Benefits of Guest Posting: 6 Things You Should Know

It does not matter what business you run, you can use guest posting to take your SEO game to the next level. While there are many techniques companies use to improve their website’s SEO, guest posting is one of the most powerful ways to build backlinks and improve search engine rankings.

In fact, guest posting stands out as the preferred approach for building links, being used by 64.9% of link builders.

So, if you’re looking to build quality backlinks and establish your authority in your industry, guest posting should be a key component of your link-building strategy.

Some people claim it’s a waste of time. Others treat it like an integral part of their search engine optimization strategy.

In some cases, it can be a waste of time and resources, but if done right, it can be a powerful fuel for your business growth. Guest posting can become an actionable way to build great backlinks and improve your SEO performance.

That’s why we have put together some of the key benefits of guest posting in this article.

But first, let’s define what guest posting is, what makes it significant, and whether it can have any negative impact on your SEO efforts.

So, keep reading!

So, what is guest posting?

Guest posting refers to writing content for websites other than your own, preferably relevant to your industry.

This powerful marketing technique is related to both SEO and Content Marketing. The content marketing side is about creating high-quality written content, whereas the SEO side assumes gaining a link pointing to your website. Depending on where you publish your guest post, this link could carry either a positive or negative impact on your website.

If it is an authoritative website within your niche, earning a backlink from your guest post can have a positive impact on your website’s SEO. On the other hand, acquiring links from spammy or irrelevant websites can lead to a drop in rankings and website traffic.

So, now that you know what guest posting is, now let’s find out why guest posting matters.

Bad Guest Posting and Its Negative Outcomes

Guest posts, in most cases, do not have a bad impact on SEO.

Google encourages guest posts that inform users, educate them, or spread awareness of your cause or business.

However, poor-quality guest posts can hurt your SEO. If Google finds out that a site is involved in manipulative link-building practices, it may issue a “Google penalty” against it. This can result in lower site rankings in search results or, even worse, being excluded from search results.

Excessive guest posting can also damage your SEO efforts. This occurs when businesses try to acquire links on as many sites as possible. For instance, publishing your guest post on several sites is a practice of excessive guest posting. This leads to poor-quality content, which is bad for both the web and search engines.

Additionally, guest posting can have adverse effects on your SEO campaign when there are too many unnatural or irrelevant links pointing to a particular brand’s site.

The MyBlogGuest case study is a great example of bad guest posting, and website owners, as well as SEO professionals, should take this into account. MyBlogGuest used to be a popular guest blogging network that provided a space for guest authors to submit articles.

However, in March 2014, Google penalized both MyBlogGuest and the websites associated with it. More specifically, Google deindexed thousands of websites involved in the guest blogging scheme. In other words, those websites could no longer appear in Google’s search results.

Google penalized MyBlogGuest, as it was engaged in manipulative and spammy guest blogging practices. Instead of creating genuine content and giving value to readers, guest bloggers were using the platform mainly to obtain backlinks from different websites without providing substantial value in return.

It is a clear message from Google that one should not do guest blogging only for the purpose of acquiring backlinks. Apart from gaining backlinks, high-quality content and genuine audience engagement should also be a priority for SEO professionals.

6 Benefits of Guest Posting for SEO

Before you get started with guest posting and launch your link building outreach campaign for offering guest posting on a particular website, it is essential to understand whether it’s an investment that’s right for you.

So, grab these six benefits of guest posting.

Gaining Quality Backlinks

One of the benefits of guest posting is the opportunity to earn quality backlinks for your website. Backlinks are links on a website page that direct to another website. Usually, this is done to allow readers to navigate to useful resources and learn about a particular topic on a deeper level.

But what is the importance of backlinks, you may ask?

Backlinks are crucial if you want to build a reputable website, as Google considers backlinks as one of the indicators of a site’s credibility. Therefore, it is highly important to monitor backlinks to make sure that each link pointing to your site is of high quality and from a credible source.

If you monitor backlinks and it turns out that you have outbound links from suspicious websites, Google might deem the incoming links to be toxic. A toxic backlink can negatively impact your website. More specifically, it can affect the website’s domain rating, traffic, and rankings in SERPs.

Below, we have put together some recommendations you should follow when developing a guest posting backlink strategy to avoid the above-mentioned negative consequences:

• Earn backlinks from websites with high domain ratings. 
• Learn the guest posting requirements of the targeted website.
• Avoid buying backlinks.
• Ensure that your guest posting backlink strategy does not violate Google’s Webmaster Guidelines.
• Regularly monitor incoming links to make sure that information is up-to-date and relevant for users. 

Increased Domain Rating

Domain rating is an essential metric that evaluates your site’s backlink profile strength on a 100-point scale. In fact, 42.6% of link builders rely on website DR when measuring link-building effectiveness. Improving your website DR can take a lot of time, but there are several ways to achieve this, and guest posting is one of them.

Let’s learn how.

Guest posting can improve your site’s domain rating by gaining quality backlinks. When you publish a guest post on another website, you can add a link back to your own website in the blog as long as it is relevant to the topic.

Yes, you read it right! The backlinks should be placed in relevant and contextually appropriate parts of the article. Google can detect any forced link insertions that do not sound natural and give any value to your readers.

The more quality backlinks you earn via guest posting on reputable websites, the stronger your website’s link profile will be. A strong backlink profile sends positive signals to search engines about your site’s trustworthiness and expertise in a certain niche.

In other words, search engines will identify your website as a credible source of information. This will lead to higher rankings and improved domain ratings.

Keep in mind that website relevance also matters. If you are a SaaS business offering project management solutions, gaining a backlink through guest posting on a pet grooming service website won’t have a positive impact on your overall SEO campaign. Instead, you should opt for websites that are relevant to your niche and have high domain ratings to maximize the benefits of guest posting.

Boosted Referral Traffic is Also Among the Benefits of Guest Posting

Referral traffic refers to users who land on your website from other domains without necessarily searching for you on Google. Usually, this happens when users follow a link on another site’s article, YouTube video, or social media.

One of the key benefits of guest posting is that it allows you to increase your referral traffic from specific audiences. For instance, if you own a business and release a new product, you can engage in guest posting to promote it on other websites where your product might be useful and interesting for their customer base.

Opportunity to Reach Broader Audiences

Publishing a guest post on other websites lets you connect with broader audiences other than your target audience. However, not every guest post will immediately boost your domain rating or website traffic, but the content you create for other websites can be beneficial in terms of awareness and recognition as well.

For instance, if you are a business coach, you could write a guest blog post for a business website, providing tips on how to set business goals or how to grow your startup. If you are not going to share the same run-of-the-mill tips and provide insightful advice, readers will try to find you on social media or visit your website to learn more about you.

Networking Opportunities

When talking about the benefits of guest posting, it is important to mention the networking opportunities you can gain. The more you write for other brands and share your knowledge and expertise with them, the more digital footprint you will have. As a result, you can be introduced to a comprehensive network of professionals and build mutually beneficial relationships.

Through guest post outreach and collaboration, link builders can connect with other link builders or website owners and collaborate. All they need is to provide quality content to win the trust and respect of website owners. This process includes finding the right focus keywords, working on meta tags, following the website’s guidelines, etc.

Link builders can also access communities of content creators and website owners who are also involved in link-building activities. These communities can take different forms, such as Slack channels.

Here at SayNine, our link-building specialists use different Slack channels when seeking guest posting opportunities. The platform enables them to connect with website owners from various niches, and engage in discussions, and maximize their guest post outreach efforts.

Last but not least, building strong relationships through guest posting can lead to referrals and recommendations from website owners. If you manage to publish quality content on other websites, the website owners will refer you to other website owners in their network who are seeking similar link-building collaborations. These referrals can open up new opportunities and expand the link builder’s network of potential collaborators.

Diverse Backlink Profile

A diverse backlink profile is essential if you want to be on the first pages of Google and keep your website’s domain rating high. Guest posting is one of the best ways to diversify your link profile by gaining backlinks from various authoritative domains.

But what makes having a diverse backlink profile so important?

Google and other search engines pay attention to the quality and diversity of backlinks when assessing websites. When you have a diverse backlink profile, you make it clear to search engines that your site is credible and valued by various reputable sources within your niche.

Key Takeaways

It’s high time to simplify the main takeaways:

Here’s what we have learned.

• Guest posting is an SEO tactic that involves writing content for other sites, preferably in your industry.
• Guest posting offers benefits like a diverse backlink profile, increased domain ratings and referral traffic, and networking opportunities.
• Excessive guest posting and writing poor content can lead to Google penalties and decreased rankings.
• You can maximize guest posting benefits by getting links from good sites, creating relevant content, and avoiding spammy link-building tactics.

Thanks for reading! Good luck!

FAQ about the benefits of guest posting