Why Guest Blogging Is Still A Powerful Inbound Tactic

Given that you're reading this post, I assume your goal is to boost your online presence and not to manipulate search engines. In this case, writing guest posts may be incredibly valuable to you. When used as an inbound marketing practice, it offers multiple benefits both for your personal brand and your business.

Here are some of them:

Most sites allow their contributors to link back to their own sites in guest articles. Now, this doesn't mean you should fill your article to the brim with a bunch of spammy anchors and links. Backlinks are valuable to your SEO efforts only if they're coming from highly authoritative and diverse sources. When indexing your backlinks, Google analyzes the relation between your anchor text and your landing page to understand the link's relevance and context. This is why you need to build your links wisely and focus on bringing value to your readers.

Instead of old-school brand mentions or keyword-optimized links pointing to your homepage or product pages, choose a subtler link building practice. For example, you could use your blog post on a related topic as a relevant resource and link back to it organically. Such strategies boost your chances to secure a link from a reputable site, improve reading experience and, of course, rank higher.

Guest blogging is one of the most important lead generation practices, but only if you know how to choose the right websites to connect with. You should center your guest blog prospecting strategy around the site's niche relevancy, target audience, quality of content, and domain authority. This will help you put yourself in front of the people that are already interested in what you have to offer as a company. Make sure that your anchor is related to the page you're driving traffic to. Most importantly, you need to emphasize what steps you expect your readers to take. Otherwise, your link would be irrelevant your visitors and they would probably leave your site without completing the desired action. Gregory Ciotti is the perfect example of how important guest blogging is for the lead generation process, as it helped him generate 36,733 email subscribers.

Quality blog posts generally drive more traffic to your content than your blog posts. Why? Your site has a limited audience that cannot compare to that of a popular site like Forbes, for example. Guest blogging gives you the opportunity to reach a wider audience, make an impression on new people, and turn them into new leads. Now, even though high rankings and traffic are the backbone of your SEO, they're only half the job done. The other half is translating your traffic into sales. Make sure the pages you're sending traffic to are well-optimized and have clear and catchy CTAs.

Guest blogging is all about quality. When publishing content on an authoritative site like Forbes, Entrepreneur, or HuffPost, you're not only boosting your backlink portfolio, traffic, or rankings. You're growing your brand authority, too. By creating highly informative articles, giving practical tips and discussing them from an original viewpoint, you will position yourself as a trustworthy online resource.

Once they see the value of your guest posts, your readers will want to discover more articles from you and come back to it for more tips. Most importantly, they will start sharing and linking to your posts organically. This is called link earning, and it's a major indicator that your content is truly valuable to the people reading it. Finally, the growing popularity of your posts also means more traffic, leads, and exposure. Once Google sees that your site is relevant to your target audience, it will rank you higher in the SERPs.

By publishing helpful and insightful guest posts on multiple high-quality sites, you will build a solid personal brand and rise above your competition. Just look at some of the greatest names in the SEO industry like Neil Patel, Larry Kim, Brian Dean or Rand Fishkin. By combining content marketing and a solid guest blogging strategy, they managed to build a solid personal brand around their names, establish themselves as industry leaders, and give their companies a human touch.

As a guest blogger, you have a chance to connect with other influential people in your industry and collect valuable feedback from them. Once they read your post and see the tips you've provided, your readers may tune in to share their insights and experiences in the comments section. This may help you refine your strategy using the suggestions given by industry experts. Most importantly, you will find out what your target audience's major needs, problems, and expectations are and make sure your future guest posts resonate with them. To encourage your readers to comment on your posts, add a call to action in the article's conclusion.

Most of your target audience is on social networks, and you need to be there, as well. These channels give you the opportunity to segment your audiences and put your posts in front of the right people.

Now, to extend your online reach, you need to boost your social media shares, and this is where guest blogging can help you. Namely, if you're publishing a piece of content on a blog with wide audiences and lots of social media activity, then social media shares will come naturally once your post goes live. To boost your shares, experiment with the types of content. For example, infographics are 3 times more likely to be shared on these channels than traditional articles.

Guest posting not only improves the amount of your posts' social media shares but can also enhance the number of followers. By collaborating with a reputable site in your niche, you're basically getting them to vouch for you and your business. Most importantly, you'll be seen as a highly credible resource in the eyes of their target audience. Just make sure you personalize your contributor profile and include the links to your social media accounts to win people's trust and get them to follow you.

Guest blogging is the nerve center of your inbound marketing strategy. It boosts your online exposure, improves your backlink profile and, above all, lets you brand yourself. This is why you need to plan and execute it strategically. Focus on the quality rather than quantity of links you build. Most importantly, choose reputable sites in your niche. Instead of casting your net broadly to catch more fish, you should focus on a more targeted approach. Segment your target audience carefully and make sure you understand them. Ask for feedback, learn from their answers, and choose your language and forms of content that resonate with them.