Guest posting is a tried and tested method of getting clicks to your website. The phrase ‘guest posting’ essentially means writing and publishing a one-off (or series of) article(s) on someone else’s blog, which can be useful for several reasons. First off, it can help build links on your site. This is great for SEO (Search Engine Optimisation), which is the name of the game when it comes to producing blogs in the first place. It can also lend your site an air of authority and authenticity – depending on who’s actually writing the guest post – and help legitimise your online business or site in the eyes of your readers. For the guest bloggers, it’s a chance to expand their brand while boosting their own site and audience.
However, the question remains: are guest posts still worth the effort in 2019? One of the reasons they may not be is the amount of backlinks they entail. Backlinks are incoming links to a website, which link to any other page than the one they’re on. Guest bloggers will almost always link back to their own blogs within the main content of the piece they’re producing, as well as any other relevant links. Google have recently started to punish copious amounts backlinks within their algorithm, and although the right link can catapult you up the SEO charts, too many of them can stymie your growth.
Your company’s blog is its greatest SEO tool, so in 2019 should you still be accepting guest posts?
Guest blogging is also a long and tedious process for the bloggers themselves. It can take a seriously long time to find the relevant sites to apply to and you’re usually writing on spec. You might spend a lot of time specifically tailoring a post towards a specific site, have to write it out, submit it, and still not know whether it’s actually going to be accepted. If it gets a prime position on the blog you’re aiming for, the rewards can be great; if not, it can often feel like a depressing waste of time.
It’s hard to see exactly how guest posting will fare over the next few years. Google has been vocal about wanting to crack down on this black hat tool, yet it still remains a viable strategy for many writers and websites. Whichever way guest posting goes, the better option for bloggers will always be creating their very own quality blog, which can then be organically shared by its visitors. This way, you’re not relying on others to validate your work. A regular, engaging and informative blog is key, as is sharing and tagging across the usual social media outlets and dispatching regular newsletters.
Maintaining a top-quality blog is hard work, but ultimately it’s still one of the greatest SEO tools available. Ironically, if your blog is of a high quality, regular and engaging, you’ll find it much easier to take advantage of guest posting opportunities. This will grow your audience on two fronts, and you can enjoy the best of both worlds.
