Guest Blogging: A Valuable Off-page SEO Tactic
Off-page SEO is tactics on another site or platform to help search engines and visitors better understand a website’s content while maximizing the website’s authority, credibility, and relevance (Varagouli, 2022). Off-page SEO happens “behind the scenes” and is key to boosting visibility and traffic. Previously, marketers have used the terms “off-page SEO” and “link building” interchangeably, but there are many other tactics, such as guest blogging, content marketing, and social media (Varagouli, 2022). Guest blogging is a tactic that marketers heavily debate if it is worth the time or a waste of time to improve off-page SEO.
Exploring Guest Blogging Basics
Guest Blogging is publishing an article on someone else’s website. Plenty of websites allow users to submit articles to be considered as guest posts. It’s easy to find bloggers who accept guest posts through social media or a simple Google Search. Most blogs have guidelines for their guest posts that should align with the blog’s format. It’s important to remember that guest posts are not advertisements but should serve as sources of information. In a guest blog post, relevant keywords in the post are used to backlink to the guest blogger’s site. Some blogs may require a fee to have your post featured. When pitching your blog post, it’s essential to personalize the email before submitting the pitch. Personalizing the email can help the blog proposal stand out and show that you're familiar with the blog.
Guest Blogging Intended Use
If guest blogging is done correctly, it can be a powerful tactic to fuel growth, increase brand awareness and “be an ethical and sustainable way to build high-quality backlinks and improve your SEO performance” (Nica, 2022, para. 3). In addition, “under the right circumstances, blogging can build high levels of credibility for you and your brand” (Burnett, 2022, para.1). Guest blogging should focus more on authority building than linking building because high-quality content will create more long-term value and drive more referral traffic than a link (Burnett, 2022, para. 4). According to Neil Patel (2022), the first goal of guest posting should be positioning as an authority and making your name known in the industry; the second goal is to gain referral traffic back to your website, and the third is building backlinks.
Expected Benefits
Guest blogging can be an excellent tool in an inbound marketing strategy; it has many potential benefits that can help a brand’s marketing efforts. Aside from improving SEO performance, guest blogging can help grow an audience and increase brand awareness. Building relationships and creating new partnerships is essential; guest blogging is an easy way to do that. Guest blogging also forms authoritative backlinks, drives referral traffic, and can even generate new customers. Guest blogging improves a website’s credibility while sharing its expertise.
Pitfalls of Guest Blogging that Need to Be Avoided
Before selecting a site for a guest post, several things need to be considered before moving forward. The website you choose must be relevant to your industry; you want to find a blog that discusses relevant topics to your niche. You do not want to publish a post on a website where the audience is not interested in your industry. For example, suppose you are a jewelry store looking to sell your new earring collection. In that case, you will want to find a fashion blogger and engage with an audience interested in accessorizing their outfits. You want to ensure the blog has an engaged readership and that its posts can be shared through social media and allow comments. It’s also essential to ensure their content aligns with the article you were hoping to publish. For example, if this site keeps its posts under 500 words and includes few visuals, it might not be the right blog to collaborate with for your brand.
Knowing the blog’s content and the audience is essential before moving forward. It's important not to write directly about a business or product; the readers don’t want to read an ad. It’s best to avoid blogs that do not allow placing backlinks to the website. Without a link within the body of the post or somewhere else on the page, there is no way to gain referral traffic or leads (Nica, 2022). You must also have great content on your website to keep these users here once they’ve arrived. Marketers should not guest blog just to improve the number of links to your site. Google frowns upon using the tactic this way since it often leads to low-quality content, which isn’t suitable for anyone (Rampton, 2017).
My Experience with Guest Blogging
This past spring, I interned with Responsival, a marketing agency in Pittsburgh, PA. Each week one of my assignments would be to find guest bloggers for at least two different clients. I would google search for blogs about the client’s industry and additionally search on Instagram. I was able to find a lot of bloggers’ websites through Instagram rather than Google. We had a massive spreadsheet filled with thousands of bloggers and had to be sure not to add a blog already on the spreadsheet. I often had to find twenty to forty blogs each month for each client. Once I found a blog, I had to check the domain and page authority using the MozBar Chrome extension. Then, I would have to browse through their content and find an email address and name for the email address. Next, I would enter all the information into the spreadsheet for my advisor to see before she would move forward enquiring about a guest proposal. I enjoyed searching for the different types of blogs and browsing their content! Some of my client's industries varied; I often searched for fashion, jewelry, gardening, plumbing/HVAC, and home remodeling blogs. I was surprised by the number of bloggers who did not allow sponsored guest posts from brands.
Final Thoughts
Guest blogging can be an excellent off-page SEO tactic to improve authority, increase referral traffic, and build backlinks. Not only can it fuel growth and grow a brand’s audience, but it’s a way for the brand to share its expertise and create relationships. Knowing a blog’s audience and content is essential before pitching a guest post proposal. It’s critical to find the right blogs that align with the brand’s content, industry, and audience, along with the ability to achieve the brand’s goals. While guest blogging has several pitfalls, it can be an excellent tool for building off-page SEO if the tactic is done correctly.
References:
Burnett. (2022). Week 6 Lesson: SEO - Off-Page Optimization. eCampus. Retrieved June 23, 2022, from https://ecampus.wvu.edu/ultra/courses/_181265_1/cl/outline
Google. (2022). Google Images. Retrieved June 27, 2022, from https://images.google.com/
Nica, I. (2022, February 3). Everything you need to know about guest blogging. HubSpot Blog. Retrieved June 27, 2022, from https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/guest-blogging
Patel, N. (2022, March 9). The Ultimate Guide to Guest Blogging. Neil Patel. Retrieved June 27, 2022, from https://neilpatel.com/blog/guide-to-guest-blogging/
Rampton, J. (2017, January 31). 10 mistakes people make when guest posting. Forbes. Retrieved June 27, 2022, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnrampton/2017/01/31/10-mistakes-people-make-when-guest-posting/?sh=73e2c5c0589e
Varagouli, E. (2022, March 14). What is off-page Seo? A comprehensive guide. Semrush Blog. Retrieved June 22, 2022, from https://www.semrush.com/blog/off-page-seo/
Larissa, thanks for sharing your experience with researching guest blogging opportunities. It sounds like a detail-oriented and time-intensive process. I'm curious about what your most successful sectors was--fashion, jewelry, HVAC, plumbing?
ReplyDeleteAlso, in your experience how valuable do you find guest blogging? How much time and other resources would you suggest a brand invest in it? Lastly, what do you make of using guest blogging to build authority, not links?
Thanks again for the great read!
Hi Jessica, thanks for your comment! It’s definitely a detail-oriented and time-intensive process; I think that’s why many marketers view it as a “waste of time.” As for my most successful sector, it’s tough to choose. I found many fashion blogs; I often found more than the minimal amount. One day, I got lucky and found over twenty fashion bloggers through searching on Instagram. However, it would sometimes take me several hours to find at least ten new bloggers who weren’t on the sheet. I had to get creative with my Google and Instagram searches because if I searched something simple like “fashion blogger,” the first couple of pages of results were already on our spreadsheet from previous employees. Fashion blogs were my favorite to browse for, though!
DeleteHowever, the easiest to find blogs for was the HVAC/plumbing or home/office improvement sectors. I was shocked by the number of plumbing blogs there were! I often had to compromise monthly overviews of the guest blog posts for one of the clients called Creston. Creston offers light automation systems and solutions for businesses, office spaces, college campuses, health facilities, residential, and even Lambeau Field (home of the Green Bay Packers) (Creston Electronics, Inc., n.d.). Often several blog posts were shared on other social platforms such as Facebook. I didn’t get to analyze the referral traffic of the backlinks. This did gain Creston more exposure to new audiences and new visitors. Often when compromising the monthly overview for the current strategy, I would see a mixture of home improvement, some tech blogs, and even Mom bloggers.
I think guest blogging can be very valuable – if you have the time and resources to do it properly. It must be timed out in advance to be executed properly. During my time at Responsival, I was only an intern; this was a perfect task for me an intern, to do. They had several people working on different parts of the overall strategy. So, I was at the bottom of the chain, finding potential bloggers for the clients and comprising the monthly overview for clients. My supervisor would then draft the proposals and reach out to the bloggers if she felt they aligned with the brand and fit the proper web analytics. She would also write guest blog posts occasionally!
DeleteResponsival had a person who served as the content and copywriter and someone who served as a data specialist. There were always several different people working on each client’s efforts, yet; I would only meet with my supervisor. There was another intern, and we each had to find the same minimal number of blogs. The Director of Client Success oversaw the whole SEO strategy for each client. Other employees would then actively manage clients' blogs, websites, and social media content for clients. Ahrefs was heavily used at the company to find potential keywords for each client. I noticed that guest blogging helped clients who did not have a big social media following or actively engaged social media audiences but had excellent blog content. For example, Creston has excellent case studies within its website content and an active blog. Often, this client's monthly guest blog posts would link back to one of their case studies about their services or available systems.
If you have others who can help do some of the grunt work, like searching for bloggers, it is easier to complete this off-page SEO tactic. That way, time becomes more resourceful elsewhere. I think it can be a valuable tool if you have several people working together on the guest blogging efforts, like Responsival. I would suggest each person spend at least a few hours weekly on their respective task. I typically would spend at least 2 – 6 hours weekly searching for blogs depending on how long it would take me to reach the minimum amount.
I think it’s essential to build authority, not links – because, without a high authority, you will have a hard time outranking competitors for keywords if they are ranked higher in authority (Slegg, 2022). If you are just focused on building links, you may get less particular in the blogs you are selected to work with. This may cause issues like not having the right target audience or the blog not getting enough views. Being focused on link building can also lead to problems within the content of the guest blog post and the SEO. It’s not as easy as it seems to draft a guest post; the copy, format, SEO, images, and more must be carefully crafted. Also, not every website may be the right blog for your content.
Thank you for your response! Sorry for the long comment! I was excited to discuss this!
Resources:
Crestron Electronics, Inc.. [Crestron Electronics, Inc.]. (n.d.). Retrieved June 30, 2022, from https://www.crestron.com/News/Case-Studies
Slegg, J. (2022, March 10). How to do an SEO competitive analysis. Semrush Blog. Retrieved June 29, 2022, from https://www.semrush.com/blog/how-to-do-seo-competitive-analysis/