Why Guest Posting Should be on your Digital Marketing Radar

Yesterday, we spoke about the benefits that blogging has for your digital marketing strategy. A key component of blogging is guest posting. In this article, we’ll unpack why you need to have this as an integral part of your overall online marketing plan.

What is guest posting?

Guest posting, which is also known as guest blogging, is when a blogger contributes to someone else’s blog. The purpose of this exercise is to build relationships, gain exposure, and build authority.

How does it work?

Guest posting is simple. You get in touch with a blogger or company and write a blog or article that will feature on their blog or website. Some people even invite people to pitch ideas for guest posts to them. They will then usually link back to your site by mentioning you as the author.

As a guest on someone else’s blog, you must produce and provide excellent quality content that will not only attract new readers but also interest their current audience. It is a fantastic solution for anyone who wants to attract more readers to their blog and website. With guest posting, everyone is a winner, and there are multiple benefits.

The benefits of guest posting in digital marketing

• You get additional exposure from the blogger’s audience,
• Your company is established as an authority amongst a bigger audience,
• You receive a link back to your website,
• You will both rank higher on search engines,
• The hosting site or blog receives free, high-quality content,
• Guest posting boosts your brand presence,
• You will enjoy greater engagement and visibility, and
• Both parties will have an increase in return on their investments and revenue.

Guest blogging will help build backlinks

One of the benefits of guest posting listed above, which we really would like to emphasise, is the building of back links. This is extremely important as how highly your site ranks on Google depends largely on the page rank that your website has.

The more links that you have to your site from other high-quality, relevant third-party sites, the better are your chances for climbing up the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). This is because Google sees the fact that people are linking to your site as a ‘stamp of approval’ and a sign that they value the content that you are publishing. Thus, Google will deliver your site to others who have the same needs.

Tips for creating great guest blogging content

There are a number of best practices that you need to keep in mind when creating posts for third party sites:

• Long-form copy is best:

When you write your copy, rather write longer posts as opposed to shorter ones. Aim for about 700 words  to 1000. This is because Google ranks longer copy highly as opposed to shorter copy.

• Keep your paragraphs and sentences short:

The majority of blog content is consumed on a mobile device. On these smaller screens, it is very difficult to read large chunks of text. So, make sure that you keep your paragraphs between one and two lines at the most.

Copy is much easier to read if sentences are short and to the point. Only have one theme per sentence and when you are tempted to insert a comma, rather use a full stop! (For more information on how to write for the digital space, why not do a digital copywriting course? Click here for more information on the one that we offer.)

• Deliver value:

A third-party blog is taking a chance on you when they agree to let you post a story on their site. And if they like what you write, they may invite you to write more for them. So make sure that your article delivers value to their site and is packed full of information that their readers will enjoy.

Get in touch with the Digital School of Marketing

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