7 Ways Guest Posting Can Help Your Business (And How to Do It Right)

Marketing

Whether you’re new to online marketing or have a digital presence, guest blogging is a powerful tool.   

It helps your business in many ways. For example, driving more site traffic or generating new leads. You can raise brand awareness by publishing content on other blogs in your niche and build helpful relationships with other businesses.   

You might wonder how submitting content to another site helps your business. We will get into it all by breaking down the benefits of guest posting for your businesses. Keep reading to uncover a detailed framework for guest blogging correctly.  

What are Guest Posts? 

Guest posts are the articles you write and publish on blogs and websites other than your own; they are called guest posts. Writing as a high DA third-party website contributor works excellent for your SEO. But it also helps build relationships. You build them with the editors and with other bloggers and experts. 

Building efficient links to gain authority helps both the guest posting sites and your site. Finding such guest posting sites might take some time, but it is worth the effort. When you provide good content, the guest blogging sites will appreciate it too. 

If you need a heads up, use tools like BuzzSumo, to find the leading authors in your niche. You can also search for them using relevant queries and terms. 

Does Guest Posting Offer Any Positive Result? 

Search engines like Google reward guest post backlinks from websites with high domain authority. This is probably why 65.5% of websites try incorporating at least a few guest posts in their blogs. Now, that’s a shocking number. Isn’t it? 

While everyone was concerned about increasing website traffic, Buffer focused on guest posts. In less than a year, Buffer was able to attain 100k loyal customers. Guest posting can help you achieve this feat in your niche and business. If you need help figuring out where to start, this blog will guide you through each step. It will show you how to plan guest blogging correctly. 

Benefits of Guest Posting  

Let’s be honest— generating leads and sales is important for many businesses. However, almost 61% of businesses find this the most challenging task. You must understand that ignoring good traffic and relevant links prevents you from achieving this. These links boost your domain authority. 

When you post often on authoritative websites, you get the exposure to grow your business’s SEO authority. The result is better leads and more sales! 

Of course, there are other methods of inbound marketing than guest posting. Nonetheless, it’s one of the most effective and easiest methods. The best part? It works for all kinds of blogs, irrespective of the traffic they draw. Let’s take a detailed look at some guest posting benefits! 

1. Drives Traffic to your Website 

What is guest posting if it does not build backlinks that bring traffic to your site? This is known as referral traffic. That’s why backlinks are also termed incoming links or inbound links. 

The best way to explain how guest posting helps your website is to understand how it helps. Good backlinks can: 

• Drive more referral traffic 

• Allow better crawling for search engines 

• Improve your organic ranking 

Take Bryan Harris, for example. He created a full-time business from a single guest post on Okdork. Bryan is the mind behind the online video-making company Videofruit. Surprisingly, before his guest post at Okdork, his blog got only 285 visitors daily. It was a different story once his guest post became live, though! It received 1,086 visits the same day and 686 visits the day after—73% of which consisted of new audiences. 

Once readers found his post on Okdork.com, they wanted to know more. Naturally, huge traffic poured into his website. This happened within just 2 days and led to a 12% conversion rate. 

2. Boosts your SEO and Organic Ranking 

Other than referral traffic, proper guest posting helps businesses to boost their SEO. Provided you comply with Google’s guidelines. 

How so? Publishing high-quality and helpful content affects your search engine ranking. 

Search engines prefer quality over quantity. So, a good guest post for SEO builds your SEO score. By producing content for trustworthy websites, you gain the trust of search engines. 

Google tackles backlinks in three different ways: it can be neutral about them or penalize your ranking. Google will boost your rankings only if your guest post is relevant and on a good website. After about 10 weeks, you should see growth from each link. Google identifies backlinks in two ways: 

Do-follow Backlinks  

A do-follow backlink is a standard backlink. It lets search engines revert to your website, strengthening your authority. Since Google uses links as a key ranking signal, do-follow links hold immense value to the algorithm.  

No-follow Backlinks  

No-follow backlinks do not pass authority onto your site. In SEO, do-follow links are better in Google’s eyes. This is compared to no-follow ones, with a few exceptions. However, the user may not see much difference between the two. 

An example of a no-follow backlink performing well for SEO is the two maps shared by Moz that eventually got a shoutout by @Amazing_Maps. It even got featured on the front page of the Huffington Post. Now, that’s a lot of traffic from a simple no-follow link! 

Also, remember this: sites with lower domain authority will see a bigger boost in their ranking at first.  

3. Builds Better Brand Awareness 

Guest blogging can help establish your brand as a trusted expert on relevant topics. It also boosts website traffic and SEO ranking, since search engines favor famous brands. Direct traffic from search engines is a critical factor for better ranking.  

Effective guest blogging quickly exposes your brand to new audiences. For example, Tidio displays logos of famous brands like Forbes and Fox News on their site. 

The team of Autodesk used guest posting, working tirelessly to promote sustainable design. 

They ran a contributing column at Fast Company, a leading business magazine. They also constantly worked on posting guest blogs on renowned websites like Forbes. 

4. Boosts Your Domain Authority 

Another way guest posting helps businesses is by enhancing domain authority. Domain authority is a way to determine the chances of your website getting good traffic and a high ranking on search engines. This metric directly impacts search engine ranking and improving it can benefit your website. 

High-quality guest blogs on sites with high to average authority can probably get you a 60+ DA, according to SEMrush. So, aim to write great to OK blogs. Post them on mid-tier and high-authority guest posting sites.  

Silvio Porcellana is the CEO and founder of Mob.is.it. He had published many guest posts before seeing any change. He had published 44 guest blog posts in just 5 months. While the referral traffic growth was not as promising, the direct traffic from search engines showed a 20% increase. As a result, the domain authority also went from 29 to 34/100. 

5. Develops New Relationships 

Guest posting is a symbiotic marketing tactic that benefits both parties (the origin and the destination website). It also further extends your reach and helps you build a connection with other bloggers as you collaborate. Moreover, your new readers might find your article intriguing and decide to engage in the comments section. 

These are great in terms of SEO and other metrics, but one overlooked factor is the connection that they build. Author and marketing consultant John Jantsch used this tactic surprisingly well to promote his book Duct Tape Selling.  

Jantsch wrote just 7 guest posts and used his connections with a few major marketing blogs to promote the book. Brian Solis and Copyblogger were some of the prominent names on that list. Afterward, John mentioned the book’s name in his author bio in the guest posts. It worked like a charm! 

6. It Helps Your Email List Grow 

Email marketing boosts brand awareness among your target audience with a personalized approach. The best part is the real-time connection, with 42% of emails being opened from mobile devices. 

The problem is that the email marketing database naturally degrades over time at around 22.5% rate annually. Inevitably, your list is going to get smaller unless you continue generating leads. 

Guest blog posting on high-authority websites can be a lifesaver in this situation. Not only do you get to connect with a larger audience, but you also get to expand your email contact list. 

A surefire way to ensure this is to engage your audience with a CTA, asking them to subscribe to your email newsletter or blog. 

Founder of Small Business Ideas Blog, Brian Liang, is a regular contributor to global media company Foundr. He puts all his credibility in growing his email list to guest posting. 

Even Foundr itself has used guest posting to grow its email list to 250,000 subscribers within just two years. 

7. It Helps Your Social Media Grow 

Social media is one of the most significant sources of traffic you can have, second to only search engines. So, how do guest posts affect it? 

Well, it works in two ways. Firstly, the platforms where you guest post will have a substantial social media following. You can use this to multiply your social media following. The readers on the guest posting platforms find your post, and they share it with their followers, who share it further. 

Sounds crazy, right? Before you know it, your social media numbers will soar through the sky. 

The second way is similar to sharing your email contact. You can mention your social media URL in your guest post author bio. When readers click on it, it will boost your brand’s online presence. Take a cue from digital strategist Erin Everhart, who increased her Twitter engagement by 22% in less than 48 hours with this tactic.   

The only problem is that social media trends keep changing, and you must stay updated. Also, people tend to overpost, which does more harm than good. Having a dedicated social media expert like WrittenlyHub, on your side can take a load off your feet.   

Ways to Find Guest Posting Opportunities 

Guest blogging is not a magic pill that will solve all your problems overnight. Consistent content creation is one of the critical factors at play here. You also need to know how to write, and find guest posting opportunities. 

Here’s a tried-and-tested framework to help you create your guest posting framework. 

1. Define Your Goals 

This may sound cliché, but you cannot begin the process of guest posting unless you have a set of goals in mind. These goals can be about your website’s performance. It can also be business-related, like getting more leads or reaching potential clients.  

Whatever it is, you would need a clear picture of all the goals to construct a plan to execute and achieve them.  Now, your goals could vary from the most common ones. But, if you don’t know where to start, learning these common business goals can give you a blueprint. 

Usually, the goals of guest blogging include: 

• Getting more traffic from landing pages for increased leads and sales 

• Building more brand awareness with respect to your products or services 

• Getting more inbound links or backlinks for better SEO optimization 

• Growing the number of email subscribers and social media followers 

• Being able to put yourself in a position of authority in your niche 

Ultimately, you will need more quality content on the guest post sites on your brand’s behalf to do all of this for you. So, having a specific one or two goals in mind will help you design the content better. 

2. Find Guest Posting Opportunities 

The art and science of guest blogging begin with finding the suitable guest posting sites. Now, no matter where you post, you might be able to generate some traffic from it. That is the beauty of guest blogging, and of course, some traffic is better than no traffic, right? Wrong. 

You might have trouble catering to your niche or building your brand authority. This will happen without referrals from high-authority sites. Also, many blogs that accept guest posts will have stringent quality guidelines. So, it is important to knock on the right doors if you want to drive some substantial results. 

Locate Guest Post Sites 

Websites may always be on the lookout for free content, but that does not mean they will post anything. A site with a higher domain authority will be even pickier about the quality of content and want you to adhere to its content guidelines. You may find this a difficult hurdle at times. 

Nonetheless, you will still be able to find good websites that want guest contributions. When a website lets another business or social media influencer post on its blog, it boosts its traffic. So, it’s a win-win for all. 

Search From Google and Research the Site 

The best way to do this is by searching for blogs in your niche that interest you on Google. The reason behind this is that Google is the biggest search engine, even today. It is also the number one search engine, according to SEMrush.  Once you find them, check how established their guest post system is. 

If the website has a history of guest posts, you can approach them. That does not mean you cannot approach them if they do not have guest posts. Seek the opportunity and connect to build a relationship first to sound less opportunistic, and the result just might surprise you. 

Search on Social Media 

Social media allows you to seek and approach guest post opportunities head-on. Sending cold emails to unknown people is not everyone’s cup of tea. However, social media makes it easy to approach and is much more direct. Therefore, you can contact your friends and other websites through conversations to tie a bond. 

Participate In Online Communities 

Blogger directories and forum communities offer a similar benefit to social media platforms, except that you will find people with similar goals here.  

Other guest post authors looking for the same opportunities can be an excellent platform for discussing and finding new scopes. 

In addition, you will get leads on free guest posting websites and networks. 

Advertise On Your Old Guest Blog 

You can even create opportunities by posting about your availability for guest post service. Instead of putting up links or emails, you can directly mention that you are available to oblige any guest post service in the future. 

This can generate leads for future guest blogging opportunities. 

3. Research and prepare pitches 

This is a step between finding a guest posting opportunity and contacting the website. With most editors getting at least 10 pitches daily, you must stand out if you want to submit a guest post successfully. 

There are a few ways to achieve this. 

• Build relationships with the editor by searching about who they are and what they do (their social media might help). 

• Talk about the value you can provide to the audience instead of explaining your own goals like Alex from Groove. 

• Go through the guidelines before approaching. Websites like ConvinceandConvert use this method to test guest bloggers. Their regular followers know what works with them. 

• A strong subject line helps in email marketing and can boost your guest post pitches. Also, many editors usually prefer replying after a follow-up, so make sure to do that. 

• Respect the editors’ time if you want to build a good rapport with them. Do not sound impatient in your pitch or follow-ups. 

• Eliminate errors, as editors will likely reject your post if they find any spelling or grammatical errors.   

• Be short and precise in your approach. Give the editors a proper introduction about yourself, explaining the reason behind your writing. 

Create the Perfect Blog 

Now comes the process of writing the guest post. This requires proper structuring, which you can maintain with the following tips. 

Write with a clear goal in mind. 

Without this step, you will be unable to design your content the right way for better outreach. Also, you run the risk of pushing the audience from the guest post site to an irrelevant page on your website. This is why you must plan to funnel the audience towards a specific goal. 

Choose Evergreen Topics 

Writing guest posts does not derive instant results, but you can reap the guest posting benefits for years to come. This is why you write posts on topics that will remain relevant for years to come. Think of it as a long-term investment and forget about it once published. 

The best strategy for writing a blog post is to ensure it matures well. You can achieve this in various ways. You need to ensure that the right keyword phrases have been used throughout the guest post to rank better on search engines. Also, always leave room for discussion so more people can comment on your guest post. This is good for SEO and helps build your brand authority. 

Stand Out Among the Crowd 

With almost 7 million blog posts published daily, getting lost in the crowd is easy. Now, this number includes both on-page blogs and guest posts. However, the number is still intimidating. The question is, what makes your blog post so unique? 

As a guest blogger, you aim to solve a problem or answer a query that benefits the reader. Only then can you establish yourself as an expert in the field. You must conduct research, but you should also develop your unique angle on the topic. 

4. Track Results and Iterate 

Tools like SEMrush and Google Analytics allow you to analyze the key metrics of your guest post. This way, you get insights into the reach, backlinks, engagement, and the number of referral traffic to determine your blog posts’ performance. 

This data-driven approach is crucial for improving your future content creation since you’ll know which works best when comparing the referral traffic for different posts. 

This also works best if you aim to increase inbound traffic on your website. 

The success of any blog post depends on a few factors, like 

• The total number of visits to the blog post and the bounce rate 

• Average session duration that tells how long readers stay on your blog post 

• How many times the post has been shared on social media 

• The number of page views per visit 

• The increase or decrease in the number of subscribers establishes the efficiency of the blog post 

Once you find out about all these results, you can analyze the backlinks, the number of post shares, and historical data to learn more about your best guest posts.  

Summing up 

Believe it or not, guest posting is a key part of content marketing that you must focus on. You can bring in more traffic, create brand awareness, with the right approach. A team of experienced writers will be a great help if your focus is on leads and sales.  

However, you should also pay attention to the content of your website. Sometimes, this can be overwhelming especially since you are busy with your guest posting ventures.  

You can avoid this by working with a content marketing company like WrittenlyHub. They can manage your website’s content strategy and guest posting for you. This way, you can focus on your business’s core aspects. 

FAQs 

1. How do I track my guest post outreach efforts? 

Keeping tabs on your outreach efforts is crucial for managing the process efficiently. Using a simple spreadsheet or CRM software helps track your responses and outcomes.  

Email outreach tools elevate this process. They offer an analytics dashboard. It gives valuable insights into your efforts, like open and response rates. This method ensures no opportunities are missed due to oversight. It also lets you gauge your strategies’ effectiveness briefly. 

2. How do I choose the right sites for guest posting? 

Choosing the right sites for guest posting involves many criteria. They must be relevant to your niche and have high domain authority. Also, they need engaged audiences and publish high-quality content. 

Be very thorough in your research to find platforms that match your brand’s values and target audience. This ensures that your guest posts have the most impact. 

3. How often should I guest post? 

You should guest post often. But, how often depends on your goals, resources, and niche opportunities. Some businesses benefit from a steady stream of guest posts. Others may opt for strategic placements on high-profile sites.