How Do Guest Posts Work?

Guest posts are pieces of content issued by you or your brand to another site which is not your own. The site publishes the piece along with your credentials and ideally a backlink to your site. Usually no money changes hands because the site is pleased to have fresh and original content and your brand is happy to get the exposure. When you are looking for sites on which to publish your content, you should be looking for well known, high ranking sites that will really get you noticed.

Advantages of Guest Posts

• SEO- you appear more online & get more web hits
• Brand exposure- your logo and name become known
• Social Sharing- your posts will get shared on social
• LPs Increase landing page success with contextual links
• Improve Socially Gain followers and hopefully clients

5 Tips For Awesome Guest Posts

#1 Write A Good Bio

Your bio is the little piece of text about you and your brand and it appears with every guest post you publish, usually with a photo or logo. Your bio should be a few sentences long with all the necessary information about you and your experience. If it is a personal bio then you might want to add a little humour so you really get noticed. Brand bios should be consistent across all the sites you use and if possible keep them the same.  Bios often allow you add your social media links so make sure you grab this opportunity too. Wherever possible use Google Authorship linking your name in your bio to your Google+ profile.

#2 Go Easy On Links

Yes, you want to have a link or two in your guest post but don’t overdo it. Google doesn’t like excessive links in articles and can penalise your site and the publishing site for doing it. When you do add links, make sure you track them so that any web traffic and signups can be attributed to that site. This way you know what’s working and what isn’t! Contextual links are 5-10 times more effective than links in your bio so take that route wherever possible.

#3 Know Your Audience

Take the time to choose the site(s) you will be writing for. You may have your own unique style which is great but it will be best suited to some websites more than others. The aim is to get maximum exposure which is usually achieved by shares from the publishing site so you need to tap into the target audience. You may be talking about Facebook Advertising but some sites will prefer a step by step guide whilst others prefer an overview. Find out what is required before you begin to write.

#4 Share Your Post

One of the most important things to do when you provide a guest post is to share it afterwards. I don’t just mean once, I mean lots! Build up a relationship with the site publishing your articles so they know that you are as enthusiastic about getting views as they are. Use Buffer, Hootsuite or Tweetdeck to schedule regular tweets, posts and shares based on your original guest post and interact with other members of the organisation via social media.

#5 Always Use Unique Content

It can be tempting to use copied content if the website isn’t yours… what does it matter – right? Well, it matters a lot because the site publishing your guest posts will more than likely insist on original content and you are effectively cheating them by providing copied content. Think about it… if they wanted copied content wouldn’t they just do it themselves? Think of it as a business arrangement wherein you provide unique content in exchange for brand exposure and web traffic… if you pick the right sites it’s a great deal!

Do you write guest posts? Will you incorporate them into your 2016 content strategy? Tweet me @charli_says and tell me your experiences.