In 2020, building authority is one of the best ways to rank in Google. Currently, the search giant has an entire quality assessment tool that looks into this expect of search experience known as the E-A-T (expertise, authority, and trustworthiness).
Even the most recent Google core update was concerned about E-A-T. An easy way to boost your E-A-T worthiness is to run a fully optimised blog that has content which is in-depth and informative. This is how you ultimately show your readers your expertise, established trustworthiness and build authority.
Problem is not everyone has the time to keep a blog running and this time crunch takes at all on the quality of the blog. This is where guest blogging comes into play.
With guest blogging, you can achieve many of the same goals that are associated with traditional blogging but in less time and more effectively. Therefore, Contentsia is here with some guest blogging tips that will keep you in good books with Google in 2020 and will benefit your rankings too.
Guest Blog with A Purpose
Most people do guest blogging because they come across a blog that they believe is a good fit but they seldom have a rhyme or reason behind their guest posting effort. You should not do this mistake.
To become a success with guest blogging, you need to know why do you want to guest blog. Your efforts must be focused on these three possible purposes:
- Becoming an Authority: Remember Google’s E-A-T is about establishing an authority so it must be one of the reasons why you are doing a guest post. This purpose helps you stand out from the competitors.
- Getting traffic back to your site: As long as you are offering something useful to another blogger’s audience, they will be willing to include a link to your site that will direct traffic to it.
- Generating backlinks to your site: If you are careful with your selection of blogs and submit well-prepared posts, then you will receive quality and relevant backlinks to your site. This again suggests authority.
Exploiting Guest Blogging Opportunities in Google
Once you know why do you want to be a guest blogger, the next challenge is to find the right blogging opportunities. Starting with your niche or industry is better as you will be more aware of the things than other people in the industry.
An efficient way to find out guest posting opportunities specific to your niche is to use Google search. A simple search with your industry or niche + guest blog – or “submit guest posts” or “accepting guest blog posts”, will get you the results for guest posting opportunities. You will find pages that provide guidelines for guest bloggers directly without wasting any time
Research the Target Blogs
We recommend that before you start writing some guest posts, you must explore your target blogs to understand what type of content is already posted. Look at the content if it is similar to what your readers or you are interested in.
Also pay attention to the reader engagement, how involved and active are the readers on the block. The number of subscribers or followers is a pretty good indication of reader engagement.
Engaged readership is when a blog has many relevant comments, regular social media sharing and follow-up posts that are written in response to significant comments and feedbacks.
Blogs that have owners who are active on social media suggest that your guest post will be shared on social media platforms that is another Google-friendly factor. Furthermore, pay attention if the readers are engaging only with posts from the blog owner or also reacted to guest contributions. There is no point in guest blogging if the readers are going to shy away from your content.
Forget Keywords, Focus on Searcher Intent
Guest blogging is not starting from scratch with SEO, remember that you are tapping into a resource that is already established. There is no need for you to obsess over keywords and your focus must be on avoiding keyword research for guest posts and investing the time into understanding the searcher intent.
Usually, high performing keywords specific to your industry will have high competition whereas if you try lower ranking keywords in your guest post they will come off as unnatural. The right way to create a blog post is to pay attention to searcher intent that solves a problem or answers a question usually asked by customers in your industry.
Make use of words/terms and terminologies in your guest post that are particular to your niche or industry.
Be Informative, Not Promotional
Usually, most guest bloggers use guest posts as a means to promote their business products or services. You are writing a guest post it doesn’t mean it should be about you.
Guest blogging is spent to be informative and not a supplement to advertising which is why to leave the business mention for the author or guest bio. If there is an opportunity to make relevant mentions to your product or business then included otherwise make your guest post informative and nonpromotional.
Pay attention to the little things, because when it comes to the reaction or response, your guest post must be rightly formatted.
Your target blogs will appreciate knowing that you have taken time to learn about their formatting preferences.
Work on your blog too
Guest Blogging does not mean that you can’t have your blog on your website. If you already don’t have a blog set up, it is time to make a blog to cover a wide range of content that will get traffic to your site and help your target audience.
Having your blog will also help you to connect with other authority bloggers in your niche that will further improve your network.
Conclusion
Guest Blogging is no different than any other content-based marketing and link building strategy. You have to create audience-specific content. Also, remember to choose a blog for guest posting that has the same audience as you want to please.
If you focus on being informative and purposeful than you can easily steer your guest post readers to your content and your website.
Don’t forget to tap into the stats to know how your guest blogging efforts are paying off, this will help you narrow down your focus on the ways that are working in 2020 and beyond.
Contentsia is an expert guest blogging service that serves clients across all industries. We ensure that you get the most ROI on your guest blogging investment.
