What is Guest Blogging, and The Right Way to Go About It
Matt Cutts, Google’s webspam specialist, declared the demise of guest posting at the beginning of 2014. His statement sparked a frenzy of curiosity and uncertainty. Was guest blogging officially dead, or does it still have relevance in the realm of marketing?
Following a backlash from the SEO community, Cutts explained that he had meant to indicate that guest blogging as a link-building tactic was, in fact, dead. However, guest writing for branding, boosting reach, exposure, and community development were as relevant as ever.
Guest posts may help you grow your authority, generate natural, excellent inbound links, and attract traffic back to your website if you write them correctly. Accepting them increases your credibility in the eyes of your readers since, according to polls, readers view multi-author blogs as more trustworthy. Overall, the message is positive: guest blogging the right way is not dead. You simply must do it correctly, whether you are creating guest articles for other blogs or taking guest posts for your own.
The Link Spam Issue
When people recognized that guest blogging was an effective approach for SEO and link development, they started looking for locations to write guest pieces. Many site owners, swamped by the amount of labor required to keep their blogs running, welcomed guest posts from such contributors.
Marketing firms also approached these blog administrators and agreed to pay editors to create guest pieces on their clients’ behalf. Guest blogging benefited everyone when the information was both top quality and related to the blog.
Regrettably, not all bloggers created high-quality or content that is relevant. Some began accepting any type of content as long as they were paid to publish it, even if the material contained spammy links which had nothing to do with the site itself. This is how it worked:
Market research is essential. A search engine optimization company identified a quilting blog with a high domain authority rating and a significant number of followers.
First point of contact. The SEO firm would contact the editor or owner and offer an editing fee for the publication of a guest post from a few of their clients.
What do you mean? An agency writes a blog post titled “How to Auto-Tune Your Race Car,” which would include a link from an auto parts retailer (a client of the SEO company) and possibly some non-related backlinks from the company’s other clients. Because the blog post clearly had little to do with quilts, and the agency isn’t doing proper resource link building, search engines flag the links as spam.
Guest blog networks are another way agencies could build links.
As the popularity of guest blogging rose, so did the emergence of guest blog networks on the Internet. These networks matched users interested in writing guest blogging with blog editors in need of content. On the outside, this appeared to be a novel way of connecting talented authors with great bloggers.
Unfortunately, since blogs in these platforms were not checked for quality, many users created poor content packed with spammy links. Spammers may have entered the networks in some situations, but in many others, network participants were small-business operators who were unaware of proper SEO practices.
Some guest posting networks required bloggers to promise not to modify the substance of the guest posts. To put it another way, removing a spam link would be a violation of the network’s rules and conditions. Furthermore, these networks did not allow guest post authors to apply a no-follow tag to links in their content. They were unable to disavow spammy links. They had no choice but to post the content as they were written. When Matt Cutts said that guest blogging was dead, Google punished a number of guest blog networks.
How Should Guest Blogging Work?
Guest blogging, when done well, follows a few different scenarios. The best-case scenario is when the operator of a high-quality website recognizes your knowledge in a field and invites you to write a blog article for that site. You write a well-written blog article, and it is published on a popular website with a lot of traffic. The blogger shares your guest article on social media, exposing it to dozens, hundreds, or perhaps even millions of users.
The second situation is similar to what independent writers undertake in order to post articles in conventional magazines. They generate ideas, pitch them to editors, and then submit an article to the publication if their ideas are accepted. Guest bloggers who wish to pitch unsolicited pieces should take the following steps:
When a freelance journalist wishes to publish a magazine article, he or she begins by researching suitable magazines that could publish the work. A great way to start with this is getting backlinks through HARO Magazines with high reputations, magazines that accept freelance writers’ work, and publications that publish an article comparable to what the writer wishes to publish are all acceptable choices. When looking for blogs to guest post on, seek blogs with high reputations, accept blog content, and publish material related to your guest blog concept.
Please contact the editor. If the blog provides step-by-step instructions for proposing guest posts, strictly adhere to them. When there isn’t a defined protocol for pitching guest pieces on the site, utilize the contact page to inquire whether the editor welcomes guest contributions. Introduce yourself and your firm, explain your credentials and request permission to propose a guest post proposal. If the editor reaches you and requests a pitch, send a well-written pitch.
Allow time for approval. Editors receive a large number of pitches from potential guests bloggers, so you may have to wait a couple of weeks. If you haven’t heard back after several weeks, write a brief follow-up email. If you still haven’t heard back, either request to pitch a fresh concept or send your guest post proposal elsewhere.
Send in your guest post. Send in an accepted guest post in the format specified by the editors, and make sure to send it on time. If the editor later requests revisions, continue updating your content until it fits the blog’s guidelines.
Make your guest post public. Good blogs, like high-quality magazines, have editorial schedules. When pitching a guest article, it’s always a good idea to consider what the publisher might want to post a few months from now. Never, ever propose a holiday-themed blog piece in December, for example. Rather, pitch it in Late September to ensure that the editor has time to accommodate it on the calendar.
Last Thoughts
It’s simple to see why so many writers have looked for shortcuts to guest writing. It takes a significant amount of time to pitch a guest post to an editor. Since most blogs do not pay for blog content, it might be hard to justify the commitment of time when you are only compensated in prestige. However, if you do it correctly, guest posting can have a lot of advantages for you and your business.
When you guest post properly, you are compelled to investigate and target exceptional blogs. Your content is also edited, allowing you to showcase your work in the best light possible. Google will not punish your guest post material because high-quality sites do not devolve into spammy link networks. Your guest article is promoted on a fantastic blog, posted on social media, and is seen by both new and returning readers.
Keep the following points in mind while writing or accepting guest posts:
Quality, quality, and more quality. When looking for locations to guest blog, use tools such as the Moz Bar to determine the domain and webpage authority for the websites you wish to target. When accepting posts, thoroughly examine the author’s links. Don’t accept the post if it contains low-quality writing or spam links.
Relationships should be formed with only credible marketers. It is not necessarily improper for marketing agencies to request or compensate you for posting guest posts with a custom link on your site. You should, however, only accept information that is well written, accurate, beneficial to readers, and pertinent to the aim of your site.
Take it slowly at first. It takes time to build contacts with other blog operators and investigate blogs. Take the effort to become a member of the community in conjunction with researching a blog’s domain and page authority. Leave useful comments in the comments box to display your industry knowledge.
Request nofollow and remove outdated spam links. If you’ve previously guest written to a low-quality site, get in touch with the blog’s webmaster. Request that a nofollow attribute be added to your links, or request that the webmaster remove your link.
Never associate your name – or your own blog – with a site that falls short of your expectations. Because your guest posts bear your name, the placement site will reflect on you and your blog. Similarly, by publishing someone else’s work, your site lends legitimacy to the links in the guest post. Never publish material on low-quality websites, and never link to websites that will reflect poorly on you.
Keep doing what you’re doing if you’re guest blogging for the correct reasons. Publishing your content on a fantastic website, like publishing it in a prominent journal, always makes you appear good.