Udemezue John
Introduction.
Blogging has been treated as a straightforward business model online; most blogging experts recommend that you write about what you care about. But, soon, it will get to the right people via search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo.
SEO experts have since then set out to understand the criteria for what makes a blog rank on the Google search engine result page (SERP); they came out with many factors, out of which backlinks were discovered.
Backlinks have been directly correlated with organic traffic to blogs, and so many top SEO experts have proved this.
In the section below, I will be pointing out some of what these top SEO experts have to say about backlinks.
1. Brian Dean – Backlinko.
Brian Dean is an American SEO Expert, and here are some of the critical reference points he made on his blog while addressing the importance of link building.
In other words, what this statement means concerning backlinks is that the more websites link back to you, the higher tendency for you to rank on the SERPs
2. WordStream.com
Another top search engine optimization platform also spells out the importance of link building to any SEO related strategy.
3. Alexa Blog.
And lastly, the official Alexa blogs also reference the need to build backlinks as an SEO sustaining strategy. Here is what was written on their blog.
What Is Guest Posting?
Guest posting, also called Guest blogging, is the act of publishing content on a similar blog niche with a higher search engine ranking or a domain authority to Attract traffic back to their website, Boost their domain authority, boost their brand credibility and awareness, and develop relationships with blogging peers in their industry.
Benefits of Guest Posting.
As stated in the section above, guest posting can be applied to many use cases majority of which includes backlink building, which directly impacts the SEO of any website involved.
Most people post to build backlinks to boost their SERP rankings and get more organic traffic, but there is more to guest posting than just building backlinks in this section.
1. To Your Blog Domain Authority.
The domain authority of your website Guest posting on other high-quality blogs directly boosts your backlinks, increasing your domain authority.
The more top-ranking blogs links to you, the more Google sees you as an authority.
It would help to go after blogs with very high Domain Authority when guest posting.
2. To Get Organic Traffic.
Another primary reason bloggers guest post is to get organic traffic from the SERP.
It has been discovered that guest posting increases backlinks, boosting your website’s search engine visibility to get substantial organic traffic.
3. To Build Brand Trust.
The following and significant reason why people guest post is to build online brand trust; imagine when a very top authority website is mentioning your brand, the results tend to rub on you and send a strong perception about your brand on the internet, and trust me people would want to do business with you because of your credibility.
4. Develop and Build Relationships.
Another reason blogger subscribes to guest posting opportunities is to build a credible relationship.
Starting a blog without any relationship can be challenging as a newbie in blogging; even though you write excellent content, people are not going to see you as an authority, but with the right relationships in place, you are going to get mentioned by the top and established bloggers in your niche, which will enhance your blogger profile.
What comes to your mind when you hear of names like MOZ, Neil Patel, Harsh Argawal and Brian Dean, just among the few to mention? They appear as authorities because they have developed quality relationships over the years.
5. Build Backlinks.
Backlinks have been correlated with how a website ranks on the SERP; getting more backlinks to your blog via guest posting can help you organise more and boost organic traffic.
Most people guest post to get more backlinks to impact the way their website ranks on Google.
How To Guest Post For Blog Traffic.
Guest posting is the most challenging part of search engine optimisation, and not too many bloggers have enough stamina to take part in this task.
Guest posting is a process that requires a lot to be in place, and this is why I will be taking you through every step, one after the other.
1. Get a List Of Websites.
Guest Blogging has to do with building backlinks, which cannot be done without the help of other websites.
You need to get another reputable website to point out to your website; all I am saying is that the first ingredient required to begin link building is a complete list of websites that accepts guest post.
There are over 1 Billion websites worldwide, and only a majority of them accepts guest post pitch from other bloggers. Also, remember that you should create a list of websites relevant to your niche and carry a much higher domain authority than yours.
In this section, I will curate a list of websites that accepts guest posts.
1. Project Life Mastery.
Project Life Mastery is a life coach, entrepreneurship and motivation blog. It is owned by popular YouTuber and life coach Stefan James.
Project Life Mastery has a D.A of 51 and organic search traffic of more than 100K page views a month.
Website – Projectlifemastery.com
2. ShoutMeLoud.
ShoutMeLoud remains one of the popular blogs on the internet; Indian born blogger Harsh Argawal created it; I grew up knowing ShoutMeLoud.
ShoutMeloud covers a significant blog niche called Blogging; though other places such as entrepreneurship and digital marketing have been flaunted on this blog, its top slot remains blogging.
Everything you need to know about starting a blog and even becoming productive with your blog has been published on this blog.
ShoutMeloud has a D.A of 64 and a monthly estimated organic traffic of over 500K page views per month.
Website – Shoutmeloud.com
3. Hubspot.
Hubspot is an American startup that focuses on developing digital marketing tools for businesses such as; social media marketing, content management, web analytics, landing pages, customer support, and search engine optimization.
Hubspot has a D.A score of 80, ranks for more than with estimated traffic of 20 Million page views per month, and is currently ranked 711 worldwide.
Website – Hubspot.com
4. Mashable.
Mashable is an American entertainment, culture, tech, science and social good digital media platform, news website and multi-platform founded by famous Blogger Peter Cashmore.
Mashable has a D.A score of 82, with estimated organic search traffic of over 15 million page views monthly.
Website – Mashable.com
5. Moz.
Moz is a digital marketing blog created to help bloggers and online business owners navigate the hard part of online marketing, most especially SEO.
Most started as a small research website where SEO-related stuff was posted; it later became a more significant business after so many of its existing users requested to consult with it.
Moz has a D.A of 76 and estimated organic traffic of over 1.6 Million page views per month.
Website – Moz.com
2. Understand Their Guest Posting Guidelines.
After identifying these websites, the next step is to check out their guest posting guidelines.
These guidelines are usually described in detail on a page on their website; it usually carries information on the type of content to write about, the length of the content, and most cases, the dynamics of how the content should be reported.
Do not be surprised that most of these guest posting opportunities come at a price; you may be asked to pay a certain fee if you, however, do find yourself in a position like this one, and you a fortunate enough to be able to make a payment. You may go on, but if you can’t, then move on to the following website with free guest blogging opportunities.
3. Extract The Appropriate Contacts.
Now That you must have read out their guidelines, the next step is to get a list of appropriate contact to reach out to.
Most of these websites have a contact page, which can be used to reach out to the appropriate person-In-charge, but you may not be lucky enough to get a response on time.
The next step is to extract the relevant emails attached to the desired website by using an online tool called Hunter.io.
4. Prepare Contents.
Content is the next step to take after you might have finished up the first three steps.
Most bloggers feel obliged to write content for guest posting purposes because it stresses them out, and this is among the primary reasons most bloggers don’t practice guest blogging.
I have good news for you, even if you cannot lay your hands on content written by you, you can outsource the task to writing freelancers online and pay them a token for their service.
Online writing freelance websites allow you to hire the services of a writer by spelling out the desired topic, length of words, and finally making payments. After payment might have been completed, the next thing is to wait for your writing piece to be delivered to you.
I usually recommend you prepare a lot of content for guest blogging opportunities. To be safe, you should have at least ten articles waiting in line to be published and make sure they are unique and have not been posted anywhere on the internet.
Example of a freelance writing website includes; HireAWriter, Fiverr, Upwork and many more.
5. Send Out a Pitch.
After you might have written out these contents, the next thing you want to do is to send out a pitch. Guest blogging pitches are usually emailed to the desired website to be published upon.
When sending out a guest pitch, the title and the body of your email should be as convincing as possible.
In this section, I will be giving specific examples of some guest post pitch templates that you can draw your inspiration from.
Dear _____________,
My name is _____. I discovered your website from ___ and thought it the perfect opportunity for me to reach out to you. I have become a fan of your work and enjoy reading your content. I specialise in (your niche), and I believe my writing style and yours match perfectly. I would love to be a contributing writer for your site/and pitch my guest post idea. I want to write an article entitled ( __ ) as I believe it will resonate deeply with your audience and give valuable information and a fresh point of view on the subject matter. The article will explain ____ and provide details on how to ______
I’ll be a great contributor to your blog/website because (list your best strengths and qualifications, such as
- I complete and submit all work in a timely fashion
- I’m very skilled in extensive research and analysis
- I’m dependable, enthusiastic, and enjoy working with others
Thank you for your time and consideration, and I look forward to working with you!
All the Best,
(Your signature)
6. Follow-Up.
Sending out guest post pitches is not enough as you have to also follow up on responses; if no response comes after 48-hours, you have to send a follow-up email to ensure that your message was delivered and read by the blog author.
Follow-up emails should be sent after the first 48-hours, while the second follow-up email should be sent after one-five day.
7. Connect On Social Media.
The next thing to do after you seem not to get any response regarding your pitch is to reach out on social media platforms.
Most bloggers are evil when it comes to reading and responding to emails; most have reached the peak of their successes, so they don’t want to collaborate with other upcoming bloggers; not all bloggers are generous with their platform.
If you find yourself in this position, the next thing to do is to reach out to them on social media platforms such as Linked and Twitter.
Why You Should Not Guest Post.
There are so many benefits attached to guest posting, but it does not change the fact that it remains one of the most complex parts of SEO.
The primary reason bloggers guest post is to build backlinks, which has been correlated with organic traffic. The more backlinks a website has, the more organic traffic it would generate.
1. Backlinks Can Be Generated Naturally.
In the section before now, I stated that one of the significant reasons bloggers guest post is to build backlinks, which will affect their search engine rankings and increase their organic traffic.
Do you know that backlinks can be generated naturally even without guest posting to build backlinks? All you need to do is write authoritative content, and backlinks will come independently.
2. Guest Posting Is Expensive.
Most people outsource freelance writers to prepare guest posts while they work full time on their blog, which can be very expensive.
Hiring an extra writer to write articles for you most time can cost you a fortune; most writers charge over $50 per article, which not too many new bloggers cannot afford.
3. Guest Posting Makes Bloggers Unproductive.
When attempting to guest post, you pitch the best topic to a more blog with higher traffic than you, and most times, they get all the credits while your blog suffers a lack of attention and good content.
In my own very little understanding, it would be better to spend time adding quality content to your blog and allow Google to do its job in ranking you; It may take time but trust the process.
4. You May Get Rejected.
This is one of the most annoying parts about having to put so much effort into guest posting, only to get rejected.
Most of these websites in question do not even have qualitative content; they are only privileged to have started long before you did, so they have gained Domain authority and ranked for more keywords than you do.
To wrap it all up, if you feel the need to speed off things more than usual, you should prepare your mind for countless rejections.
Conclusion.
As I have always said, when starting a blog, you need lots of patience; the primary secret to success as a blogger is by publishing authoritative content, look at the other blogs that do what you do, borrow ideas from their respective blogs, make it better, and add it all up to your blog.
In the long run, you become better than they are and even end up ranking higher on the search engine; also, make sure that you are not copying word for word so as not to end up ranking lower than the initial source where you picked it all up from.
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