Guest Blogging

Guest Blogging

Definition: Guest blogging is the process of writing a piece of content which is then placed on another website, often with a link back to your own website in the form of a bio box or sometimes from within the content itself.

The types of links you get: One big advantage of guest blogging is that you can usually link back to your own website with the anchor text (keyword) of your choice. This is because the site owner usually lets you write a short bio which is attached to the end of the content.

Another benefit of guest blogging is that you can really filter out low quality websites and concentrate solely on high value sites. Yes, these are harder to get and may take time, but guest blogging is one of the easiest ways of getting links from good authority sites. You can also get good domain diversity with guest blogging as well as getting links from the same site over and over if the site owner likes your content. This is good for getting different anchor text and deep links to lots of different pages.

One big disadvantage of guest blogging that you should be aware of is that it is quite hard to scale while keeping the quality high. A couple of videos by Matt Cutts toward the end of 2012 pointed out that guest blogging was a legitimate tactic, but strongly implied that the quality mattered a lot in how much those links would help.

The process: The guest blogging process is a relatively simple one but it can take some time from start to finish. This is because you need to prospect link targets, filter them, contact them, produce content and wait for it to be published. Here is a simplified process for guest blogging:

1. Use Google to find websites that are likely to accept guest posts

2. Gather contact details and link metrics for the websites you find

3. Prioritise your list by the best link metrics and write outreach emails

4. Send outreach emails and keep track of who you have contacted

5. When you get a reply, start to write the content they want

6. Send the content over with your links inserted

7. Tweet and share the page where your guest blog is live

Additional reading:

Here are some additional resources if you want to learn more about guest blogging:

★ Ultimate Guide to Guest Blogging by Viper Chill

★ Guest Blogging board by Ann Smarty

★ Guest Blogging Strategies WBF by Rand Fishkin

★ Guest Blogging as a Future-Proof Strategy by James Agate

★ Building a Content Fulfilment Machine for Guest Blogging by James Agate