Creating high-quality content is hard work.
Everything from the research to the writing to the editing requires concentrated effort and attention to detail. So it’s understandable that when someone suggests producing guest blog posts for some other website, you’re a little skeptical.
After all, why should they get the traffic that comes from your literary toil?
Actually, there’s a host of benefits that can come from guest blogging if you give it a chance. Here are 4 of the biggest benefits:
1. Authority
You understand the importance of referrals in the face-to-face world. For example, if you manage online marketing for a law office, then you know full well that it’s far better for someone else to speak of your virtues than to do it yourself. Guest blogging has the same kind of effect.
To continue with our lawyer example, let’s assume that you’re working for a 3-partner firm in the suburbs. One of the partners has a connection to a heavyweight firm in the nearest major city and you start submitting content to their blog once a month.
Your blog post—with your firm’s name and your URL at the bottom of the post—essentially amounts to a referral. People who read the big law firm’s blog presume that your smaller firm is held in high regard within the profession.
You can also strengthen your reputation with your own readers by putting a link to the post on your website.
Studies show that 80 percent of consumers believe a website that creates ongoing custom content—beyond the few static landing pages that everyone has—is more trustworthy. Every blog post you write builds your trustworthiness in the eyes of the reader.
Authority doesn’t just apply to people. Search engine algorithms like it too.
Getting your URL on a larger company’s website helps your site share some of the domain authority from the bigger firm. All of your own content gets more respect in the search rankings.
2. Branding
Exposure on another company’s website is a chance to have your brand introduced to a new audience. If you’ve been in business for any length of time, you understand all too well how long it can take prospects to turn into loyal customers.
It might surprise you to learn that people need to hear your brand name 5-7 times before they actually spend money with you. One of the benefits of guest blogging is that it gets the first time out of the way for a new audience.
3. Outreach
You might be giving up your content with a guest blog post, but you’re also gaining access to the other company’s marketing platforms. If you write for someone with a thriving social media presence, they’ll be invested in promoting the post.
In addition to the authority and brand name exposure, you’ll gain these benefits:
- The chance to grow your own social media platforms. (People who read the post and like your content may start to follow you too.)
- Feedback on your content and presentational style in the user comments on social media.
- The ability to interact with users in the comments area and further strengthen your reputation.
4. Referrals
Finally, there’s the obvious benefit that people who read your guest post will click your link and come and visit your website. This is a great opportunity and needs to be handled thoughtfully. Give serious consideration as to which page you want the guest post to link back to.
The home page is a natural choice, but it may not be the best one. For instance, our hypothetical law firm might prefer to send visitors to whatever practice area landing page the particular blog post was commenting on.
A good rule of thumb is to send people to the most specific page possible. If you’ve written a page one of your services, send people directly to that landing page rather than make them bounce around on the home page. You might even consider creating a custom landing page for referral traffic from a highly successful guest blog.
Before the guest post is published, you’ll want to nail down your calls-to-action (CTA). Make sure your sign-up forms are working. If you don’t have any, now would be a good time to get them set up! Do you have a newsletter? Ask visitors if they want to sign up for it.
If you can’t get the visitor’s email address, you can still get their IP address. Install cookies through Google Ads. Then, you can run a paid search campaign aimed at those people to bring them back to your site.
Remember that it’s going to take 5-7 times to turn them into a loyal customer, so make sure you’re providing a reason for them to revisit your site.
The takeaway
It’s true that guest blogging takes work, and at first it might feel counterintuitive to be giving out your hard-earned content to other sites. But with proper planning, it can be made easier. Guest blog posts are often on “evergreen” topic ideas, so plan several months in advance what you’ll be writing about. That way, whoever handles the content for your business can get ahead of the curve and you can reap the marketing benefits thereafter.
If you don’t have a dedicated content team and guest blogging plan in place, consider partnering with an experienced website optimization company with proven results and methods of success. At SEO Advantage, we’ve developed key relationships with other sites and the media for more than 20 years, giving your website a massive advantage from Day 1.