Guest posting for another blog is one way of attracting more traffic to your own website and increasing its online visibility and credibility. It’s hard to keep up with competitors when you have an endless and growing list of them, so most businesses write guest posts to put their brand out there.
On top of that, guest posts are a significant marketing tool for building presence on the Internet because your business will be mentioned on different websites and occupy search engine query results.
Anyway, if you’re interested in trying out guest posting but don’t know where to start, we have you covered. We’re going to talk more about what guest posts are, their benefits, and how to start writing one.
How do guest posts work?
In guest posting, a writer pitches a topic to another website owner, preferably of the same industry. For example, if you’re running a home appliance repair company, then pitching to another handyman company based in another area would be a wise move.
A guest writer will act as a contributor and submit original content to the website owner, including a backlink that directs readers to his own website. Writers need to insert the banklink as organically as possible because a poorly inserted link may throw off readers.
Over time, these backlinks will increase the value of your website to different search engines, making it easier for your website to be found.
Since search engines are starting to become more selective, a guest post needs to be well-written and SEO-compliant in order to appear at the top of search queries.
What are the benefits of guest posts?
Guest posting can bring a long list of benefits beyond more engagements and traffic, especially when done right.
Some business owners take advantage of guest posts to establish themselves as an authority figure in their own industries. Producing well-written and properly researched guest posts will do wonders for your reputation, which opens up your brand to a whole new market as well.
If you’re constantly creating superb guest posts, readers who enjoy your post will most likely click on your byline to know more about your work.
More than that, guest posting is an effective way of improving one’s writing skills. Writing for multiple websites, learning diverse topics, and adapting to different rules and writing styles would enhance anyone’s writing skills.
Of course, since you’re offering your services as a guest author, you are pressured to deliver exceptional content that would pass the editor’s standards, forcing you to pay attention down to the smallest details.
Lastly, guest posts, when done right, will help your website rank better on search engines, producing more traffic and engagements that could then lead to more sales.
Take the owner of Fridge Repair Singapore as an example. When he started writing guest posts for local websites, he saw a significant increase in his website’s traffic, which soon led to more people calling his shop to hire his services.
To keep the engagement alive, you need to look for more relevant bloggers in your niche who will publish your articles on their websites. The more backlinks you have, the better your website will rank on search engines.
How to find websites that accept guest posts?
When looking for websites and blogs for guest posting, your priority should be those relevant to your niche and industry. It’s a lot easier to attract more audiences if what they’re reading is related to the essence of your business.
Anyway, here are the proven easy ways to find websites that accept guest posts:
Google searches
Search engines like Google are a great place to start looking for guest post opportunities, but you have to know your niche’s keywords. Here are some of the keyword searches you can use to find websites that accept guest posts:
- keyword + guest post
- keyword + submit a guest post
- keyword + guest article
- keyword + guest post by
- keyword + accepting guest posts
- keyword + write for us
- keyword + submit blog post
- keyword + submit your content
- keyword + contributing writer
All you have to do is replace the word keyword with a keyword from your industry. If you’re running a flower shop, for example, you can search for flower delivery + guest post on the Google search engine.
Social media searches
Since more bloggers and website owners use social media to attract more audiences, most of them will most likely share their latest guest blogs on their social media accounts.
For instance, it’s easier to find guest post opportunities for the fashion and makeup industry on Twitter because most beauty bloggers are using this platform. All you have to do is search keyword + guest post to see the latest tweets about guest posts in your industry.
Google reverse image searches
In order to do this, you need to look for someone in your own industry who writes a lot of guest posts. Most prominent guest writers usually have their headshots on top or beside their author bio, proving that they’re a trusted name in your niche.
If their headshot is included in their author’s bio, grab its URL and paste it on the Google reverse image search. This should lead you to a list of websites where they have guest posted. It’s as easy as that.
Your competitor’s backlinks
One effective way to one-up your competitors is by submitting better guest content to the websites and blogs where they have previously guest posted.
You can search for the backlinks of your competitors by using a tool called Open Site Explorer, but if you don’t have access to this, Google should be enough.
Typing on link:domain.com-domain.com “guest post” Google should reveal which websites and blogs your competitors have submitted a guest post before. Don’t forget to replace domain.com with your competitor’s domain.
In Conclusion
It’s no secret that guest posts can do a lot for the popularity of your business on the Internet, especially when done right. They build your business’s presence and credibility online in ways that can lead to more sales and profit.
Anyway, we hope that our guide to guest posting will be helpful for small businesses that are considering guest posts as a way to boost their business’s online presence. If you know other tips that might be also useful to them, don’t hesitate to share them with us.
