This is an article “Can Guest Posts Really Boost Online Traffic?” by Marc Primo Warren
Establishing your presence in various online channels requires many factors to take into consideration. One primary approach to boost your brand's reputation, authority, and Google Search ranking is through guest posting via blogs and websites. Without it, your site might miss out on potential traffic and conversions.
Around 60% of the blogs you encounter online feature at least one guest post per month. However, sustaining this strategy is not as easy as it sounds. You'll need to consider who to invite, how many words to allot them, and other crucial aspects of search engine optimization (SEO).
These days, most audiences prefer short-form blog posts from micro-influencers that they actually follow or are at least familiar with. But that doesn't necessarily mean writing longer articles are less effective. Making SEO campaigns work with an appropriate word count can be challenging and could even go haywire in the long run if you don't apply the proper rules.
To make the most out of your guest posts without jeopardizing your SEO efforts, here are a few insights that could help:
Apply white hat SEO with the correct number of words
There's no doubt that guest posts have a way of letting you break into the top pages of the search engine results page (SERPs) via SEO, and having an authority website's backlink for your content does more for your online traffic than you could ever imagine. Sixty-three percent of those who read blogs find that those with featured guest writers have more credibility.
For this reason, link building with high-authority sites is essential in white hat SEO strategies. On the other hand, applying techniques that circumvent Google's algorithms through paid posts and violations to social media platforms' community guidelines can backfire drastically.
The best approach to guest posts entails expert editorial and SEO skills, good influencer relationships, and impeccable content management. Avoid turning your website into a spammy landing site that could put off your visitors. Instead, offer high-quality articles in long-form to maximize your SEO potential.
Keep in mind that the average guest post should not exceed 800 words, as this still falls under the short-form content category. As long as you can find the right keywords that Google algorithms can crawl via faceted search without making them seem like stuffing, your short-form guest post will deliver. Of course, long-form guest posts remain ideal for building brand authority and rank.
Make your guest post unique, high-quality, and evergreen
When going for longer guest posts, maintaining quality content standards is key to making things work for your audiences and the Google algorithm. Apply editorial discretion and ensure that your guest knows how you intend to convey your brand's message, what topics are on the table, and how you can make the post relevant for as long as time and trends permit.
With 68% of marketers having higher confidence in the power of blogging for their campaigns, packaging your guest posts as easy-to-read and relatable pieces will keep them coming back to your site. In short, today's trends still find quality over quantity the key to successful SEO.
You can make your guest posts stand out further by inserting dofollow links organically rather than being force-fed to the readers. Dofollow links are simply those set by code to allow Google to inspect and follow. You can provide a better reading experience through high-quality articles with dofollow links, and they can also improve the way Google crawls your post.
Now, if you have a guest blogger who can write like a scholar, you've got almost everything cut out for you. On the other hand, if your guest needs help in turning his thoughts into digestible content, it would be better to throw him some talk points or research buckets he could use in his article.
It goes without saying that any respectable blogger should know that plagiarism is not an option, and Google has an eagle eye for would-be offenders. Not only will you be penalized for the infraction, but your account could be banned as well. Instead, allow your guest to draft an article and do some fact-checking and editing afterward. Make sure he reads the final article before you post it and ask him for feedback on how he may want to follow up on the topic.
Be aware of Google Search guidelines and parameters
Since 2017, Google's algorithms have been vigilant against spam in blogs and links. While third-party backlinking is encouraged, articles need to be informative and educational—or at least interesting to the target audience.
Some of the compliance standards you'll need to familiarize yourself with before you resort to guest posts include the following:
Publish an article on a single website;
Avoid stuffing keyword-rich links within an article or post an identical or slightly tweaked version on their landing pages and sites;
Ensure the credibility of your guest writer or influencer vis-a-vis the article's topic
Defining your goals for each guest post, whether to increase inbound links or traffic, build brand authority, or redirect to another landing page or app via deep links can make things easier for you to align your content with the desired results. You could also try your hand at being a thought leader by finding a great website that encourages guest posts, then share your expertise with a high authority website's audience. Both approaches—hiring a guest post for your website and sharing your articles—work magnificently.
In the end, what matters most is your credibility. Use your domain authority if you have one as a parameter to determine which guests you can work with and start building a long-term relationship with shortlisted websites. After all, collaboration is always crucial to successful guest post campaigns, and the broader your network, the more audiences you can reach through your backlinks.
While many guest posts and backlinks are destined for irrelevance over time, having proper arrangements for content production with your guest writers, thought leaders, publishers, and influencers ensure that you can produce relevant content for your target audience, anytime.
Integrating your guest post strategy with your inbound marketing efforts should be your top priority if evergreen guest posts are hard to come by. As long as you leverage on good relationships, you could achieve a cyclic flow of quality content that can assure long-term ROI and a strong community of followers to withstand the test of time.