Be Our Guest

Sure, SEO is more than just backlinks, but you know very well that they are an important part of your ranking strategy.

A well-optimized website, along with some good backlinks, has a better chance of ranking for competitive search phrases.

But how do you get backlinks? We talked about that in issue #4, but this week, I want to share a specific idea you can implement today.

By reading the title of this issue, which, by the way, is inspired by one of the songs from the movie Beauty and the Beast, you probably already know what the actionable tip will be about…

Find Guest Post opportunities, the easy way

Why do I say “the easy way”? Because guest post outreach is not as easy as it sounds. It requires a lot of research cold emailing, follow-up, and rejection until you finally get some results.

Of course, the effort is worthwhile because you will be able to get high-quality links that will help your rankings.

You may eventually need to do that, but for now, let’s try an easier way to get some guest post backlinks.

If I know my audience, I’m pretty sure you are as active on Twitter as I am. And if not Twitter, you must have some contacts through other social media channels or communities.

Leverage those connections to find guest post opportunities

So the idea is pretty simple, find someone in a similar niche or that targets the same audience as you and offer to guest post on their blog.

Why would someone agree to that? Because both will benefit!

They get a relevant piece of content that can help them drive traffic to their website, and you get a backlink in return.

If you want to make the deal even sweeter, you can do a guest post exchange and give them a chance to post on your website

Something important to note, the topic of both websites has to be relevant. You wouldn’t want to do a guest post for your chatbot solution on a pregnancy & parenting blog.

Here’s an example of how a good guest post collaboration could look like:

Let’s say that I reach out to my friend Matt Visiwig, who created the tool SVGBackgrounds.com where users can get awesome website graphics (his SaaS was featured in a previous issue), and offer to do a guest post on his blog.

Based on his product, I assume he targets people who make websites. For KatLinks, I target people who have websites.

Match made in heaven

If we do a guest post exchange, I could write about how an SEO tool can help a website rank better and get more traffic. He could write about how visual elements, like background graphics, can help improve user experience and time on site, both of which are very important for SEO.

I’m sure that while reading this, you already thought of someone with whom you could do this, so reach out and get started!

Are there any specific topics you want me to cover in the coming weeks? DM me on Twitter and let me know!