if you want your business to position itself as a market reference, then guest blogging is your best ally
Collaborations between companies can also be a marketing action. This, in the creation of content, translates into a strategy known as guest blogging. And what does it consist of? It consists of writing and publishing an article on the blog or website of another company or person to improve the SEO positioning of your brand. In this sense, if you decide to opt for guest blogging in your content marketing strategy, you can take advantage of the following benefits offered by this technique:
- broaden the reach of your message. Most of the regular readers of the blogs where you publish will not coincide with yours, so by writing for them you will be diversifying your content.
- it boosts the image of your brand as a reference in the sector. With guest blogging, you allow more people interested in your business activity to consider you as an intellectual reference.
- improve the positioning of your website in search results. Thanks to this strategy, you can improve your referral traffic and your web authority through inbound links, i.e. hyperlinks that you generate in articles published in other blogs that lead to content on your website. Search engines value these links very positively because they show that your brand is an expert in the topics it deals with.
- it increases your web traffic, generating more contacts that can later become clients, again thanks to the links you include in other blogs to your website, as well as the diffusion of the brand by allowing other users to get to know it.
At OCCAM we want to help you incorporate a guest blogging strategy into your business, so we have put together this guide (based on the course offered by HubSpot) which includes: general advice, steps to find blogs to write for, recommendations for getting collaborations and tips for writing a guest author biography. Let's get started!
General tips
To get the most out of the benefits of guest blogging, keep these five tips in mind:
- write for blogs that have a good SEO ranking. To ensure that your effort to write an article for other blogs is worthwhile, check that these sites receive considerable web traffic. To do this, you can use tools such as Website Authority Checker or Link Explorer. In this way, opt for blogs with a web authority between 21 and 70.
- create educational content. The articles you publish outside your website should be aimed at solving doubts or problems for your potential customers. In this sense, you can use your own content to expand the information. But never base your guest blogging strategy on copy and paste: you must create materials that contribute something new.
- establish a smart linking strategy by not hyperlinking to the main pages of your website, but to specific educational content that enhances the user experience. On the other hand, remember to include an inbound link in articles as early as possible to ensure that readers find it before they leave the page.
- interact with content by responding to user comments on the blog or on social media to build trust with potential new customers.
- maintain a good relationship with the blogs you participate in for future collaborations.
Steps to find guest blogging opportunities
Staying in touch with the blogs where you publish is so important because finding guest blogging opportunities is not an easy task, so here are four essential steps to help you find them:
- decide on your niche based on the products or services you offer, which should match your content strategy. For example, if you sell clothing with a low environmental impact, you will need to find blogs about sustainable fashion. This ensures that your readers have the potential to become customers.
- make sure that the blogs you find accept collaborations. To do this, do some research on Google and social networks (especially Twitter) by carrying out different searches. For example, you can include the words "guest", "collaborator", etc. in the name of your market. Using all the formulas you can think of, don't forget about influencers: look for any in your sector with a blog of their own that could accept a collaboration.
- prioritise blogs with web authority. When contacting blogs to offer them a collaboration, try first those with the highest web traffic.
Steps to encourage partnerships
Creating a favourable environment with blogs where you would like to publish is essential to have a better chance of getting a partnership, so consider following these steps which, in the long run, will offer you many guarantees:
- find companies you would like to collaborate with. Identify the blogs that most convince you and do some research on them. What topics do they usually cover? Who are the most recurrent writers? Search for their names on LinkedIn to find out their position in the company and move on to the second step. And remember to carry out this search periodically to find new opportunities.
- create an interaction with these companies. Knowing the people in charge of the blog will help you to interact with them through social networks in a natural way. To do this, follow them on their profiles, like their posts and comment on occasion to establish a conversation on a topic that unites you, share their articles mentioning them, etc. All this will generate a relationship of trust.
- prepare your presentation before offering them a collaboration, make an effort to get to know their writing standards, come up with an interesting and innovative topic and come up with several content ideas for them to choose their favourite.
- send a personalised email to each company. Once you have established a good relationship with the company and have your presentation ready, it is time to offer the collaboration to the contact you have interacted with. In this sense, never send a common email to several companies. Personalise each communication by clearly explaining your intention and demonstrating that you are interested in their content and that you can contribute something to their blog.
Tips for writing your biography as a guest author
When you get collaborations, you will have the possibility to write an author biography that appears at the end of the articles you publish. This is important, because it provides an opportunity to remind readers of your company name and boost your brand's branding .
- if your blog has rules for the design of bios, make sure you follow them, and you can also research the profiles of the blog's writers for inspiration and ideas.
- write a concise text that explains who you are by introducing yourself professionally (mention your position in the company) and personally (include a fun fact about yourself).
- show that you are an expert in the field. You can mention an award you have won or one of your professional achievements.
- use the third person.
- insert a professional, good quality profile photo that builds trust.
- add your social networks so that readers interested in your content can contact you.
- include at least one inbound link to your website. Remember that the ultimate goal of your blog collaboration is to attract new visitors to your site to enrich your customer conversion strategy.
now you know everything you need to drive a guest blogging strategy that boosts your brand image, expands your audience and, ultimately, gets you more customers.
