What is Guest Blogging and How to Collaborate on Blogs Without Being Penalized?

Guest blogging is a practice that is already a few years old. 

It is a popular strategy because it has numerous benefits when it comes to improving SEO positioning or increasing the visibility of a brand. 

And, therefore, it is included in many digital marketing strategies.

However, it can also mean a penalty for your website or blog if you do not do it properly.

In this article, we will tell you what guest blogging is, what its advantages are, and how to develop a successful guest posting strategy.

Let’s start!

What is Guest Blogging?

Guest blogging or guest posting is a collaboration between bloggers. 

It consists of offering to write an article on a foreign blog as an author or guest author and guest blogger.

Generally, this strategy is bidirectional. 

In other words, in many cases, the blogger behind the blog you have selected to publish this post also wants to offer to publish an article on yours.

This practice is perfect for increasing your brand visibility. 

In addition, you will be able to reach new audiences and integrate a link-building strategy.

Let’s see what advantages guest blogging can have for your blog or website.

Main Advantages of Guest Blogging

Writing on other blogs or having other bloggers write on your own has a series of advantages associated with it, both for the blog where the article is hosted and for the author of the article.

Let’s look at some of the benefits of guest blogging.

Improve SEO Positioning

Among the many factors that the Google algorithm takes into account when positioning content, one is the incoming links that your website or blog receives. 

And, in turn, that these are of quality.

That is other pages in the sector link to your blog. 

And it is that a website that does not have any incoming links will position worse than one that does have them.

This strategy of getting incoming links from other websites to your page or blog to increase the authority of the page and improve SEO positioning is known as link building.

For this reason, guest blogging is a good practice to get backlinks or incoming links.

When writing an article on another blog, you should negotiate the inclusion of a link to your own website.

In this way, and as long as you have carefully chosen the medium in which you are going to write, you will be able to improve your positioning.

Increase Your Brand Awareness

By writing an article in another medium directed, in addition, to an audience in the same niche as your field of activity, you will be able to reach a larger audience.

In this way, you will improve your visibility and increase the notoriety of your brand or personal brand. New readers will be able to meet you and consider your work. And not only users, but also colleagues in the sector.

Also, if you contribute quality content as a guest blogger, you will increase your visibility as a professional in your field.

Something tremendously useful when it comes to positioning yourself as a specialist in your sector and opening the way to new job opportunities and professional relationships.

Greater Dynamism to Your Blog

Thanks to the inclusion of articles written by guests, you will be able to offer your audience new content written by other profiles.

Professionals who, perhaps, have greater knowledge about a specific aspect in your field about which you may not be confident enough to write an article about it.

This way you can increase the dynamism of your website and retain your audience. And, of course, attract the readers of the other blog to your own.

New Ways to Monetize Your Blog

Some media allow other bloggers to publish an article on their blog in exchange for financial compensation. 

Generally, when they have a strong personal brand and can be considered influencers within the sector.

Also, this is typical of niche platforms that have good authority in the eyes of Google.

If this is your case, new ways of monetizing your work would open up in exchange for inserting links to other media.

Is Guest Blogging Penalized?

Guest blogging, as such, is a practice that is not penalized.

Of course, it must be done naturally and following good practices from Google’s point of view to avoid a penalty.

We are going to see below what you should take into account when carrying out your guest posting strategy.

Develop a Successful Guest Blogging Strategy

To offer to publish an article as a guest post, follow these steps:

• Investigate what blogs are in your market niche.
• Quality is better than quantity.
• Beware of penalized domains.
• Try inserting “do-follow” links.

Let’s look at each of these phases in more detail.

Investigate What Blogs Are in Your Market Niche

For your guest posting strategy to work, it is important that you go to a blog with the same theme.

For example, if you have a blog about dental health, it is of little use to publish a post on a literature blog. 

Ideally, you could include your article in a blog in the dental or medical sector.

In this case, a dental magazine or a blog in your sector in which they count on you to give your vision as a specialist in the field.

Therefore, you should investigate which are the best blogs within your market niche and which ones share your tone and values.

Another idea is to see if any of them have made guest posts before. 

Thus, you will have part of the path paved.

Make a list of the ones you have found so that it is easier for you to consult them again later.

Quality Better Than Quantity

When it comes to getting inbound links to your blog, quality should prevail over quantity.

That is, the links come from pages that enjoy good authority.

To do this, you can check the domain authority DA, or Domain Authority of these blogs. Choose only those with good authority.

It is true that these links are more complicated to get. 

However, linking to your page from other websites that have low authority is not a recommended practice. 

In fact, it can harm your web positioning.

Beware of Penalized Domains

Another factor that you should take into account is whether the domain has suffered a penalty from Google. 

Generally, due to bad practices carried out previously.

If so, it is not a good option to write an article for this medium.

Try Inserting “Dofollow” Links

One of the aspects that you must take into account when negotiating collaboration in another blog is the type of link that you are going to be able to insert. 

In this case, it is important that your goal is to include a “do-follow” link. 

And it is that this, in the eyes of Google, is the one that has the most value when it comes to improving your domain authority.

Avoid blogs that offer you “no-follow” links in exchange for your content. 

These will not significantly influence you when it comes to improving your positioning.

And finally, you must be clear about which keywords are going to be used as anchor text in the incoming links to your page.

Good Guest Blogging Practices

Now that you know all the factors that you should take into account when developing your strategy to collaborate on other websites, let’s look at some good practices that can help you optimize your work.

Write a Personalized Email

If the medium in which you want to write enjoys a good reputation, surely you will not be the first person interested in collaborating with it. 

Therefore, you must take maximum care of your way of contacting them.

To do this, write a personalized email to the website on which you want to collaborate.

Explain to them why you want to collaborate on their blog, and what you could contribute with your collaboration on it.

If you can, provide accurate data backed by figures number of monthly visits, DA, main themes that are touched on in your blog, etc.

Propose a couple of Topics to Discuss

When proposing a collaboration, it is important that you show that you are a proactive person.

Thus, a collaboration is better accepted if the person proposing it advances a couple of topics that could be of interest.

To do this, you must take into account both the theme of the blog and the keywords for which they are positioned.

Avoid duplication of content at all times, and propose a current topic that could be interesting to include in your content strategy.

Establish the Conditions of Collaboration

It is important that, from the outset, both sides are clear about the conditions that accepting this collaboration will entail. 

And by that, I mean:

• Date of publication, and the deadline for content delivery.
• Type of link to insert. As we have said before, try to always make it a “do-follow” link with the right keywords.
• What is expected in exchange for the content? An economic reward, or a post on our blog?

Once these conditions are clarified, all that remains is to prepare the content.

Create Quality Content

Writing a post on another blog is, after all, a showcase. 

Therefore, you should focus on creating quality content, carefully and, if possible, with references.

In addition, you must demand the same from the other collaborator.

Careless content, that contains information copied from other posts or that does not have updated data will be detrimental to the medium in which it is hosted and will affect your image as a brand.

Conclusions About Guest Blogging

Guest blogging is a very common practice within SEO positioning and content marketing strategies. 

And, unfortunately, poorly done and, therefore, tremendously persecuted by the giant Google.

In fact, these collaborations have already been extended to other formats such as email marketing, social networks, or podcasts.

Careful consideration, good market research, and quality collaboration are key factors in implementing it successfully. 

In addition to being a good guest and leaving the audience of the other blog speechless with your guest article.

Thanks for Reading.