Guest blogging is one of the most preferred ways of earning a backlink. Statistics suggest that 60% of blogs write 1-5 guest posts in a month!
However, writing guest posts that get accepted and engage readers can be challenging says SERPTrust.io
But, don’t worry.
In this article, we will tell you how you can write guest posts that get accepted by editors and engage readers.
But first, let’s understand why writing a guest post is beneficial to your business.
Why Do Businesses Still Write Guest Posts
There are three primary reasons why SaaS companies, freelancers, entrepreneurs, and enterprises still have “writing guest posts” in their marketing strategies. Let’s take a look at what the benefits are and how it helps businesses and organizations get more customers.
1. Gets A Diverse Traffic
Consider the following.
Imagine you are a business that is successful in the niche you are targeting. Unfortunately, you are not getting as many customers as you used to a year ago within that niche. In this situation, your best strategy is to find newer niches that you can sell to.
Writing a guest post is a great way to get a diverse set of audiences to your website. This method, as compared to other tactics like pay-per-click (PPC) advertising as it costs less and gives more returns.
2. Builds Business Relationships
Running a successful guest blogging campaign involves collaborating with multiple web editors and publications. This will provide an opportunity for you to network and find marketing and partnership opportunities for your business.
For instance, established publications have the contact details of lots of businesses and individuals who could be your potential customers. Furthermore, the chances of your content being featured in their newsletter increase which will improve your visibility even more.
3. Improves Your Domain Authority
The best benefit of getting your guest post published is earning a backlink. Link building is often referred to as the fourth pillar of search engine optimization(SEO). Your website will score a lot of SEO points after getting a backlink from a high-authority website.
Your site will be perceived as more authoritative in your domain by the search engines and your target audience will find your business more trustworthy. This will improve your rankings in the SERPs for the anchor texts you placed your links in.
Let’s take a look at how one can write a guest post that gets accepted by the publishers and engages the readers, which gets them a lot of traffic.
3 Steps For Writing A Guest Post That Gets Accepted And Engages Readers
Three crucial steps need to be sequentially completed to successfully submit and publish a guest post.
1. Finding Publications And Outreaching
The first step to writing great guest posts is to find publications within your niche that will give your brand the credible visibility it deserves. You can directly search for publications within your domain, find their contact details on their website, and start reaching out to them.
Use tools like Moz and Ahrefs to check the domain authority of the sites you are about to reach out to. Getting your post published on sites with higher domain authority will give you a bigger boost.
Here is where you should consider hiring an agency for their guest post services. Marketing agencies already have the contact details of many publications across multiple domains. They are also clearly aware of their writing guidelines.
By taking their help, you can get guest posts published on multiple domains in a short time.
2. Pitching Topics And Titles
After confirming that the publication is open to guest post submissions from you, you can start pitching them titles. Doing this will make sure that you and the editors of the target blog are on the same page.
If the topic is not verified and you send a draft, your efforts will be wasted, leading to frustration. To avoid rejection and rework, this step is quite important.
While sending a list of suggested topics, keep the following points in mind.
- Go through their blog thoroughly: This is often ignored by a lot of businesses which increases the probability of their posts getting rejected.
- Make a list of topics you can pitch to them: This will be easy after understanding what kind of content their editors are looking for. Some guest post blogs accept listicles, others prefer actionable tips. Make sure you list the topics they will accept.
- Eliminate the topics that they have already written on: No blog wants to repeat the same piece through different words.
- Send them the rest of the topics: Try to send at least three options. Include a short description (~200 characters) for each topic so that the editor will have better clarity.
A good practice while pitching guest posts is to ask if they have any topics in mind. The upside is you can immediately start writing. However, the disadvantage is it might be troublesome for you to include your link.
3. Writing Guest Posts That Get Accepted
Before you even write a word, know what the post means. You are getting a backlink that will improve your website’s authority and ranking on the SERPs in exchange for value. So, make sure the content you are writing provides value to the target audience.
This is the most prevalent mistake done by authors of guest posts. Editors reject a lot of pieces because they are thin, fluffy, and don’t add value to their blog. Write a guest post as if it is going on your website.
Now, keep the following tips handy:
- Do keyword research: A guest post is a gateway to your website. If more people find it, you will get more traffic, which is the ultimate goal.
- Follow their guidelines: Every publication caters to a unique audience. They have created those guidelines so that their audience stays hooked. Follow them so that your post will have the same effect on their readers and, more importantly, it will be accepted.
- Don’t make it overly promotional: The site you are writing the post for knows you are doing so for a backlink. However, don’t make it obvious so that it appears inauthentic.
- Link to their internal blog posts: Internal linking will help them improve their SEO and make the on-site experience better for their readers.
After you submit the article for review, be open to suggestions from the editor. If they fail to update you, send them an email after a few days inquiring if they had a chance to look at your post.
Conclusion
Let’s summarize this post in a few points.
Writing guest posts is beneficial as it gets you diverse traffic, builds business relationships, and improves your website’s domain authority. To write guest posts that get accepted, follow these three steps:
- Reach out to publications that are relevant to your business.
- Pitch topics that are relevant to their audience.
- Write engaging posts while adhering to their guidelines.
Happy guest blogging!