Table Of Contents
- How to effectively use guest posts for link building and brand amplification?
- Why should you target websites in a specific niche for guest posting?
- Why should you maintain a relationship with reputable publications?
- How to write search engine optimized guest posts?
- What is the optimum word count for guest posts?
- How to use link-worthy sources in guest posts?
- How to promote your guest posts?
- How to keep your guest posts content safe?
- What are Google’s guidelines for writing guest posts?
Guest posting is an amazing way to amplify your brand visibility and build potent backlinks, provided it's done properly. This blog will dive deep into the subject of guest posting and provide proven ways of guest posting in 2021.
Guest posting has always been a contradictory topic and no matter how many digital marketers you talk to, you’ll always get varying opinions. Some are hard-core believers of the practice, and some are totally against it.
No matter what your opinion is on the subject, here are some of the proven ways you can benefit from guest posting without harming your brand image or SEO.
1. Sticking to Your Specific Niche
If you are a content marker, write only about content marketing. If video marketing is what you do best, focus just on video marketing. Having a narrow focus is the key here. It’s a simple rule. You should be the expert in the topics that you write about.
The reason is that writing about multiple fields would potentially harm your brand by confusing the search engines. The odd exception can work but generally, it’s better to stick to your niche.
2. Create Content That is Evergreen
Your focus should be to create content that will stay relevant for longer time periods. You as an expert should also look for opportunities to create news stories that would reach a greater audience, but you should keep creating content that would stay relevant for many years to come. It is, however, not as easy as it seems. The general rule that you should aim for is 90% evergreen content and 10% trendy, newsworthy content.
3. Target Stronger Websites in Your Niche
Usually, the thing that most SEO experts focus on is domain authority. However, DA alone can not determine the strength of a website. There are a number of websites with a higher DA but thin in terms of copy. These websites are sometimes stuffed with irrelevant external backlinks.
So, you need to find websites that are loaded with high-quality content written by experts and not just run after high domain authority. You should figure out if a website is buying or exchanging links before deciding to go for a publication.
Remember, your focus should be on brand building first and then backlinking. Try to find a relevant website with original content and stay away from scammy websites for link building.
4. Maintain Relationships with Reputable Publications
Once you have found a publication website that resonates with your brand values, write as much as you can. Some SEO experts don’t like the idea of continuing to write for the same publication. The reason is that the value of backlinks keeps on diminishing over time.
However, if the publication correlates well with your content and you care about getting a fruitful audience, you should keep doing it without thinking of backlinks too much. Remember, brand-building should be the priority and then backlinking.
5. Keep SEO in Mind
Some writers forget about SEO while creating content for guest posts, but you should always keep SEO as a priority. Here are a few key pointers for SEO while writing for guest posts.
- 1 or 2 keywords should be targeted per post.
- Keywords should be targeted in titles of approximately 55 characters.
- Use numbers in headlines because headers with numbers are preferred by readers.
- Brackets increase the click-through rate by 37% according to research.
- Meta descriptions should have a clear call to action and should be about 150 characters long.
- Header tags should have related keywords.
- Using bold, italics and bullets amplify the content manyfold.
6. Write Longer Guest Posts
Search engines prefer longer posts. The reason is that they deliver more value to the readers. It doesn’t mean that you should beef up your copy by stuffing irrelevant content, but your post should be well thought out, well structured, and well written so that it is worthy of ranking on search engines.
The optimum word count for blog posts according to research is somewhere between 1000 to 1500 words but it is recommended to go longer to about 2500 words. That being said, there should be no compromise on quality, regardless of the word count.
7. Use Relevant Sources That are Link Worthy
The idea is to quote other experts, more so when they write about the same publications that you are posting in. Even better if you can churn out unique quotes from industry experts just for your post. It would allow you to create better links that are relevant and of high authority. Top Digital Marketing Agencies in Dubai and all over the world are utilizing these techniques to garner better backlinks and build authority.
8. Amplify Your Guest Posts
Not exploiting guest posts properly and just letting them be after posting them is as big a problem as not keeping SEO in mind while writing. As soon as your post goes live, you should use all possible ways to make it reach as many people as possible. This can be done by using social media, Google advertising, and email marketing.
Another way to do it is to link the post to your website. This can be done with dedicated pages on your websites using different plugins and tools. Content Marketing in Dubai especially and around the world, in general, has evolved over time, and to stay on top of it, you have to stay aware of newer techniques in order to tackle the ever-increasing competition.
9. Link Your Posts to Your Other Published Posts
If you have written two posts about the same or similar topics with overlapping information, you should link to other similar articles as well. You might not always be able to link to competitor websites however most of the publications would allow you to do that.
This helps search engines to connect all of your related posts which eventually creates a synergy and helps rank your content on SERPs.
10. Safeguard Your Guest Posts
Remember, guest posting is not just for SEO but an aspect of your overall PR strategy. The fact is that even if it is you who has worked on the content but once you’ve uploaded it on a third-party website, you don’t own that asset.
Publications change their online marketing strategies every now and then and don’t be surprised if they delete your post without prior notice. If that happens, your effort is just lost. To tackle that, you have to keep a final draft of your guest posts so that you can refresh it and re-upload the content
However, you are going to have to make sure that your content is not scrapped by someone else and posted on some other website. Another way to safeguard your content is to post it on your own platforms such as eBooks, blogs, and webpages.
11. Keep the Google’s Guidelines in Check
You should know that Google has set guidelines for posting content on third-party publications. Here are a few highlights of the guidelines that you must keep in mind:
- Don’t stuff keywords and links leading to your website.
- Don’t hire unknowledgeable writers who don’t know what they are writing about.
- Using plagiarized content in these articles is a big No.
Guest posting is indeed an effective strategy for building backlinks as well as increasing brand awareness. If done right, it can yield amazing results and it has been proven worthy. Keep these guidelines in check and try your best to stay in the good books of search engines. This would help you in long run and you won’t have to face any unwanted hurdles.
This is it for today’s blog. I hope you enjoyed reading it. Don’t forget to leave your feedback and if you have any queries, reach out to me and I will get back to you as soon as possible. If you want to amplify your brand using top of the line Content Marketing strategies, contact Prism Digital, the best Content Marketing agency in Dubai and we will create tailored strategies that would help you gain the exposure that your brand needs. See on the other side. Thank you and Goodbye.
About The Author: Lovetto Nazareth
Lovetto Nazareth is a digital marketing consultant and agency owner of Prism Digital. He has been in the advertising and digital marketing business for the last 2 decades and has managed thousands of campaigns and generated millions of dollars of new leads. He is an avid adventure sports enthusiast and a singer-songwriter. Follow him on social media on @Lovetto Nazareth