For years, blog owners, website managers, and SEO practitioners have debated guest posting. Especially, after the head of Google’s webspam, Matt Cutts warned us against using 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.”
- Matt Cuts, 2014 -
However, according to reliable data by Outreach Monks, in 2023, the majority of 65% of backlinks were obtained using guest posts. Furthermore, blogs and website that uses a commendable guest post strategy and practices tend to have a 5% higher Google Index than those that don’t. This is because a good practice of guest posting can increase more than 20% of traffic towards your site.
So, to answer simply, does guest posting still work in 2023? Yes, absolutely! Guest posting still work tremendously well in 2023 and we’re going to talk about why and how you can utilize it to your advantage.
Outlines
Why Guest Posting Still Works In 2023
- Relevancy Is Important
- Choose The Host Wisely
- Be Genuine
- Create Evergreen Content
- Optimize Your Site
- Maintain Your Guest Post
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Key Takeaways
- Yes, guest posting still works in 2023 for the same reason it has been working all these years.
- However, an excellent practice of making a guest post is required to make it effective.
- Guest posting is important because it can drive organic traffic and get new audiences to visit your site. Increment in Google Ranking as a result.
- While it can increase your page and domain authority, a poorly written guest post can also have a negative impact on your site.
- Doing a really great job at curating your guest posts at other sites is important. However, optimizing your site is equally important.
Why Guest Posting Still Works In 2023
Guest posting still works in 2023 for the same reason as how it has been working all these years. It gives you chances to connect to new audiences, and website owners, and draw them to your website. Here’s a more insightful explanation of why guest posting still works:
1. Backlinks Are Still Kings
A lot of things have changed in this industry, however, a few important things remain: Backlinks still hold a noteworthy benefit for your website. It is one of the backbones of increasing your Page Authority and Domain Authority, which we all know are crucial factors for Google indexing.
Guest posting is still incredibly helpful because it allows you to build organic backlinks to your website. Moreover, when you have highly authoritative website links to yours, it gives your website some of its SEO juice and gives your site a higher credibility.
In a sense, one could say that generating backlinks is the main goal of guest posting.
2. Connections Are Important
When you are going to do guest posting, you will get in touch with the publishers or website owners on which you will write your guest post. That’s why doing guest posting is also important because it allows you to gain connections with other blog owners or publishers.
What’s more here is that you will most likely choose a domain with higher authority and expertise with more experienced and competent owners than you. Hence, you can learn and acquire a broader understanding of your market (since you will guest post on a relevant site with yours) and other strategies that you haven’t applied to your website.
3. Reach New Audience
When you’re guest posting on a more popular blog and website, it allows you to expose yourself to a new set of audience. While the website lies in the same industry as yours, its audience might still be unaware of your existence and your work. Hence, guest posting can also be a really good way to showcase your expertise.
Reaching a new audience will directly translate to a higher visit to your site and as a result, a higher Google Index. That’s why it’s crucial to always implement commendable practices of making guest postings (we’ll talk about this later).
4. Increase In Visibility
Last but not least, a small business might have just as good of a product as the big guns. However, without any exposure, the big guns will easily overshadow the small business and they might die over time.
This is the usefulness of guest posting; It increases the visibility and awareness of your website to the big gun’s audience. It acts as a tie that connects your website to the bigger site.
Moreover, appearing on a more authoritative and highly respectable website will also leak its authorativeness and credibility to yours. This will enable your website to gain immediate trust from the new audience.
How To Optimize Guest Posting
Now that you’ve been briefed on how guest posting is still relevant and important in 2023, let’s dive into how to use it and optimize it for your website’s advantages.
1. Relevancy Is Important
Each niche has its own set of audiences with different kinds of needs. Hence, to make good use of guest posting, choosing a host that’s relevant to yours is equally important to the quality of the content itself.
For example, if you have a website about cooking, then there’s no use in guest posting on a website about automobiles.
On the other hand, if you do guest posting on a website about baking or cooking utensils, it’s safe to say that most of their audience will also have an interest in your website’s niche. This way, you can easily gain a new audience and customers who will stay and click the link to your website from your guest post.
2. Choose The Host Wisely
The value of the backlinks and audience you get from guest posting is determined by the quality of the host. Hence, as we’ve been mentioning throughout this article, you want to wisely choose a host that (mostly) has a higher credibility and authority than yours.
Not only a vital Domain Authority but look for a website that’s most likely to be targeted by the professionals in your industry as a reference. This way, when they become a host for your guest post, your site will be able to “steal” some of that credibility.
3. Be Genuine
79% of editors said that most guest posts are too promotional and unprofessional. The same reason applies to why the head of Google webspam said that guest posting is a waste of time and will only damage your website.
When you’re doing guest posting, it’s essential to still be you, to stick to your brand, and to be genuine. Writing a guest post isn’t about promoting your website, but about trying to give value to the audience of your host. Try to see from their perspective, the last thing you want to read from your favorite website is some promotional article with less to no value at all.
By being genuine and focusing on giving value to the potential audience of your website, you will attract a suitable audience for your website. This will also translate to a longer session duration for each new audience on your website.
4. Create Evergreen Content
The guest posting shall not be a one-time opportunity. Treat it as leaving your mark on a bigger website for a long period and as a way, you can keep gaining credibility and audience from there – Hence the reason for creating evergreen content.
Aim to create content that will last a very long time and still be relevant to your audience one, five, or even ten years from now. It might be a real challenge in this era where everything can change overnight, but it’s not impossible.
5. Optimize Your Site
Imagine yourself coming to a really good restaurant, with respectable waiters, and a cozy vibe. You sit at the table, ordering a set menu. The appetizers are amazing, you’re astonished, delighted, and cannot wait for the main course. However, when it arrives, it’s nothing more than a store-bought fried chicken, heated in a microwave. Utterly horrible! The same thing applies to guest posting.
There’s nothing more disappointing than clicking a link from a well-written and highly authoritative article to come to an elementary-grade website. This will only result in a very low session duration on your website and demote your website in the eyes of the Google index.
Hence, before anything else, try to optimize and revamp your website for the visitor’s experience.
6. Maintain Your Guest Post
Last but not least, guest posting isn’t a one-time job. To optimize the effect of your guest post, engaging with the audience that reacts to it is just as important if not more important.
Even though it’s not your website that they’re commenting and reacting on, it’s still your brand that the guest post is carrying around. Hence, engaging with the audience will also serve as a way for you to gain a new audience for your website through your guest post.
Furthermore, tracking the performance and the relevancy of your guest post is also important. Remember! We want our guest post to be evergreen and still relevant 10 years from now.
Conclusions
With that said, it’s safe to say that guest posting still works – even more important nowadays. Especially with more and more businesses going digital, hitchhiking on the fame, credibility, and authoritativeness of a big website is the way to rise from the dirt for new websites. And that can only be done by guest posting.
Furthermore, guest posting can also serve as a way for you to gain new connections, and knowledge, and put your name in your industry. By pitching for a guest posting, you can engage with a well-known name in your niche and gain valuable connections or even partners in the future.
However, what’s more important is for you to know how to optimize your guest posting. Because if not, guest posting can easily backfire and damage the reputation and ranking of your website.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Q1: How can I do guest posting for other websites?
To start guest posting for another website, the steps you need to take are as follows:
- Choose a worthy website for a guest post that’s relevant to yours.
- Write a well-written pitch for the owner.
- Wait for their agreement to let you guest post on their website (with some terms).
- Look for an evergreen topic/content.
- Write really good content that links to your website.
Q2: How to choose a host that’s worthy of guest posting?
Look for their Domain Authority, Google ranking, and audience engagements.
Editor
By Aleyna Akarsu– The Expert in Web Development, Marketing, and Online Business.