How to Do Guest Post Outreach: Tips, Tricks & Strategy for Success

Guest posting is a crucial element of a link-building strategy. It helps establish your brand’s presence to a broader audience and, more importantly, generates backlinks. Hence, it is vital to do it right.

Trying to convince an authoritative website to publish your guest post goes beyond simply pitching your self-serving idea. For example, your guest post topic should align with the target website’s niche, it must also follow the guidelines set by the receiving website, and you must do your homework on the topic itself. 

Those are some things to consider, but there’s more to it than meets the eye.

I have included some tips and tricks on guest post outreach in this article so you can always hit the nail on the head.

What is Guest Post Outreach?

A guest post is an article written by a contributor for another website, typically in the same industry. This strategy helps build relationships, increase exposure, and enhance backlink profiles, boosting SEO. 

Guest posting allows authors to reach new audiences and websites and offer fresh perspectives to their readers. For instance, this article is a guest post outreach to Linkody, which they agreed to publish.

Guest post outreaches are a link-building, off-page SEO strategy done in exchange for backlinks. Why?

A link back from an authority website transfers link juice that can increase a target domain’s link equity or value. To this end, aside from on-page approaches, building quality backlinks using off-page SEO is crucial.

There are a few but essential reasons behind trying to convince the owner of another website to publish your written content. For example:

• It can help build your brand and establish your presence.
• It helps the site you write for be an authority in their industry or niche.
• Your content can add value to the site’s audience, help them learn something new, broaden their knowledge on a topic, or see an existing idea from a new angle.
• Your website can get attention from other sites’ visitors, resulting in some traffic drive.
• You can get backlinks from the site in this process.
• It helps you build collaboration with the site.

Now, you can see why guest posts are valuable.

Guest post outreach is often lengthy and time-consuming, as you may not always find the right site for your niche. However, when you do find it, the rest goes somewhat like this:

• You pitch one or more ideas to the website owners and await their response.
• If they approve of your idea, you start drafting and writing the content following their guidelines.
• Once you submit it, they publish it on their website.
• You can do a follow-up if they don’t respond to your mail.
• If they reject your idea, that is often the end of that outreach unless they invite more ideas and like your new pitches.

How Do Guest Posts Help with Your Website’s Link-Building?

I have briefly mentioned some positive effects of guest posts on your website and the one you are writing for. In this section, let me explain some points in depth.

Two of the biggest keys to SEO are the content and link-build in your site. Guest posting can help you with both. Here’s how:

Let’s say you are writing quality content, but it is not gaining the attention it deserves because your site isn’t popular yet.

A high-quality guest post on a reputable website with high monthly organic traffic may attract interest in your website and drive referral traffic to your website. Moreover, backlinks from guest posts on high domain authority (DA) or domain rating (DR) websites will transfer more link equity to your website.

Many start their link-building by getting many backlinks from low-DA websites. They prioritize quantity over quality.

It is fine until Google flags it as link spam. It may result in your link-building strategy hurting your SEO. Going for fewer but quality backlinks from high-profile sites using guest blogs is better.

Aside from that, a proper guest post can help you in the following ways:

Brand Awareness and Business Growth

Websites with high DA are usually filled with high traffic. When your guest blog is published there, it can attract an audience with the same interest as your niche.

For instance, if your website promotes and sells fashion-related products, you can use content marketing to try guest posting on authoritative sites related to fashion trends.

Many visitors to that site will probably be fashion enthusiasts who shop frequently. Gaining their attention to your site can do two things:

• It can expose your brand to a new audience interested in your content.
• It can significantly help your business if the audience is impressed by your site’s products.

Having your guest post on a top-level site also adds to your qualification, which you may even post on your social media pages to elevate your SEO.

Helping with SEO

The backlink you get from the site that publishes your content will help boost your SEO. Google will also notice the influx in readership and visits to your site and can rank you higher.

Moreover, some sites may only send backlinks to your domain if it has a certain minimum DA.

Having a published guest post and gaining a larger audience will help increase your DA, allowing you to get backlinks from those sites.

The more your website improves, the higher the chance to get backlinks and rank quicker in SERP.

Build Collaboration and Relationship

One guest post published and one backlink from a high-quality website is fantastic, but how about more?

Well, if your initial guest post is a great success, it can gain attention from the site’s owner. It is a chance for you to build a relationship with them.

The collaboration can benefit both sides. You will get quality backlinks from a site with high DA, and they will get some informative, highly engaging, and actionable guest posts on their site.

Moreover, if your site rises to the rank and gets enough DA in the future, you can send them backlinks and help with their link-building.

Another way to look at it is that if a big-profile site sees that you have a relationship with another site with a high DA, they will find you more trustworthy.

Thus, they may help with broken link-building, send backlinks, or accept your guest blog proposals.

Starting Your Guest Post Outreach

Okay, I have talked enough about the whats and whys of guest blogs. Now, it is time for the main course. The following steps will help you set a fine start at your guest post outreach:

1. Find Suitable Sites

A site with high DA and traffic isn’t necessarily suitable for your guest posting outreach. You need to:

• Find websites within your niche.
• Ensure that the audiences are similar to yours and that their interests align with the content on your website.

For example, let’s say you found an authoritative website about women’s fashion. However, your site is about men’s fashion brands.

While both are in the same niche—fashion—you probably shouldn’t expect many leads from any backlinks or guest posts from that site. The closer the other site is to your niche, the better. If you struggle to find quality sites that accept guest posts, you can opt to work with link-building services providers for a hassle-free guest posting campaign.

Of course, you may want to look for websites with high domain authority for guest posting. You can always check that using Linkody’s Website Authority Checker.

2. Investigate the Site

Knowing the site’s audience well will allow you to craft a piece for them better. Writing on a growing topic that hasn’t been covered by the site yet will gain quite the attention.

For that, you can research the site well by checking the following factors-

• The content of the site
• Posts that got more attention from the audience
• Other guest posts published on the site
• Comments below the posts
• Forums and threads
• If the website has a social media presence, check those places too.

Gathering information about the website owner and audiences will allow you to cater to their preferences.

3. Noting Down Ideas

When studying the website, many ideas may float in your head. Note them down quickly so you won’t forget them later. Avoid any topic that has already been covered. You can divide your content ideas by topic. It can help you filter out some less important ones.

Visit Google and type the following command to avoid pitching duplicate topics to the website:

“site:[website URL] [topic]”

For example: 

site:blog.linkody.com [seo]

This will pull up all articles covered in the website about SEO, allowing guest posters to find gaps and pitch undiscussed topics on Linkody’s blog.

4. Reaching out to the Website Owners

Once you have sorted out your content ideas, it is time to pitch them. This is a crucial part, and I recommend being careful here. Make sure that the pitching looks sincere, professional, and personalized.

The writing on the pitch should make it apparent that you are an expert in the industry. Moreover, you should mention the following points in it:

A. Self-introduction

Introduce yourself, describe your profession and expertise, and briefly mention how long you have been in this field. Near the end, add your contacts, including your email.

Of course, mention your website’s name and niche. In the introduction, you should also explain why you are well-suited to post on their website.

You can also bring up a post on their site that helped you. Instead of honorifics, use the site owner’s name. The pitch must be personalized.

B. Mentioning the Ideas

Next, it is time to talk about some of the ideas for blogs you have listed before. You can explain why you have chosen these ideas and how they can add value to their site.

However, don’t overdo this part; the pitching shouldn’t be too long.

5. Writing the Blog Content

When writing the guest post for the website, it is mandatory to follow its guidelines. Try to maintain uniformity by checking its other content and using a similar format.

Keep your article informative, helpful, engaging, etc. (You know it). Try to strike a good balance between formal and friendly tones.

Add quality anchor texts to create internal links to the site’s blogs. Check some of the ones I used in this article, for example.

According to Matt Cutts, the former head of Google’s web spam department, Google considers low-quality guest posts spam. Ensure the content offers value and is well-written. Remember, site owners have full discretion to reject or accept guest articles even after receiving the initial pitch.

Should You Use a Template for a Guest Post Pitching?

A template will undoubtedly make things easier and safer for you, especially ones that worked before. It can also greatly aid you if you don’t have experience and by keeping everything in order.

However, there is a catch. 

Some templates are tailored to specific website types, so not all of them may work for you. Even if you use a template, alter it to meet the site’s specific requirements. Your pitch should be personalized. Or is it?

Apparently, a bespoke outreach email works better than a personalized one. Yes, both terms may seem similar, but bespoke means more personalized than the word ‘personalized’ itself.

I know that sounds confusing. Simply put, a bespoke email means writing one tailored to the site from scratch. Meanwhile, a personalized one may be an altered version of a guest post template to work for specific websites. According to Moz statistics, bespoke emails work better than simply personalized ones.

However, writing many bespoke emails will cost more and take longer than expected. So, keeping a balance may be your best bet.

I recommend writing a flexible pitching template that can be altered for any guest post outreach within your industry or niche.

Avoid using random, typical templates you may find, as many of them won’t be suitable for you.

What Not to Do During Guest Post Outreach?

Some actions may make or break your guest post outreach attempt. Some of them are a big no-no. Here are some examples:

Mistake #1: Focusing on Yourself Too Much

Do not talk about yourself too much. Keep only one paragraph at the top for the introduction, including your favorite content from their website and other formalities.

Mistake #2: Not Making the Pitch Personalized or Bespoke

It is best to make your own pitching template rather than taking one from the internet since it will be more personalized. Avoid generic emails that don’t show any genuine sincerity towards the site owners.

Mistake #3: Over-persuasiveness

The pitch or the follow-up shouldn’t sound too demanding. It should be a request rather than advice or such. If your follow-up doesn’t get any response, it is probably time to stop with that round. You can contact the website owners later with new and different topic ideas.

Mistake #4: Not Following the Site’s Guest Blog Guidelines

Almost no site owner will want to accept a guest post that didn’t follow their guideline. It shows that the writer didn’t care enough about the rules. Avoid this mistake at all costs and follow the policies correctly.

Mistake #5: Not Keeping Things Formal

Throughout the process, you should keep an air of formality. Informal tone or words will only provide an unprofessional impression to the website authorities. Some examples will be to say ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ when appropriate.

Epilogue

Guest posts are a tool for reaching a new audience, building relationships with quality sites, and gaining backlinks. As one of the most important factors of SEO and link-building, you should do them right. 

Personalizing your pitch and offering irresistible value for the target website are some critical factors in ensuring the success of your guest post outreach.

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