Guest blogging is one of the best ways to build your personal brand and create value for your website. It does, however, have risks.
How can you maximize the benefit of guest blogging without falling prey to its dangers? Here is a 20-point checklist. Before sending your next blog post to the blog editor, run through this list to ensure that your article is effective, safe, and as powerful as possible.
- Eliminate any grammatical errors. Chances are, an editor will give your article a once-over, but don’t bank on it. Perform your own thorough proofreading.
- Eliminate any factual errors. You don’t want to look stupid. Check your facts, verify your data, and ensure that your arguments are watertight. Blog commenters can be cruel, cold, and analytical. If you don’t check your facts, they will check them for you and call you out on any errors.
- Eliminate any harmful or insensitive language or style. The last thing you want to do is spark an outrage by being rude. I encourage you to write freely and powerfully, but don’t be unkind, condescending or impolite. Rude articles will damage your reputation.
- Don’t worry about keywords. Adding “keywords” to a blog post is an outmoded SEO tactic. Don’t concern yourself with keyword density ratio or the right mix of semantic keywords. In today’s SEO climate, keywords will take care of themselves. The only danger surrounding keywords is adding too many.
- Make sure that you have permission to use all images. Before adding images, I suggest checking with the editors regarding the site’s image policy. Some blogs prohibit the use of any images; some blogs use images from certain providers. Find out what the policy is before you add images.
- Make sure that the tone of the article is not self-promotional. Guest blogging is not grandstanding. Your article should be for the benefit of the readers, not to elicit the gaze of admirers.
- Make sure that the article’s subject matches the needs and interests of the blog readers. Different blogs have different audiences. Take some time to find out about the blog. Pay special attention to which articles have been most popular (use Buzzsumo), and the knowledge level of the audience. Keep in mind that B2B blogs and B2C blogs have vastly different styles, lengths, tone, and approach.
- Create a headline that attracts the attention of the specific readers. The only way your article will be successful is if it engages with the blog’s readership. Find out what the blog’s most popular and engaging articles are, and imitate their headline style.
- Make sure that the article is unique, and that none of it has been published anywhere else. Duplicate content will hurt your reputation and the quality of the site.
- Link to your website only if necessary. This is an important point. Guest articles are not for backlinks. Period. The major reason for the penalization of guest blog networks was illicit link building. Such practices violate Google’s policies, as well as the ethical standards of the web. If a link to your website is appropriate or necessary, then by all means, drop in a link. However, use with caution and only do so sparingly.
- Link to your website once. Do not sprinkle the article with links to your website. The problem is two fold. First, doing so smacks of unsavory self-promotion. Second, it raises the risk that your article will be perceived as unadorned link building. A single link is all you should attempt.
- Link to other websites. If you link to your website, you should link to other websites as necessary. Overall, linking is a good practice, as long as it is useful for the reader.
- Do not use keyword-rich anchor text. When creating links, use branded terms or sentence portions.
- Do not promote your product or company. Readers don’t want to hear about your product or service unless it is absolutely relevant to the article. If your article turns into an advertisement or infomercial, readers will tune out.
- Make sure that the guest article is written for a high-quality site. You should carefully vet each guest blogging opportunity. A guest blog on a disgraced or penalized blog will do more harm than good.
- Make sure that the guest article is written for a site that is within your niche. The best place to guest blog is a site that is focused and authoritative. It’s easy to snag a contributor spot on a generic blog — one that has hundreds of articles on dozens of disparate topics. It’s harder but far better to gain a guest post for a blog that is selective and highly-regarded.
- Make sure to increase the rate of your guest blogging slowly and carefully. An article from Moz explains that “mass guest posting is dangerous because it creates an unnatural looking link quality graph.” What this statement means is that too much guest blogging (with links back to your website) makes your website look concerning to Google. The sudden velocity of high quality links can cause your site to be penalized.
- Customize your author profile for the publication. Most likely, your guest article will be accompanied by a brief blurb “about the author.” This is a valuable spot to connect with the readers and allow them to follow up with you if desired. For this reason, create a unique sentence or two that will be most suitable for the specific blog and its audience.
- Add social links to your author profile. Linking out to your social networks allows readers to get in touch with you or to find out more about you. Instead of being self-serving, this is a courteous and expected thing to do, as long as the blog allows it.
- Respond to any comments. Finally, follow up on your article. In addition to promoting it on your social network, you should personally respond to any comments.
Guest blogging has come a long way since its early days. In spite of its potential risks, it still maintains huge advantages. I encourage the careful and strategic use of guest blogging, making sure to follow these twenty points.
