Guest post – How to do it right…

In early 2014, Google’s webspam guru Matt Cuttsannounced the death of guest blogging. On his own blog, he wrote: “Put the fork in: guest blogging is done; It’s just become too spammy.” His statement sparked waves of speculation and uncertainty. Was guest blogging really dead or did it still have value in the marketing world?

Photo credit: techwyse.com

After his blog post caused an outcry in the SEO community, Cutts clarified that he meant to say that guest blogging as a link building tool is actually dead. However, guest blogging for branding, increasing reach, visibility and building community was just as relevant as ever.

When written correctly, guest posts can build your authority, generate natural, high-quality inbound links, and drive traffic back to your blog. If you accept them, you will create credibility in the eyes of your readers because, according to surveys, readers rate blogs with multiple authors as more authoritative. Overall, the news is good: guest blogging is by no means dead. You just have to do it right, whether you’re writing guest posts for other blogs or accepting guest posts for your own blog.

The link spam problem
When people realized that guest blogging is a good technique Search engine optimization and link buildingThey started looking for places to guest post. Many blog owners were overwhelmed by the amount of work required to maintain their blogs and welcomed guest posts from these contributors.

Marketing companies also contacted these blog owners and offered to pay them to publish guest posts on behalf of their clients. If the content was both high quality and relevant to the blog, guest blogging benefited everyone.

Unfortunately, not all blog owners have published high-quality or relevant content. Some began accepting content of any kind as long as people paid them to post it, even if the content contained spam links that had nothing to do with the blog itself. This is how it worked:

• Market research. An SEO company discovered a blog with a high authority score and a large number of followers. For example, the company might find such a blog in The Snuggly Quilter.
• First contact. The SEO company would contact The Snuggly Quilter and offer to pay the editor to publish a guest post from one of their clients.
• Say something? The Snuggly Quilter publishes a blog post titled “How to Auto-Tune Your Race Car” that includes a link from an auto parts store (the SEO company’s client) and possibly some other unrelated links from other clients of the company. Apparently the blog post had nothing to do with quilting, so search engines mark the links as spam.

Another no-go: guest blog networks
As guest blogging became more popular, guest blogging networks emerged on the web. These networks connected people who wanted to write guest posts with blog editors who needed content. On the surface, this seemed like an innovative way to connect good writers with great blogs.

Unfortunately, because blogs on these networks were not checked for quality, many people produced poor content that was full of spam links. In some cases, spammers have even infiltrated the networks, but in many cases the network members were small business owners who were uninformed about proper SEO techniques.

Some guest blogging networks require that blogs agree not to edit the guest post content. In other words, removing a spam link would be a violation of the network’s terms and conditions. Additionally, these networks did not allow people who published guest posts to do so Add a nofollow attribute to links in the posts. They couldn’t disavow spam links. They had to publish the posts as is. When Matt Cutts declared guest blogging dead, Google penalized many guest blogging networks.

How guest blogging should work

Guest blogging, when done correctly, follows different scenarios. The first and best scenario occurs when the editor of a high-quality blog recognizes your expertise on a topic and asks you to write a guest post for that blog. You write a well-written blog post and it gets published on a great website that gets a lot of traffic. The blogger promotes your guest post on social media so that hundreds, thousands, or even millions of readers see it.

The second scenario mimics what freelance writers do when they want to publish articles in traditional magazines. They develop ideas, present their ideas to an editor, and then, if the ideas are accepted, submit an article to the magazine. Guest bloggers who wish to post unsolicited posts should follow these steps:

1. When a freelance writer wants to publish a particular magazine article, the author begins by researching good magazines that could publish the work. Good candidates would be magazines with a good reputation, magazines that publish the work of freelance writers, and magazines that publish articles similar to the ones the author wants to publish. If you want to guest post, look for blogs that have a good reputation, accept guest posts, and publish articles similar to your guest post idea.
2. Contact the publisher. If the blog offers step-by-step instructions for pitching guest posts, follow them carefully. If the blog doesn’t have a specific process for pitching guest posts, use the contact form to ask if the publisher accepts guest posts. Identify yourself and your company, explain your qualifications, and ask permission to pitch a guest post idea. When the editor contacts you and asks for your pitch, submit a well-written pitch.
3. Wait for approval. Editors receive a lot of suggestions from potential guest bloggers, so you may have to wait a few weeks. If you don’t receive a response after a few weeks, send a short follow-up request. If you still don’t hear anything, either ask to pitch a new idea or submit the guest post idea elsewhere.
4. Submit your guest post. Submit an approved guest post according to the format specified by the editor and submit it by the deadline. If the editor later asks you to make changes, continue editing your post until it meets the blog’s needs.
5. Publish your guest post. Good blogs, like high-quality magazines, have editorial calendars. When pitching a guest post, it’s always a good idea to think about what the editor wants to publish a few months after the current date. For example, never post a holiday-themed blog post in December. Instead, place it in September or October to ensure the editor can fit it into the calendar.

Final thoughts

It’s easy to see why many bloggers have been looking for guest post shortcuts. Pitching guest posts to an editor requires a significant amount of time. Since most blogs don’t pay money for guest posts, it’s not easy to justify the time investment when you’re only paid in prestige. However, the right way to write guest posts offers many benefits for you and your business.

Doing guest blogging the right way forces you to research and target great blogs. Your content will also be edited so you can present your work in the best possible light. Because high-quality blogs don’t become spammy link networks, Google doesn’t penalize your guest post content. Your guest post will be promoted on a great blog, shared on social media and in front of both new and loyal readers.

Whether you’re writing or accepting guest posts, keep the following tips in mind:

• Quality, quality, quality. When looking for places to guest blog, use tools like this Moz Bar to identify your domain and page authority for the blogs you want to target. When accepting contributions, carefully review the author’s links. If they have low-quality content or spam links, do not accept the post.
• Build relationships only with reputable marketers. It’s not necessarily wrong for marketing companies to require you to publish guest posts with a customer link on your blog or to compensate you for publishing them. However, you should only accept content that is well-written, accurate, useful to readers, and relevant to the purpose of your blog.
• Take it slow. Building relationships with other blog editors and researching blogs takes time. In addition to taking the time to research a blog’s domain and page authority, also take the time to become part of the community. Leave useful comments in the comments section to demonstrate your knowledge of the industry.
• Ask for nofollow and disavow old spam links. If you have guest posted on a low-quality blog in the past, contact the blog’s webmaster. Ask to add a nofollow to your links or ask the webmaster to remove your link.
• Never associate your name – or your own blog – with a website that doesn’t meet your standards. Your guest posts will have your name on them, so the placement site will draw attention to you and your blog. Publishing someone else’s work also gives your blog credibility to the links in the guest post. For the sake of your own reputation, never publish work on low-quality sites or link to sites that do not reflect well on you.

If you’re guest blogging for the right reasons, keep it up. Publishing your writing on a great website, just like publishing your writing in a reputable magazine, will always make you look good.

To them: What are your thoughts on guest blogging? Have you tried it? What results have you achieved?