Yes. Guest blogging still works. The truth is that a lot of marketers never stopped submitting guest posts. And the reason is simple — it still generates high-quality backlinks which is always great for SEO.
However, guest posting has changed a lot. Google, in particular, has updated its algorithm to filter out low-quality guest posts from its search results.
In this post, we’ll walk you through the benefits of guest posting as well as the things you should be aware of when adding it to your link building strategy.
Marketers Still Like Guest Posting
There are a lot of guest bloggers who stand by the practice. Take Brian Dean for example. He is the man behind Backlinko and is one of the most respected experts in backlinks. He has published several blogs on his site about the benefits of link building through guest posts.
In his definitive guide to blogger outreach, he mentions that he still uses guest blogging to grow his blog. In a December 2021 update, he says that he managed to grow his site to 664,814 visitors per month through guest blog posts.
And he’s not the only one who still gets high-quality links by writing guest posts.
Adam Enfroy managed to grow his website’s domain authority from 0 to 76 in just one year. His site traffic also went from 0 to 300,000+ per month. And the best part is that he’s now making $61,000 per month from his blog.
He managed to do all of this using just guest posting. The whole process was documented in his post, Guest Blogging in 2022: How I Wrote 80+ Guest Posts in 1 Year.
When Does Guest Posting Not Work?
Guest posting isn’t a sure-fire way to get referral traffic or quality links though. If you don’t do guest blogging right, especially by not getting a quality guest post service, the entire campaign is guaranteed to can fail.
If you take a look at what site owners have to say, you’ll notice that all of them follow certain rules. And should you decide to follow these rules, your guest blog post won’t make any impact on the performance of your own site.
So what can make a guest post fail?
Bad Guest Post Pitch
Obviously, a blogger won’t accept guest posts from people who submit bad pitches. What some don’t understand is that you don’t have to submit a long pitch. In fact, experts would suggest that you make it as short as possible.
You have to remember that bloggers get guest post submissions all the time. They don’t have time to read every single one. So whatever you do, make sure that yours stand out and that you only include information that’s relevant to the pitch.
Also, you should emphasize the value your post will bring to the blogger. They don’t care what’s in it for you; They want to know what’s in it for them and their audience.
Not Finding High-Authority Websites
Those who are new to guest blogging might be too eager to write as many guest posts as they can. That would be a mistake. You must learn how to filter these opportunities and prioritize high-quality websites.
Backlinks from low-quality sites don’t have much value. They can even ruin your chances of ranking on Google.
When researching bloggers, see if they have high domain authority sites. These are the sites you want to get backlinks from. There are free online resources that will show you what a site’s domain authority is such as Ahrefs’ Website Authority Checker tool.
You’d want to work with a site that has at least a score of 60 though that number might change depending on which marketer you talk to.
Low-Quality Content
Bloggers will have a hard time accepting guest posts from you if they’re poorly written. And even if they do, their readers won’t find you all that impressive — which lowers your chances of working with other influencers in your space.
If you want more organic traffic from other sites, then you should treat all your guest blogs as if they’re going to be published on your own blog. That way, you’ll get more valuable backlinks.
In addition, you’ll want to make sure that your high-quality guest posts hit the blogger’s target audience. That’s where research comes in. Find a blog and look at the older guest articles. Check for the tone used. Were articles written with humor or not? How long were they?
Guest Blogging Is Still Effective: Other Benefits
So yes, guest posting is still effective. And they are safe to do as well.
As long as you write guest posts that don’t violate Google’s guidelines, you should continue looking for guest posting opportunities. Even occasional guest posting will do wonders to raise your own domain’s authority.
And there are other benefits to having a guest posting strategy outside of SEO.
- Brand Awareness — A guest post will expose your brand to people who may have not heard of it before. This is great, especially for business owners who want to promote a brand new product or service.
- Authority — As a guest blogger, your authority is raised when you get published on reputable and relevant websites. Effective guest posting will help you get a reputation as an authority figure in your niche.
- Web Traffic — Backlinks are not only good for SEO. They’re also great for getting more site traffic. If you get people to click on links from other websites, you’ll get more eyes on your landing pages. And that might lead to more conversions.
Conclusion
In conclusion, there’s no doubt that guest posts work. You only need to follow all the best practices. You can try other link-building tactics but you shouldn’t exclude guest posting since it clearly the best way to get backlinks, especially if they’re from high-quality sites.
But if you don’t have the time to publish a guest post, then you should look into a blogger outreach service provider. A link outreach service will research bloggers, contact them, write entries, and follow their progress — all while you sit back and focus on other stuff that matters.
The best part about these services is that you only pay for successful postings. So while people will definitely work on getting you backlinks through guest posts, you won’t have to pay for them until these posts go live.
