Are you a blogger providing quality content and looking to increase your followers? Then check this beginner’s guide for guest posting. Read further to know how blogging on other popular blogs can make your blog familiar.
Blogging efforts involve 50% providing quality content and 50% promoting your blog.
The richness of content isn’t just limited to the uniqueness of your experiences or ideas. It involves using the right words, styles, and a few other metrics in your blog.
Reason?
- Your blog’s first readers are the search engine crawlers like Google, Yahoo, Bing, Baidu, etc.
— Google performs Search Engine Optimization (SEO) to list the top relevant blogs on a requested topic. Google has a set of SEO metrics that it uses to analyze the credibility of a website when filtering search results.
If you are new to blogging, you must learn the purpose and benefits of guest posting.
Does that mean you can write a post in another blog while also having your blogs? Yes.
How will this help in increasing your blog viewership?
— Guest posting helps you create a redirection to your blog. Guest blogging in a top blog in your niche gets more viewers. They may be curious to know what else you blog on and come to your blog. Thus, more blog visits generate more revenue for you.
This redirection/referral happens through the concept of backlinks. Backlinks are referral hyperlinks that are a vote of assurance for the search engine.
The more votes your blog gets, the higher your ranking in search results. So links from high authority, SEO-friendly blogs boost your ranking, fetching you more views.
Does it sound like a great idea?
From here, let us learn how you can guest post, do link-building, and shortlist guest blogging portals to get more viewers.
1. What is Guest Posting?
Guest posting is a way to blog on another popular blog to get a link back to your blog. It is one of the fundamental algorithms that a blogger must learn to get benefits. How?
Search engines like Google mark certain websites as SEO-friendly. Such websites have rich and quality content that users come back to frequently.
Google lists these blogs on top results based on search queries.
Let us assume your blog is relatively new or scoring poorly in SEO metrics and viewer count. Publishing a guest post in a high-authority blog gets you massive traffic.
Guest posting on an SEO-friendly blog earns you a backlink to your blog. Inbound links from such blogs tell the search engine regarding the credibility of your blog.
It increases your position in the top search results for your target keywords. Hence, more viewers come to you, increasing your revenue.
The key to guest posting is to choose the right guest blog to begin with. It is necessary to ensure you get a credible and decent number of backlinks.
Start by finding portals that cover your chosen blogging niche. Then, throw a bait and do link-building to your blog.
Let me show you how this article on beginner’s guide for guest posting is going to help you win the blogging game.
2. Benefits of Guest Posting?
Guest posting (or) guest blogging gives a win-win situation for both parties. Top blogs earn advertisement revenues, with more bloggers flocking to them for visibility.
For a new blogger seeking traffic, guest posting helps improve your organic search result ranking.
Guest blogging in a blog having a Domain Authority (DA) value of 80+ is a great achievement when promoting your blog. It increases your blog’s authority and trustworthiness.
Search engines use guest posting backlinks to compute your blog’s credibility. With increasing referral traffic, your blog’s DA value starts to rise. It means your blog will soon be on the top results for related search queries.
For example,
You have a cookery blog posting homemade recipes (the same recipes are found on several other blogs).
A query for your recipe shows many other pages except yours. Or you may find your page listed far below.
Trends show that viewers do not see beyond the first 10 results for their search queries.
Will guest posting in another cookery blog help? Yes, it will.
Let us learn how beneficial this is for a beginner guest blogger.
2.1. Guest Posting Helps You Get a Backlink
Backlinks are redirections to your blog upon placing your link on other blogs.
When an authoritative, credible, SEO-friendly blog gives a backlink to your blog post, it helps your blog rank higher.
Getting several backlinks from top blogs in your domain increases your organic ranking. More organic ranking means more organic traffic to your blog, which gradually grows your blogging revenue.
Search engines see quality backlinks as a prime ranking signal. As a blogger, you will have to pay attention to increasing your relevant high-quality backlinks regularly.
With guest blogging, you can get backlinks and an assured number of followers depending on the popularity of the guest blog.
It works for beginners as well as experienced bloggers. So backlinks tell Google to prefer your blog when ranking your blog in search results.
2.2. Guest Blogging Increase Referral Traffic (to your Blog)
The main aim of guest posting is to get viewers to your blog. Through a backlink from your guest blog, you can get huge referral traffic.
Search engines monitor your backlink activities and gradually push your organic viewership.
Google’s SEO metrics ensure that viewers go to pages that provide rich experiences and quality content.
Pages with spam, forceful keyword stuffing, and distractive content are filtered out or ranked very low.
Your first target as a blogger must be to get the search engine to rank your blog at the top.
To fast-track your blog reach, guest blogging can be very helpful.
2.3. Guest Blogging Improves EEAT Score
Google’s ‘Experience-Expertise-Authoritativeness-Trustworthiness’ metrics are part of its SEO process in order of priority. It means Google now values first-hand experiences above everything.
If your blog contains rich personal experiences and teachings, you can build a backlink from a top-rated blog. With backlinks, more viewers come to your blog.
Repeated viewership through backlinks makes Google learn that your blog is credible and trustworthy.
This way, the EEAT metrics computed by Google increase for your blog. In turn, your blog becomes SEO-friendly and will very soon make it to the top results.
2.4. Guest Blogging Increases Your Blog Revenue
Now we know backlinks through guest blogging bring more viewers to our blog. New viewers to your blog can become your frequent audience. Here is where you can monetize from your blog.
With programs like Google AdSense, you can get Google to publish related advertisements in your blogs. (It is the top money-making strategy for many bloggers today. This scenario can increase exponentially.)
Even though you may have stopped blogging on a particular niche and moved to another, adding a backlink to your old blog page can continue to fetch revenue! Such is the power of guest posting and link building.
3. How to Do Your Guest Post Successfully?
If you are a newbie, this post on beginner’s guide for guest posting will guide you on how to kick off your journey as a guest blogger.
Backlinks and link building are the backbone to increase your blog viewership. Your guest post must be on a blogging niche similar to your blog.
There are many ways to target such blogs, find your competitors, and promote your blog with similar strategies.
Social media and online communities help you find your target groups of audiences. Learning what their most viewed blog websites and portals lets you decide which guest blog to approach.
Tools like AHrefs give you lists of competitor backlinks. Targeting the same guest portals would mean you also have a chance of making it big.
Now, you can approach them and get the type of blogs they require. Upon approval, you can publish your first blog post with your blog’s link.
Let us learn these steps in detail.
Step 1: Find Blogs Accepting Guest Posts in Your Niche
To start finding a guest blog, you must try various methods. Your ultimate goal is to ensure your blog ranks top in your combinations of keywords given to search engines.
So whatever following methods you use, your expected guest blog must appear. Only then can it be a promising guest portal for you to contribute?
Let us start with our ultimate goal at Google. We will also explore online opportunities for link building, competitor backlinks, guest posting blogs, and connecting with journalists.
Step 1.1. Google Search Strings
Google will always have an answer to any query. However, to locate the exact answer you are seeking, you must use the right keywords!
As a blogger, you will have an additional overhead to think of all possible keyword combinations.
Sometimes, your viewers may arrive at your blog through various keyword patterns. Use the same strategy to find a blog that provides sufficient backlinks in your blogging niche.
Consider these tips when writing search queries in general;
- Using various synonyms
- Using the wildcard * operator between keywords
- Use OR and negation ~ operators
- Use ‘inurl:’ to target keywords in website links
Add words like ‘write for us,’ ‘become a guest blogger,’ ‘submit an article,’ ‘contribute to us,’ ‘become an author,’ etc. along with your keywords.
Step 1.2. Analyze Competitor Backlinks
Like any other field, every blogging niche is competitive. When locating your top competitors, you will understand how they are being listed at the top. They may also be guest blogging in some top blogs.
If you have content that can surpass theirs, there are chances your blog can get a backlink from the same top blogs. No, this is not illegal. It is the survival of the fittest.
Tools like SEMRUSH and Ahrefs help you search and find organic competitors in your domain.
- With the list, you can locate the pages where organic traffic is being delivered.
- Including similar pages and styles in your blog will help you in your mission.
You can also find focus keywords you are missing and your competitors use to get views.
Step 1.3. Use Social Media
- Discussion threads on social media like X(formerly Twitter) help you figure out the top keywords trending among bloggers in your community.
- Facebook and WhatsApp groups circulate links from popular blogs on various topics. Find which of those blogs are relevant to your content and shortlist them.
- Having a follower group for your blog can make you interact with them regularly. Through such interactions, you get to know the kind of content they will be willing to see more.
From these ideas, find guest blogs that accept posts on similar topics. It will be very helpful if you are looking for a change in your blogging niche yet want your old followers to stick with you.
Social media can also connect you with peers from your blogging niche. Link-building with popular bloggers can help you establish long-term relationships.
In turn, you can give each other guest blogging opportunities and powerful backlinks.
Step 1.4. Guest Posting Websites
One of the main points to consider when beginning to guest post is to find your target guest blogging website.
You can use the AHrefs tool to find the top 10 pages listed by Google for your target keywords.
Find their domain, whether they are a personal blog or a blogging hub.
Each blog has its own rules for accepting blog posts.
- First, ensure that they cover your blog topic or the topic you intend to blog on.
- Then, note their requirements and the guest posting guidelines.
- If you satisfy them, you can draft a pitch email to them showing how you can make a difference with your content.
Popular guest post websites accepting articles in India are Forbes, Huffington Post, Business Insider, The Guardian, etc.
Step 1.5. Online Communities and Forums
Engaging in online blogging communities is a great way to interact with peer bloggers. Guest posting need not always be limited to top blogs.
Win-win situations arise for all kinds of guest blogs, irrespective of blogging niches.
— Online blogging communities or portals like Quora help bloggers from a common niche connect and discuss trends in their topic.
You can update with the latest SEO guidelines and top guest blogs your peers are contending for.
Networking with peers can give valuable connections. If one of your blogs reaches the top, others can become guest posters and establish backlinks.
You can also connect with influencers tied up with blogging pages. Such contacts help in promoting your guest posts on those pages.
With increasing traffic, you can get the same influencers to promote your blog in the future.
Step 1.6. Use HARO platform
Help a Reporter Out (HARO) is a platform created for journalists to find quick references to articles they are working on. How can you (as a blogger) be related here? By your guest content.
Suppose you are a doctor blogging on fitness, say preventing heart attacks post-workout.
A reporter wants to publish similar articles for a popular publication for more reach.
A reporter can query HARO asking for blogs or references on this topic. It reaches all who have subscribed to their mailing lists.
You can respond to this with a reference to your blog. If the journalist publishes your article or takes references from your blog, you will get a backlink.
This way, your blog will get views and also ease the efforts of the journalist.
Step 2: Filter the Results and Choose the Right Blog
Once you get a list of blogs that attract high traffic, you can begin filtering and choosing what will work for you.
- Start by deleting old or obsolete sites with redundant backlinks.
- Removing duplicates will leave you with a more reliable and quality list.
- Then, see the domain authority of the blogs.
Tools like Ahrefs, use a parameter called Domain Rating (DR) to show how a blog ranks for the particular blogging domain or keywords. High values are a good parameter to filter target blogs.
Next, you must analyze the type of backlinks in these blogs.
- If these are from affiliated or sponsored posts, chances are that they are paid.
- Spam links are mostly posted in the comments. Contextual links are by far the most organic way to fetch high traffic.
- Also, check out the URL and domain names to filter out potential spam or malicious websites.
After these technical filters, find out if the guest blogs have a good number of blog posts per week.
Since our main aim is to get blog viewers, check if there is good audience engagement in recent blogs.
- What is the quality of past guest bloggers who posted in their blogs?
- Did a guest post opportunity in the specific blog increase their blog viewership?
- Answering those questions can motivate you to follow the blog for a guest post opportunity.
Finally, check the relevance in terms of the content they provide. The more quality content they host, the more credible they are with their guest bloggers.
Step 3: Analyze the Blog and Prepare an Email Pitch
Once you are on a guest blogging website, understand the platform and find out what topics have been published.
First, cover some preliminary requisites.
— Find if your blogging niche is covered and how the audience is engaged there.
— How are they sharing your content across social media?
— Analyze the audience and their expertise levels. Also, know what are the areas covered under your topic.
— Find out what their blogs are lacking. How can you get more viewership for them?
Do you have something unique that may interest their regular follower group?
From these details gathered, research the blog that you will be posting.
- Then, draft a good outline of your guest blog.
- With this outline and a link to your blog post, approach the respective blog.
Communicating with an email Pitch is a key to this. Why not a regular mail?
- Sending an email Pitch gives a professional image to you. It is important for your stint as a guest blogger in several blogs. Start with a personal salutation.
- Have a title highlighting the actual problem. Say, ‘not having doctors authoring your health blogs’? It would make the host page curious if you are a doctor. They will want to learn about what you want to offer.
- Give a short brief on what you want to contribute (along with links) to your blog on the same topics. Follow the rules specified by the guest blog.
With crisp and clear information, hosts will definitely give you a blog opportunity and a strong backlink.
Step 4: Write a Blog Post after Getting Approval
The key to beginning guest posting and link building is to maintain similar templates in your guest post and your blog.
Let us say, you have a blog template with 2500+ words, 2-3 main topics, and 8-10 subtopics. Using the same metrics in your guest post makes your blog SEO-friendly and credible.
Always remember that the guest post is about sharing valuable information and collective experiences with valid proof.
— You may use personal examples, stories, etc. occasionally.
But do not deviate from the core purpose of your guest portal. Of course, you can share your personal information, but keep it restricted to the ‘About the Author’ section or something similar.
Formatting your blog should be in accordance with the styles followed by your guest blog.
— This way, regular audiences can connect easily with your post and not scroll away.
Include inbound links to other blog posts in the guest blog after prior permission. You add reference links to a few keywords within your blogs.
- To keep your audiences engaged, mention a call for leaving their comments and discuss what they feel about your topic.
Then comes the actual part of including backlinks to your blog posts.
— You may include one or more links to pages like your blog introduction, a popular topic discussed, similar topics, etc.
Read and revise your guest post in depth before submitting it.
Step 5: Submit the Post and Start Promoting it After Publishing
Once you submit your post to a guest blog, things can get pretty quick. So it is your responsibility to keep your blog neat and handy for bulk incoming traffic.
Firstly, prepare or revise your blog bio based on the kind of guest post you have made. You need not alter it if you have written in the same niche.
If you wrote on a new topic, make sure your bio has some information about your experience there. So your new viewers can see your credibility.
Then, start promoting your guest post across social media platforms.
Writing a guest post in a popular blogging platform is seen as a huge feat by many.
Also, due to the promoting strategies of top blogs, your guest posts will start featuring as Ads on many pages.
Having catchy headlines and meta description for your guest posts increase your visibility.
The main aim of guest posting is more traffic. So you must decide on which kind of marketing strategy is best for your guest post to always be on top.
Google Analytics provides a way to know referrals made from your guest posts.
On-page SEO, Off-page SEO, SEM, pay-per-click, and Google Ads are some methods you can consider to drive initial traffic to a top guest blog post.
Conclusion
For a new blogger, this beginner’s guide for guest posting will be your bible. Initially, you may be worried if you do not get sufficient views for your blog.
Some have quit blogging after publishing their first few posts. Understand that increasing blogging viewership is a slow and organic process.
Guest blogging is a fast-track way to get organic viewership for your blog. However, the opportunity to guest post is also laborious.
One needs to be credible and do religious link-building to gain the trust of other bloggers. Everyone is not accepting guest posts on a blog.
First, have own blog with details and rich content for your hosts to go through. Only then can they review your opportunity and give you a quality backlink.
To get that opportunity, you will need to shortlist the right guest blog. Using the analysis tools like SEMRUSH, AHrefs can work multipurpose. They help analyze your competitors’ backlinks, blog keyword traffic, etc.
Convince your target host blog with a professional yet customized and curated email pitch. It makes you appear like a potential business partner.
Upon approval, use the proper templates to draft your blog post. Although you may have written a guest post for a top blog, you still need to promote it.
You may need to go beyond social media sharing. Using marketing strategies for SEO, SMM, SEM, pay-per-click, and Google Ads can help you gain more views than you intended.
Start your link building by guest posting and get high-quality backlinks for your blog soon.
