Guest Posting is one of the main ways bloggers use to get traffic to their blogs. It actually does work and does wonders for your blog.
For those of you that that don’t what guest posting is, basically you post an article on another blog for the purpose of getting more traffic to your blog. The article usually features a small bio of the author and 1-2 links to your blog or another website.
Guest posting was great for SEO and did wonders for your website traffic. If you guest posted on a popular blog you could get hundreds, if not thousands of new followers. You could also benefit from the back links as well.
However recently Matt Cutts, who is head of Google’s web spam team, posted an article on why guest posting doesn’t work anymore. He claims that guest posting has just gotten too spammy and Google just does not use guest posting as a measure of checking the quality of a blog or website anymore.
Okay, I’m calling it: if you’re using guest blogging as a way to gain links in 2014, you should probably stop. Why? Because over time it’s become a more and more spammy practice, and if you’re doing a lot of guest blogging then you’re hanging out with really bad company.
The above is an excerpt from Matt Cutts blog, he tells you how guest posting has changed and how it used to be a good method to use but isn’t anymore.
The thing is, you can still use guest posting and reap the benefits of guest posting without SEO. You can still drive more traffic to your blog with guest posting.
Guest Posting Isn’t As Dead As Everyone Thinks
When Matt Cutts posted the blog post, a lot of other bloggers followed and started saying ‘don’t guest post’ or ‘guest posting is so last year’.
There are many reasons why guest posting isn’t a dead practice like everyone thinks. Even if Google say don’t count on guest posting it still has many other benefits.
Yeah, you probably can’t use it for SEO purposes, so don’t expect to get a boost in rankings in the search engines through guest posting.
But you shouldn’t rely solely on getting traffic to your site through just SEO. You should rely on multiple ways.
You should always look to diversify to where your traffic comes from. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.
When it comes to it if somehow Google stop sending traffic to your site then your sites screwed as it was the only avenue bringing traffic.
If however your blog/website receives traffic from different avenues like social media, forums and other websites as well as search engines then your site would not suffer if it one avenue wasn’t bring any traffic in.
But you can still use it for plenty of other purposes.
Point #1: Building Relationships
Guest posting isn’t all about SEO and getting to the top of search engines.
Guest posting means you get to build relationships with people. This is very important because you can communicate with different people that you may never have met before through any other means.
This allows you to build trust with other people as well. Building trust can also mean that the people reading your article trust you more as a person and are willing to buy from you. A good way of establishing a better relationship with the readers is to respond to the comments and thank them for spending the time to read the article.
You can also build a relationship with the owner of the blog and who knows from there you could even start business or blog with him.
The great thing about guest posting is it allows you to find a completely new audience for your own blog. If you publish an article that is fantastic then readers will want to read more of your writing.
Make sure that when you do guest post that you stick around and comment on the article when readers make a comment. This will build an added trust to the readers and you will build a relationship with them.
If the blog you are guest posting on is in the same niche as the one you are in then it is more likely that readers will come over to your blog and sign up to your email list.
Keep in touch with the blog owner as well as this will build an added relationship with the owner. You never know when the owner can come of use to you and vice versa.
Point #2: Guest Posting Gives You Massive Credibility
The great thing about guest posting is that it gives you a high amount of credibility as a blogger and writer. It shows that another blogger trusted you to write on their blog. It shows readers that the owner of the blog must have confidence in you for letting you write an article on his blog.
Lets say for example you have a business blog and you write about starting your own business. You guest post on Forbes and Entrepreneur. The readers reading the guest post will think you must have good credibility and check out your website.
When you get credibility your readers will listen to what you say, they will start to buy your products and they will start to share your articles all because they think you are a trustworthy person.
In a way you have already built a relationship with the readers of the other blog through your writing.
Writing on more and more blogs enables you to become an expert on the topic you are writing on.
For instance, If someone stumbles on your blog and reads about the product you are selling. At first they may not be willing to part with their money and invest in your product.
But when they see that you have guest posts published on blogs that they know and trust in your niche, it will increase their confidence and let them know that you know what you are talking about.
This will make them more likely to buy your product.
Guest posting makes you much more of an authority in your niche.
Point #3: It builds your Brand
Guest posting does a lot of things for your blog. It can still bring tons of traffic to your blog.
A well written and high quality guest post on a popular blog can drive loads of traffic towards your blog.
The main thing about having a blog is about building a brand. Your brand enables you to grow as a business.
Your brand is what makes your readers come back. Your brand is very important and it is vital to promote your brand.
The brand is what sells your business. You building up your brand means more people will know of your brand.
Through guest posting you can build your brand and build a loyal following towards your brand.
Once you have some loyal followers towards your brand you can start making money from them by them signing up to your email list or even buying your products.
Having a brand also allows you to tell the story behind your brand. it is the story that builds this relationship with your brand. The story makes people connect with your brand.
Is Guest Posting Dead?
There are still many benefits to guest posting and it is not dead at all.
You can still reach out to a wider community and audience through guest posting and this in my opinion is still one of the best things about guest posting.
Through guest posting you can reach out to people that may have never known that your blog existed before.
Guest posting also enables you to expand and grow the traffic of your blog.
When guest posting make sure that you write quality content and that you do not write any old crap post.
No one likes crap content especially Google, so make sure that when you are posting a guest post or any article in fact, make sure it is high quality.
Publishing high quality content will help your blog get higher traffic because people will like the content they are seeing and more likely share it with others.
Do you think guest posting is dead? Do you use guest posting? Does guest posting benefit your blog?
What do you think about guest posting?
We would love to hear from you. Lets us know what you think in the comment section below.
