The Ultimate Guide to Writing Compelling Guest Posts
Guest posts are a great way to boost your SEO by establishing yourself as an expert in your field and sharing your knowledge with new audiences. But they must be high-quality, in-depth, and well-written to maximize their value.
Unlike your readers on your website, these people don’t know you yet. They’re skeptical and expect your content to be great.
Start with a Strong Pitch
Each blogger has a brand with a specific audience, message, and expertise. It would help if you found out how your content can fit into theirs to make a strong pitch.
Read previous guest posts and the editor’s guidelines to understand what content they typically accept. Developing several topic ideas is also wise, so if one is rejected, you can try again later.
Be Specific
When you are writing guest posts that aren’t your own, you must consider the editor’s expectations and the needs of their audience. This means being very clear and effective with your correspondence and writing about topics that interest them.
Providing several ideas for a post can help you stand out from the competition. Be sure to include a short description of each.
Be Unique
Websites receive many guest post requests daily, so you must be unique. Your pitch should stand out from others and show them how you can help their site.
This means including relevant internal and external links in your content that can help their readers. You can also include a link to your website in your post’s bio section (some sites limit this). This is a great way to promote your business.
Be Original
A strong guest post that showcases your expert opinion and research can inspire new connections with your readers. It can also increase organic traffic to your website.
Make sure that the content you create is unique. This will help you stand out from other writers and increase the likelihood that editors will invite you back. It should also be free of errors.
Be Relevant
If you take the time to write a guest post, your content must be relevant to the target publication. This will help you meet your goals of driving traffic, building links, or getting new clients and leads.
Avoid linking to your business’s website or products in the body of the post. Do that in the author bio instead.
Be Accurate
Every blogger has a brand, audience, and message. Find blogs that align with yours and will help you reach a new, targeted audience.
Follow the site’s guest posting guidelines and abide by any unspoken rules. It’s important to meet the blogger’s and the audience’s needs to gain credibility and boost SEO over time.
Be On-Topic
Unless explicitly told not to, editors and site owners expect guest posts to fit in with their messaging. This means using similar formatting like bold text, headers, and lists.
This also includes tone and angle of writing. Avoid posting a serious article about business strategies if the blog is light-hearted. It will feel out of place and may be cut by the editor.
Be Engaging
Your goal as a guest poster is to meet the blogger’s and their audience’s needs. This means providing valuable content and establishing yourself as an expert.
Before pitching, find out as much about the blog and its author. This will help you form a connection with the editor that can reap priceless benefits.
Be Well-Written
Having compelling content on popular & reliable websites is a great way to build credibility and trust with potential customers. In addition, you can also use your content to direct traffic to your business or website.
To do this, make sure your guest posts are well-written. This includes using the right white space and ensuring your text is properly formatted.
Be SEO-Friendly
Writing SEO-friendly guest posts is important, but writing them well is also crucial. Sloppy grammar, poor syntax and typos will cancel out any positive impact from your keywords.
Research the website’s content and guest posting guidelines. Please pay attention to how they format their articles, their style and tone of voice, and the images they use.
Be mindful of the number of keywords you include, as excessive keyword use can hurt your ranking.