Blogging 101: Everything You Need to Know About Guest Posting

Recently, I got a request for guest posting on someone’s blog and I’m mulling over it. In the past, for my personal projects, I’ve been vehemently against guest posting. For the corporations I’ve worked for, we have a very strict code of conduct and set of requirements for guest posting.

Of course, I met this proposal with immense scepticism. I’ve gotten requests for guest posts in the past and I outright rejected or ignored them. But this request, well, I’m seriously considering it. I can’t promise that I’ll have a guest post up somewhere but it made me think.

And yes, I’m one of those people who will weigh the pros and cons, and thus, the idea of this blog post was born. If you, like me, are not really sure about guest posting, this blog’s for you.

What is Guest Posting?

Guest posting or guest blogging is a powerful and popular strategy that writers and website owners use to increase both their domain and brand authority in one go. It can increase traffic, boost your rankings, and establish you as an expert in your niche.

It doesn’t matter whether you are an individual blogger or a large corporation looking to increase your brand’s visibility, guest blogging can help you. In fact, guest blogging is a way bloggers increase traffic to their sites. 

As a matter of fact, when you start a new blog, your content might have trouble reaching a wide audience, even if it is top-notch. This is where guest blogging comes in. 

By writing some posts for other sites to publish, you can reach many more people who can also become subscribers to your website. 

However, as a guest blogger, there are a few things you need to do before you propose a guest post for a site you’ve come across.

Benefits of Guest Posting

Guest posting has risen to become one of the best SEO practices for any website. One of the biggest challenges for an online business is getting your messages to your potential leads. One thing to remember is that it can take a while to see the fruits of your labour. Of course, it may seem counterproductive to spend time writing articles for other sites, when you could be using that time to create content for your own site. But the opportunities that guest posting can offer you can be monumental for your SEO and sales goals. 

1. It Helps SEO 

Guest posting can significantly improve SEO through several mechanisms. Firstly, when you contribute high-quality content to reputable websites within your niche, you often have the opportunity to include backlinks to your own website or specific pages. 

SEO link building has come a long way over the years, but quality link-building is one thing that will never change. Google algorithms hinge around relevance and authority, so you need to align your approach with these factors. You cannot rely on random backlinks to get your website to the top of search rankings. 

Quality is the most critical factor, and it depends on the relevance and authority of your backlink sources. The best part is that these followers are pretty close to your buyer persona, so you have a good chance of landing qualified leads on your website. Highly  effective strategy for building high-quality backlinks in SEO due to its collaborative nature and emphasis on producing valuable content. 

2. It Provides Link Building Opportunities 

When you contribute a guest post to another website within your niche, you typically have the opportunity to include one or more backlinks to your own website or specific pages within the content. These backlinks serve as endorsements from the host site, indicating to search engines that your content is authoritative and worthy of reference. 

One of the key factors that contribute to the quality of backlinks obtained through guest posting is the authority and relevance of the host website. Backlinks from reputable, authoritative websites within your industry carry more weight in the eyes of search engines, as they are seen as trustworthy sources of information. Therefore, guest posting on established platforms with a strong domain authority can significantly enhance the quality and impact of the backlinks generated. When you contribute valuable, informative content that resonates with the audience of the host site, the backlinks within your post are more likely to be seen as natural and relevant by both readers and search engines. 

This natural integration of backlinks within high-quality content helps to further establish the credibility and authority of your website in the eyes of search engines. allows you to control the anchor text used for your backlinks, enabling you to optimise them for specific keywords or phrases relevant to your content and target audience. Strategic use of anchor text can further enhance the relevance and SEO value of the backlinks obtained through guest posting. 

3. It Helps to Build Relationships with Other Bloggers

Guest posting can help you build relationships with other bloggers in your niche. The first step to finding guest posting opportunities is to identify your niche. Figure out what topics you write about that would be of interest to other bloggers and website owners in your industry. 

Once you know your niche, you can start searching for guest posting opportunities. There are a few different ways to search for guest posting opportunities. One way is to use Google advanced search operators. You can use operators like “site:”, “inurl:”, and “intitle:” to find guest posting opportunities. Another way to search for guest posting opportunities is to check out competitor sites. See if they have any blog posts that are looking for guest contributors. 

How to Find Blogs for Guest Posting?

Guest post directories are a great way to find websites that are open to guest posts and also see what kind of topics they’re looking for. One popular guest post directory is Guest Post Tracker. You can use their search engine to find websites in your niche that are open to guest posts. Each site has guidelines for guest posting. Follow them as closely as you can. It’s like following the rules of a board game.  

Another way to search for guest posting opportunities is to check out competitor sites. See if they have any blog posts that are looking for guest contributors. This can be a good way to find websites in your niche that are open to guest posts. 

These relationships can be helpful down the line when you are looking for links or mentions from other blogs. Moreover, these relationships can also lead to collaborative opportunities such as joint webinars or product launches. If you write SEO-friendly guest posts, you can further boost your ranking in search engines. 

Best Practises for Guest Posts

Be sure to include relevant keywords naturally throughout the article, it’s important to use them sparingly and naturally throughout the text. Overusing keywords, also known as “keyword stuffing,” will not only turn off potential readers but can also result in search engines penalising your site.  

Including images in guest posts can help break up the text and make articles more visually appealing, but did you know that they can also help with SEO? Whenever you upload an image onto a website, you have the option to include an alt tag.

This is a piece of code that allows you to describe what an image is  and including keywords in these tags can help improve your article’s ranking on search engines, and linking to your own website from a guest post can help improve your SEO in a few different ways. 

First, it can help search engines index your site more easily – if your site is linked to from other websites, it’s more likely that search engines will be able to find it. Second, links from high-quality websites can help improve your website’s authority, which in turn can lead to better rankings on search engines.  

Your headline is the first thing that potential readers will see, so it’s important to make it count. A good headline will be attention-grabbing and relevant to the content of your article. In addition, you can use keywords in your headlines to help improve your SEO. 

By following these tips, you can use guest posting as an effective tool for boosting your SEO efforts. Additionally, guest posting can drive referral traffic to your website, especially if your posts resonate with the host site’s audience. Increased traffic signals to search engines that your content is valuable and relevant, potentially leading to improved rankings over time. 

4. It Establishes Your Authority

When you showcase your expertise and partner with respected sites, you can establish credibility with readers, influencers, and Google. Plus, any links to your site can generate referral traffic.  

By consistently delivering insightful and informative content that resonates with the audience of the host site, you establish yourself as a credible authority within your niche. 

This helps to build trust among readers, who are more likely to view your brand as reliable and knowledgeable.  facilitates relationship-building with other bloggers, influencers, and industry professionals within your niche. Collaborating with reputable individuals and organisations enhances your brand’s credibility through social proof and endorsements. As you cultivate meaningful connections and partnerships through guest posting, you leverage the trust and authority of your network to further enhance your brand’s reputation and credibility. 

5. It Enhances Your Brand Visibility

Guest blogging also allows you to expand your brand’s visibility. By publishing your posts on other websites, you can capture the attention of readers who may have never encountered your brand before. This is why it is critical to ensure that your guest posts are of high quality. It should be grammatically correct, offer valuable information, and be easily read. It’s also essential that the content is tailored to the host blog’s audience. 

If you write for a home decor website, your post shouldn’t be about hair products. Tie into what the host site’s target audience wants to read, and incorporate relevant and valuable insights for them. 

Contributing valuable insights to other platforms helps establish you as an expert in your field, earning the trust of your audience. When readers see your name associated with reputable websites, they perceive you as a credible source of information, which can lead to increased brand trust and loyalty. 

Furthermore, when your guest posts are shared across various online platforms and social media channels, they reach a wider audience and amplify your brand’s visibility and credibility. The more exposure your brand receives through guest posting, the greater the opportunity to build trust among potential customers and stakeholders. 

While other marketing techniques such as social media and SEO can also aid you in getting traffic, they aren’t able to provide you the most relevant visitors. Traffic alone is of no use to you. A business wishes to create traffic channels that can send you highly relevant visitors who belong to your target audience and are genuinely interested in what you can offer.

6. It Brings Traffic and Shares – And that’s what it’s all about, really

As long as you create a quality guest post, you can exploit the already established loyal community of other blogs and route them to yours. The traffic attracted through guest posting is much more likely to take action on your website as opposed to others. 

Beside content sharing and promotion, guest posts also drive conversation on social media, which leads to great networking opportunities. Guest blogging not only increases the number of social media shares to your content, but can also boost your follower count and accelerate your lead generation efforts. 

 If a reader likes your guest post, they are more likely to follow you on Facebook or Twitter to see what other content you are publishing on your website and other places. This again will lead them to your website and give you the traffic and sales leads you need. Not only do great posts and articles gain a following, but they are also shared through social media channels, which can also give the business improved visibility as it continues to publish great content. The growth of the social media following will increase with the number of shares and at the same time drive traffic to your website and establish social proof of the legitimacy of your content. 

What to Consider When Writing a Guest Post

To begin with, research and identify reputable websites or blogs within your industry that accept guest contributions and align with your target audience and content goals. Take the time to familiarise yourself with the site’s content, audience demographics, and editorial guidelines to ensure that your guest post proposal is well-suited to their platform. If your aim is to be recognized as an expert in your field, focus on crafting high-quality, insightful content that adds value to the readers. 

You should aim to guest blog on websites that are highly regarded in your industry. If lead generation is your target, then the call-to-action in your guest post should lead readers to a landing page designed for conversion. This could be a free ebook, a webinar registration, or a free trial of your service. 

Once you’ve identified potential opportunities, craft a compelling pitch that highlights the value you can offer to the host site’s audience and demonstrates your expertise in your niche. Tailor your pitch to the specific needs and interests of the target site, and be sure to include relevant topic ideas, a brief overview of your proposed content, and any relevant credentials or previous guest posting experience. 

Upon receiving approval for your guest post pitch, work closely with the site’s editors or content managers to refine your topic, outline, and writing style to align with their editorial standards and audience preferences. Be responsive to any feedback or revisions requested by the site’s editors, and collaborate closely to ensure that your guest post meets their expectations and aligns with their editorial standards.

For more details on writing blog posts, check out this post here.

Common Guest Blogging Mistakes To Avoid

Navigating the world of guest blogging can be challenging, and it’s easy to fall into common pitfalls. If you want to avoid wasting your time and damaging your reputation, you need to avoid some common mistakes that many guest bloggers make. 

1. Doing No (Or Limited) Research

One of the biggest mistakes you can make is to pitch or write a guest post without doing any research on the target website, audience, or topic. This can lead to irrelevant, outdated, or duplicate content that will not impress the editor or the readers. To write a guest post that offers no value to the readers or the host website. 

This can happen when you write a generic, superficial, or self-promotional article that does not provide any useful information, insights, or solutions. 

To avoid this, you need to write a guest post that addresses a specific problem, question, or interest of the audience, and that demonstrates your expertise, credibility, and personality.  

2. Dismissing Guidelines

Every guest blogging website has their own guidelines when it comes to posting, and not following them means not having your guest blog being posted. These guidelines include what topics the website prefers to post, topics that are not allowed, and how to submit your post. 

They are specific, and make sure that your guest blog would be compliant to what they are looking for. There can be a temptation to contribute sub-par content when you’re guest blogging. You may reason that this is primarily a tool to get people to your site, so your content doesn’t have to be quite as good as your regular writing. There are a few problems with this. 

First, this strategy will guarantee you never get asked to write another guest post on that site. Second, the blog owner is unlikely to promote poor-quality posts heavily to his or her audience. Finally, those who do read your post are unlikely to click through to your site anyway. In other words, if you’re not going to write a high-quality post, you might as well save yourself the time and effort and just not contribute a post at all.  

This can happen when you write a guest post that is too passive, too busy, or too indifferent to engage with the host website, the readers, or the feedback. To avoid this, you need to write a guest post that has a clear and compelling call to action, that encourages the readers to comment, share, or subscribe, and that responds to the comments, questions, or suggestions that you receive. 

3. Writing the Wrong Pitch

Before you even start writing your post, you’ll first need to pitch the owner of the blog. This can actually be the trickiest part, especially when you’re pitching a large publication or one with which you have no prior connection. 

Always do your research to find the most suitable person at the organisation to which you are pitching. This will often be the editor of the section you want to be featured in. Address the person by name. 

Take some time to look and read what types of posts (especially guest posts) the site usually publishes. Keep your pitch short and to the point and Include a link to your blog so the editor can get a feel for your writing style and choice of topics. 

Ideally, the target audience for your guest post should be the same as the target audience for your own blog. However, in some cases there may be some differences in terms of demographics, topics-of-interest or even niche. 

4. Not Asking for Help

When writing a guest post, you also need to be aware of the needs of the audience and where they are coming from, what they’re interested in, and their level of knowledge/interest in the topic you’re writing about. 

If you’re at all unclear on any of these points, don’t be afraid to ask the blog owner for details about his or her audience. This question along with your own research, should allow you to write a guest post that speaks directly to what the audience really needs and wants to know. failing to establish clear goals and objectives for your guest blogging efforts can hinder your overall success and impact. 

5. Not Defining Your Target Audience

Before embarking on a guest posting campaign, take the time to define your target audience, content goals, and desired outcomes, such as increased website traffic, brand exposure, or lead generation. 

By setting specific, measurable goals and tracking your progress over time, you can assess the effectiveness of your guest blogging efforts and make adjustments as needed to optimise your results.

Make Sure You Do It Right!

Guest posting is a valuable and versatile strategy for expanding your online presence, establishing authority in your niche, and attracting new audiences to your website or blog. By collaborating with reputable websites and blogs within your industry, you can leverage their existing audience and credibility to increase visibility, drive traffic, and build brand recognition. 

Through thoughtful research, strategic pitching, and collaboration with host sites, you can create high-quality, valuable content that resonates with readers and adds value to their platform. Through guest posting, individuals and businesses can establish themselves as trusted thought leaders, experts, and influencers, while also fostering valuable relationships and collaborations within their niche. 

However, success in guest posting requires careful research, thoughtful planning, and adherence to host site guidelines to ensure that your content resonates with readers and achieves your marketing goals. By avoiding common guest blogging mistakes and focusing on creating valuable, original content that adds value to host sites and engages readers, you can maximise the effectiveness of your guest posting efforts and realise the full potential of this powerful marketing strategy.