Guest posting? Backlinks? You may have heard these words thrown around by digital marketing experts, and you’re left wondering how guest posting can build SEO backlinks. Today we’ll explain the two terms, why you need them, and how to get them. While it’s not an easy task, it can significantly boost your website traffic and rankings when done correctly.

What Is a Backlink?

One way Google ranks your website is by its popularity, indicated by the number of other websites linking to your page. It’s the principle of Google’s algorithm PageRank, which ranks web pages in search results by measuring their importance. The more quality links going to your website, the more you’re considered important in the eyes of the PageRank algorithm.

Before you go out trying to get backlinks from every website you can find, know that not all backlinks are the same. You want to get links from highly reputable websites; “unimportant” websites can hurt your ranking. Google’s website importance is measured by your Domain Authority (DA), which is a number from 0-100, with a score of over 60 being considered an excellent rating. The more quality backlinks you get, the higher your Domain Authority. Websites with a high DA linking to one of your pages will improve your website’s authority rankings. Essentially the DA gets passed around from site to site. Websites that naturally have a lot of authority include university (.edu), government (.gov), and military (.mil) domains. Say you post an educational blog, and ten universities link the blog on their website (ex. citing your blog as a source or example), then Google sees you as an expert on the subject.

While we all want backlinks from high-ranking websites, it’s not as simple as sending an email saying, “Hey, I noticed you have high Domain Authority. Can you please link to my blog?” While the correct process does involve emailing, it also involved a little more work.

**Note: An easy way to check a website’s Domain Authority is with the Moz toolbar on Chrome

How To Get Backlinks

As you may have guessed by the title of this blog, a great way to get quality backlinks is by guest posting! The process works by offering to write a blog or article for another website that you link back to your website. You can either link your website in the actual post or include a link in the “about the author” section at the bottom of the page (if they have it). Voilà! You get your backlink, and they get valuable content to put on their website. It’s a win-win situation!

Since this process needs to be mutually beneficial, there are two things you need to keep in mind:

  1. The blog you write can’t be a low-effort fluff piece you throw together. It needs to be a well-thought-out SEO keyword-optimized piece of content. You want to use the same standard that you would for your own website. Follow SEO best practices and keyword research. If your guest post does well in the search rankings, both you and the host website will benefit from it!
  2. You want to make sure the website is a high-ranking site itself, and it’s relevant to your business or industry. If they have low domain authority or are unrelated and send over unqualified traffic, it may hurt your rankings.

Finding The Right Website

Many small business owners and marketers are going around offering guest posts, so how can you stand out from the crowd? First, you want to make sure the other website is someone who would be a good fit. On top of being in your industry and ranking high itself, you should check to make sure they put out a lot of content, preferably an active blog. Next is to check if they have done guest posts in the past.

An example would be for a local restaurant to post an article about the best restaurants in the area (possible listing themselves as one of the options) for a popular food blog in their city.

The Pitch

If you have experience writing SEO-optimized content and are knowledgeable in your field, the pitch may actually be the most challenging part! Once you’ve created a valuable article or blog, and have a website in mind, check to see if they have guest post instructions. Some places may have a section titled “Submission Guidelines,” “Guest Posting Policy,” “Write For Us,” or something of that nature. If they have a page like that, read it and clearly follow their instructions. If their instructions conflict with any advice given in this blog, ignore our advice and follow what their website wants you to do!

For websites without guest post pages, it’s time to craft your pitch. Remember you’re the guest, so be respectful of the website editor, who likely gets tons of guest post emails every week. Thoroughly research the website, getting to know their business, audience, and content. As we mentioned earlier, don’t propose a fluff piece. For example, if you’re pitching to a home remodeling company, don’t write a blog titled “The 10 Benefits of Remodeling Your Bathroom” because it’s a generic piece that they’ve likely written about already. Ideally, you’ll be able to provide them with some critical information that they were unaware of.

Once you found a website, researched it thoroughly, and believe they’ll be interested in your post, begin writing your email. It should be around two paragraphs long, outlining your idea. Make sure to specify word count, whether you’re providing media (images or video), links (including to your own site), and a brief bio if they have an “About the Author” section. Again, if they have a guest post section on their website, follow those instructions instead. Once you send the email, you can wait about two weeks and politely follow up if they haven’t responded. Avoid nagging them, and if they don’t reply to your follow-up or turn you down, move on to the next site.

Fotex Labs Can Help

If you’re pitching a guest post, make sure the site editor doesn’t have to do any work! Your article needs to be complete, SEO optimized, error-free, and accompanied by high-quality images. Plus, if it performs well, you can promote it on your social channels and possibly become a recurring guest on their website!

We hope you enjoyed our blog about how guest posting can build SEO backlinks. It can be a tricky and confusing topic, which is why our team is always here to help! Whether you need us to do the outreach, write the blog, or do the entire process for you, we’re more than happy to assist. If you’d like to learn more about digital marketing or get in touch, our phone number is (858) 228-7697, or you can fill out the form on our website.