Guest post by Ann Michaels
Link building, when done correctly, can be a great way to gain referral traffic and authority for your blog.
There are a few ways to get this done. Some people might prefer to use SEO services, but here we will focus on link building through guest posting, and the proper ways to go about it.
Relevancy
While you can guest post on a completely irrelevant blog with a link back to your website – what kind of click through rate do you think there will actually be? How many people do you think will actually take a look at your fishing website when you’re writing on a site about…oh, architecture? The answer is pretty close to nil.
When looking for other blogs to guest post on, then, you want to focus on blogs that you and your community would actually read and pay attention to, would comment on – articles that you would be proud to cross promote, not just put in a box in the corner in your head excusing the poor quality of the article – “Oh, I needed to do that for link building so more people will see my site. It doesn’t matter.”
But it does! And if you write a travel guest post on a travel blog about your travel website – think about all the potential there! Which brings us to the second point of…
Audience
Audience. Guest posting is a great way to reach a new audience and engage them. It’s more relevant, engrossing and informative – and you will come off in, generally, a much better light. Readers will want to hear what else you have to say, and will usually make an effort to follow where you lead them. (This is assuming you follow advice #1 and actually post somewhere relevant.)
Community
Along the lines of the audience you’re targeting, there is community. Similar concept, but different angle. Take a look at the blog you would like to write on. How often do people comment on an article, and are the comments typically positive or negative? How often are articles posted? When was the most recent article posted? The engagement of the community can help spread your article – there is such a thing as ‘word of mouth’ online. Commenting on blogs with the new CommentLuv premium plugin is a great way to leverage community participation.
Page Authority and Back Links
This is something that you will hear thrown around a lot in the world of link bulding, and it is something to consider when looking for places to guest post – but by no means do you need to give it the importance that everyone else seems to. Of course, you want a blog with high PR backlinks, but would you rather have a guest post on a relevant blog with an active community but only 300 backlinks, or an article on an irrelevant blog with over 3,000 links?
The answer should be obvious. (For those who are playing along at home, the answer is the former). Page authority and back links will only take you so far – relevancy (especially with the new Panda addition to Googles algorithm) is much more of a long-term investment.
These are a few things that everyone should keep in mind when they’re looking for a way to get more exposure and authority for their own websites through guest posting. It isn’t just about the technical aspects of links and page rank – consider the situation from a more organic perspective.
Ann Michaels stumbles across the web finding everything from outdoor nativity sets and Christmas trees to Elmo and manga and world news. She loves the diversity of the digital world and discovering new things every day.
About Guest Author
Twitter: green guide
says:
There are a few ways to get this done. Some people might prefer to use SEO services, but here we will focus on link building through guest posting, and the proper ways to go about it.
Hi
Nice post on link building. Thanks for sharing some tips and suggestions on link building. I will consider your tips when building a new blog. Thanks again.
When i read your blog, i impressed with this. Really your blog is informative.
and this blog is appreciated by Assotech Business Tower
Twitter: erydave
says:
I think link building is not so important like before. After panda update 3.3, many blogs and website which have too much links penalized by google. So I think It’s better to focus to the content but still have to build backlinks naturally.
ery recently posted..3 Guides about Modern Floor Lamps in 2012
Link building is the only way you can achieve higher serp. But be sure you do it with dignity not by spamming useless comments to other websites.
Jean recently posted..Frigidaire stackable washer dryer
Link building must be engaging enough for you to do it consistently. If you focus on blogs that are in niches of genuine interest to you, you will be more likely to come up with articles or comments that interest your readers. Sure, other ways to do it exist, but blogging is a long-term endeavor, and the practical approach is to do things that are painless enough for you to do on a daily basis. Thanks for the insights.
doug_eike recently posted..Writing – Ten Tips For Becoming A Better Writer
Commenting on blogs is also a great way to build backlinks and increase your site traffic. It will also build your reputation online and increase your search engine ranking page.
Excellent article on the importance of link building.
Thanks a lot for sharing the amazing technology in this blog.
live gambling recently posted..Review of Ladbrokes Bingo
This is very much enjoyed for the nice services in this blog and the different info is visible in this blog
grand casino only recently posted..The Basis Of The Las Vegas Grand Canyon Helicopter Tours
does posting links on forums constitute to a backlink!?
Pretty Good Post, Audience is the very Important need to Increase as much as traffic…
SEO is for online world like TV ads are for traditional marketing. SEO = Higher Ranks in Search engines = more money. Great article.
Not the easiest of tasks but it is certainly very important. because It helps our sites to rank better in search engines. We have to maintain a good balance of dofollow and nofollow links as well, too many dofollow links might cause Google to penalize our sites. Also keeping track of quality and relevancy are the most important parts of link building, and it should never be overlooked.
Gary Ashton recently posted..LeAnne Constatine of TAREG and RE/MAX Elite writes another $2M team offer
It is better to have one link from a PR8 site than 1000 from PR0 site, but i guess if they dont get crawled often you could be waiting ages for the links to work. I hate link building!
Hi Ann,
Fine post about link building. Link building and on page SEO are key to rankings. You nail down very well that links from authoritative, industry related websites is key. Google is all about trust these days, so when bots discover quality links to your website, it can really propel rankings. If Google can “trust” your website and it’s content, then they can be comfortable with showing their audience your website as a search result.
Thanks for the great post.
John
grocery coupons recently posted..Three Ways Washington Coupons Help Save Time
I think that page rank and traffic are really important and it not depends on the people, because both of these are really important in link building wich is a very esential part in SEO. Thanks for the article btw :).
I really wish SEO was easier and building of links was easier as well!
This is a great post. I love your idea of separating your interests into different blogs to keep readers happy. I may have to look into this in the future since my interests are relatively widespread. http://halloweenhorrorpropshoppe.com
Thanks!
Ralph
ralphcircelli recently posted..Scary Halloween Makeup Tips
We all know link building is very essential part of SEO.But build link is not a key success to get rank high on SEs.We need quality backlinks and must be relevant to our website.After that content is another important factor to get rank high on all SEs.
Thanks
Link building in my opinion is an art. An art on how to get great, clean links, how to find the best sites from where to get links, to be the first who finds good pages, sites and so on.
Its hard these days, first of all you have to research about the owner of the blog and if the owner seems professional and organized like Keisha then you are at right place. I use a lot of blogs that some how professionally organized. Thanks for the article!
Alex Shaikh recently posted..Comment on SanDisk Sansa® View MP3 Players by horris2
The biggest problem I have found about link building is finding quality websites that have a common interest with to guest blog on. Most of all the better blogs are blog-snobs and won’t give you the time of day. Then your left with sifting through 100′s of blogs to find three or four blogs that are suitable.
What’s the alternative? You could always hire an off-shore company to build you 100′s of spammy links that will eventually hurt your website more than help it.
However, here is my new plan, I would like some input from the people here. I have hired one of those off-shore companies … but not to comment or post for me. I value my brand and reputation too much to even consider that. However, I can hire them to research the web and find the types of websites I am looking for. Then I can spend my time writing meaningful comments and guest blogs without the stress of searching through websites all day.
back links are very useful to bring more traffic. a strategy is important to make it more effective.
Well, you are right about all the points. I find it difficult to find the revelant blogs to do guest posting as you want to put your post in the place where real professionals are. But if you do find such a place, you are lucky to get good backlinks
Hi Ann,
I am still new in blogging, i want to know about backlinks. Is dofollow or nofollow links still considered right now. Which one is the better dofollow links from irrelevant sites or nofollow links from relevant sites..
zamahsari recently posted..Samsung Galaxy xCover Vs. Sony Ericsson Xperia active: A Battel Of Android Rugged Phones
Ann, you make several good points. I agree that guest posting does give you a lot of exposure and it also gives people the impression that you are a subject matter expert. I will have to concentrate on doing some guest posting.
Tim recently posted..Improve Your Golf Swing
Link building brings in more traffic to your site if you put out relevant and helpful information and very strategic about it.
Anna Miller recently posted..Få bonus hver gang du tanker taletid med Callme
This is one of the best article i have ever read, but there are several companies that offer SEO facilities and totally confused whom to believe.
Twitter: ronniedare
says:
Very true thoughts about link building. If you go after relevancy in terms of link building, you are hitting two birds with one stone: first, link juice that may help your site shoot up tru the Google roof and second, the traffic and click tru your like might get from this relevant site where you posted your relevant link.
RonLeyba recently posted..How To Delete Facebook Chat History Permanently
Guest posting is a nice way to drive traffic to your blog, but I find it exhausting. When you write as a guest, you cannot post whatever (well, OK, you shouldn’t do that in you own blog). I mean that a guest post is most time a harder job than posting on your own blog. You have to think about the audience of the blog youre posting in, which may differ from your own readers. Also, you have to create a very good article, something that will drive readers to your site. If you are not a professional blogger (and I am not) it os very difficult to find time for that.
Yiya recently posted..¡Ya se puede jugar a Adventure world!
I totally agree with you Yiya! Guest post should be more serious and more professional. I also accept guest post on my blog with Health Articles. On beginning many times guest bloggers write not so professional but today I can say that guest blogging is more known and people take it more serious as link building strategy.
Thanks for this Anne. Linkbuiliding is a great way to develop traffic and I believe that you have shed some valuable light on a topic that can be confusing at times.
In my opinion guest posting is a great way for link building. In this process you will get quality backlinks and also there will be a probability of getting good amount of traffic from that site to your site.
Twitter: MurrayLunn
says:
My plan, for 2012, is to don’t even bother with niche sites and projects – I’m going to be working specifically on link building and traffic generation. I’m already starting work now and have an excellent spreadsheet setup for what I’m working on – I just need to keep at it even though it can be a bit boring at times :/
Murray recently posted..The Importance of Content and Branding in an Online Business World
The best way to build links on your blog is to keep experimenting with different things until you find what works for you!
Gerald recently posted..The Essential Exercise and Birthball Handbook for Pregnancy and Beyond
Yes traffic is more important than the page rank because traffic pays a lot.
Eric recently posted..Samsung S8500 Wave Unlocked Reviews and Full Specifications
Ann,
You are right on target about guest posting, although as a newbie, I have to admit that it was a bit daunting to send that first email requesting one! In the course of my research I have found the emphasis to be on building back links organically, which I’ve found difficult to do. I have blogs relative to my niche that I read and like to comment on, however, most of them have a no follow policy because of the spammer problem. I understand their reasoning, but I think it really limits the way that bloggers could help each other out by giving honest links. What are your thoughts on this and do you have any tips for a newbie? Thanks you so much for the great article!
Ann,
You make some great points. Links are about so much more than just PR. Relevancy and Authority within the right niche is far more of an important factor.
Many people get tied to the idea of RAW PR (Still) but posting on the “right” related blogs is far better than some completely irrelevant link.
Steve recently posted..45 Tips to Make MORE Money with Affiliate Marketing
Well, I agree with you about the relevency 100% as i have seen many times post with inappropriate topics and lines and ideas and people wanted to see such posts published. I hope your article will ope the eyes to some bloggers.
Twitter: lifenleisure
says:
Very helpful post, Ann. I agree with what you said that being relevant to your own blog when guest posting. Aside from being able to help you build relevant links to your blog or website, it can also help establish you as a credible and reliable source of information.
Adeline recently posted..Reflecting on September 11 and My Trip to Ground Zero
Totally i agree with your points. Relevancy and traffic of the website is the main thing to focus rather than high page rank.
Link building is a pretty general term used to describe anything you do to build links to a website. There are two primary reasons to build links; Direct Click-Through Traffic, and Search Engine Optimization (SEO). On this site we are focused on the Search Engine Optimization aspect of link building. While the goal of most search engine optimization campaigns is to build traffic, the goal of SEO based link building is higher rankings.
Nicholas Scott recently posted..An Overview of Citizen Eco-Drive Chronograph Titanium CA0021-53E/CA0020-56E Men’s Watch
I agree – the most important factor is relevancy. It makes it harder work but that then shows Google that your unlikely to be a spammer
To make your efforts highly effective, submit a guest post to a website that has a similar niche as yours. The idea is that like minded individuals comes along together. When the visitors of your target website reads your guest post and find it interesting and informative the chances is that they are going to visit your site and read your works. As a result, you can gain new readers and increase your traffic.
Mark Errol recently posted..Wireless Alarm System
agree. guest blogging is more and more popular. blog owners allow to leave a backllink in exchange for a quality article. this means of getting links is very effective as your link will be on the page and won’t be deleted. me myself writing articles in some blogs
Some people are pagerank addicts and they will take a site that has more pagerank, but with low traffic. Others would rather post to a site that has a lot of traffic rather than pagerank. It depends on like you said how relevant the site is, but I would likely take the traffic over pagerank. If the site had a good combination of both it would be a plus. Pagerank is still ok, but I don’t think it is as important as it was a few years ago.
Ray recently posted..Timestamping articles and posts