Posts

Link Parties – How Do They Compare to Guest Posts?

Guest posting is not the only way for a blogger to improve his or her SEO rankings. Many bloggers recommend something called “link parties” or “linky parties.” In fact, the method seems to be a favorite of “mommy bloggers.”

Link parties are established by a host publisher. Other bloggers add a link to one of their posts to the link party directory – in return, they must include the host’s URL on their own blog. Oftentimes, link parties have a theme, such as Halloween décor. Trading backlinks widens the audience range for both bloggers while simultaneously aiding their SEO – without setting off any of Google’s guest posting alarms. Link parties can also help you establish a community of bloggers that you can mine for guest posting opportunities or exchange advice.

What’s the Downside?

Link parties sound like a win-win situation, right? It is! All participants benefit from a link party. Yet there are still a few drawbacks.

Link parties are a TON of work. The host first creates a set of rules, then invites bloggers to backlink on his or her blog. The host then has to review every blog post and backlink to make sure they are following the rules. If any blog violates the link party rules, they get kicked out.

Generally, the backlinks from multiple bloggers are published by the host blogger in one post. Readers of the host blog see a long list of many links. Sometimes, pictures will be included. It is unlikely that any reader will click on every single one of those links – they’ll probably just scroll through until they find one they like.

Guest posts, however, have a much higher success rate than link parties for far less work. Writers get a chance to show off their style, voice, and expertise while publishers can mix up their usual content.

So Should I Use Link Parties?

There’s certainly no harm in participating in a link party, if you have the time and energy. If you have a favorite post on your blog, or one that you think will do well in a link party, go ahead and join! Just be careful not to break any of the host’s rules.

The one benefit link party backlinks have over guest posting is that traffic is driven directly to your site. Readers must click on the link to view your post, sending them back to your blog. With guest posts, readers may or may not click on the backlink.

There’s always the possibility that you will be invited back to another link party by the same host, or that someone else participating in the party will like your blog so much that they will ask you to guest post with them.

What do you think about link parties? Does participating in a link party help your SEO rankings?

How to Be a Good Blogging Neighbor (While Also Helping Your Own Blog)

One of my favorite parts of being a blogger is that competitiveness is relatively low. Instead of fighting for one top spot, multiple bloggers can all be at the top together. In fact, helping each other out can really help yourself along the way. So what’s the downside to being a good blogging neighbor? As far as I can tell, there isn’t one. If you’re looking for ideas to help other bloggers, check out of a few of these:

  1. Write winning comments on others’ blogs. One of a blogger’s many goals is inspiring engagement with his or her audience. When you read a blog post by another blogger, leave a helpful comment. What is a “helpful” comment? One that goes beyond “hey, great post.” Give specific feedback, ask questions, or relate to the post in some personal way. Bonus – writing comments on someone else’s blog helps your blog’s SEO and traffic.
  2. Create tutorial posts with blogging advice. Share your wisdom. Don’t worry about giving away your secrets; in blogging, the attitude you should have is not competing with other bloggers, but learning from them and helping them. Telling other bloggers how you organize your schedule, create graphics, and drive traffic will not decrease your success; it can actually increase it, because you will become a blogging authority.
  3. Follow other bloggers on social media, especially with your blogging accounts. Many bloggers believe it is common courtesy to follow back, so you will be growing your fans at the same time.
  4. Share posts from other bloggers on your social media accounts. Doing this will definitely score you brownie points with other bloggers, but it’s also good social media practice: social media experts suggest sharing 20% of your own content and 80% of outside content on your accounts. Moving beyond self-promotion will make your audience happy, your spotlighted bloggers happy, and, in turn, you happy!
  5. Host link parties, guest bloggers, and blog hops as a way of sharing your audience with other bloggers. All three of those methods help grow the traffic, SEO, and audience of other bloggers (as well as yourself). It will also expand the content on your own blog so that your readers get a little more diversity.
  6. Share content from other bloggers on your blog. You can do this through a simple backlink, or you can create a roundup blog post. This is where you gather all blog posts of a similar topic into one of your blog posts. Make sure you include a hyperlink to each blog post!
  7. Create a directory of your favorite blogs or blogs similar to yours on your sidebar. You can also share your favorite blogs by creating an account and following other blogs on BlogLovin’. Anyone who follows you on BlogLovin’ can see the blogs you follow as well.
  8. Create a blogging community. You can do this through social media groups (on Facebook, Google+, and LinkedIn), and you can also gather bloggers in your region to meet up in real life. You can share advice, as well as pass along information for locally-inspired posts or opportunities for local sponsorship.

Bonus: If you host your blog on WordPress, use the CommentLuv plugin. Whenever someone comments on your blog, the title of the last post they wrote on their blog will show up with their comment.

What are some ways you try to be a good blogging neighbor? You can practice here by commenting below!

What To Do When Someone Plagiarizes Your Content in 3 Easy Steps

A few months ago, I wrote about plagiarism in the blogging world. I concentrated on how bloggers can properly attribute sources so that they aren’t accidentally plagiarizing, as well as what constitutes plagiarism. I also discussed the consequences of plagiarism: it can ruin your reputation as a valuable website; it can burn bridges with other bloggers; and it can get you in serious trouble with Google.

What kind of trouble with Google? According to their webmaster page on duplicate content, “In the rare cases in which Google perceives that duplicate content may be shown with intent to manipulate our rankings and deceive our users, we’ll also make appropriate adjustments in the indexing and ranking of the sites involved. As a result, the ranking of the site may suffer, or the site might be removed entirely from the Google index, in which case it will no longer appear in search results.”

If your website no longer appears in the Google search results, you are missing out on 60% of online traffic. That is a huge hit to your ability to generate revenue.

Of course, if you read that post and you’re now reading this one, you’re already convinced that plagiarism is horrible and you should never ever do it. So instead, let’s talk about the people who aren’t convinced, the ones who have plagiarized your content, and what to do about it.

Step 1 – Politely ask the plagiarizing party to take it down. Yes, keeping your cool is the first step. It’s important to remember that many plagiarizers steal content on accident. They may not realize that their actions constitute stealing or they may not know how to properly attribute a source. This isn’t an excuse – plagiarizing is always unethical and illegal, even when done on accident. Some plagiarizers might be aware of what they are doing, but have never suffered any consequences for it in the past. Asking them to take it down with a brief but decisive note may be all you need to do to solve the problem.

Keep in mind that taking action against the thief will result in some serious consequences for them. They could lose their webhost, their advertisers, their ability to post on social media, and be penalized by search engines. All of that is extremely difficult to bounce back from. Someone who knowingly plagiarizes your work deserves all of the consequences of their actions, but someone with more innocent intentions may deserve a second chance.

Of course, in order to send them a message requesting that they take down your content from their website, you first have to find their contact information. Check for “About” and “Contact” pages within the website. If the website has an internal search function, search for “contact.” If an email address is not readily available on the website, you can find the owner of the domain name through http://whois.domaintools.com/. If all else fails, try commenting on the blog post.

Step 2 – Start documenting. Take screenshots of the offending website and of your original work. Make sure to include the date in your picture. You will also need a screenshot of the messages you sent to the thief. Find a Google cached copy of your webpage as well. Print out carbon copies of your evidence as well as save them to your computer.

Find a Google cached webpage
Step 3 – Take action. Give the offender a few days to comply with your request. It’s a good idea to specify in your first message to them how much time you will give them, such as 3-5 days. If they have not responded or taken down the plagiarized content, then you will have a few options of recourse.

Do not seek to take revenge out on the thieving website. Trying to defame, spam, or otherwise hurt the plagiarizer will not help you in any way, and it could actually hurt your reputation and chances of getting help. Instead, keep all of your communication civil and polite.

After you’ve given the thief some time and your content is still on their website, then you need to start seeking some bigger fish. Contact their webhost, advertisers, blogging platform, any social media they are posting the content on, and finally, search engines. If you’ve done thorough documentation proving that the original content belongs to you and the other website stole it without permission, you should be ready to move ahead with this step without a problem. You can also report stolen content through Google and Bing Webmaster Tools.

Sources:

“What Do You Do When Someone Steals Your Content.” http://lorelle.wordpress.com/2006/04/10/what-do-you-do-when-someone-steals-your-content/. (4 April 2014).

6 Ideas for Creating Images for Your Blog Posts (and Websites Where You Can Do it For Free)

One of the biggest struggles any blogger has is coming up with unique, appealing images to put in a blog post. Using rich media in your post has a number of invaluable benefits: it helps with your SEO; it attracts readers to your blog and keeps them reading; and it makes it easier to promote your blog posts on social media. The problem is that creating rich media can cost a lot of money or require a lot of artistic skills that the average person does not have. Fortunately, there are a lot of great resources on the Internet that can help you tap into your creativity and generate unique images. Here are a few ideas for unique images that you can insert into your blog post:

Infographics

Infographics are all the rage these days. It’s a concise way to share important information – and it’s easy on the eyes. Internet users would much rather look at an interesting image that presents facts than solid text.

Websites: Easel.ly, Infogr.am, Visual.ly, and Piktochart

Cartoons

Cartoons are a fun way to express or represent some of your blog content. They don’t necessarily add to the conversation, but they are unique and catchy.

Use cartoons as rich media in your blog post
Websites: Pixton and Bitstrips

Collages

If you’re using multiple pictures, place them in a collage to add some extra appeal.

Websites: PicMonkey, Photovisi, CollageIt, Polyvore

Slide presentations

This is a lot like creating a PowerPoint and then uploading it into your blog. Websites like Forbes use this method a lot; they’ll create an in-depth article, then pull the key points into a simple slideshow presentation. Use this for how-to tutorials or presenting information.

Websites: SlideShare.net and HaikuDeck

Quotes

You can easily create a pretty quote with a number of free, online programs.

Create a quote image for your blog posts
Websites: Pinwords, Quozio, and Pinstamatic

Graphics

Create your own graphics using various photo-editing programs.

Websites: PicMonkey

For tips on how to integrate Instagram pics into your blog, check out our post “Grow Your Blog Following with Instagram.”

Sources:

Cooper, Belle Beth. “14 Great Tools to Create Engaging Infographics and Images for your Social Media Posts.” http://blog.bufferapp.com/14-tools-to-make-engaging-images-for-your-social-media-posts. (11 April 2014).

Finding the Perfect Keywords to Optimize Your Blog

The most important part of optimizing your blog for the search engines is deciding on the right keywords. Good search engine optimization requires a set plan, and picking specific keywords for your blog as a whole and for individual blog posts will give you direction as you try to promote yourself.

So what is a “keyword”? It’s a word, phrase, or sentence that you predict people will search for using Google, social media, or some other search engine. But it’s not as simple as choosing keywords you think will attract an audience – as a blogger, you need to know the exact wording that Internet surfers are using. You need to know which keywords are stronger than others. And you need to know what your competition is.

Finding Keywords

There are lots of tools online that will help you determine the optimal keywords you need to use. Some of them are free, and some of them will cost you. If you are a beginning blogger, hold off on paying for any kind of service.

Start out with Google Trends and remember this tool forever! Google Trends will tell you the top Google searches done each day, which can be great inspiration if you want to write about current events in the future. It will also help you compare interest over time for any keywords you type into the search bar. I avoid using phrases or words that have been on the downward slope for over six months or are currently below 50 (the graph uses a scale of 1-100, with one being the lowest, to gauge interest).

Wordtracker is another tool that helps to measure the interest in a particular keyword, but it will also give you related phrases. This can help you to determine the exact phrasing you should use.

Search through hashtags and trending posts on social media to see what is popular there. Keep in mind that the results will be different on every social media outlet, but that shouldn’t deter you from using what is popular.

If you already have a blog, use your analytics to help with future posts. Analytics tell you the phrases that have directed visitors to your blog. It can also tell you what your visitors are interested in reading about.

Finally, do a simple Google search. Research the query results – these websites are your competition. Don’t underestimate what you can learn from your rivals’ success.

Choosing Perfect Keywords

The best keywords to use for posts are longer phrases. Try doing a Google search for one word, such as “rabbits.” Your search results will include news, movies, humorous websites, and thousands of other results you don’t care about. Searching for “how to buy a rabbit” gets you much more valuable information, such as “10 Things You Should Know Before Buying a Rabbit.”

The generic one-word keyword is terrible on its own, but does well when part of a question or answering phrase.

There’s a delicate balance between choosing keywords that are too popular and not popular enough. You want to ride on the coattails of a popular trend, but you also don’t want to get lost in the crowd. Whichever way you choose to go is up to you.

Where to Use Keywords

Keywords are necessary for your site as a whole, as well as individual blog posts. But be careful – too many and you will be flagged by Google as a spam site. A good rule of thumb is to only use your keywords three times in one blog entry, with one of those times being in the title.

That rule can be transferred to the rest of your blog, especially towards individual pages, but there is a little more leeway depending on how much content you have.

Good luck, and happy keyword hunting!

Sources:

Gabbert, Elisa. “How to Target Keywords with Blog Posts.”http://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2010/07/21/blog-keyword-targeting#.. (1 Oct. 2013).

Wang, Andrew. “How to Perform Keyword Research for Your Blog.”http://blogsuccessjournal.com/seo-search-engine-optimization/tags-keyword-analysis/how-to-perform-keyword-research-for-your-blog-2/. (1 Oct. 2013).

10 WordPress Plugins to Make Your SEO a Slam Dunk

One of the biggest benefits of using WordPress as your CMS is the plethora of plugins available to optimize your blogging experience. Plugins can help add cool new features to your blog, simplify SEO, and make blogging easier for you. Unfortunately, the large amount of plugins available also means that many of them will turn out to be duds. Plugins work kind of like smart phone apps in the Apple Store or Google Play – anyone can create one. Many experienced bloggers have written their own reviews of their favorite plugins to help guide you, but you can also use the rating system attached to each plugin.

If you’re looking for plugins to help with your blog’s SEO, look no further! We’ve tried out the best and worst and come up with a list of WordPress plugins for SEO that every blogger needs:

  1. Google XML Sitemaps – Having this plugin will better help search engines such as Google, Bing, Yahoo, and Ask.com index your blog.
  2. WordPress SEO by Yoast This plugin is a freemium that helps you with the technical side of SEO, such as Meta content, XML sitemaps, page analysis, RSS optimization, and more. It also includes some social media functionality. This plugin has an incredibly high score among WordPress users: rated 4.7 out of 5 stars.
  3. Free Guest Post – The Free Guest Post plugin accompanies the related website that connects writers and publishers for guest posting opportunities. Normally, finding a guest posting tradeoff can be very difficult and time-consuming. This plugin eliminates all of the usual stress involved in this process, as well as some of the Google penalties.
  4. Quick Page/Post Redirect Plugin – If you’ve deleted a page or post without creating a redirect for it, Google will find these broken links and punish your page for them. This plugin helps you easily find and redirect those URLs, steering you clear of Google’s SEO penalties.
  5. All In One SEO Pack – The All In One Pack is similar to SEO by Yoast, but better for beginners and ecommerce WordPress sites. It automatically generates Meta data, titles, and keywords for you, but also has the option for you to fill them in manually.
  6. Automatic SEO Links – This plugin makes it so you no longer have to manually insert links. All you have to do is select a word and a URL.
  7. SEO Rank Reporter  – Every three days, this plugin will track your Google rankings and report the information back to you.
  8. NoFollow Links – Not every one of your links should be followed by Google’s spiders. This plugin adds the “nofollow” to the rel attribute of your link.
  9. Broken Link Checker – This plugin is similar to the Quick Page/Post Redirect Plugin, except it focuses more on finding the broken links. It also has the option of preventing search engines from following a broken link, keeping you safe from Google penalties.
  10. Google Plus Authorship – Using Google+ Authorship connects your Google+ account to your blog posts, giving you credit as the author. When your blog post shows up in a Google search result, your picture and author profile will show up alongside it, making it more appealing and earning more clicks. Google also favors those with an authorship account, which will only improve your SEO.

What are some of your favorite WordPress plugins? We’d love to hear!

Why Bloggers Need Google+

It’s no secret that Google+ lags behind Facebook in popularity. As a blogger, you know that you will have more success gaining followers on Facebook than Google+. However, many don’t know that Google+ can drastically help your SEO. It makes sense – Google runs Google+, so it gives more SEO weight to that social network than any other. So if you haven’t yet, you need to start a Google+ account.

How Can Google+ Help My SEO?

+1 – Blog posts that are +1ed on Google+ are given more SEO weight. Those posts will come up higher in the search results than those that are not. This is true without personalization of search results, but is even truer with the personalization.

Personalization – When Google users are logged into their account, the search results for their queries are personalized. Instead of getting content that Google believes is most relevant for everyone, the user receives content that Google believes is most relevant specifically for them. +1s can impact this. For example, if a fan +1s one of your blog posts, the rest of your content is deemed more relevant to them by Google. Your blog is more likely to come up higher on their personalized search results. But it doesn’t stop there – it’s also more likely to come up higher on the search results of any of that fan’s friends.

Custom URLs – Google+ is offering customized URLs to some businesses. One of the times you log into your account, Google will give you the option. Change your URL to your blog name and you should see an increase in organic traffic. Google has not officially stated that custom URLs will give your account more SEO weight, but it’s likely that will be the case in the future. Regardless, having your name in your URL should still give you a push.

Authorship Google Authorship has been in place for a few years. Connecting your Google+ account to any articles, guest posts, and blog posts you write will improve search results: your picture, a link to your Google+ account, the number of Google+ circles you are a part of, and a link to more search results written by you will show up along with your article. This makes your post more appealing to Google users, but also makes you a more credible expert to Google. The more your articles are +1ed, the more SEO weight you will have as an author.

Social Media Optimization – There’s a strong correlation between having lots of social media followers and better SEO. This is mainly because your fans will do a lot of great legwork for you: they will share your posts on their social media accounts or other places. These backlinks definitely help your SEO. Google+ is another social media outlet that you can add to your repertoire.

What are you waiting for? Start improving your SEO with a Google+ account ASAP!

After you start your Google+ account, link to it in your FreeGuestPost profile and author biography. Connecting your FreeGuestPost account and your Google Authorship account will help to make you a more credible source for Google, improving the SEO of any website that publishes your articles. Including it will make it easier for publishers to find out more about you as an author. More publishers will request your work if they know that you are a real person, a qualified writer, and you have SEO weight with Google Authorship.

Sources:

Enge, Eric. “Google+ & SEO: How Google+ Impacts Search Results.”http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2307518/Google-SEO-How-Google-Impacts-Search-Results. (18 Nov. 2013).

Bogar, Colin. “Google Plus rolls out custom URLs: a win for boosting organic search results?”http://www.inman.com/next/google-plus-rolls-out-custom-urls-an-opportunity-to-increase-organic-search-results/. (18 Nov. 2013).

Stadd, Allison. “The Relationship Between SEO And Social Media [INFOGRAPHIC].”http://www.mediabistro.com/alltwitter/seo-social-media-infographic_b46544. (18 Nov. 2013).

SEO Isn’t Dead and Here’s Why

What follows the headline “SEO is dead!”? Usually a click, and that’s why people use that claim in their article headlines. They know they’ll get clicks by scaring people. When you see such a loaded claim, the obvious, knee-jerk response is to say, “There’s no way! Without SEO, what will I do now to make my website visible?” And then you read on to find out how to protect and ensure the success of your website.

One blogger argues that not only is this claim inaccurate, but the articles that follow it are surface level sensationalism at its most dangerous. Bad advice that eliminates good SEO strategies can lead people to make poor decisions for their websites that can hurt their ranking, and consequently, their chances for success.

The Timeless Definition of SEO

As long as there is information online, there will be a way to search for it. And as long as there is a way to search for it, there will be a reason to optimize said content for more efficient and effective searchability.

And that’s what search engine optimization is: the process of refining content for optimal visibility online. This “refining” process is where SEOs (search engine optimizers) come in. They are responsible for navigating and deploying the correct practices that will help a website appeal to a search engine’s defined yet evolving algorithms.

Kristine Schachinger of SearchEngineWatch.com gives two rule-of-thumb questions to consider every time you’re confronted with a claim that SEO is dead.

  1. “Is there still a search engine that seeks out and returns content to a user based on words they enter through text or voice input?”
  2. “Are these results based on programming, algorithms, and math?”

If the answer to these two questions is yes, there will always be a reason to continue employing SEO and you’ll be wise to keep yourself in tune with the current state your favorite search engine’s algorithms.

A False Accusation

Those that say SEO is dead also make sweeping claims against SEOs, lumping legitimate SEOs in with the spammers with unfair generalizations. It’s been called an “industry full of promises,” but Kristine clarifies that true SEOs “give Google what they want—sites that are good for users, guided by Google’s guidelines.”

A true search engine optimizer isn’t a proponent of “blackhat tricks,” because they know that the results won from those tricks won’t last. True SEOs understand that Google’s algorithms are constantly shifting in order to provide the end user a better and more accurate search experience.

If a website owner understands Google’s motive and the implications of each algorithm change, then they will be on top of making content and design strategies that will best appeal to those algorithms, and will see a boost in ranking and traffic as a result. A knowledgeable SEO acts as the consultant, or spokesperson, for Google in relaying those practices and strategies that will yield the desired results.

What content and design decisions have you made that were influenced by Google’s changing algorithms?

Sources

Schachinger, Kristine. “Is SEO dead? Nooooooo!” http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2358557/Is-SEO-Dead-NOOOOOOO?utm_term=&utm_content=Is%20SEO%20Dead%3F%20NOOOOOOO!&utm_campaign=08%2F04%2F14%20-%20SEW%20Daily&utm_medium=Email&utm_source=Daily (August 18, 2014.)

Google Cracks Down on Guest Posting Scams

Google has become even stricter when it comes to guest posting for blogs. With so many spammers infiltrating genuine guest posts, Google was forced to take a stand. Matt Cutts, head of the webspam team at Google, recently explained why penalizing shallow guest posting was necessary in a YouTube video: too many are trying to take advantage of guest posting by offering the same post to multiple publishers; offering similar posts with only a very slightly different spin to multiple publishers; and only writing the 300 minimum amount of words.

New guidelines were added in order to warn against “link schemes.” Backlinks that attempt to manipulate PageRank or SEO standing is a violation against Google’s Webmaster Guidelines. This will hurt both the writer and the publisher of anything that qualifies as a link scheme. The guidelines can be found here: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/66356?hl=en.

What Does This Mean for FreeGuestPost.com?

FreeGuestPost is unique in that it guarantees more safety for writers and publishers against Google’s punishments than organic guest posting. Many of the violations to Google’s guidelines are impossible for FreeGuestPost users to carry out. Writers and publishers can only communicate through the website, limiting any opportunity to pay for articles or form partnerships for the sake of backlinks. FreeGuestPost also is not compatible with programs that automate link creations, another one of Google’s possible infringements.

FreeGuestPost.com encourages writers not to commit these infractions. Create genuine blog posts with thorough research and depth. Write more than the required 300 words. Don’t try to offer the same or similar blog posts more than once. Try to avoid including too many backlinks into one post. If you are worried about your backlinks being punished, make them no follow – this will allow readers to follow the link back to your source, but Google’s spiders will not follow them for SEO purposes.

Publishers should also be careful about what they chose to accept and post on their own blog. Only accept posts that are well thought out. Although it is not always easy to see who is an expert in what field, you can screen each individual post. A shallow post should be rejected. Make sure all writing that you publish is valuable – quality over quantity.

Should I Still Use Guest Posting to Improve My SEO Rankings?

Although Cutts was firm in his video, he was also very confident that guest posting is a valuable resource for bloggers, writers, and businesses. There may be more complications to guest posting with these new, stricter rules, but guest posting can still improve your SEO rankings, bring your writing to a broader audience, and introduce a new voice or expertise into your blog.

Soures:

“What is Google’s view on guest blogging for links?” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMxC3wQZOyc. (16 Sept. 2013).

Grigg, Ally. “Guest Posting – How to Avoid Google’s Wrath.” http://www.5gbfree.com/blog/2013/09/16/guest-posting-how-to-avoid-googles-wrath/. (19 Sept. 2013).

8 Ways to Prepare Before Writing a Guest Post

In many ways, writing a guest blog post is just like writing a regular post for your own blog. However, there’s a lot of pressure, especially when there’s more at stake: guest blogging can be a huge benefit to your own website if you are accepted by a publisher, but being rejected is never a fun feeling. When writing a guest post, you should follow the same writing routine you normally do for your own website, but keep in mind a few key differences between a guest post and a regular blog post; most importantly, a guest post is your first introduction to a new audience. Because you are trying to convert new readers instead of appeasing old ones, you need to put your best foot forward. Make sure your post is polished and completely readable. This might mean finding an extra proof-reader or two.

So how do you prepare to write a guest post? Try a few of these steps and see what feels right for you:

  1. Think about your areas of expertise. Guest posts should contain valuable and informative content – if you aren’t teaching something new or sharing something interesting, it isn’t worth it to you or your publisher. Before you settle on a topic, make sure it’s a field that you are totally confident writing about. Besides, you’ll enjoy writing about something you’re familiar with.
  2. Don’t worry about keywords when you are deciding your topic. Trying to rank for keywords on an individual blog post is not worth as much to your SEO as branding. Use guest posts to display your own talent, rather than trying to work the system of SEO.
  3. Once you’ve settled on your topic, then you can start thinking about your angle. Are you writing this from a specific perspective? An example of this would be “time management for parents” rather than just “time management.” Or maybe you’re writing your post for a specific audience, such as people who have some experience but aren’t yet experts. Writing your blog post from a predetermined angle will help you organize your thoughts, as well as make your post fresh and interesting.
  4. Think long and hard about the format of your blog post. In fact, you may even want to try it a couple different ways to see what works best.
  5. Your guest post should be at least 300 words long, but ideally more than 500. Make sure you have a lot to say about your chosen topic.
  6. Grab a friend or other trusted individual to proofread your post. You may even want to read your post out loud to see how it sounds. You and your proofreader should check thoroughly for clarity and readability, not just grammar and spelling mistakes.
  7. Create or find some interesting rich media (pictures, infographics, graphs, videos, etc.) to add to your blog post.
  8. The title of this post is especially important because you are trying to put your best foot forward. To ensure that you are creating a perfect and catchy title, write out 10 title options and pick your favorite one.

Now you’re ready to submit your article to a publisher! Your post will contain valuable content at the same time as remaining SEO-friendly.

What steps do you take before writing and submitting a guest post? Let us know in the comments!