Guest blogging? Why would you do that? You are probably busy enough writing blogs for your own website. Still, making time to write blogs for other websites and entrepreneurs is smart for several reasons. I’ll list the two handy reasons and also show you how to find good places to guest blog for SEO.
The principle of guest blogging is very simple:
Guest blogging is one of the content marketing strategies that you can use to better promote yourself, your company, or your brand. With a guest blog, you can show what knowledge you have and explain who you are and what you do.
Guest blogging also contributes to link building in a “natural” way. By offering valuable content on other websites, you can get a link to your own website, publicity, or both in return. This will increase your visibility in the organic search results of Google.
As said before, guest blogging is great for link building. And link building is great for your SEO. Backlinks (links from other websites to yours) basically tell Google that you are recommended by someone. The more backlinks (from representable websites) the better. You will become an authority in your industry and Google will reward you for it with higher-ranking positions.
If you want to start guest blogging, the first step is to find suitable blogs.
When assessing backlinks, Google not only looks at the number of links but especially at the relationship between the referring sites and the authority of the websites.
A link on a similar site with a lot of authority (page rank or domain authority/DA) and few outbound links is many times more interesting than a link on a low-ranking website with tons of links. I always use the example of the astronomy scientist. He has a website and two websites are linking to him. One of them is NASA and the other one is a neighbor with a dog walking service. Google is smart enough to see that NASA is an authority in your field of business and a link coming from them tells Google that you actually have some knowledge on the subject too. Extra kudos to you. The link from your neighbor is also good to have, but the impact of it is low.
So guest blogging is important for your SEO. And the great thing about guest blogging is that you decide who you approach for your contribution and that you often indicate what your link will look like. But what are suitable blogs?
That can be very simple: just Google for the name of your field and something like “guest bloggers wanted” or “guest blogging”. Usually, the websites that appear at the top of the search results are well-visited. View them, check the tone of voice of the website and see if it is a site you would like to write for. If so, search for an email address of preferably a direct contact person. If you can’t find it, email the general address with your proposal to write a guest blog.
Is it a really well-visited website? Then there is a chance that they are selective in choosing their guest bloggers. That is precisely when it is valuable to put in some extra effort by sending one to three example posts about topics you want to blog about. This way you immediately stand out and there is a good chance that you can write for this well-visited site.
Also, pay attention to the three following points when you are going to guest blog. To be an excellent writer, you must learn how to write good content for SEO.
In general, it is most valuable to you to guest blog on a website that attracts (much) more visitors than yours. After all: the more visitors, the more possible new brand awareness for you. You can discover how many visitors a website attracts through a site like Similarweb.com.
The number of visitors to the other website is not always the most important. If the entrepreneur for whom you are going to write a guest blog has a target group that is an extension of yours, that is just as valuable. For example, if you are a copywriter, it is more interesting to write a guest blog for another entrepreneur who makes websites or has a marketing company than for another entrepreneur who runs a flower shop, for example.
Take a look at which search terms are important for your website. Which words do you want to be found good on? It is very valuable to write guest blogs for websites that already rank high on these search terms. Part of the “authority” of this website will trickle through to your website. In a nice word, this is called link juice. Guest blogging for a website that is doing well in Google also makes your website easier to find in the search results.
Most blogs have a contact page with a form or e-mail address. Some popular blogs even have a special page for guest bloggers to contact. If you have the contact details of the blog owner for a guest article, you can send an email. Below an email template to use for guest blogging:
Hello {Name},
I enjoy reading the articles on {blog name}. I also saw some guest articles on {blog name} and wanted to know if you are open to more guest bloggers. I plan to write about {topic} and I thought the topics I have in mind could do well on {blog name}.
I myself thought of the following topics:
- Topic idea 1
- Topic idea 2
- Topic idea 3
What do you think of these? If you are interested, I would be happy to send you an article! Also, if you’d like to receive articles on other (but related) topics, please keep me in mind!
I'd love to hear from you, thanks in advance!
Regards,
{Name} Another thing you could add to this email template is a short one-sentence introduction to start your email. Also, you could give an example of a guest article that you have written before. This can increase the confidence of the reader.
As you probably already realize, I offer guest blogging as one of my services as SEO Specialist. I write blogs for numerous different websites and they all link back to mine. I am quoted in articles too!
Do you need help with link building or guest blogging for your business? Reach out and see if we are a match! I offer guest blogging for SEO for small businesses.
