Why Your Guest Blogging Strategy is Failing
The Truth About Guest Blogging
With recent algorithm changes like Helpful Content Update, the focus is now shifting away from traditional link building strategies that involve mass article submissions, bulk directory submissions, etc.
Link building using guest blogging may just be the most effective strategy. If you’re looking for a quick refresher on it, check out our blog: Revealed! Guest Posting Insights From Industry Insiders.
Guest blogging helps you promote your content on some of the most credible (high DA) sites to get maximum traffic on your website.
But there’s a method to the madness that is Guest Blogging. And that’s why, you notice—even after months of guest posting efforts—you don’t see an uptick in traffic.
What are the guest blogging mistakes you’re making?
We’ve split the mistakes into three categories: strategy, content generation, and pitching. We’ve also included a cheat sheet at the end of each section for you to refer to whenever you need a refresher on things to avoid when guest blogging.
Once you’ve gone through this post, you’ll have all the tools to optimize your guest blogging strategy and turn those fails into wins.
Now let’s dive in!
Things To Avoid When Guest Blogging: Strategy, Pitch, Content
Guest Blogging Mistakes In Strategy
Writing Guest Posts Without a Single Primary Objective
Tempted to submit a guest post that aims to maximize your web traffic, capture the attention of a specific demographic, and position you as an authority in the industry simultaneously?
This is a mistake.
The most effective guest posts aim to deliver one primary objective instead of trying to fulfill multiple objectives simultaneously.
For instance, if the post’s objective is to get your page to rank higher for a certain set of keywords, make sure your keywords are incorporated organically. After that, publish the post on a blog that ranks high for that keyword, and watch the magic happen!
Similarly, if the primary objective is to attract attention from a new target audience, research keywords your customers are interested in before getting the post published on blogs they frequent.
Posting on Irrelevant Blogs
When was the last time you checked the kind of blogs you’re sending over as guest posts?
It’s vital to submit guest posts to blogs that focus on your industry and are frequently visited by your target audience. In other words, if you want to hit the ball out of the park, choose blogs that focus on your niche.
For example, let’s say you’re a mortgage company, and you’re thinking of submitting a guest post to a credible business blog with multiple sections such as ‘finance’ and ‘markets.’
If you don’t scrutinize the relevance of each blog section, you might submit a post to the blog as a whole and call it a day. But if you take a moment to analyze each section, maybe you’ll notice the ‘finance’ section posts content containing mortgage-related keywords more than any other section.
You might also realize the finance section has more mortgage holders liking, commenting on, and sharing content than any other section.
In this scenario, submitting a guest post that ends up specifically in the finance section will maximize your ability to drive sales through increased web and social media traffic!
Writing Without the Target Audience in Mind
People love content that speaks to them personally—so why not take advantage?
One of the best ways to do this is by tailoring the tone and language of your guest posts to your customers instead of concentrating on Google ranking your page.
For example, if you’re a doctor interested in using SEO to attract more patients, you’re better off using a tone that’s informative and reassuring in your posts.
On the other hand, if you’re a pet daycare, an engaging tone that exudes fun is more likely to resonate with your customers!
Strategy Cheat Sheet
Guest Blogging Mistakes In the Pitch
Sending Impersonal Pitches
Did you know numerous guest blogging strategies fail because of how the content is pitched instead of what’s in it?
No matter how good your guest post is, if you send it to the blog manager without addressing them properly, you’ll fail to make a solid impression!
Take the time to check their blog and social media handles to find out their name. This will help you address them properly.
Forgetting to Describe the Blog in the Pitch
Another key aspect of pitching is including a brief description of the post in the email.
Describe the post briefly and state the title in either the email subject line or as a heading within the body of the email.
It’s also worth describing the value your guest post will provide the blog.
Remember: the blog is doing you a favor by publishing your post, so make sure you tell them why it’s worth their while too!
Here’s a sample:
Pitching Cheat Sheet
Mistakes During Guest Blogging In Content
Prioritizing Promotion Over Information
It’s common for businesses to use guest blogs solely as a promotional tool—but did you know this isn’t effective?
The main purpose of a guest blog is to provide value-adding information to the audience. In other words, your guest post is more likely to be well-received if it’s seen as a learning resource.
However, this doesn’t mean guest posts shouldn’t contain any promotional material. It means you must be more tactful about how you promote your business in the post.
Most effective guest posts contain promotional text in the ‘call to action’ section toward the end.
However, skilled content writers can subtly promote the business while maintaining an informative tone throughout a guest post.
Submitting a Cluttered Guest Bio
The guest bio is where you get to link back to your own website, resources, social channels, and more. But does this mean it’s worth loading the bio with information? Absolutely not!
Keep the bio as clean as possible by sticking to a handful of links for your website/intended landing page and social media profiles.
This way, your bio will be easy to read and the chances of the reader clicking on your links will be higher!
Underutilizing Formatting
Does your guest post follow a similar format to the other posts on the blog?
Does it feature headers and sub-headers your target audience will find relevant and captivating?
Have you stuffed the post with keywords, or is there a natural flow that reflects organic keyword usage?
Have you included images that don’t infringe on copyrights?
These are some of the key questions to ask yourself regarding the format of your guest post if you want your guest blogging strategy to succeed.
The best guest posts feature an even and consistent balance of internal/external links and keywords.
They also follow the blog’s format regarding headers/sub-headers and include just enough images to be engaging and complement the written content in the post rather than turning it into a picture book!
Content Generation Cheat Sheet
The Bottom Line
There are three common reasons why companies’ guest blogging strategies fail:
- They don’t know the objective of each guest post, so there’s no clear target audience and it ends up on an irrelevant blog
- They don’t know how to pitch the guest post properly
- They don’t know how to write a guest post that has proper formatting and relevant content
If you’re looking for a professional guest post writing and outreach team that ticks all the boxes, try out Search Berg’s guest blogging services!
We have a team of experienced native English writers and content marketing specialists who understand how blogger outreach works.
We have a range of price packages for you to choose from. Your first link will cost just $5 and we’ll be with you every step of the way to give you updates on how the content affects your web traffic!
Call 855-444-4777 now to speak to our experts.
