Guest blogging remains a tried and tested SEO strategy in the year 2025. Content is king and remains undisputed. If you aren’t guest blogging yet, it’s probably time that you do. Here are some facts that will show you the usefulness of guest blogging for promoting your business online.
- 23% of internet time is spent on blogs
- 77% of internet users read blogs
- 61% of consumers have made a purchase based on a blog post
- Highly informative blogs are cited in search engine AI Overviews, making these blogs authoritative sources
In this article, we will delve into the details of what goes behind guest blogging and how to do it properly in a way that will complement your site’s SEO, bring visibility to your brand, and establish your blog as a trusted source of industry-specific matters. To do guest blogging right, it is essential to have a proper understanding of what goes behind quality content, the benefits of working with other sites to guest blog or post, and how these will bring about SEO benefits.
What Is Guest Blogging?
Guest blogging or guest posting is publishing content for another website in your field or industry. It allows you to capture a new audience and get quality backlinks to your own site. Adding links from your website to your guest post adds value to your site and boosts your domain authority.
It can go both ways, too. You can invite a guest to make a guest post on your blog with their own backlinks. This tit-for-tat is a mutually beneficial arrangement that will result in SEO gains for both websites, making guest blogs for each other.
Beyond SEO metrics from backlinks, guest blogging is advantageous because it is a source of novel and original organic content that is useful and relevant to your readers.
It keeps things interesting. Audiences will be treated to having new and informative content from another source, piquing their curiosity and driving more traffic to your site.
When audiences see that your website and content are featured elsewhere, it is also a sign of legitimacy, endorsing the quality of your brand and your authority in the field.
Guest blogging remains one of the most effective link-building strategies used by marketers. That’s because it works when used properly while avoiding black hat tactics that Google and other search engines frown on.
What Guest Blogging Practices are Frowned Upon by Search Engine Algorithms?
The more search engines like Google ‘like’ you, the higher you’ll rank on its search engine results pages. So you’ll want to avoid tactics that search engine algorithms disapprove of when guest posting for a website. Here are some bad guest posting practices that are penalized.
Stuffing content with backlinks
Don’t cram as many backlinks as possible into your articles. The sophisticated algorithms of search engines can detect if you’re posting for the sake of getting backlinks and will penalize you for it. Another mistake you’ll want to avoid is stuffing the backlink anchor text with a ton of keywords. This isn’t natural and makes your article look spammy and audiences tend to shy away from inauthentic content.
Low-quality content
Outsourcing content creation to cheap writers has become a trend among many marketers now. They ask them to write variations of the same article and spread them as guest posts to multiple websites. But Google and other search engines have a problem with this approach, as their algorithms can sniff out plagiarized content and penalize it. And again, audiences prefer genuine writing with a unique voice that will engage them and provide useful information.
Writing high-quality, authentic content remains one of the top-ranking factors. So if you’re publishing content for the sole purpose of getting backlinks, you are just pouring money down the drain.
Duplicating or re-publishing articles
If you’re thinking of publishing the same content and spinning the article a little for more backlinks, don’t. You cannot compromise quality for the sake of getting extra backlinks to your site. Driving traffic to your website and building a strong following is only possible if your content is helpful and top-notch. So, aim for high-quality original content that will get noticed and ranked organically.
Guest posting on low-authority sites.
Getting backlinks is great but it can hurt your domain authority if low-authority sites are linking to your website. Backlinks basically tell Google how credible your site is, so posting on high-authority websites is crucial to executing your guest blogging strategy. The more high-authority domains link to your page, the higher your domain authority will be.
A Step-by-Step Guide on How to Guest Blog
Making a guest blog on another reputable website will benefit your brand by generating increased awareness and traffic back to your own site, which will in turn result in favorable SEO rankings. Organic views and referential traffic will show search engine algorithms that your website is a legitimate and authoritative source of information on the subject you are dealing with.
What Are Your Guest Blogging Goals
Guest blogging usually has three aims:
- To establish yourself as a reliable source of information in the industry and a recognizable name or brand that audiences can trust.
- Bring exposure and referential traffic back to your website.
- Building backlinks to your website to drive said traffic, though this should not be the explicit goal because inorganic or inauthentic blogs and content tend to be penalized by search engines as well as turn off audiences.
Determining your goals will in turn help you figure out how to go about guest blogging, from crafting the content itself to finding out which other sites and brands you want to work with.
Find Guest Posting Opportunities
To guest blog you need to find other reputable blogs that are willing to work with you and host your content. Ideally these websites should have features such as:
- Content relevant to your field or industry
- An audience base that will be interested in your content and niche
- An engaged readership and audiences who like, share and comment
- Blog owners who are active in creating content for their websites and social media, so your guest blog will get promoted as well
Look for Guest Bloggers and Work With Them
Now you must find the guest bloggers and websites willing to host guest blogs. If you have been in the industry for a while, you will be familiar with peers and competitors. Researching their sites and blogs will help give you an idea of where to find guest blogging opportunities, and you can always look it up on Google.
Search Engines
Looking for guest blogging opportunities online on search engines like Google while using industry relevant keywords is a good place to start. Typing up “industry name + submit a guest blog” or similar permutations should direct you to sites engaged in guest blogging or their guest blog guidelines pages, even the actual guest blogs by other writers.
Connecting with Prolific Guest Blogger Personalities
Look up peers and competitors in your field, research high-profile personalities in the industry, chances are they will either have guest blogs on their websites or will be engaging in guest blogging themselves. You can use search engines, look up their websites, or look for them on social media platforms.
You will be able to find venues that will accept guest blogs or even connect with the individuals directly and talk to them about guest blogging opportunities.
Researching Competitor Backlinks
Pulling up a backlink analysis of competitors and peer websites is a staple strategy for SEO campaigns. It will show you what practices are standard in the industry and what you can improve on when building your website.
This analysis will also reveal backlinks from guest blogs on their site, leading you to bloggers and writers who are open to guest posting opportunities. You can connect with them and propose a guest blogging arrangement.
Craft High-Quality Content
When it comes to actually writing the guest blog, crafting high-quality content is key; the writing itself must be engaging to audiences in the first place to amplify the effect of the keywords, backlinks, and other SEO tactics in place.
Find the keywords you want to emphasize and build compelling writing around them so that you will provide relevant information on the subject and position yourself as a reputable authority.
Understand the tone and style of the target blog you will be guest posting in, their approach as well as the type of audience they are catering to, so that your content will work well with theirs and remain on-brand. Do they prefer listicles? Are they into long forms? Find out and tailor your writing to suit their style.
Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness
Even search engine algorithms prefer genuine and authentic content. Google’s automated ranking system is calibrated to reward helpful, reliable, and people-first content that offers useful information primarily for the audience’s benefit rather than only search engine rankings and Top Search results.
Google’s automated system sets the benchmark in how search engines determine what counts as quality content. It assesses content based on what industry figures call E-E-A-T: Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness.
The system looks for this mix of factors and prioritizes content that seems most helpful to real people.
In short, it is crucial to Build Trust with Good Writing. Quality content will capture audiences and generate traffic in an organic way, which will then be reflected in metrics and analytics that will boost your website’s ranking.
When you are guest blogging, focus on how your writing will build trust with audiences by addressing their needs or answering their questions.
Are you conveying the experiences you’ve had in the industry or sharing expertise that they can use in their own lives?
Find a compelling angle and expound on that to create a compelling guest blog.
Establish a Guest Blogger Identity and Reputation
Guest blogging is a long-term strategy that will generate long-term results and gains, which means this approach goes beyond making individual guest blogs. Over time, you need to develop a recognizable tone or voice with your content and complement that with an established persona through all your platforms, from your website and blog to other social media channels.
This will go hand in hand with your business’ brand and amplify it, making it more than a product, giving it a distinct identity that your audiences will remember and recognize as a credible figure in the field that can be trusted and relied upon not only for the quality products but for the advice and information you dispense on your trusty guest blogs.
Getting Started With Guest Blogging
Guest blogging can be a very effective link-building strategy when you do it right. In fact, according to a study by SEMRush, 53% of digital marketing specialists say that guest blogging is the most effective way to build a backlink profile.
If you post high-quality content and link it to good websites, you’re capturing a new audience and driving more traffic to your website. Here are some things to consider when guest blogging:
Write Authentic, High-Quality Content
Popular blogs are popular because they grab attention and provide answers to their target audience. The qualities readers look for in a blog do not go away just because you are guest posting. Every great marketer knows that there is no substitute for authentic, high-quality content. So the key here is to write for your target audience, not for backlinks.
Filter Guest Posting Sites
You’ll want to post your content to websites with good domain authority scores. The higher the domain authority (DA) score is, the higher the quality of backlinks you’ll get. So, before using a website to get backlinks, check its backlink domain first.
Ideally, you should try to get guest blogging opportunities from widely read and followed blogs in your niche. Most authority sites would have a 60+ DA so they would obviously require high-quality content.
It can be difficult to guest blog in authority sites so you should try to guest post in mid-tier blogs as well. These blogs are mostly run by individual bloggers with DA scores between 50-60.
Whether for high-ranking blogs and mid-tier blogs, guest blogging best practices still apply, meaning that it is ideal to post high-quality content rich in backlinks to not just get good SEO results but also impress audiences and further legitimize your brand.
Track Your Results
It is important to track your guest blogging results to know if you’re meeting your goals. Key metrics to track for your guest posts include:
- Referral traffic
- Social shares
- Comments
- New website visitors
- New leads
- Brand mentions or links
- Changes in SERP placement
Tracking these metrics will help you identify what articles work best for your goals and relevant guest posting platforms to focus your efforts on high-performing avenues.
Guest Blogging FAQs
Why is Guest Blogging Important?
Guest posting on a reputable site will boost your online presence, build SEO backlinks, demonstrate your know-how on industry-related subjects as well as reach a new audience. The reader base of the website you are guest blogging in will be drawn to your website, increasing traffic.
Is Guest Blogging Relevant and Effective Today?
Yes, getting more visibility, backlinks, viewers and site traffic through quality content is an evergreen and future-proof SEO strategy.
Authentic content rich in high-authority inbound links to your site will be rewarded by search engine algorithms throughout the years, even after many updates, since the content and the links are high-quality and relevant for both search engine algorithms as well as real audiences who will appreciate the engaging writing and informative details in the articles.
Which Websites are Ideal for Guest Blogging?
Website Traffic: Use SEO tools like Semrush to see the site’s organic traffic levels. If it has good traffic and backlink profile then it should be considered for guest blogging due to its large audience and high visibility.
Content Quality and Engagement Levels: See if the site’s recent posts have comments, likes, shares, and other forms of engagement. The more active the website is and the more engage the readership, the better results your guest blogs will have.
Real Readers and Audiences: Check if the comments and replies are from real humans or dummy accounts with copy-and-paste replies. Prioritize domains with active and engaged audiences.
How to Choose Topics for Guest Blogging?
What do your readers need, what are they looking for, or asking about?
Think of how to make your guest blogs have value to your audience, not merely advertising your own site or product.
Addressing this will establish yourself, your website, and your brand as an authority in the field that can be relied upon, that readers, as well as other bloggers and businesses, can turn to.
When you have found a website that will accept guest blogging, check their Featured Posts or use tools like Semrush to analyze top-performing content, look at the trending topics featured on the websites and social media pages of established brands in the industry.
This will give you an idea of what is currently in vogue, giving you the option to either capitalize on hot and trending topics. Or if you are feeling bold, you can use this data to determine what is currently missing and what new take or spin you can inject into the discourse that will capture the attention of your audience.
Either way, the research will help you narrow down ideas for your own guest blog topic and what your audience will prefer.
For Guest Blogging and SEO Success, Turn to the Pros
Not sure where to start with your guest blogging strategy? You can count on the professional SEO Experts at Jack Pine Media for a holistic approach, incorporating both content creation and Search Engine Optimization, resulting in genuine and authentic writing backed by solid metrics, keyword research, and backlinking to raise your brand’s visibility and SERP rankings.
