Guest Blogging & SEO

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Off-page SEO is one of the main improvement tactics that webmasters and website owners can utilize to make improvements towards SEO on their sites. Off-page SEO is unique because it includes all of the tactics that happen "off the page", or not on the main website. Some of the most popular types of off-page SEO include link-building, forums, influencer outreach, guest blogging and article writing (Saleem 2019).

 

Article-writing and guest blogging have been a key part of off-page SEO strategies for several years. Like backlinking, article writing and guest blogging are more simplified practices for SEO than other technical, on-page strategies like mobile optimization or keywords and tag updates. The way that guest blogging works, according to The Digital Agency Network, is when a blog or website features someone’s original work and links back to their own website (Borg, 2022). It’s an expanded form of a backlinking strategy to optimize and grow domain authority for a site, plus help to build an organic following. 

 

How to get started with guest blogging

To get started with guest blogging, a writer needs to find sufficient websites to try and pitch. The writer should be looking for websites with high domain authority and strong organic traffic. SEMRush’s Domain Overview tool should be helpful in determining authority and organic traffic. Next, a writer should pitch their selected websites with an eye-catching and short pitch that satisfies a need or interest of the website’s customers or readers. The below template from Buzzstream.com showcases a tried-and-true template to reach out to websites to pitch being a guest poster.

  

Guest blogging pitch template (Gratt, 2013)

 

This simple template may help kickstart new guest posters to think about how to provide value in a short few sentences to be granted guest posting opportunities on relevant sites. 

 

Once the pitch gets accepted, then the writer can begin writing. The content will need to be extremely high-quality if they expect the content to be posted. The content should also include internal links, including the site’s other relevant content in the post copy. This internal linking will also improve the SEO value of the pitch website. Additionally, a writer can link out to their own website if it’s a relevant backlink that provides value to the reader. 

 

Guest blogging is more of a long-term strategy than other SEO tactics and should not be used for creating quick wins for organic search. It can take several years to develop a high-quality and reputable online guest posting strategy. When determining if guest blogging and article writing is a strategy that you want to invest in, it’s important to understand the risks in addition to exploring the guest blogging process.

 

What are the risks?

 

First, guest blogging is time-consuming. To create high-quality content that other websites want to feature, it takes time and energy to create a quality repertoire of content, plus a great pitch. The writer needs to add value to the guest website in some way, by either being an expert voice on a topic or providing a unique insight to the topic. With that said, not even large companies can write several guest blogs per month, although some companies attempt to use ghost guest bloggers to complete their blogs and outreach, Due to the intellectual property needed to continually write great content, guest blogging will hardly ever be a large-scale effort, unless you have several talented writers pointing back to a singular website. Guest blogging also requires relationship-building with well-respected websites in addition to writing quality content, which can take years (Huhn, 2022). 

 

Guest posting also must be done frequently to have impact, but excessive guest posting could flag Google and damage website rankings. It can be difficult to find the balance between a good frequency and overposting. As recently as this year, Google has shared that they have been devaluing guest posting links and encouraging SEOs to follow only natural linking strategies to not get flagged for spam activity. 

 

Google’s John Mueller was quoted as saying, “The part that’s problematic is the links — if you’re providing the content/the links, then those links shouldn’t be passing signals & should have the rel-sponsored / rel-nofollow attached. It’s fine to see it as a way of reaching a broader audience (Montti, 2020)” With this quote, it’s clear that Google is skeptical of some guest posting actions and that brands and webmasters should be careful when utilize the follow/nofollow linking strategies. 

 

Guest posting can also be extremely competitive. There are only a limited number of high-authority sites who accept guest posts within certain topic areas and those guest post slots can be hard to secure and maintain. One thing that a writer should absolutely never do is accept payment for writing - Google will consider that spam and decrease your overall website rankings (Mirro, 2020).

 

Although there are several advantages and disadvantages of guest blogging and article writing for those who are looking to improve their overall website SEO, the above discussion shows that for those who can produce high numbers of content, it could be a lucrative way to build domain authority and improve overall rankings. 

 

My Experience

 

In my current career in a digital marketing role at a large-scale manufacturing company, off-page SEO is something we're exploring. We have several great relationships with publications, which  means that we often get guest blogging and guest article spots from the publication partners. These articles help us build domain authority with publication sites like Control Engineering, Oil and Gas Online, and more. 

 

Currently, my company’s domain authority is 64 and some of our publication partners have domain authorities of more than 80. One issue that we’ve run into with publication websites is that for editorial and thought-leadership content, the publications do not like to backlink to manufacturer websites. Through this assignment, I’ve identified ways that I can improve our backlinking and guest posting strategy by offering to submit content in addition to including at least one of our links. I do think that this strategy could help my company improve its overall rankings.   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 References:

 

Borg, K. (2022, January 30). What Is Guest Posting And How Is It Used For SEO? Digital Agency Network. Retrieved June 27, 2022, from https://digitalagencynetwork.com/what-is-guest-posting-and-how-is-it-used-for-seo/

 

Gratt, M. (2013, February 1). How to Improve Your Guest Post Pitches. BuzzStream. Retrieved June 27, 2022, from https://www.buzzstream.com/blog/how-to-improve-your-guest-post-pitches-and-how-to-pitch-buzzstream-a-guest-post.html

 

Huhn, J. (2022, June 21). Guest Posting Advantages and Disadvantages [From 100+ Marketers]. Referral Rock Blog. Retrieved June 27, 2022, from https://referralrock.com/blog/advantages-and-disadvantages-of-guest-posting/

 

Montti, R. (2020, June 17). Google Warning on Guest Posting For Links. Search Engine Journal. Retrieved June 27, 2022, from https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-guest-posting-for-links-warning/372115/#close

 

Mirro, J. (2020, July 11). Paid Guest Posting for SEO: Is it Still a Good Idea? (Hint. . .Probably Not). Business 2 Community. Retrieved June 27, 2022, from https://www.business2community.com/search-engine-optimization/paid-guest-posting-for-seo-is-it-still-a-good-idea-hintprobably-not-02327157

 

Saleem, M. (2019, October 6). Off-Page SEO Activity: What It Is and How to Use It. OptinMonster. Retrieved June 27, 2022, from https://optinmonster.com/off-page-seo/

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