Have you heard a lot of guest posts recently? Is this something you should be investing time and money in with your business? More brands are choosing to create guest posts now in order to increase their online traffic and business sales. But, this is not something that is easy.
What is a Guest Post?
First of all, it is important to understand exactly what a guest post is. Essentially, this is an article that you write for a blog. Namely, this is going to be for a blog that does not belong to your brand or business. Hence, you are going to be writing it as a guest. There are a number of reasons why guest posts are beneficial to your business, despite being on another website and another blog. Primarily, it is a way to drive traffic to your own website and represent your brand.
Guest posts may sound easy. But, they talk a lot of hard work and effort. You could argue that they should be even better than those posts featured on your own blog since you have to convince another audience to check out your ad. From placing links in the post to being selective with the topics you choose, a lot of businesses are deciding to leave guest posts to experts to write for them.
Tips for Writing a Guest Post
Do you know how to write a good guest post? This is something that is going to take a lot of time, energy and dedication. Indeed, you need to have the right strategy too. Here are some tips to write a good guest post.
Capture Their Attention
The most important part of a guest post is going to be the introduction. This is your one and only chance to capture a reader’s attention and make sure they do not click off the page. You have around five to 10 seconds to make a good impression. Make sure that you spend a lot of time perfecting the introduction and making it exciting. In addition, headlines will be important for this task too.
Select Popular Blogs
Guest posts are only going to work if you are choosing a blog that already receives traffic. In other words, you want to select a popular blog that is going to have a large audience. Otherwise, your hard work is going to be wasted. Take your time and research some of the most credible and popular blogs in your industry. You can then contact them for some guest posting.
Note that guest posting is becoming more popular. This does mean that big blogs are being selective with what material they accept onto their website. In some cases, they will have rules and regulations you have to follow before content is accepted. Make sure that you take a look at this and follow the rules. This is going to give you the best chance of having your post featured. The last thing you want is for it to be rejected after all that hard work.
Include Links
Of course, the main point of a guest post is to link back to your website and brand. This means that you cannot forget to include links. Unfortunately, internet users are lazy and they are not going to take time out of their day to Google your business and try to find you. Unless your brand is right in front of them, they are unlikely to follow up and check you out. Providing links is the only way to get around this and gain people’s attention.
What do you want to do is make sure that links are natural. If someone is reading a post and all they think it is is a sales pitch, they are going to stop reading and this is going to reflect negatively on your brand.
Be Consistent
You cannot just write one guest post and expect to see immediate results. It takes a lot of time and perseverance in order to see the effects for your website. Indeed, you need to create a long-term strategy that is going to involve writing several guest posts on a consistent and regular basis.
Just make sure that if you are increasing the amount of guest posts you are writing, you are not letting the quality slip. The last thing you want is for your guest posts to be boring and damaging to your SEO efforts. The focus should always be on quality first.