In the world of blogs, "guest posting" is when you put your work on other people's websites or in other publications (partnerships, in the media, etc.). The goal of these guest posts is to make people more aware of your brand and build a link profile at the same time.
Even so, how can you post on other websites so that you get the most attention possible? If you ask ten different marketing companies about it, you'll get ten different answers to the same question. Guest posts are usually used to connect with people and get links rather than to build a brand image, which is a mistake! It's important to build a strong brand, with SEO considerations thrown in for good measure.
So, today in this article, we will let you know about 6 important guidelines to follow before writing guest posts!
1. Always stick to the topic!
If you want to give your customers information that is relevant to your business, write about it. As a digital marketer, it is very important! Do you use video marketing to spread the word about your business? Then, write about it too. Tell the audience about your experience in the field. Only then will they truly understand your value!
If you want to be an expert, you need to focus on a few things and be very good at keeping yourself on track. The only way to be an expert is to be a real expert in the subject you are writing about. If you write well on a lot of different subjects, you risk "confusing" your readers and making search engines think you don't know what you're talking about.
There are some exceptions, but in general, when you're writing guest posts for someone else, it's best to stick to a topic that you know a lot about.
2. Always try creating evergreen pieces!
Do you want to leverage your posts as income for a long time? When you use evergreen content, which is material that stays relevant for a long time, you will be better off! For your blog, it is better to write about the most up-to-date news and changes in your field. People should always try to write guest posts that would still be relevant in the future!
There’s a simple formula for efficiency: 90% evergreen content, 10% news and hot topics.
3. Always try to target relevant and powerful sites!
Many people who prefer search engine optimization (SEO) think that a website's domain authority is important. However, this signal isn't the only one that is important; there are many more! You can easily spot a hell lot of high DA websites that have very little to none relevant content. These content pieces are either scraped or translated.
Assuming that a high domain authority (DA) means you should post to that site might be a waste of your time and effort. Instead of looking for an authoritative domain name, look for high-quality websites that have a lot of useful information written by experts in the field.
Two things that you must find out before writing a guest post on any high DA website is: the demographic and traffic analytics and whether or not the website is buying links! You can check the link profile on your own or hire an SEO expert to do it for you. If the site has links to other sites that don't have good information, you should not waste your time and move on.
You know, it's always important to start building a brand before getting links.
4. Find and build relationships with trustworthy sources!
To get your articles on a high-quality site, do everything you can to get them on there. Some SEO experts don't like this strategy because they think that more links make the links less valuable. After all, most guest posts only link to the author's website in the author's bio.
This usually means that the first link is the most important, with each subsequent link becoming less important. This isn't true, though, if the publication is good and you can have an impact on the audience because of it. Instead, you should work on making your brand more trustworthy.
5. Never forget about Search Engine Optimization (SEO)!
Many authors, especially those who work in Internet marketing, don't think about search engine optimization when they write guest posts. Let’s have a quick look at the most important things to note about SEO in guest posts:
- In the guest post, add one or two keywords that are related to the subject.
- The ideal length of a title should be about 55 characters long. If possible, it should include target keywords, figures, and parenthesis, as well.
- There should be a marketing message and clear call to action in meta descriptions of 150 characters or less.
- Use words that are naturally found in the text.
- Title tags should include keywords that are relevant (keywords that are related or thematic are great).
- Use bold, italics, and bullets well to make reading easier, improve user experience, and make people spend more time on the page.
- Links to internal and external pages with content that is related and adds to the information in your piece should be included.
6. Try to quote experts as much as possible!
While writing guest posts, brevity doesn’t help much. You should often quote and cite experts wherever possible! It's one of the things that search engines look at when they decide how to rank a page. Informative articles that cover a lot of different topics in depth are good for them. This, however does not mean that volume is important and quality is not!
The material should be informative, interesting, and show the whole thing. As a bonus, ask a person who knows a lot about the subject and put a quote from the author in your essay.
Some sites only post content that is more than 5 thousand characters in length because they have limited space. There are no hard and fast rules about length, though. In my experience, it's not very common to write about a subject in as few words as possible!