There’s More to Guest Blogging than Just Backlinks

By now, you have probably heard that guest blogging is the new “in” way to gain backlinks to your website. It’s definitely one of my favorite methods of content marketing and in addition to using it for myself, I also do it for my clients. However, there is more to guest blogging than just backlinks and if you want to get the most from the process, it pays to understand this.

Guest blogging is the process of creating an original blog post for another site and posting it under your name with a link back to your site. There is much more to this process than just posting on as many blogs as you can.  You also want to be sure you are choosing the right blogs to post to and that you are creating quality content.

Guest blogging is more than just getting a backlink. It’s also a great way to build brand awareness and gain the reputation of an expert in your field. Now that you understand why there is more to guest blogging than just backlinks, let’s take a look at some tips to ensure your success with guest blogging

• Choose Your Blog Carefully  

It’s important to choose where you want to publish your blog posts carefully.  The quality of the site you are posting on is important, as is the topic. You want to guest post on sites that are related to or close to your niche. There needs to be a tie-in so that Google can find the relevancy.

Some people get the impression that this means you can only publish to sites with a high PR or a certain Alexa ranking. This is not the case either. Personally, I like to have a mix of sites with varying page ranks and traffic brackets. Sure, I love to get my content on the big sites but I will also post on a small site or a start-up if it is relevant to my topic and if it’s a quality site.

• Keep Your Blog Posts Interesting and Relevant

Your guest posts should be written much like articles for article marketing. Spend your post talking about something interesting and useful then use the bio box to pitch your site. Your blog post should not read like a sales pitch for your products or services.

• Write for Your Readers, Not Yourself

You have to write for the audience that will be reading it, not for your own self-interest.  When you write, talk to them like they are friends rather than attempting to talk above them.  It’s the readers that help you to build backlinks.  Keep them reading by giving them information that they want to read.

There is much more to guest blogging than just creating thousands of backlinks.  Go for quality over quantity when creating backlinks and you can never go wrong.

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Do you have any guest blogging tips? Share them in the comment section, we would love to hear from you.

Written by Lisa Mason – Edited by Mudassir Ahmed

This is a guest post by Lisa Mason. She is a content marketing specialist and freelance writer who provides guest blogging services to her clients as well as for marketing her own sites on a regular basis.