts offer SEO benefits. The SEO benefits of content marketing are undeniable. A blog is one of the best ways to get ranked for a variety of keywords. So, how does guest blogging help improve your SEO? This relates to the above point of diverse points of view. Guest posts on many topics not only give your readers a variety of viewpoints, but they also give search engines plenty of content to index. For example, suppose you are in the food niche and publish articles about recipes and various culinary traditions. You might get a guest post on seafood recipes from Finland. You’ll not only have fascinating content for your readers but some great long-tail keywords that will help boost your SEO as well.
• Guest posting helps build authority. This is yet another advantage of publishing authoritative content on topics in your niche. The more quality posts that appear on your blog, the more you build your reputation as an expert in your industry. The nice thing about guest posts is that even if someone else has written the content, it appears on your blog and in turn helps solidify your brand.

How Can You Get the Most Out of Guest Posts?

As beneficial as it can be to use guest posts on your blog, there are also some guidelines you should follow to avoid potential drawbacks.

A few years ago, there were rumors that Google was penalizing websites that used guest posts. This is only a partial truth, however. It began when former Google spokesperson Matt Cutts made an inflammatory statement suggesting that guest posting was dead. Google quickly clarified this. It turns out that guest posting is still advantageous provided you do it properly. Cutts’ comments were really aimed at blogs that were abusing the process by posting poor-quality content.

Tips for High-Quality Guest Posts

• Only publish posts that are well-written and free of spelling and grammatical errors. Never publish guest posts simply to accumulate more posts. Remember that everything you publish is a reflection of your business.
• Only publish unique content. Before publishing any guest posts, make sure that they are unique and that you have exclusive rights to them. You don’t want to publish the same articles that can be found on other websites. This is bad for SEO and undermines your goal of establishing your business as an authority.
• Be careful of outgoing links. It’s fine to link to trustworthy websites. Such links, in fact, add credibility to the posts and can even help your SEO. However, linking to low-quality sites such as affiliate links can harm your SEO. Additionally, limit the number of links included in the author bio. Allow a maximum of two links here, which may include links to the author’s website and a social media account.
• Cover topics that are timely and relevant to your audience. When publishing guest posts, you have to use the same standards as when you’re writing your own content. Always screen potential blog posts carefully. In addition to wanting well-written, unique content, you also want to make sure that the topics are important to your readers. It’s often best when writers pitch you before sending their posts. If you have writers you work with regularly, you might also request certain topics. It’s always good to cover timely topics based on recent developments as well as evergreen subjects your audience will care about months, even years, down the road.
• Remember that you’re not obligated to publish every post that someone submits or suggests. It’s still your blog and your brand. Choose content you can stand behind.

Publishing guest posts is an effective strategy for keeping readers interested, growing your audience and approving your search engine results. If you follow the above advice, you’ll find that this is an evergreen technique for making your blog more popular and influential.

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