If you have a blog, you have probably heard about the importance of guest posts to increase access to your page and improve your results. But do you understand how this practice works? Have you thought about what its advantages are? And, most importantly: do you know how to use this strategy?
In this post, we are going to show you all the answers to the above questions and show you the complete step by step to implement guest posting on your blog! So, without further delay, let’s get to what matters:
What is a guest post?
A guest post is a text that someone publishes on a blog as a guest author. Generally, there is a exchange of content between collaborators – that is, each of them sends a post to be published on the other’s blog.
This practice, known as “guest blogging” or “guest posting”, provides positive points both for the person who writes the post and for the person who publishes it on his blog, in addition to benefiting the readers of the content, who will have access to original texts, useful and enriching, by virtue of the fact that they are related to their interests.
If you are in the habit of browsing here on the blog, for example, surely you have already noticed that we have several unpublished content written by collaborators that provide great value to our audience.
In the same way, it is very likely that you have already seen content written by our team on other Internet sites, such as this post of ours that was published on the :
As you can see, here at we are fans of this strategy. Read on to understand the reasons for this.
What are the advantages of guest blogging?
Exchanging posts with strategic partners can bring you many . Let’s see the main of them:
Reach a wider audience
By publishing your text on another blog, they reach readers who usually access the content of your guest post partner. This means that more people have access to your work and can get to know you.
Establish strategic collaborations
When you exchange guest post with another blog, you create a and you meet other professionals in your area of activity (or in similar market niches).
gain more authority
The above two elements, combined, lead to another important advantage of making guest posts: by reaching more people and establishing strategic associations, you gain more authority in your niche market and begin to be seen as .
Get SEO Benefits
Currently, there is no doubt that the link building It is one of the most important SEO strategies. This means that having other sites link to your blog is very important to Google (especially if the authority of those pages is high).
Sites that do not have external links are unlikely to rank well in search engines. Therefore, when making a guest post you can include some links that lead to your page and that can bring more strength to your domain.
However, it is very important to establish rules with your guest post collaborators so that they are included as “dofollow”, which will allow them to have value for Google. Avoid “nofollow” links, those that do not influence the ranking of the destination page.
Also, do not abuse the number of links included in your texts.
Offer valuable content to your audience
Even if you are an expert in some market niche, surely there are aspects that you do not master so well or in which you have not yet delved so deeply. Therefore, having other specialists is a great opportunity to provide highly valuable and differentiated content to your audience!
How to get collaborators and start exchanging guest posts?
Now that you know what a guest post is and you know its advantages, the most crucial moment for bloggers has arrived: get to work! Getting partners and starting to exchange guest posts is one of the biggest challenges for those who have a blog on the Internet.
But don’t despair! We are going to show you a Step by Step simple steps you can follow in order to put this strategy into practice. Let’s go?
1. Do a search for blogs that can be potential collaborators
The first step to guest posting is finding blogs you can partner with. This part is very important and must be done carefully so that the rest of your works. Check out some steps you can take to achieve this:
Create a control sheet
The first step in finding partners is to organize this work. So it’s a good idea to create a spreadsheet with some basic columns to help you do this, like the following:
- Blog name;
- Blog address;
- domain authority;
- Performance area;
- Name and contact of the person in charge;
- Situation (you have already contacted him, he has already responded, etc.).
As you consider possible associated blogs, you fill in the spreadsheet with the corresponding information.
Find blogs with similar or complementary topics
It is essential that you try to make associations with blogs that have some or that have an audience or target audience similar to yours.
If you have a blog about gluten-free cooking, it doesn’t make any sense to publish your texts on a blog that talks about horror movies, for example. In addition to providing no real value to readers, this practice is frowned upon by Google.
For that, the most obvious way is list the blogs you already know and that are related to your area of action. Also, you can use google itself to discover new blogs with related topics.
Another good idea is use some internet tools that offer valuable data and that can help you. You can, for example, use . In the top text box, select “Phrase Overview” and type in a keyword that is relevant to your market. Let’s look at the following example:
After clicking “Search”, scroll down to the “Organic Search Results” section, which will show you the top sites that are ranking well for that search. :
Put in the spreadsheet all the sites that may be interesting both for you and for your audience. Do it with different keywords related to the universe of your blog, until you find a considerable number of blogs that you can consider as possible partners.
Check which blogs already make guest posts
When browsing the blogs of potential partners, a good suggestion is to check out those who are already guest posting with other sites. This does not mean that your proposal will be accepted, but it already indicates that this blog is open to making alliances, which makes the job much easier.
If you already have active associations, check with which other blogs they make associations, this can also be a good way, depending on your area of activity.
Check the domain authority of potential guest post blogs
Another important point is to check what is the domain authority of the selected blogs. Very low authority sites may not be very strategic and in some cases may even harm your site.
To do this, you can use the . Enter the site address in the URL field and click “Search.” It is good to give preference to domains with an authority greater than 20.
2. Define the topics you will propose
After filling out your sheet of possible blogging partners, it is necessary to define what topics you will propose for each of the selected contacts.
Sending an email with a solid and concrete proposal is much more interesting than sending a message saying something generic, like: “Hi, would you be interested in being my guest post partner?”
This stage is essential to guarantee the success of your strategy. Some tips for choosing topics are as follows:
- make one keyword search and find the ones that are related to your blog and your partner’s blog;
- Select topics that have not yet been focused or well used in the partners’ blog;
- Choose topics where you are an authority to deliver rich and comprehensive content;
- Select topics that allow you to insert links to the strategic messages of your blog (in a natural way and that add real value to readers);
- Always make proposals with unpublished and original content.
3. Get in touch with potential partners
After making the list of possible associated blogs and selecting the topics for your proposal, send an email to those responsible and invite them to exchange posts with you.
Try to show the reason why the alliance between you can be interesting. Also, as we already mentioned, remember to send a concrete and clear proposal. Depending on the case, you can propose from 1 to 3 topics, to open up the range of opportunities.
Take, for example, a model of message you can send to your potential associate:
“Hi Eduardo! How are you? My name is Julia and I am the creator of the blog “Learn to live without lactose”, which talks about a healthy diet for those who are lactose intolerant.
I saw on your blog that you talk about vegetarian food and I liked the content. I think that the topics we focus on have a lot in common and could be interesting for our respective readers.
For that reason I would like to propose a guest post. I thought, for example, of writing about the following topic: “10 recipes without milk for you to prepare this Christmas and delight your guests”. You can also suggest topics of your interest!
If you think my proposal is relevant, you can reply to this email so that we can finalize the details.
Thank you and I hope your answer!”
Suggestion: Before contacting potential partners, you can approach them in other ways, leaving comments on the blog, on social networks and sharing their content, for example. This will make you not seem like a complete stranger when submitting your proposal.
4. Start typing!
If you receive a “green light” for the exchange of posts, it’s time to start writing the post! Here are some essential tips for this stage of the process:
- Get organized to meet the delivery date defined with your partner.
- Remember to include the announcement posts in your .
- Make sure you meet the minimum number of words previously established.
- Adapt the language and format of your text to the editorial line of the blog in which the post will be published.
- Create a content that adds real value to readers and do not advertise your services or products.
- Do not exaggerate in the inclusion of links to your blog.
- Deliver the text with the correct format, with the intertitles highlighted, the images in high quality, etc.
To end…
If you’ve made it this far, you already know the importance of guest blogging and are ready to start using this strategy! But before finishing, follow some additional tips that can help you:
- prepare a Guest Post Guide with some guidelines and points of attention that partners should take into account when writing a text for your blog. Make it very clear what your editorial line is and what can or cannot be done.
- You may so that other people interested in doing…
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