Does Guest Posting For Backlinks Really Work?

What Is Guest Posting?

Guest blogging is an essential component of search engine optimization (SEO). It is a one-of-a-kind procedure in which a blogger publishes a high-quality blog on another blogging site.

Guest blog posting services can help business owners establish a strong online presence by driving traffic to a specific website.

Guest blogging can be viewed as an excellent strategy for generating high-quality backlinks. Many business owners wonder, “Does guest posting work for backlinks?”

That is correct. You must post authentic and high-quality content to accomplish this.

However, if you expect immediate results, you have better options. Content marketing has long-term benefits, but it takes time to see results, and you must wait patiently for the results.

Why Is Guest Posting Effective?

Guest posting is an excellent way to increase the number of links to your website. You can write articles for other websites and include links to your own.

Backlinks are beneficial to your website in a variety of ways. There are two significant advantages to building backlinks: one that is obvious and one that is hidden from view.

The first is the simple fact that the more people who see a link to your website, the more likely they are to click on it. And, of course, you always want more people to visit your website.

The unspoken benefit of having many high-quality backlinks pointing to your site is that they are a significant ranking factor. The more of these you have, the closer you will be to ranking first in search results for your keywords.

In-content links from one blog post to another are the most effective backlinks. And guest posts make it relatively easy to get those.

Another reason why guest posting is still popular is that most websites accept guest contributions, even if they don’t have a “Write For Us” page.

So, even if you’re not in a highly competitive niche, you should be able to find guest posting opportunities easily.

Debunking Guest Posting Myths

In 2022, there are two major misconceptions about guest blogging. The first is, of course, that it no longer works. This entire article is dedicated to debunking that, so I won’t go into detail in this section.

Guest posting is only beneficial for SEO.

We can certainly see where this myth is coming from. Because most guest posts are used solely to obtain backlinks, their usefulness in other ways has been somewhat overshadowed.

On the other hand, guest posts can serve an even more important and strategic purpose: they can help you establish a productive relationship with bloggers or industry experts.

It can be a great first point of contact, and after publishing your fantastic article on their site, they will remember your name and the fact that you do fantastic work.

Following a small-scale collaboration like this, it will be easier for you to get on their radar and collaborate on a larger project.

Guest posting requires an already-established audience.

There’s a common misconception that if your name isn’t already well-known on the Internet and your site receives little to no traffic, you can’t run a guest posting campaign.

This is not true; regardless of the website, anyone can write a guest post. Even if they are not working for anyone, they only do it for fun!

Sure, having a portfolio of previous work to show your prospects is beneficial, but if your email pitch is strong enough, they will not even ask for it.

Right now, it is critical to emphasize that while guest posting is one of the best ways to obtain backlinks, it has a significant disadvantage.

Disadvantage Of Guest Posting

Most websites only allow you to add one or two links to your own website. Frequently, you can only link back to your own resource from the author bio at the bottom of the post.

Even if you could add as many links as you wanted to your site, they would be useless because having multiple backlinks from the same page is less valuable than having multiple pages linking back to you.

Of course, writing entire articles for a single link is extremely time-consuming.

However, there is a simple workaround for this limitation. You can include links from your link-building partners in your posts. In exchange, they will either reciprocate or link to you from one of their sites.

So, if you’re already doing link-building through other means, it’s worth establishing long-term collaborations like this with people you’ve previously worked with.

If you still need to get a network of partners with whom you can regularly collaborate, the various link-building communities on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Slack are good places to start.

Some websites do not have a limit on the number of links you can include in your guest posts as long as they are relevant and do not point to the same website. In theory, you could get ten or more backlinks from a single guest post.

Higher-authority websites usually have a limit, but writing a short post in exchange for 3-5 high-quality backlinks is usually worth the time.

How to Get Guest Posting Opportunities

There are three main ways to obtain guest post placements.

Look for websites that include a “Write For Us” page.

These appear to be the low-hanging fruit. Because they openly advertise that they accept guest posts, it may appear that they are practically begging for your content.

It is straightforward to find these pages. You can use the “intitle:” search operator to specify the keywords and phrases that must appear in the titles of the returned pages.

This keyword will, of course, be “write for us.” Then, include your niche’s keyword in the query, and you should have a good list of prospects in front of you.

Choose your favorite websites and pitch them.

What? Simply choose whoever you want and message them. Is this advice taken seriously?

Yes. There are literally no reasons for your prospects to reject your pitches if your pitch is good and you can deliver high-quality content unless their internal content policy prohibits guest posts.

Do No Guest Post Outreach At All

There’s no need to run separate outreach campaigns for securing guest post placements if you’re already doing link-building through other methods.

You can simply pitch your guest posts to people with whom you have successfully built links using the content gap method I described above. Many people would welcome guest contributions, so you should have no trouble securing a guest post.

Tips On How to Ethically Approach Guest Blogging?

When creating content for other websites, keep in mind that you are doing so for more than just a link. You want to educate and add value to your intended audience.

That should be the main goal of guest blogging. A link back to your site and any clicks from the blog should be secondary.

Using this strategy will help you stay within the ethical practice and Google’s guidelines. Why would you want to contribute a high-quality guest blog to a bad site without traffic?

Here are some pointers to help you stay on track with guest blogging.

1. Only write for trustworthy and relevant websites.

On the surface, look for sites that are simple to use and have a lot of well-written content. Before submitting a guest post, consider the following factors: traffic, links, and visibility.

In addition to the foregoing, ensure that the sites for which you write are about a similar topic or industry to yours. This ensures relevance and ensures that your content reaches the right audience.

2. Only write for sites that curate content.

This could be included in the previous point, but it is significant enough to warrant its own. Make sure that humans moderate guest blog content everywhere, such as when adding listings to online directories.

If websites allow you to upload content without asking any questions, that’s a big red flag.

Only write for websites where you know the content is thoroughly reviewed before it is published to ensure its quality. Look for clearly displayed contact information as well, as this indicates that the company is legitimate.

3. Avoid Using Anchor Text

Avoid using exact-match keywords as your anchor text for all guest post links. While anchor text remains a direct ranking factor, it is critical to maintaining a natural and varied anchor text profile from external links.

4. Keep Your Audience in Mind When Keyword Stuffing

Write for humans, not search engine spiders! Set out to provide readers with truly useful information. This also means that Google will not perceive your content as unnatural or explicitly written to circumvent their guidelines.

Final Thoughts

Guest posting is far from extinct. And this article, which is also a guest post, is proof of that!

If you want to start guest posting for the purpose of building backlinks or relationships with other bloggers, now is as good a time as any – and don’t let anyone discourage you.