Wherever you’re at on your entrepreneurial journey, guest posting is one of the most effective ways to build your business brand.
Simply put, you reach out to bloggers and websites that might be interested in your opinions. You then prepare a piece of content that delivers real value to their audience. As a thank you for your time, the blogger will link back to your website.
Thus, you score a quality backlink and gain some additional traffic, which may convert into leads.
But how can guest posting improve your business brand? Below, we’ve rounded up some of the most obvious benefits. We also give you some food for thought for your own strategy…
Guest posting helps you climb the ranks
Perhaps the most obvious benefit to guest posting is climbing the ranks on search engines such as Google. SEOs and online public relations firms use guest posts as a way to signal to search engines that they’re worth ranking. If your website has thousands of other websites linking back to it, and your competitor has no backlinks, you’re naturally Google’s preferred choice. That’s because Google’s crawlers will see that your website is relevant to your niche and that other people think it’s authoritative and high-quality enough to give a link back to it.
Most guest posting opportunities allow you to add one or two links back to your website. As a minimum, we recommend a branded backlink. That’s your company name. But if you can, you should think about relevant keyword backlinks, too. For example, you could link back to “solicitors in Seattle” in your guest post – but only if it’s relevant. Then, when you guest post on dozens of sites and use the same link and keyword combination, you’ll rank. In time, when people search for solicitors in Seattle, they’ll see your website in the results pages.
That’s why it’s so important to be strategic when guest posting. Weigh up the value of each website and choose the most relevant keyword when writing your post. Get it right, and you will quickly build your business brand on search engine results pages (SERPs) – for free!
The more content, the more authoritative your business brand
When you Google your business, how many results do you see? Although search engines often show competitors and relevant news articles, the chances are that you don’t have a million results.
Guest posting builds your business brand by creating quality content that references your website and company. When people search for your business, they’ll see that you’re active on authoritative websites like Forbes and associate your brand with them.
Guest posting is a great way to take ownership of the SERPs. If you create tonnes of guest posts, you’ll eventually outrank other websites that rank for your company name. That might be one of your competitors or a review site that features a negative review you can’t remove. It’s great to have that power to control what people see when they search for your company.
Put your business brand in front of potential clients
Guest posting allows you to put yourself in front of potential clients. Say you sell business coaching, and get a guest posting spot on Entrepreneur. You immediately gain access to their 10,000,000 readers and social media followers.
Though the vast majority won’t see or read your article, a significant proportion of them will – and some will convert into customers.
The key is not to sell when guest posting. In fact, you should do the opposite. Focus on the ways you can add genuine value to your readers’ lives – that might be giving them a free resource to grow their own businesses. If they find your content useful, they’ll remember you, check out your website for more, and perhaps get in touch. The purpose is to establish yourself as a thought leader and authority in your industry. Sales will then follow.
Learn lessons from readers on your services
Another reason to consider guest posting is to gain access to audience insights.
When you become a regular contributor to a popular website, you’ll build a loyal following. These users will comment on your posts and share them on social media. They’ll add their own thoughts and commentary, which may challenge your thinking or change your outlook on a topic.
Don’t see this as a bad thing: being taken outside of your comfort zone will allow you to expand your business brand. You might identify new opportunities for growth or revenue streams and avenues based on a comment or critique.
Be open-minded and allow debate to take place – heck, you should be encouraging debates to drive engagements and traction.
Always pose questions, add features like polls, and make readers part of the conversation.
Nail social media through guest posting
Guest posting can also generate social media shares for your business. This will, over time, extend your online reach and aid in your business branding. The more times your content is shared by others, the more chances you have of appearing on people’s newsfeeds.
Some of those people may even turn out to be future customers if they like the content you’ve written.
If you’re guest posting on a site with lots of social activity, shares on Twitter and LinkedIn will come organically. If you’re not, add shareable content into your guest post. Infographics, for example, are shared up to three times more than any other type of content on social media.
Another benefit to guest posting is your own social media channels. Nail guest posting and you’ll gain new followers. When you publish content on a popular website, you’re effectively getting them to vouch for you. Make sure you add an author box and link back to your social channels (either your company channels on your personal brand) to maximize engagement.
Wrapping up
At Biz Online Marketing, we specialize in guest posting to help both startups and established organizations build their business brand.
To see how we could help you, get in touch with our team to arrange a free virtual consultation. In the meantime, be sure to press follow on our LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram pages – we share useful advice on guest posting for entrepreneurs and business owners looking to further their business brands.