Writing a blog post that people will actually read can be a daunting task, but it’s not impossible. Here are some tips to help you create a blog post that will engage your readers and keep them coming back for more.
1. Identify your target audience
Before you start writing, think about who your target audience is. What are their interests? What do they want to read about? Knowing your audience will help you create content that is relevant and valuable to them.
2. Write an attention-grabbing headline
Your headline is the first thing that people will see, so make it catchy and compelling. Use power words and make sure it accurately represents the content of your post.
3. Keep it simple and concise
People have short attention spans, so keep your blog post simple and to the point. Use short sentences, simple language, and break up your content into easy-to-read paragraphs.
4. Use subheadings
Subheadings break up your content and make it easier for people to scan. Use them to highlight key points and make it easier for readers to find the information they are looking for.
5. Use visuals
People are visual creatures, so using different types of content marketing, like images, videos, and infographics to break up your text and make your blog post more engaging.
6. Make it actionable
Give your readers something they can do with the information you provide. Whether it’s a call to action or a list of actionable steps, make sure your readers can take something away from your post.
7. Edit and proofread
Before you hit publish, make sure you edit and proofread your post. Check for grammar and spelling errors, and make sure your content flows well and is easy to understand.
By following these tips, you can create a blog post that people will actually read and find valuable. Remember to always put your readers first and provide them with content that is useful and relevant to their interests.
Domain Authority (DA) is a search engine ranking score developed by Moz that predicts how well a website will rank on search engine results pages (SERPs). The score is based on several factors, including the quality and quantity of inbound links pointing to the website.
In guest posting, DA is important because it helps determine the quality and authority of a website that accepts guest posts. Websites with a high DA are generally considered more authoritative and trustworthy by search engines, which can help improve the visibility and ranking of the guest post.
When you publish a guest post on a website with a high DA, you are essentially getting a backlink from a reputable source, which can improve your own website’s DA and overall search engine ranking. However, it’s important to note that DA is just one of many factors that search engines use to rank websites, and guest posting on low-quality websites with high DA can actually hurt your SEO efforts. It is best to use platforms, like AI Guest Posts which have a range of domains to choose from, and you can choose which domain and DA is the best for you to publish on.
Here are 5 dos and 5 don’ts when it comes to domain authority:
DOs:
Produce high-quality, informative and engaging content that attracts natural links and social shares.
Create a diverse range of backlinks from high authority websites that are relevant to your niche.
Use relevant and informative anchor texts for your backlinks.
Regularly update your website with fresh content to maintain interest and improve search engine rankings.
Optimise your website’s loading speed, mobile responsiveness and user experience to increase engagement and reduce bounce rate.
DON’Ts:
Avoid spammy link building tactics such as buying backlinks, link farms or link exchanges.
Don’t engage in keyword stuffing or other black hat SEO tactics to artificially inflate your rankings.
Don’t use unrelated or irrelevant backlinks that don’t add value to your website.
Don’t use duplicate or low-quality content that doesn’t provide any unique value to your audience.
Don’t ignore technical SEO factors such as website architecture, meta tags, and site structure.
Overall, when it comes to guest posting, it’s important to focus on publishing high-quality content on reputable websites with high DA to get the most benefit for your SEO efforts.
Backlinks are links from other websites that point to your website. They are an important factor in search engine optimization (SEO) because search engines view them as a sign of credibility and relevance. However, not all backlinks are created equal. There are good backlinks that can boost your website’s ranking and bad backlinks that can harm it.
Good backlinks
Good backlinks are those that come from reputable and relevant websites. They are usually obtained naturally because other websites find your content valuable and want to link to it. Good backlinks are typically:
Relevant: The linking website is in the same or a related niche as your website.
From high-quality websites: The linking website has a good reputation and high domain authority.
Diverse: Your backlink profile includes links from a variety of different sources, such as blogs, news websites, and social media platforms.
Anchor text: The text used to link to your website is descriptive and includes relevant keywords.
Bad Backlinks
On the other hand, bad backlinks are those that come from low-quality or spammy websites. They can harm your website’s ranking and reputation, and may even lead to a penalty from search engines. Bad backlinks are typically:
Irrelevant: The linking website is not related to your website’s niche.
From low-quality websites: The linking website has a poor reputation, low domain authority, or is a known spam site.
Manipulative: The backlink was obtained through manipulative tactics, such as buying links or participating in link schemes.
Anchor text: The text used to link to your website is generic, spammy, or includes irrelevant keywords.
Benefits
Good backlinks are an essential component of any effective search engine optimization (SEO) strategy. Backlinks, also known as inbound links, are links from other websites that point to your website.
Increased visibility and traffic: Good backlinks from authoritative websites can help to increase your website’s visibility and traffic. When other websites link to your site, it can drive referral traffic to your website and improve your search engine rankings.
Improved search engine rankings: Search engines use backlinks as a signal of the popularity, relevance, and authority of your website. The more high-quality backlinks your website has, the more likely it is to rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs).
Increased credibility and trust: Good backlinks from reputable websites can help to establish your website’s credibility and trustworthiness. When other authoritative websites link to your content, it signals to search engines and users that your content is high-quality and relevant.
Enhanced brand visibility: Good backlinks can also help to enhance your brand visibility and recognition. When your content is linked to from other websites, it can help to increase awareness of your brand and improve your reputation in your industry.
Overall, good backlinks are an important factor in improving your website’s visibility, traffic, search engine rankings, credibility, and brand recognition.
Make sure your backlinks come from reputable and relevant sources which help to boost your website’s ranking, and watch out for those bad backlinks!
We are going to visit the journey of guest posting, including the most important stages and what they entail. This includes, research, creating keywords, finding a suitable audience, buying a guest post and then publishing and tracking your results. This article is all about the beginning of the guest posting journey and stages your should consider when starting a guest post.
Research
Look in depth into your brand/blog and decipher what is your main purpose for guest posting.
Consider the benefits of guest posting and how this is going to be relevant for your industry, audience, scale, current statistics e.g. DA
Analyse your competition in the market so that you can learn from their strengths and weaknesses through your own guest post journey
Create a list of potential websites or platforms that are relevant to you and your content that you would like to publish on
Creation
Create content that will be affective to share as a guest post, or to create a backlink to from your guest post article
Consider the different types of content you would like to share that will be relevant to your audience and the site you are going to publish on
Ensure that your article has good SEO to achieve the best results
Analysis
Use helpful tools that will allow you to track different aspects of your guest posts to make developments to progress your guest posting journey
Promote your guest post where applicable through things like social media and email marketing to help boost your web traffic further
Connect with possible collaborations who can help you action your guest post
If you would like any help in your guest posting journey, we would be more than happy to talk about some guest post opportunities at AI Guest Posts. We would love to share more information about our platform or our 12 individual brands that are available for guest posts.
Guest blogging remains to be a highly effective link-building technique and a great way to reach a wider audience, drive more traffic to your website and show your value as a thought leader in your niche.
However, the most important aspect about a guest post transaction is that it needs to be mutually beneficial to both the writer of the article and the owner of the site publishing the article. You should be providing as much value through either your content or the success of your site, that it is a good match.
Techniques to find guest post friendly sites
1. Define your purpose for guest posting
2. Decide on the right sized websites/blogs that will suit your content and blog
3. Create a list of websites that accept guest posts
4. Connect with similar websites/blogs on social media
5. Google your search terms to find guest blogging websites
6. Search for guest blogging websites in reverse
7. Use tools to help you find guest posting opportunities
Define your purpose for guest posting
With guest posting, finding the correct fit for your article can mean a couple of different things. Its best know exactly what you want to achieve from a guest post opportunity before you choose where to publish it.
Some of the options for this would be:
Some there suits the niche of your content perfectly
A site where you can achieve your goal or income, promotion or both
Somewhere that values your work
Decide on the right sized websites/blogs that will suit your content and blog
Be realistic in your choice of sites where you are wanting to post your article. If your content and link to your own website is much more developed then the site you are publishing on, the site probably will not have as much traffic as you would like to be generating. Likewise, if the site you wish to publish on is successful, you will need to keep in mind, that if these are paid guest posts the higher the traffic and DA, the higher the price.
Create a list of websites that accept guest posts
Start making a list of all the sites you find that have potential for your content. You can then keep the ones you do not act on immediately as reference to look back on and for potential collaborations at a later date.
Connect with similar websites/blogs on social media
Use social media as a helpful tool. Run a search on the actual social media platforms you use like: ‘guest post’ to see what different options come up. It could lead to an alternate route to some useful sites you may not have already thought or heard of. It will also be a good tool to find the most recent current information about guest posts.
Google your search terms to find guest blogging websites
Google is a great place to start in the search for guest posting opportunities. You can use any of the following keyword searches to find blogs that accept guest posts. Just replace keyword with keywords from your industry.
keyword “submit a guest post”
keyword “guest post”
keyword “guest post by”
keyword “accepting guest posts”
keyword “guest post guidelines”
Search for guest blogging websites in reverse
To successfully achieve reverse guest blogging and make it work for you. Here are some essential tips from Small Business Trends:
1. Figure out what you want out of a guest contributor. How often do you want them to contribute? Is there a particular subject you want discussed?
2. Make a list of all the authors you may want to feature. After you make a list, consider doing a few searches to find other writes who you aren’t familiar with.
3. Go out and try to connect with those authors and talk with them about this opportunity.
This process is not easy, so if it does not work out as planned, use the experience and find out who they are connected with and try to outreach with these too!
Using tools and skills to find
When you search for a website in your niche on Google you will get a vast array of options. However, not all these sites will be open for guest posts, so it’s best to narrow your search by including terms likely to be used by websites looking for guest posts plus your niche or topic. For example: Home Décor + “Guest Post”
Conclusion
The act of finding where you would like to publish your content will take time and errors, to learn what works best for you and your blog but by using some of these option above may help with focus on certain aspects!
To know how to get ahead of your competitors, you need to have a good knowledge of them. To help yourself progress, you can begin by doing some competitive analysis. A good starting point would be research and learn from the competition, see what works well and what doesn’t.
What is competitive marketing analysis?
Competitive analysis is a marketing strategy used by all businesses, not just content marketers use to gather deeper understanding of who your competitors are. When assessing their business or blog, look for the following
In what aspects do they succeed/fail?
What marketing channels do they use?
What does their content strategy look like?
What currently makes them better than you?
Do they have any different opportunities than you?
How do break this down?
Let’s start to break this down and see how to successfully complete your competitive analysis.
Step 1: Identifying your competitors
You can do a quick google into your industry and see which brands/business come up in the search engine results. You may already have knowledge into these but you can then identify them into the following categories:
Direct – competitors offering the same product/services as you For example, if you run a travel blog, your direct competitors would be other travel blogs or leading websites like TripAdvisor.
Indirect – competitors offering similar products/services to the same target market. For example, your travel blog’s indirect competitors could be food or lifestyle bloggers who also share about their personal travels.
Substitutes – competitors that offer something users can choose over your product/services. For example, users can choose to use Lonely Planet guide books or YouTube videos over reading your blog.
Step 2: Identifying their strengths and weaknesses
Identifying strengths and weakness is a great way to analyse where you can be better and change aspects of your blog. Using a SWOT analysis tool is a popular and easy method used to analyse and present your findings. SWOT stands for, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats and provides a good framework to define particular aspects to develop in your strategic planning. Doing this on your own blog as well as your competitors
Step 3: How to make the most of your analysis?
When doing your SWOT analysis, try to compare things like:
How often are posts made?
How good is the quality of the content?
The length of the content?
How high do the blogs rank on Google?
Does the site take a long time to load?
Is the blog accessible from mobiles?
Do the blog posts have many shares?
From our own analysis, we have found that the best tools to use are:
SEMRush
Neil Patel’s SEO Organiser
Ahrefs
Using these tools will help to find the best words to include within in your own content, and also look at what is working well in more popular competitors posts. When search for SEO and content marketing, some provide useful information like traffic rankings, SEO scores, domain authorities, backlink information and amount of shares. You can decide which works best for you!!
In this step of the journey, we are aiming to give you some inspiration for your posts but showing which of our article are bring in the most views!
The 5 articles below are the ones across our 12 brands that have generated the most views so far in 2023. We want to take a look at why these articles are so popular and look at the format of them.
1. GHP – 10 Reasons its so Important to Stay Healthy – 9135 views
2. LUXlife – The Top 7 Most Luxurious Hotels in the World – 5156 views
3. Corporate Vision – 8 Ways to Improve Product Quality in 2021 – 3583 views
4. BUILD – How to Make Your Concreate Floors Look Nicer – 2057 views
5. New World Report – Food Standards Showdown: USA vs the EU – 1999 views
By analysing these posts, we know that the content is obviously a key factor to engage the audience but other things that could help increase your post views are:
Use listicles – these make the information easier to digest and mor engaging to reach
Include relevant imagery – showing examples of what is included in your writing can be helpful and more pleasing to look at
Use relevant headings – this breaks the piece up and allows
Be relevant to certain regions countries – this could be a niche audience but those that it affects will be interested
Providing relevant and quality content in your posts is the best way to achieve lots of page views! Good practice when publishing any content is to monitor it to see how well it succeeds and if it needs an extra boost to drive exposure and interest, try to implement some of the above tips into your own content!
Now we have discussed what a guest post is and the benefits, where to post and creating content, the next stage in the guest posting journey is to promote your content and make sure it is making positive results for you and your business.
Including useful content is the most important backbone of a successful blog, but it needs to be promoted in the correct way to reach your desired audience. Constantly assessing your SEO and adding content promotion to your guest blogging strategy will improve web traffic and results. For it to be successful, you need readers constantly accessing your blog and optimising your content can be a very important aspect of your marketing as it can lead to a huge increase in traffic to your website and business.
This process takes time to become established and many give up after a short while as it is doesn’t present the results they want. By setting realistic expectations of what you would like to achieve from your guest blog, will help the process, along with your time and patience.
To help your blog be as successful as possible, here are some of the most effective ways to promote your blog and grow your readership:
Email marketing
To encourage even more traffic to your blog post, you can add a link in any email marketing you are doing, such as:
Newsletter sends to any subscribers
Share your posts across social media, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook etc.
Encourage engagement with your blog posts through your audience
Using your existing audience, and engaging with them about a new blog article, is a great way to also keep them interested and upsell your business.
Follow good SEO practises
Ensure that your content you are going to be promoting is written well and has good SEO or search engine optimisation. This means that if your content contains good SEO, it will be ranked higher in the search engines, like Google. Making sure the keywords included are really going to be interesting to your audience and drive traffic and boost your content through the ranks. Ways to help this are:
Using online tools to help with keywords on sites like SEMRush and Moz.
Keeping your SEO in your content up to date, and analysing what can be updated and changed over time to ensure it stays current will also improve this!
Track performance
To be able to see how successful your post is, it is a good idea to track its performance and what traffic is generated, especially if you make improvements, or promote it across different platforms. Setting yourself targets whether this is the number of followers, monetary value or increase in web site traffic, this is an effective way to track your progress and use these metrics effectively. There are tools available to help with this like Google Analytics!
By monitoring content, and using these ways to promote and develop it, will keep your content current and interesting to your audience, leading to good traffic and allowing it to rise through the search engine ranks. Next in the Ultimate Guide to Guest Posting, we will be showing some of our most viewed guest posts of last year and why they were so effective!
When making a guest post and publishing your content online, naturally the better your content is, the more interest and traffic you will generate. Now you have seen examples of guest post platforms and how to publish them, we are going to share some tips on how to create great content to publish…
The Types of Content Marketing
When improving your marketing, it is important to look at the different mediums that can be used to resonate with your audience. It is a good idea to see what forms of media are most used and that will be of interest.
Types of marketing that are popular across many industries today are:
Blogging
Video
Podcasting
Infographics
Email
Visual content
E-books
Newspapers
Presentations
Quizzes’/tools
Checklists
Courses
Webinars
Free apps
Social media posts
With social media, blogging and vlogging having a large increase in popularity, sharing your guest post articles across your social media channels and including the links to the post may generate even more traffic.
Writing SEO
Creating content is not so easy when there is quite a lot to think about in terms of SEO. Search Engines, like Google, rank content highly based on the following factors:
High-quality content
Relevance
Context
These three points are the main reasons for content to be ranked higher over other sources. It is important that the content that is shared on the domain share a certain relevance in context and is written well. However, this can be affected by other factors to be truly successful!
Mobile-friendliness: It is important that sites are responsive for apps and digital mobile use
High-quality backlink: Having these links boosts SEO authority and Google is seen to rank higher
Domain authority: A higher domain authority is influenced by your total number of links and the age, size and popularity of the domain and will help your SEO
On-page SEO: Important on-page SEO components include title tags, meta description, header tags, URLs, and image alt tags and will all help to boost your overall SEO
How to start writing
When writing content, you will either have a topic in mind or need to find a topic to write about. You can attack your content either way by asking questions like, how you can increase the demand around the topic you have, or figuring out what you are looking for from your customers. Set yourself key points to research to help with your marketing based around SEO, so you can keep track of how successful these are. For example…
Keywords to use within your writing and the volumes of this search
Is your content going to be relevant to what the audience want?
Look into competitiors, does someone else provide this content?
Using your keywords effectively, also known as on-page SEO, will help optimise your content and demonstrate expertise, authority and trust with your audience. Keeping your audience in mind when writing, will also be key to the success of your writing. Look into vocabulary and the style of how you want your piece to come across, and make sure it is meeting your target audience.
When creating a lot of content, it is a good idea to research what has been already written so you can bring fresh ideas to your audience. With the help of screenshots, charts, images, and videos you can bring diversity to your posts and a sense of engagement with your audience.
Getting the basics of content creation right, will help you to make better article and make the most of your guest posts!
Making a guest post can be very simple but you will need to find the right place to publish your article. For your guest post to be successful, the placement of it needs to be somewhere visible to your desired audience.
Choosing a platform
There are now many sites which can help you make a guest post and offer suitable placements for your article. Here is just some platforms that can help you in your guest post journey:
AI Guest Posts
UK Linkology
Authority Builders
In Front Digital
NO BS Marketplace
Skale
These companies all work differently with SEO and guest posts, and bring their own style to the process. With lots of industry options available it makes choose where to place your guest post much easier!
AI Guest Posts
With our own guest post platform, AI Guest Posts, we have created a very self-sufficient platform to ease the process of publication and help make the management of the following factors:
much less admin heavy
give a choice of payment methods
flexibility within your articles with the number of links, images and word count you can include
choice of your own publication date
When creating a guest post, we first recommend that you create an account as this will help to eliminate VAT, if not applicable, and allows access to manage your posts and payments efficiently. You can log into your account to see the progression of your article. If there should be any changes made to your article, you will also be notified, and the amendments can be made here.
Our 12 brands that accept guest posts are based across a range of industries and regions around the world, covering a range of topics, so you are sure to find a suitable placement for your content, including:
Business
Technology
Finance
Construction & Engineering
Design
Logistics
Employee relations
Corporate & Social Responsibility
Healthcare & Pharmaceuticals
Lifestyle
Travel and Retreats
Style
Art & Entertainment
Small Business
We then have our region-specific brands:
APAC – APAC has more of a focus on The Asian Pacific region including East Asia, Australia, New Zealand, South Asia, and Southeast Asia
EU Business News– Based on content relating to European Countries
MEA Markets– Content specific to the Middle East & Africa
New World Report – Content specific to The United States, Canada, Mexico, South America and The Caribbean
If you would like some more information on these brands you can take a look on AI Guest Posts or drop us an email on [email protected].
The next edition of The Ultimate Guide to Guest Posting we will be sharing some tips on content creation and some of our most viewed guest posts!
