Guest posts are a great way to build authority and drive traffic to your website. But many people shy away from them because they find it too difficult to create a successful guest post for a website.
Guest blogging opportunities can be easily found, if you know how to look. It helps to acquire backlinks and also strengthens your position as an author. Statistics say that 60% of blogs have up to five guest posts monthly, and 3% write over 100 every month.
But before we get into the nitty-gritty of guest posting and the problems associated with it, we should know what it actually is, and how it benefits your website.
What Is Guest Posting?
Guest posting services can help boost your website in a number of ways. For example, it can provide backlinks to your website, which will help to increase your website’s visibility and search engine rankings.
Guest posting is simply writing an article and publishing it on another website. Several blogs take guest submissions from authors on various topics. In digital marketing, guest posts are considered to be beneficial for link-building and content aggregation.
With its help, you can attract traffic, reach out to a large number of people, and also boost your revenue. There are several other benefits of guest posting, like:
- Growth in community
- Edge over competitors
- Expansion of the website’s reach
- Growth in social media followers
- Improvement of online authority
- Building brand awareness
- Accumulation of useful feedback
- Creation of a backlink profile
Overall, guest posts increase the credibility of the destination website as well as the author’s profile. However, even though there are several companies providing guest posting services online, many bloggers shy away from opting for it as it comes with certain issues.
Common Guest Posting Problems and Their Solutions
Because of certain problems and errors, guest posts have got the reputation of being complicated. Through certain tips and tricks, you can avoid those common problems and make sure your post does what it is meant to do.
Let’s discuss some of the obvious guest posting problems and how to overcome them.
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Choosing the right site and topic
The first step towards creating a successful guest post is choosing the right website to write for. There are several types of blogs and websites that accept such posts. Zeroing in on the right option for your content is a major issue.
If you try guest posting on an unsuitable website, it will not give desired results and also might discourage you from doing it further. The same goes for choosing the right topic.
More often than not, websites ask you to write on a topic of your own choosing. Making that decision is tricky as you have to keep many things in mind, like the target audience, relevance of the content, your expertise in that field, and so on.
Solution: The best way to choose the correct blog is to do some smart research. You can use Google’s free tool to look for sites with maximum authority, based on high page rank.
If you write for these authority blogs, your content is likely to have higher visibility, better tracking, and a stronger revenue stream. You can also search for popular blogs on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. This will help you in recognizing which websites your target audiences visit more.
As for the topic, it is crucial to choose one that is not very common or overdone. Doing so would ensure that your content is not basic or repetitive. You can also choose popular topics but add a niche factor to them for an edge over your competitors.
It is also important to employ thought leadership in your writing. Your goal should be to add some value to your content that would attract more readers.
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Understanding the target audience
After you select the right platform for your guest post, you need to understand your target audience. Often, bloggers make a mistake in this step. As a result, the posts can turn out to be irrelevant and even boring.
For instance, if the website’s visitors are mainly marketing professionals and your article explains every basic concept elaborately without discussing the more integral aspects, the readers would immediately realize that you’re not catering to their knowledge depth.
Solution: Learn what kind of audiences visit the website more often, whether they’re amateurs or professionals in the field, and what their possible interests can be.
This will help you formulate the content in a way that connects with the readers. To do so, perform adequate research and always read guest post guidelines if the website has any. The guidelines will help you in understanding the pulse of the readers and the kind of content they prefer.
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Overusing sponsored content and links
The third mistake in guest posting is overusing promotional content and links in your blog. If you sprinkle promotional material all through your article, there are high chances that the reader would be put off. They might even dismiss your article as a genuine source of information.
These kinds of obvious marketing gimmicks only reduce authority, both with readers and search engines. It also lowers site quality and domain rank.
Solution: The easiest way to filter links is through online tools, like Ahrefs, Buzzstream, Linkio, etc. These can also help you run SEO checks on the content and give a report on its strength.
On your end, you should integrate promotional content naturally in your article. Don’t focus entirely on promoting your website. Do link-building smartly and make sure your readers get value out of your article.
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Wasting time writing and rewriting
Once the article is written, often authors get stuck in multiple rounds of edits and rewrites that can waste precious time. Spending so much time on one article reduces your rate of returns and makes the entire workflow slow.
Multiple revisions are a bane for blog writers. This happens majorly when the requirements and purpose of the article is unclear. Hence, it is best to chalk out an outline before actually starting to write.
Solution: A strong editing team helps in reducing this labor as they give you constructive guidance and fix language issues on their end. Another important aspect is to follow the style guide of the website, check whether they use British English or American English, and proofread the copy before submission.
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Attracting traffic to website
It may so happen that even after doing everything right, your guest blog fails to draw traffic. This may happen due to several reasons. You might have directed the traffic to the wrong place, your content might be too generic, or your link-building might be subpar.
Solution: Smart link building can solve this issue to a great extent. Make sure you direct users to a relevant landing page instead of your website’s home page. The home page has too many options to click on, and readers might leave without taking any action.
Also, write an interesting author bio. People are often drawn towards this and check out your website based only on that glimpse of your personality. Additionally, you should promote the article on social media as well as on the personal front. Make sure as many people get to see it as possible.
Final Thoughts
Guest posting is one of those things that look scary and complicated at first, but can fetch you great results if you crack it. With these easy solutions, you can write a successful guest post and boost your website’s authority. You can also consult experts for any kind of help in this area of digital marketing.
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