{"id":96,"date":"2013-06-30T23:48:41","date_gmt":"2013-06-30T23:48:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/top5seo.co.uk\/?p=96"},"modified":"2014-06-19T01:46:03","modified_gmt":"2014-06-19T01:46:03","slug":"guest-blogging","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/top5seo.co.uk\/guest-blogging\/","title":{"rendered":"How To Succeed With Guest Blogging"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today I look at how to ensure your guest blogging campaign is successful and will boost your site’s search rankings.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"hotel\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Guest blogging is a hot topic in the SEO community at the moment and one which is the cause of much debate.<\/p>\n

Guest posts have been a fixture of the blogging world since the start and when used correctly are a great way to increase your own site’s visibility (by gaining\u00a0access to the audience of the host blog) and to build high quality, relevant links to your website<\/a> which will generate real click throughs for targeted traffic. These same links will of course also help to improve your site’s search engine rankings.<\/p>\n

The problem is, as with most things on the web, it is an area which is starting to be abused more and more by the grey and black hat SEOs<\/a>. Low quality articles are being thrown together for the sole purposes of gaining a back link (normally with exact anchor text) and blogs are springing up which are little more than glorified article directories, containing nothing but guest posts on every topic under the sun and no editorial ‘voice’.<\/p>\n

It seems likely that guest blogging is an area that google will be looking at closely over the coming months and Matt Cutts (google’s head of web spam) has had much to say on the topic<\/a> over the past year or so. So how can you use guest posting correctly to ensure you stay on the right side of google and boost your blog’s traffic?<\/p>\n

1. Be Amazing<\/h2>\n

Every time I prepare a guest post for another site I ask myself 1 question. Would I be happy to publish this post on my own site?<\/p>\n

If the answer is no then delete and start again, or edit until the answer is an emphatic yes! Your guest posts are your opportunity to show off your skills in front of a new audience, so wow them! Write about interesting topics, (which are relevant to your own site) and show off your knowledge and passion for the subject. Show them that you are an expert and they will want to click that link in your author resource box to find out more about you and get access to more great content.<\/p>\n

Additionally, the better your article is, the more likely you are to be asked back to write future posts and you will also be able to point to it as an example of your work when trying to secure other guest posting opportunities.<\/p>\n

2. Promote Your Post<\/h2>\n

As a guest author, your job is not finished when your article is published. Help the site owner to promote your article by sharing it with your twitter followers, posting to your facebook page etc. You might even want to prepare a short post on your own blog linking back to it, after all you’ve listened to the advice above and you’re proud of this great piece of content right?<\/p>\n

3. Stick Around<\/h2>\n

Make sure you stay around to check the posts comments for questions or feedback (you can normally subscribe to comments by email). Answer any questions and respond to feedback (positive or otherwise) in a polite and professional manner. Again, this is likely to encourage people to click through to your site as they can see you are someone who cares about what they have written.<\/p>\n

4. Write A Snappy Bio<\/h2>\n

Your author resource box is your opportunity to introduce yourself and entice readers to click through to your site. It’s not an advert, so keep it short and sweet and don’t turn it into a sales pitch. You’ll normally want to include 3 links here: –<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Your blog or website<\/span><\/li>\n
  2. Your google+ account to claim authorship<\/span><\/li>\n
  3. Your twitter<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Policies vary from site to site, so check what you are allowed in terms of links, but the above should generally be fine.<\/p>\n

    Note that the link to your site should be the name of your brand or domain. Don’t use keywords, they’ll just get you penalised and this is all about establishing your brand.<\/p>\n

    A format that works well is: –<\/p>\n

    This guest post was written by Joe Bloggs (link to google+ profile) from Name Of Site (link to site) \u2013 check it out for more great articles about topic. When Joe isn’t writing about topic you’ll normally find him doing a really interesting thing that shows he’s an interesting person. You can follow Joe on twitter @joebloggs (link to twitter)<\/em><\/p>\n

    Check out this post from myblogguest<\/a> for more tips on writing a great resource box.<\/p>\n

    5. Go For Quality Over Quantity<\/h2>\n

    As mentioned above there are loads of low quality, article directory style sites which accept any old post. Forget them. Focus on securing guest posting spots on high quality, related sites with a strong editorial influence. One link from an authority site in your niche can generate a flood of targeted traffic and see your subscriber count go through the roof.<\/p>\n

    I will go into how to find good guest posting opportunities in a future post, but in the mean time check out these tips from copyblogger<\/a>.<\/p>\n

    So, follow the tips above and you will be on the way to becoming a guest blogging superstar; building your reputation, creating real relationships with other bloggers, securing excellent authority links to your site and growing your traffic.<\/p>\n

    Summary<\/h2>\n
      \n
    1. Write The Best Posts You Can<\/li>\n
    2. Help To Promote The Post<\/li>\n
    3. Answer Comments And Feedback<\/li>\n
    4. Write A Snappy Bio (resource box)<\/li>\n
    5. Go For Quality Over Quantity<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      And then put your pen down for 5 minutes and chill out with a cup of tea and a jaffa cake as those visitor stats go up and up!<\/p>\n

      Do you have any other guest posting tips you would like to share? Please feel free to leave a comment below!<\/p>\n[box style=”note”]This post is over a year old, so while the advice above is sill valid, check out my guide to guest blogging in 2014<\/a> for up to date advice.[\/box]\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      How to use guest posting correctly to ensure you stay on the right side of google and boost your web site’s traffic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":134,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[45],"tags":[18,17],"yoast_head":"\nHow To Succeed With Guest Blogging<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"How to use guest posting correctly to ensure you stay on the right side of google and boost your web site's traffic.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/top5seo.co.uk\/guest-blogging\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How To Succeed With Guest Blogging\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"How to use guest posting correctly to ensure you stay on the right side of google and boost your web site's traffic.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/top5seo.co.uk\/guest-blogging\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Top 5 SEO\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/top5seo\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-06-30T23:48:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-06-19T01:46:03+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/top5seo.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/5439280099_70b15dbe65_m.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"240\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"135\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"David McSweeney\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/top5seo.co.uk\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/top5seo.co.uk\/\",\"name\":\"Top 5 SEO\",\"description\":\"White Hat SEO & Internet Marketing\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/top5seo.co.uk\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/top5seo.co.uk\/guest-blogging\/#primaryimage\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/top5seo.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/5439280099_70b15dbe65_m.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/top5seo.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/5439280099_70b15dbe65_m.jpg\",\"width\":240,\"height\":135},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/top5seo.co.uk\/guest-blogging\/#webpage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/top5seo.co.uk\/guest-blogging\/\",\"name\":\"How To Succeed With Guest Blogging\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/top5seo.co.uk\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/top5seo.co.uk\/guest-blogging\/#primaryimage\"},\"datePublished\":\"2013-06-30T23:48:41+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-06-19T01:46:03+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/top5seo.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/ffb93fe38e63861d48de05aeb5c697ce\"},\"description\":\"How to use guest posting correctly to ensure you stay on the right side of google and boost your web site's traffic.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/top5seo.co.uk\/guest-blogging\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/top5seo.co.uk\/guest-blogging\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/top5seo.co.uk\/guest-blogging\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"How To Succeed With Guest Blogging\"}]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/top5seo.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/ffb93fe38e63861d48de05aeb5c697ce\",\"name\":\"David McSweeney\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/top5seo.co.uk\/#personlogo\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ca52262a13decd658873b26b9fb056b2?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ca52262a13decd658873b26b9fb056b2?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"David McSweeney\"},\"description\":\"I'm a web developer, programmer, blogger and SEO expert from Glasgow, Scotland, with over 15 years experience in the industry. 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