SEO
Every business that matters has a website and a social media page. But are you getting enough traffic to justify the investment of time and energy?
The world of digital marketing and SEO can be hard to navigate. Opinions abound, but few of those espousing it sound certain. Most like to cloak their opinion with ambiguities such as “with a fair degree of confidence”.
However, two facts are certain and no one can ever doubt them.
- Building backlinks is one of the most essential tasks of SEO and has remained that way since the Page Rank algorithm was built in the late 90s.
- Guest posting or guest blogging is one of the finest ethical ways to gain backlinks. It is a well-accepted practice that is not frowned upon by Google.
The perfect guest posting strategy pays off handsomely through higher traffic. For this reason guest blog posting services have become an integral part of SEO agencies worldwide.
Ensure that your business gets the maximum number of visitors by adopting the right guest posting approach.
Five ways guest posting drives traffic to your site
1. High-quality backlinks
Backlinks are links on other sites that trace back to yours. Any backlink won’t do. If it were that easy, then every business would have profited off a million backlinks from Facebook and Twitter mentions.
The links have to come from high Domain Authority or DA as it is known in the world of search engine optimization.
Domain Authority is a value bestowed on a site by Google. Reputed sites have high DA. These include well-known media outlets and popular blogs, among others.
Google considers them trustworthy. When you submit a guest post, it is accompanied by a link back to the website you own, along with your social media profile.
Google Search is extremely smart. It figures out that since your content has appeared on a well-known site, you and, by extension, your website are also trustworthy.
When you write guest posts, preferably for different blogs, your website reaps the benefit and ranks higher. Without exception, you gain more traffic.
2. Targeted audience
It’s never about how many know of your business but how many need to know.
Take, for example, a landscaping business. Is there a lot of value if many in New York city hear about your business on the TV? Most New York buildings are too small to house a garden.
It is far more useful if a dozen homeowners in Pennington, New Jersey, learned about your business rather than a thousand from New York.
The size of the audience does not matter. It’s all about the quality.
And this is where guest posting in blogs has such an impact.
Who would visit the Smashing Magazine site? Someone interested in tech and probably a coder. In the same way, anyone visiting the GQ site is interested in fashion and stylish clothes.
If you want to impress others with your knowledge of a domain, should you not write in a blog belonging to that domain?
It would pique the curiosity of readers and they would surely visit you, your LinkedIn profile, and your Facebook page.
What better way can be there to find high-quality traffic other than employing a suitable guest blogging strategy?
Since most people go online when they have a question, writing guest blogs in an attempt to answer possible queries is the perfect way to lure them to your site.
3. Builds reputation
If you have a question about auto repair, who would you ask—someone who has written dozens of high-quality articles on car maintenance or a plain vanilla site that has no way to prove that its owner has any expertise whatsoever?
Traffic is earned by gaining a reputation. If you know, others will keep on visiting your site.
Most sites are typical with a home page, contact page, and about us. All of it is supremely generic and there is no way to tell them apart.
In fact, when visiting most business websites, one gets a strong sense that they are a tired attempt at maintaining a digital footprint without much effort or investment going into it.
How can such a site generate traffic or leads? It is a contradiction in terms.
On the other hand, everyone holds a person who is well-versed in high esteem. Be it a website about pilates or photography, everyone who visits a site to read its blog wants to become intellectually enriched.
Guest posting is numero uno when it comes to building reputation and directing web traffic. Also, it is a process that builds upon itself. The more traffic you get, the higher you rank, which completes a positive feedback loop and sends more traffic. Voila, before you know it you would be on page one of search.
4. More social media shares
Whatever might be the drawbacks of social media, it is fantastic at one thing—word-of-mouth publicity. This advantage outweighs all other shortcomings.
When you gain a loyal fanbase, a coterie of readers who trust your opinion, they would share it among their friends, colleagues, and family.
There is power in the share button like nothing else. It can propel readership to the stratosphere.
An increase in traffic and readership is what every website owner desires. What can be more beneficial to your site?
Most of all, this increased visibility on social media costs nothing. All that you have to do is invest a few hours in writing and editing a guest post. That is not really much when you consider the upside of the endeavor and the positive response it manages to garner.
5. Greater brand awareness
Guest blogging inevitably leads to elevated brand awareness. The more recognized your brand, the greater the number of visitors.
Of course, you can never directly promote your brand through a guest post. But what you can do is gently nudge the reader towards your services.
Ensure that every single line of the guest post carries the voice of your brand. The content has to strongly resonate with the brand you wish to create. It has to reflect the same values, aspirations, and energy.
Use the guest post as an opportunity to stimulate conversations with strangers. Provide meticulous answers to the comments and enter a deeper discussion around the topic. Share practical tips and insights in a friendly and conversational tone.
And to sum it all up,
The right guest posting strategy can benefit you immeasurably. Not only does it gain you backlinks worth their proverbial weight in gold, but makes your site more visible and drives up visitors.
But it is easier said than done. Between managing inventory and planning for the weeks and months ahead, you can easily get distracted and unable to post.
This is why guest blog posting services are so helpful. No need to worry about writing and editing. All that is outsourced to experts who adhere to the publishing schedule.
Of course, every article can still have your inputs and ideas. They would remain your own except that the elbow grease would be someone else’s while you devote your time to more pressing matters.
