Guest posting has always been one of the most effective Internet marketing tools businesses have utilized to widen their customer reach.

It may not be as well-used as other Search Engine Optimization (SEO) tactics and other Social Media Marketing (SMM) techniques but it definitely helps businesses earn the exposure they need to grow in their specific niche. It has bridged gaps between businesses and their target markets and helped business owners build their brand and network channels which will in turn create more opportunities through online visibility.

Guest Posting is Dead? When Posts Lose Effectiveness

That was case until, Google’s very own Matt Cutts, infamously declared that guest posting is dead.  With numerous advantages derived from guest posting, how can one assume that it is now a dead–end practice?

A lot of discussion arose from Cutt’s statement, each missing the whole point why those words came about in the first place.

The effectiveness of guest posting lies on the initial objective of the guest post itself. If it’s meant to share and broaden the business’ marketing channel while producing quality and informative posts, then by all means it is still effective.

The only time that a guest post loses its credibility and ultimately its effectiveness is when it’s solely used for link building (which is not necessarily a bad thing) and then coupled with low quality, thinly thought contents. It no longer serves it purpose of being a legitimate promotional tool. Instead, it just becomes filler to a website disguising as an informative one.

In relation to these thoughts, can lackluster guest posts do more harm than good to one’s business?

In a way, as Google sees it, it will. Low quality, uninspired guest posts are no way different from spam. And in today’s digital marketing landscape, nobody wants to be associated with spam.  Spam-like guest posts play it safe with the system but in due course affects the site’s credibility, audience loyalty and most importantly search engine ranking.

However, this can still be turned around to one’s benefit.

How to Make Guest Posts Effective

As with SEO, content is king. And you can definitely create guest post content which follows the guidelines mentioned above. Here is how it’s done:

• Start by crunching high quality, original content that people would actually want to read. Make sure that your guest posts are insightful and at the same time engaging to your target audience. One should altogether step away from the notion of link building with guest posting and focus more on quality sites and better content. Although the content is ultimately made for the purpose of earning a link back to your website, it should not be accomplished by simply creating content that are not well thought of and does not benefit the reader in anyway.
  
  
• Be a voice of authority in your niche to gain exposure and build credibility. This is similar to building a brand except that you will build your personal reputation as a contributor of content related to your business. For example, Pat Flynn is well known in the passive income department. He is able to sell products and services by being an expert in this field. People trust what he says, hence, they trust what he sells as well due to his positive reputation in his chosen niche.
  
  
• Lastly, cultivate a relationship with effective guest post partners that share the same networking and marketing objectives as you do. That way, you can immediately filter those who practice repetitive, spam-like posting before they can harm your site. And if you must link, opt to link to other sites (and not just your own) if this will be beneficial to your reader. Don’t link to websites which post poor quality content or spam. Earning a link from such sites is not worth it if it tarnishes your reputation and penalizes your site in the long run. We all know that Google punishes sites with low quality content as well as websites which link to them.
  
  

How to Find Guest Posting Opportunities

There are actually countless websites where you can publish content with a link back to your website. A simple Google search with related keywords such as the search terms, “websites offering guest post” will lead to a search result showing the actual websites accepting guest posts or blog and forum posts with a list of such websites.

However, not all of them are relevant to your business. Hence, you need to filter the list in order to find websites that are related to the product or service you are offering. Afterwards, you may start contacting the shortlisted websites.

In most cases, the rules and guidelines when it comes to acceptable posts are included in such sites. So make sure to take note of the instructions. Otherwise, your post will be rejected sadly due to technicalities.

Your chances for seeing a published post will increase if you personally connect with the blog or site owner. You may add them through social media sites particularly LinkedIn, where professionals and businesses find potential partners amongst individuals and companies on the site. Even popular social media sites like Twitter is a good place to connect with people.

Hire a Third Party Service

If you have no time to scour the web for guest posting options or to even write the actual content you will pitch, you may always hire third party persons or agencies offering this type of service through freelance sites. But in case you do entrust your guest posting needs to someone else, make sure to follow through every step from the sites they chose for guest posting to the actual content they will post. This is to ensure that your site is linking to highly reputable websites and the content used is of high quality.

Conclusion: Guest Posting is Not Dead

And so when one ask again, is guest posting dead, the answer is no. It is still an effective strategy to build a business’ brand, increase its market reach and refer traffic provided that you are still dealing with top notch quality content relevant to your business’s target niche.

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