In the world of digitalization, content is considered as the king of the digital marketing. The internet is flooded with content, as writers are pushing the envelope to get the maximum engagement of the audience. However, to build an online influence, many bloggers are using the strategy to post blogs from guest bloggers to add value and give a different perspective to their existing visitors.
In a nutshell, the purpose of guest blogging is to publish the content on someone else’s blog or website with the main intent to reach a wider audience, and at the same time, provide value to that website’s audience. Although the content is neither copied nor extracted from someone else’s blog, it is for those who want to expand their reach and get through to the new eyes and ears.
However, it is worthwhile to recognize that we’re not entirely talking about guest blogging for the purpose of search engine optimization and link building. Google has been very transparent with their stance on guest blogging for SEO and have made it totally clear that if guest blogging is used for the sole purpose of link building – the site will get caught and penalized.
Furthermore, during the past few years, we have been hearing that guest blogging is dying as Google’s ex-spam team head, Matt Cutts, posted an article titled “The Decay and Fall of Guest Blogging for SEO”. Although it’s been more than 3 years since Matt Cutts published the post (later confirming it’s not what he meant), speculations continue to grow till this day.
To cut through the noise, we have gathered a list of factors, which clearly depict that guest blogging is still being practiced and isn’t even close to dying.
Here is the list of 7 reasons why guest blogging is not even close to dying:
1. It Serves as a Platform to Share Knowledge
Guest blogging is one of the ways to gain maximum exposure with the real audience. This gives the guest blogger a platform to share knowledge and information with all the readers of the site at once. Guest blogging gives a chance to a blogger to maximize networking and attract a maximum chunk of the potential audience.
As a result, guest bloggers are polishing up their skills to produce informative, creative and knowledgeable content. Also, posting as a guest blogger can be highly beneficial for the blogging community, as this will provide them insights of the targeted audience, allowing them to connect with the audience by being a part of the community.
2. Returning The Favours
Being a part of one blogging community, bloggers are striving to contribute to the industry by generating resourceful, educative and informative content. As a result, budding bloggers often invite renowned bloggers to contribute for their blogs, thus giving the opportunity to the guest blogger to expand his/her message even further.
Moreover, if you are opting for guest blogging then, it is advisable to consider following factors:
- Conduct a thorough research to find quality, relevant websites
- Prepare content that meets the needs and interests of that website’s/blog’s audience
- Follow website’s guidelines and stick to the standards
- Your content should be no worse than the one you publish on your own blog/website
3. Content Proficiency
Guest blogging can serve as a vital tool in building the credibility of your name or brand. As a result, content is getting more proficient when different bloggers are uniting to share their knowledge and expertise. However, it is advisable to post content which is helpful yet informative for the audience, as this can increase the readership of your blog.
Additionally, research and selection of a relevant topic is a necessity if you hope for your guest post to gain traction and attention. Hence, be selective and analyze the content being published on that website to identify the best performing ones. Tools like BuzzSumo and Ahrefs will help you achieving this task.
4. Get Feedback
Feedback plays a vital role in every aspect of the business, be it customer support, online shopping or blogging. Posting on other sites will serve as a gateway to attain loyal audience, thus allowing you to get honest feedback from different set of audiences.
Eventually, by analyzing feedback, bloggers can polish up their writing skills and create content specifically tailored to the audience’s needs.
5. It Builds Businesses
Guest blogging can potentially drive more traffic to the business as it serves to promote value and services of the business. However, opting for guest blogging just for the sake of promoting your business’s services and products will not carry you very far – simply because guest blogging is designed to generate a dual benefit – for the blog owner and the guest blogger.
If you are using guest blogging as a sole strategy to build links, then you may need to opt for strong, indirect marketing tactics.
6. Strengthen Links
If you are providing high-quality, link-worthy content, you can attract potential readers and other bloggers to link to your blog. Either way, there are higher chances that your blog will reach out to the maximum number of readers.
As a result, guest bloggers should opt for smart strategies to gain maximum visibility from the audience. Hence, it is advisable to promote all of your guest posts on social media, conduct manual email outreach and mention your posts in future articles. This can attract other bloggers or website owners to promote your published blog.
7. Drive Sales with Guest Blogging
Guest blogging can potentially drive sales by maximizing your website’s exposure and creating a name for your business.
By publishing quality content on other websites, you’re showing your expertise to those who are on a look out for a specific type of information or advice. For instance, by publishing an extensive guide to creating a WordPress website, you are automatically reaching out to those who are looking to build a WordPress website.
Although you’re giving out this information for free, some people are too busy to get their heads over the complexity of creating a website and may refer to you – a professional who knows how to build websites.
To Conclude
Although there are on-going speculation as to whether guest blogging is as effective as it once was, we can certainly say that it works and is nowhere near dying.