Guest posting, also known as “Guest Blog Posting” is the practice of posting a guest article or guest post on another website.

Guest posting definition

We speak of guest posting when an article written by a foreign author is published on a blog or on a website. In many cases, this is a one-time or ad hoc cooperation.

Originally, guest postings were used for specialized articles. Experts were then invited to publish articles relating to their area of specialization on third-party sites, mainly to strengthen their own reputation and get noticed. Over time, guest posting (also commonly known as guest blogging) has become more and more used to draw attention to websites. Guest author articles have become an important SEO tool.

How guest posting works

The concept is simple: you write a blog post according to the needs of a particular blogger and you get a link back, which can be in the main content or at the bottom of the article in the "signature" of the author.

Bloggers want to post high-quality content on their blog that they can use to attract new readers, as well as share with their current audience.

This makes guest posting a win-win solution, both for website owners, who want to rank higher in search engines (and need links to achieve this), and for bloggers who want to attract more readers on their blog.

Links are a primary ranking factor in Google, and in the context of SEO, guest posting offers a strong opportunity to get a backlink from another website, in addition to other marketing considerations.

In fact, guest posting, in addition to SEO benefits, helps build a relationship with the blogger posting the article, reach their audience by providing additional content exposure, and establish their authority with the audience target.

Advantages and risks of guest posting

Guest postings establish, provided the article is of high quality, a win-win relationship for the page operator and the guest blogger. Website operators get new content. These usually cover topics in related fields that the site owner does not write about. In this way, the articles bring new life and added value to the site. Also, traffic can increase without underestimating the advertising effect either. At the same time, guest bloggers enjoy the following benefits:

  • The increase in the degree of notoriety (authority) by dint of being often mentioned on the Web
  • quality backlinks for link building
  • More traffic
  • New visitors with a longer length of stay
  • Creation of new contacts in the blogosphere
  • High penetration of the deliberately selected target group
  • Presentation of own writing skills
  • Gain in newsletter or e-mail subscribers

Risks

Guest posting also has drawbacks. For the site operator, the risk of copyright infringement or damage due to duplicate content arises when the guest blogger has not taken all the necessary precautions when creating his text. Especially for low-quality articles with a lot of backlinks or visible anchor texts for keywords, it is more likely that the Google algorithm will notice this sooner or later. In this case, both the site operator and the guest blogger are subject to penalties if search engine experts find that articles by guest authors have been placed on a large scale.

How to make quality Guest Posting?

To do quality Guest posting, several parameters must be taken into account:

  • Choose the sites that will receive your articles. To find them, do a search on Google or on social networks such as LinkedIn or Twitter,
  • Opt for authority sites to obtain quality backlinks, and only sites in your theme or in your sector of activity,
  • Check that these include external links to other relevant sites and that the published articles they offer are of high quality,
  • Write your content with high added value in the same editorial line as that of the host site,
  • Make sure it interests readers,
  • Opt for a long-format article (between 1,500 and 3,000 words),
  • Integrate a maximum of 3 links and avoid overly optimized link anchors.