Getting Started With Guest Posting

Guest posting is a hot topic in the world of content marketing. In this ultimate guide, we’ll walk you through how guest posting can help your search engine optimization, how to find guest posting opportunities, how to write guest posts, how to pitch to site owners, and more!

What is Guest Posting?

Guest posting, also known as guest blogging, is writing an article and publishing it on someone else’s website. Benefits of guest blogging for content marketers include:

Positioning themselves as industry authorities
Reaching a new audience
Expanding brand awareness
Gaining organic traffic to their own website
Building backlinks to their own website

All of these goals serve to improve the reputation of the blogger and the SEO rankings of the business or businesses they promote.

How to Find Guest Posting Opportunities

The first step in creating high quality guest posts is to choose high quality websites to pitch to. There are a few ways you can do that, including:

Google Searches

The first place to look for guest blogging opportunities is our friend Google. Here are some keywords to search for:

Keyword + “submit a guest post”
Keyword + “guest post”
Keyword + “guest post by”
keyword + “accepting guest posts”
Keyword + “guest post guidelines”

These searches could lead you to a website’s guest posting guidelines, guest post submissions page, or posts by previous guest authors.

Two rows of search bars

Other Guest Bloggers in Your Industry

If you read a lot of blogs about your industry, you’ll see some of the same names pop up in the bylines. Google them to see which sites they guest post on and add them to your list.

A row of people using laptops with a website as the background

Competitor Backlinks

Since guest posting is part of many content marketers’ link building strategies, your competitors have probably gained backlinks from guest content. Any SEO tool with competitor backlink analysis can tell you this.

Social Searches

Most guest bloggers share their latest pieces of content on social media. Look on those networks to find sites that are currently accepting guest posts. Search “guest posts” along with industry keywords and follow any links that come up in posts and tweets.

Evaluating Guest Posting Opportunities

Just because a website accepts guest posts doesn’t mean it’s worth pitching to. A guest article in an illegitimate publication could do more harm than good. Only send a guest post pitch to websites that:

Have a high authority link profile
Post content in your niche
Only post high quality content
Can bring targeted traffic to your own site
Won’t bury the link in your author bio
Have a high social media following
Have a high domain authority score

Pitch Your Guest Posts

Once you’ve chosen some outlets you’re interested in guest blogging for, it’s time to start pitching.

Basic Pitch Best Practices

When you send an email to a blog owner, follow these steps to get their attention.

Pitch a Few Different Ideas

Some submission guidelines ask all new pitches to include an idea for a guest article. Do a little digging on the site’s most popular posts and pitch a handful of ideas based on the overlap between those and your areas of expertise.

A multicolored brainstorming web

Read the Guidelines

Everyone’s guest post submission guidelines are different. Be sure to follow them when you reach out to the blog owner.

Tell Them Why You Should Be a Guest Blogger

In your pitch, include links to your best work published on your own blog and other websites. Posts with social media engagement are always a good way to go.

Speech

The Best Times to Pitch a Guest Blogging Post

when another blog mentions you in one of their posts or on social media
when the blog specifically advertises they are looking for guest posts
when the blog publishes other guest posts

Write and Submit Your Guest Posts

Now it’s time to get writing!

Types of Content That Make Good Guest Posts

Tutorials
“How to” articles
Listicles
“Examples of” articles
Product vs. Product Comparisons

Guest Post Writing Best Practices

Focus on Information, Not Promotion

Unlike posts on your own blog, guest articles aren’t primarily about promoting your business, products, or services. They should focus on providing valuable information. In fact, don’t mention your business until the author bio.

Stack of books

Format Posts Like the Ones on the Site

Pay attention to the formatting of other posts on the site you’re writing for. Do they use a lot of headers and anchor text? Where do they bold text? Do they use pull quotes? How about screenshots, infographics, and images? Format your own guest posts in the same way.

Blog

Include Internal Links

Use internal links to other blog posts on the website to let the site owner know that you understand their content and integrate your guest post into their site better.

Chain Links

Encourage Comments with a Call to Action

The more comments on your post, the better. Be sure to include a call to action that encourages comments at the end of your guest post.

Speech Bubbles (1)

How to Write a Great Guest Bio

Now it’s time to do a little self-promotion. What you put in it will depend on your guest posting goals. Here are some good things to start with:

Link to your website

A link to your website’s homepage is a necessary ingredient to any guest blogger bio, especially if backlinks are your goal.

Link Icons in Circles

Create a custom landing page

If you want referral traffic or to promote a specific product or service, a custom landing page could be a great way to direct that traffic where you want it to go.

A graphic of a website with images and text implied

Include social profiles

If one of your goals is to grow your social media following to a new audience add something like “follow me on [social network and link]” to the end of your bio.

Be concise and descriptive

Say a little bit about your background and why you’re worth listening to as a guest blogger. Keep it short and sweet though. You don’t have a lot of space.

Build Relationships in the Blogging Community

Guest blogging is a great way to build relationships with other bloggers. If you do a good job with your guest posts, they’ll lead to more opportunities in the future. These relationships will also give you opportunities to ask the bloggers you work with to write guest posts for your blog. The connections you make also mean more outreach opportunities, more social media shares.

Two people in business attire shaking hands

How Sav Can Help

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Getting Started With Guest Posting

What is Guest Posting?