Over the next few weeks, we will be bringing you a series of posts about guest blogging, the ethical way.
With the recent Google changes, and a continuing focus on web authenticity and legitimacy, ‘wholesome’ blogger outreach has never been so important. It needs to be at the centre of your content marketing strategy – with an emphasis on ‘content’.
Guest posting is much more than raising your search rankings; in fact, the higher the quality of your post, the fewer links your content will probably contain, with the highest quality ones containing no links. It is about getting your story heard. It is about getting your story to the right storyteller, who can sit down in the comfortable corner they have already created, and share that story with the audience they already have waiting there.
Intelligent guest blogging will raise your profile, improve your reputation, attract new clients, increase your business and give you a platform on which to position yourself as leaders in your field. But it is easy to get wrong.
It is called ‘guest’ blogging because there is a relationship involved, with its own etiquette and expectations. Just as you wouldn’t wear your tux around a run-down youth hostel, or offer to do the dishes at a 5* resort, your guest posting behaviour has to adapt with the varying levels of web hospitality. Some sites will have an open door policy, where you and hundreds of other guests can hang out eating pizza in a giant dorm in your pyjamas. At the other end of the scale, you will be forced to find endlessly creative ways to befriend the security guarding a coveted private members’ club. Expect to visit as many Ritz’s as Faulty Towers’ – but doing your research should steer you well clear of any Bates Motels!
Before You Roll Your Sleeves Up…
Be strategic. List your goals and work backwards from that. Is your aim to attract new customers to drive sales? Or to position yourself as a thought leader in your sector? One would take you down the route of high volume content on lower quality sites writing about consumer-related topics; the other will see you target a handful of major, high-brow destinations for well-crafted discursive articles. What are your resources? Do you have in-house writers who can churn out lots of articles, or will it be up to the MD to produce one or two more in-depth pieces when she has time? Ideally, a combination of all these elements will give you diverse coverage that is good for your SEO, good for customer outreach, and good for your overall profile.
Read Next Article…
Part 1: Digging The Soil – How to Find Places to Plant Content
Look Out For the Next Installments in the Following Weeks…
Part 2: Choosing Your Crop – How to Write Effective Content
Part 3: Sowing The Seed – How to Get Your Content Placed
Part 4: Harvesting The Fruit – How to Maintain Your Guest Blogging Momentum