Guest posts are still the best way to get high-quality links for your website. But a lot of people wonder just how many guest posts does do they need to write before they see results and call it a day.
Is there an answer?
Well, sort of. As with everything that concerns SEO and online marketing, the answer’s not so simple. It will all depend on several factors — some of which we’ll talk about in this post.
So if you want to get a sense of how many blog posts you should write to get the most out of your guest posting strategy, read on.
Writing Guest Posts: Quality Over Quantity
The first thing you should realize is that guest posting is about quality and not quantity. And we’re not just referring to the quality of the content itself though that is a major factor.
What we’re referring to is the quality of the site you’re publishing guest posts on.
Those who are new to guest blogging (or SEO in general) might not know it, but there are SEO companies that developed tools to grade websites. These sites are scored based on different factors so users can determine which sites are worth getting backlinks from.
The higher the score, the more value those backlinks will bring.
Take Adam Enfroy. He launched a blog in 2019 from scratch as part of an experiment. And in 15 days, he managed to roll out his guest blog post strategy.
Adam started by cold emailing 68 different websites about submitting guest posts. Of those, only 28 replied. He eventually ended up pitching topics to 18 bloggers. And by the end, he was only able to convince 8 of them.
Eight websites. That’s everything Adam had to work with.
Is that enough? Some marketers might say no. But if you manage to post relevant content on high-authority blogs, 8 posts might be enough.
See, Adam Enfroy chose his bloggers well. He was able to find guest post opportunities that were ideal for guest blog posts. The sites he decided to work with had domain authorities (DA) of at least 60, which is high enough as it is. But his list also included blogs that had DAs of 84 and 94.
So how did the experiment go?
It went great. From 8 guest blog posts, Adam managed to gain 247 new backlinks. He was also able to get 268 keywords to rank in Google search results (all in the top 100). There’s been a 372% increase in site traffic. And his domain rating improved by 12.
That’s quite an achievement.
So as you can see, you don’t really need to publish as many guest posts as you might think.
Do You Have the Resources?
Another factor that comes into play when it comes to guest posting. Do you have the time? How many writers do you have on your team? How many designers can help you with the graphics needed?
If you can hire a guest post outreach service to do the job for you, the better it is for your website, right?
Well, again — it’s not that simple.
Even if you do have enough resources, finding guest posting opportunities isn’t easy. Having an army of writers won’t do you any good if you fail to find bloggers who are willing to work with you.
And when you do find bloggers, you’re expected to write high-quality content. That means doing a ton of research. And bloggers will prefer that you have unique data or insights to share. Generating guest post ideas will become increasingly difficult the more bloggers you deal with.
To get the most out of your resources, HubSpot suggests that marketers learn how to set campaign goals.
BlogSpot gives several examples of goals. One is to get a specific number of referral visits or increase the traffic by a target percentage. You can also make it about the number of users that convert from your guest posts.
You can define whatever goal it is you like so long as it’s attainable and measurable.
So How Many Blog Posts Do You Need to Publish?
This brings us back to the original question: How many blog posts will it take to achieve your goals?
And the answer to that is — it depends.
It’ll depend on what goals you set up for yourself. If you’ve set the bar incredibly high, then you’ll need to step up your guest post outreach campaign. You’ll also need to find a lot of high domain authority sites to work with which isn’t easy.
The truth is that it’s hard to give a definitive answer to the question. Because the safest bet for guest bloggers is to just publish as many articles as they can.
As long as you’re publishing consistently valuable content, getting dofollow backlinks, and working with high-authority domains then you should be fine. That’s what really matters.
Link Building 101: Don’t Get Penalized
It doesn’t matter how many blog posts you publish on other bloggers’ domains. There are no set rules.
However, you will want to be careful so that you don’t accidentally violate Google’s guidelines on backlinks. For instance, you can’t offer a blogger money in exchange for backlinks. You also don’t want to work with blogs in questionable niches like drugs or adult entertainment. Remove these tactics from your marketing strategy.
You guys should also take into account how many links you include in a post. While it might do wonders for your web traffic, it makes your blog content look spammy which Google hates. Besides, doing so runs the risk of bloggers turning you down.
Conclusion: Quality Matters More Than Blogging Frequency
It doesn’t matter how many blogs you publish. What’s more important is the quality of the backlinks you get. One blog post will outweigh several ones if the latter were published on low-quality blogs. You can’t fool a search engine.
If you want website owners to accept guest posts from you to benefit your own blog traffic, then you should consider using a guest post outreach agency or freelancer.
A guest post service helps find bloggers that their clients can work with and generates content on their behalf. Clients only need to pay for successful guest postings so they can save quite a bit. And best of all, they can deliver a lot of guest posts per month — depending on the niche, of course.
These services are definitely worth a shot.
