Is Guest Posting Dead?
In 2014, Matt Cutts, former head of the Web Spam team at Google, wrote the following:
“Okay, I’m calling it: if you’re using guest blogging as a way to gain links in 2014, you should probably stop.”
Ever since the state of guest blogging has been debated heatedly. Indeed, guest blogs with low-quality content have truly been dead for decades.
On the other hand, high-quality blogging is an effective strategy to create backlinks, and drive traffic to your website. Even Cutts eventually published a correction, and said: “There are still many good reasons to do some guest blogging (exposure, branding, increased reach, community, etc.)”
So, the question is, how can we create quality guest blogs every time?
Here, we have outlined three easy and effective strategies to create guest posts that are sure to attract links, and bring in traffic:
The Robin Hood Technique
The Robin Hood technique, as suggested by SEO Gold Coast, is a quick and effective way to write guest posts with good quality content. This technique involves recreating great content from popular blogs and offering them to platforms with a low ranking, and less credibility and traffic.
Keep in mind, however, that this does not mean plagiarizing the content – instead, you must only take inspiration from the blog to recreate ideas for your own post.
The following steps can be undertaken for this technique:
Ahref’s Content Explorer Tool contains one billion pages and can be used to find blogs you can write a guest post for
Source: ahrefs
- Enter a keyword corresponding to your chosen topic to find similar articles
- Check the “one article per domain” box to find unique blogs related to your keyword
- Sort the results according to Language, Shares, Domain Rating, Organic Traffic, and Number of Words to truly find a customized blog post idea
Note the importance of Domain Rating (DR) that showcases the popularity level of a backlink, based on a scale of 1-100.
While it is tempting to only work with high DR blogs, low DR blogs are also worth investing your time and energy in, as they usually have a niche following and are bound to grow.
What’s more, low DR blogs usually receive fewer pitches and have less strict editorial standards – thereby making it easier to get featured or published.
Finally, you can move on to step 4:
4. Read the content of your chosen blog piece, and recreate it by adding a unique spin to it – conclude by pitching it to low or high DR blogs through email outreach
Splintering Content
Another effective way of guest posting is by splintering or breaking existing blogs into shorter, but authoritative posts.
The point of splintering content is to dive deep into a topic that you have already researched before, as it is easier to recreate, revise, or rewrite.
After writing detailed individual posts, you can then pitch the pieces to online magazines and platforms that would publish it as guest posts, whilst still re-directing the reader to your original blog post – thereby creating quality backlinks.
The Perspective Technique
A small change in perspective can lead to a completely new, and unique piece of writing.
The trick here is to use a previously written blog post and turn it into multiple guest posts by simply tweaking your overall perspective.
For instance, if your previous blog post was on the “The Future of Link Building” – you can now write on a variety of topics by changing your viewpoint, such as:
- Future of link building for small business
- Future of link building for E-commerce
- Future of link building for startups, and so on
Effective Guest Posting
The techniques outlined here are a good way to get you started. Keep in mind, however, that once you start pitching your guest posts, you may be faced with some problems.
For instance, editors and bloggers may routinely reject your pitch, negotiations may take months, or the link to your article may be taken down suddenly and without prior notice.
To address this concern here is what you can do:
- Focus on creating good quality content for your blogs
- Pitch to multiple blogs at the same time
- Include links to your other guest posts to generate more traffic
- Keep exploring and writing for new platforms and sites
In short, by following the techniques outlined above, you can defy Matt Cutt’s claim that guest posts are dead. Indeed, guest posts are thriving and can be used to generate traffic and brand awareness for your business in the long run.
