Successful SEO Copywriting Techniques For Guest Posts On Popular Blogs

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Want to know the one word that makes humans powerful? It’s – networking.

Guest blogging is as close as it comes to networking online for copywriters and digital marketers and at ClickDo Ltd. we use it constantly to grow our blogs and websites and rank them higher on search engines.

However, it’s not easy to get your guest content published on reputed platforms and often people write poor copy, stick a backlink in and think that’s off-page SEO done and dusted to boost their domain authority and search engine ranks.

But it’s not just about the link building here, it’s also about being strategic with your guest content and applying proven SEO copywriting techniques effectively.

What is the Power of Guest Blogging?

If you manage to land a guest post on a high-profile website or even established magazine or newspaper, it can truly give your author profile and website a massive boost on search engines. See some examples of guest posts I have curated that increased our ranks here:

Edu Gorilla Magazine: Top 7 Ways to be in control of your kids online safety

Careers Help Magazine: Why Choose a Career Path with Digital Skills?

Entrepreneur.com Magazine: 5 Strategies to Build an Online Portfolio for Business Performance Success

Many of these guest posts along with infographic submissions have enabled me to rank this blog, manuelawillbold.com as well as other websites and blogs, like the UK Education Blog, in top positions on search engines like Google (snapshot was taken 04/10/20):

But guest posts and press releases or success stories have other benefits too apart from influencing a website’s SEO.

They can also drive direct traffic to your website you have interlinked or mentioned in your post, which enables you to reach a wider readership you may not get exposed to otherwise. See how on the day that the Digital Entrepreneurship Story I wrote and submitted to Home Business Magazine, which has over 100k monthly traffic worldwide, drove double the amount of visitors and tripled my pageviews I normally get to my blog (screenshot from my SeekaHost App Hosting Control Panel):

You can clearly see the impact in this example.

Another aspect I want to mention is that through guest blogging you increase the chances of other bloggers or writers referencing you as well as they may come across your information more frequently or from sources they refer to more often. My article about Geography Apps was mentioned in a list post on this website for example, without me asking for it:https://bestappsfinder.com/best-geography-app.

So, if you create high-value content that is SEO optimised and share it across the web, you will certainly see the rewards as people find it on search engines and reference it.

How to go about successful Guest Blogging & SEO Copywriting?

How do I get my guest posts published? Read on and you’ll find out.

There are two types of guest bloggers:

1. those who aimlessly use the same pitch for every blog offering guest posts, and
2. those who send out a personalized pitch depending on the blog.

Don’t be the former.

Doing your research first is key. As you can see in my examples above, I check out relevant guest posting sites first via SEO analytics tools to find out their domain authority (DA), domain rating (DR) and their monthly traffic worldwide or country-specifically, depending on what my goal is for the guest post.

To see an impact, I would recommend going for sites with a DA of at least 20+, ideally between 30-60, where you may get free publications. For sites with higher DA’s you will likely have to pay a publication fee, but it can be a worthy investment, if you get the content, the link placements and the media materials right.

Once you get the approval for your email guest post pitch (tip: make it short and sweet and relevant for the guest posting site’s audience), you should follow their editorial guidelines and craft your article carefully. Check out this ClickDo guide on all the secrets for a successful outreach campaign:

Your diligence while writing a guest post for a blog will ensure a flow of opportunities from similar high traffic sites. This, in turn, will increase the viewership on your website but only if you follow these SEO copywriting techniques compiled to put you in the running with the rest of the successful bloggers.

If you consider these, you should be able to get your guest posts published with the ultimate SEO advantages.

1. Understand the Blog’s Unique Voice

You would have obviously found blogs related to your niche, but have you noticed the unique voice of different blogs? Understanding this is your best bet for creating high-quality content. That’s how you make the editorial team of the blog like you.

Take some time to read through the recent blogs posted on the website and pay attention to the tone. Check if it is friendly and creative or straightforward and to the point.

Once you’ve understood the voice of the blog, begin writing, and you’ll have multiplied your prospects of being published. Websites with heavy traffic also get a number of guest posts and their filtering process is primarily based on what’s best for their blog.

Give them what they resonate with and try to find the person in charge and email them directly with a concise pitch that is relevant for them.

2. Submission Guidelines are your Cheat Sheet

If you’ve been blogging for a while, you’d know that blogs that accept guest posts have a set of submission guidelines and reading through it will make all the difference.

Check out HubSpot’s submission guidelines or the London Business News guidelines to understand the expectations the editorial team has from guest bloggers. The guidelines will give you an idea of the prerequisites and standards for guest posting on that particular blog.

Ensure your writing reflects every guideline listed by the blog and when placing your backlinks, be considerate and strategic according to your blogging link building strategy. Most publications ask to avoid so called “link stuffing” and will only allow maybe 2-3 links, which should be relevant for what you cover. You should also research your anchor text (the text you use to add your hyperlink), which should contain relevant keywords you want to rank the page or article you interlink with for. Otherwise you are wasting this opportunity especially with regards to SEO.

See one example here from the Career Path article mentioned earlier:

The link circled in green is a reference link so readers can check the study mentioned, the highlighted link in yellow is a relevant ClickDo article with a similar title and the link circled in red is a backlink to this page on the UK Education Blog that I want to rank higher on search engines: https://education.clickdo.co.uk/work-online-in-education/. The backlinks you add need to provide value and should provide additional information.

3. Write for the Blog’s Readership

This is one of the most important points, so pay close attention.

The blog you hope to guest post for will have a specific audience and catering to them must be your priority. Most guest post guidelines insist you must write for your readers first but if your writing fails to intrigue the main readership then your effort will circle down the drain.

It is wise to remember that a guest post is first read by the blog’s viewers, so mould your writing to appeal not just to your readers but the blog’s as well. Bear in mind that they do not know you nor your expertise and showcase this in your guest article in a way that will be of interest to them.

If you get them hooked, they are more likely to check out your website and follow you on social media for example.

4. A List Blog gets the most Attention

Readers are only after quick information that they can skim through without delving too much into the details. This is why list posts are a real money maker in the blogging industry. If you need a better idea of how list posts work, give Listverse a read.

Your secret to SEO copywriting success is in the form of short sentences with valid information in bullet points, using relevant keywords repeatedly, but in different ways. This is what makes most readers stick around until the end of the blog. If you’ve paid attention to the first three techniques, then curating a list post will not only be easy but also help you stand out from the rest.

At ClickDo we also use list posts successfully on the blogs I manage or as guest post submissions as you can see here:

Such posts are more likely to achieve higher ranks on search engines as they cover many keywords in a very structured manner. They will also attract more enquiries to have a mention added in them from businesses or agencies. Because if the post is like a review and ranks well in SERPs that will benefit them, they may offer you a guest post or mention on their site in return.

5. Quality and Quantity go hand in hand

You may have noticed websites stressing on the need for quantity when it comes to guest posting but the quality is what will ensure their shelf life.

Guest posting is known to be the best way of gaining viewers and your motto should be quality with quantity. To begin with quality, you must strike a balance between what you want to talk about and what your viewers want to learn.

Once you manage to produce purely relevant content that gets a wide viewership you can move on to quantity. On average you should be able to put out a minimum of 2 to 3 posts every week with a word count of at least 800+. Writing strong pieces of content on a regular basis will help you stay on top of your game.

The more you write, the more you will be read but only if your content maintains a high standard.

6. Use an Article Closing Strategy

The main agenda towards guest posting is to gain referral traffic and many rely on their bios for that which is a huge mistake. A marketing strategist Gregory Ciotti recognized ‘byline blindness’ as a common issue among readers of popular blogs.

The Internet is filled with guest posts which have led to readers overlooking who has written the blog. Even you must have read a dozen blogs without even noticing the name of the author.

The main danger here is that you might not get any traffic your way, making the guest post worthless. Ciotti formulated a 3-step article closing strategy to overcome this problem.

He advises three elements that you should include in your guest post namely:

• closing subheadings

• questioning the readers, and

• using a call to action.

Your first step is closing subheadings, which means you need to make your conclusion obvious. This can be done by using phrases like ‘Now it’s your turn’ or ‘The ball is in your court’. The next thing is to interact with your readers and ask them questions related to your post. Your final step is to place a CTA (call of action) to ensure your readers make their way to your site.

All you have to do is keep at it, the more content you send out, the more views will come your way. If you’re a blogger in the education niche, then you can reach out to some selected education blogs accepting guest posts you can find here:

If you’re a student blogger or finance/frugal lifestyle blogger, check these blogs out for possible guest blogging gigs:

I want to help bloggers with their guest blogging and am in the process of building blogger communities where guest posts with valuable blogging tips or success stories can be shared:

The Bloggers Exchange Blog

Blogger Tipps und Tricks Blog

You can talk to me about guest blogging and online directory websites for setting up additional blogger profiles with links – I am more than happy to help any blogger out there and offer guest posting opportunities and advice.