Guest Posting Best Practices

No need for "tips".

Just check the guest post guidelines for each blog you want to pitch to.

You should try to write unique and original content when writing for other blogs/websites.

I'm one of the editors for a blog called digitalsignageblog.com that focuses purely on the digital signage industry.

I just wanted to give you some feedback coming from someone who receives and reviews guest posts. We receive lots of emails from people (some are from agencies some are individuals - freelancers) who want to submit a guest blog. We do have a set of very basic but strict guidelines for guest bloggers to follow but I can generally pick out the intention of the guest blogger.

There are two types of guest bloggers. One that just love writing, want to get their articles out there for exposure and at the same time they want to drive traffic to their website. For me I don't mind these type of bloggers as long as the content is unique and is relevant to the website. For example I always tell them it needs to be related to digital signage. If they don't even know what digital signage is, then I won't even consider it.

The second type of guest blogger is one that is writing on behalf of another company and just want to embed links to the article to their website. When I review these articles I get back to the guest blogger and ask them whether they got paid to write and publish this article. Generally, they would be upfront and I tell them there is an ad placement fee for this.

But to answer your question, I do some quick research to make sure that the article they provide is unique and engaging. I generally try not to change any of their content otherwise it doesn't make it "theirs". I do ask for some images to go with the blog article and I make sure that the images are not copyrighted or taken from istock

Sometimes it is good to ask the website owner what you should write about. That way it gives them confidence that you're able to provide content based on their topics.

Another tip, is to start with small sites and work your way up.
There are some website that aggregate our content (without permission) but we don't mind. As long as they have referenced the articles and link back then this drives traffic back to our website.

Hope this helps.

With guest posts It helps to go deep instead of broad. For example, you may want to have a central theme of website optimization, and focus one article on optimizing the button, another article on the headline, another one on just picture captions, etc. This makes you unique and also makes the partner website owner feel like he got very high quality, advanced article.

If you're just starting out, it might be easier to build a reputation with some smaller blogs first. Find a niche you're passionate about and go from there.

My blog had an occasional guest poster and they always had some credentials within my niche.

Contact the blog first before writing anything. They might want a story with a specific angle or have an idea in mind. But also bring your own ideas to the table too.

Last but not least, read the blog you want to write a guest post for. What is their style? Who is their target audience? What topics do they cover a lot (maybe too much???)? The more you know before contacting them, the better your chances.

Good luck!

Its best to use 100% original content if you are doing guest posting. You are building up a reputation, and you are going to kill that rather quickly if someone were to find out that the info you are giving them for a guest post was also being posted somewhere else.

You can write about similar ideas somewhere else, but the post should be different in each place.

Please don't think that just because you find a site in your niche that you're shoe-in to get one of your post published. Owners of high ranked sites works hard to get their site ranked highly in the SE' and I guarantee you they won't be falling all over themselves to get your posts.

It doesn't happen

Any high ranking site owner is going to put your proposed 'content' through the wringer.

So you had better be prepared to write 1000 plus word high-quality content posts.

Personally I don't do 'guest posting'. I seek, find and develop content syndication partners. And when I find the right syndication partners, I'm assured of high quality targeted long term traffic.

For me that's better that wasting my time 'guest posting' all over the place.

But that's my opinion

First of all make sure that you are contacting an authoritative website related to your niche. In the first email that you send, be clear and mention that you would be posting a link in the content or in the author bio and if some charges are required for that, you are ready to pay them. This saves a lot of time for the guest blogger and for you as well.

I am not 100% sure of Google's rule on guest posting, but then again who is (certainly not Google!).

However, from experience of writing guest posts and accepting guest posts on my own blog I have found it best practice to use only nofollow links. The topic is debatable and rather big (too big for one reply) but there is plenty of discussion of nofollow verses follow links on this forum and elsewhere on the internet. This is one particular article I came across which maybe be useful. Google: Guest Blogging For Links? You Better Nofollow Those Links