No one can accurately predict what Google will do in the future. But Google’s position on guest posting is clear. High quality content on reputable websites is okay, but producing low quality content just to get links is not.
Two rules that you should follow:
1) Don’t create low quality guest posts just to get links. Instead write high quality content on sites that are likely to send you relevant traffic
2) Pick websites that have high quality standards. Google doesn’t seem to like websites that will publish just anything.
Why You Should Still Guest Post
For bloggers, guest posting is one of the top ways to become influential in your niche and get targeted traffic to your blog. Many influential bloggers will say that they got to where they were by guest posting.
Getting published on sites that get significantly more traffic than yours makes sense. You can get a lot more exposure to that blog’s audience and some of those readers will visit your blog and become your subscribers.
Furthermore, Google is not against all guest posting. Just low quality guest posts and the sites that allow them. So for now, here are some guidelines and precautions to take when guest posting.
Which Sites to Guest Post On
Before writing your post, you should select which site you want to write for. Google is going to be looking for sites that are allowing people to write low quality guest posts just to get links back to their own site.
So here are some things to look at:
1) Guest post quality –
Examine the quality of the guest posts on the target site. Does it look like the site is just publishing any content, regardless of quality? If so, then you may want to skip this site and look for another site to post on.
2) Relevance –
Relevance is a tricky subject and there are many grey areas when defining relevance. But generally, when guest posting, the question you should ask yourself is this – will that blog’s audience be interested in my blog?
Will some of those readers want to visit my blog and subscribe to it? If the answer is yes, then consider guest posting here.
3) Traffic –
Another factor to consider is the website’s traffic. Although I wouldn’t necessarily rule out a low traffic site, a high traffic site is usually a better target for guest posting.
Posting on a low traffic site should be okay, as long as they are doing the right things. But don’t post only on low traffic sites. Instead try to create high quality content and get published on popular high traffic sites in your niche also.
4) Engagement –
Check the level of engagement on the target blogs posts. Is there a lot of commenting on each post? Do the blog posts get a lot of social shares?
Generally, blogs with higher commenting and social sharing will have more attentive readers. This means more subscribers for your website.
5) Blog Post Frequency –
Another important factor is blog post frequency. Blogs that publish less frequently are likely to have a more engaged audience. Plus if you do get a guest post on that site, your post is more likely to be seen by visitors.
6) Promotional Strategy of the Target Blog –
How is the target blog promoting their own content? Blogs that do a good job of promoting their own content are a good place to post. Here are some things to check for:
– Blog comments – Take a look at the dates on older blog posts. Are they receiving more recent comments? If so, this could indicate that blog owner is promoting old content.
– Internal links – Does the blogger link to other posts on their site? Linking to old content is a good way to drive new readers to old content as well as improve search engine rankings.
– Social media – Check the blogger’s social media channels, like Twitter. See if they occasionally share or tweet out old content.
– Pagerank – Check the page rank of older posts. A skilled online marketer will link to older posts from other websites as well as internally from their own blog posts.
– SEO rankings – Finally, guess what keywords the site is targeting on older blog posts and see if they are ranking for those keywords in the search engines. Although search engine rankings shouldn’t necessarily be a requirement before you guest post, it’s a nice thing to see.
Generally, if a site will send you targeted traffic without Google and has acceptable quality standards, then you should guest post on it.
Your Content
The quality of your content and subject matter should match the content on the target website.
1) Familiarize Yourself with the Blog
Spend some time checking over the target website to see what type of content they are producing. Make note of their best posts and which posts received the most comments and social shares.
2) Check their guest posting guidelines
Some blogs will have guest posting guidelines with their criteria spelled out. Be sure to follow instructions precisely.
3) Check Word Count
Do a quick word count to see how long the average article is. An easy way to do this is to copy and paste each article into a Word document and use the Word count feature.
You don’t have to do this for every article. Just do a few so that you can get an idea of the average post length.
4) Pay attention to images
Does the blog use images? If so, then you may be expected to include a few of your own.
5) Try to Creating Your Best Content
Even if the quality of the site’s content is less than what you can do, try to create something awesome for their audience. High quality content will stand out and increase the odds that their visitors will come back to your site.
It is also a win for the target blog as you have created an excellent piece of content for their blog.
6) Don’t Forget Keyword Research
Don’t forget to do your keyword research. If your guest post on their site ranks, then it may get links from other websites, which will help both the host site and your own. You might also get more traffic from that post.
In case you’re not familiar with keyword research, check out these tools.
7) Help the Host Site Promote Your Guest Post
Be sure to promote your own guest post, even though it is on another site. Share it with your own audience through social media and consider referencing it in other posts in the future.
If you really want to help out and get a larger number of people to the post, then try out these traffic generating tips.
About Brian Liang