Guest Blogging for Links
Posted in Search Engine Optimization on 29th September 2011

There are various different techniques that can be used to acquire new links for a website. Some are more effective than others and some are more credible than others. The fact remains that link building is still of huge importance in the world of SEO, although whether or not it is as important as it once was, is debatable, largely because of the influence that social media now has within the online world. That discussion is for another day though.

Today I'm going to focus on just one of those link building techniques, and one that I believe is overlooked and undervalued by many – guest blogging.

What is Guest Blogging?

Guest blogging is what I'm doing right this second, although don't think that I'm just in it for the links. I happen to be good friends with Jonathon of iWebConsultancy and would have no hesitation in recommending him as a credible and talented web designer (how good he is at Gears of War 3 remains to be seen).
The normal process for blogging is that you write a blog post, upload it to your own blog, maybe share it through your social media channels and wait for the visits to roll in. Guest blogging is where you write a blog post and offer it to another relevant blog for them to use. They can then share the post through their social media (there's nothing to stop you helping out here either) and the visits roll in to their site.

What do I get out of Guest Blogging?

The normal process with any guest blog post is that you get at least one link back to your own website or blog within the post itself or in the author signature. Not a bad deal eh? Of course if you do start to blog within your niche on a regular basis you can also develop a reputation and in turn increase visitor numbers to your own blog, as well as your employability.

So I can just write a load of rubbish posts and get some free links, right?

Wrong. If your blog posts aren’t very good then the blog owner will be well within their rights to not publish them. A site that does decide to publish your poor quality post will inevitably be a poor quality site, from which a link will do little to no good anyway.

To summarise…

Guest blogging can be a great way to earn some high-quality links, enhance your online reputation AND build some great relationships. In order for this to happen though, you have to take genuine pride in what you're writing. I always like to ask, "would I publish this on my own blog?" If the answer is no, then you need to sit down and improve that post.

You get out of guest blogging what you put into it. For a great guest blogging resource I would recommend myblogguest.com – a site set up by Ann Smarty who is somewhat of a guest blogging expert.

Dan Almond is an SEO and Social Media Specialist who works for Piranha Internet in Preston, UK. They offer a range of SEO Preston services to companies in the area.