Guest blogging may have been a taboo term for a short while, but small business blogs are starting to realize the SEO benefits of guest blogging if done correctly. In other words, if you feature guest writers on your blog that offer relevant, valuable content for readers and are there for visibility as opposed to link building, your blog can really benefit. The best way to benefit from guest blogging, however, is to create a blog that is attractive to A-list guest bloggers, or influencers. Unfortunately, it’s not always easy to get the most authoritative voices on your blog, but it can be done with a little bit of patience and persistence.
5 Ways to Create a Blog That Attracts Influential Writers
Your first and most important step to creating this type of blog is of course to write quality, detailed, and frequent content on your own. Once you have established a solid blog you can move on to different tactics you can use to get A-List guest authors to want to contribute (discussed below). The very first thing anyone who is considering writing for your blog will do is take a look at the content that has already been published.
Always keep in mind that someone became an influencer in your industry because they were selective about where they wanted to post their articles for both their reputation as well as a way to make sure the content they worked so hard to create gets the visibility it deserves. I wrote in a Search Engine Journal article back in 2014, “Writers want their writing to help achieve a goal, not just be published somewhere for no reason.” This still holds true today.
A few ways to attract influencers to write for your blog after you’ve created a solid blog include:
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Get to know the influencer through social connections.
Connecting with influencers on social media is obviously a great idea not only so they may recognize your face when you do ask for a guest post, but also so you can discover their content and learn more about how and what they write. A great way to really get yourself noticed is to actual focus on creating mutual connections. If you can make mutual connections first, then when you go to connect, they will see that you have connections in common and will be more likely to accept you and remember you on social.
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Engage with that author’s content wherever it may be published on the web.
This is common knowledge, but it’s definitely worth mentioning that it’s important you engage with an influencer’s content if you want them to someday write a post for your blog. Comment and share and influencer’s articles as a way to get to know him/her. Really put yourself out there and show that you value the content they write and you’re a loyal reader.
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Make announcements on your blog when you reach milestones.
As discussed above, the first thing that an influencer is going to do if they notice you and visit your blog is actually look through your blog. Having great content is one thing, but if you can make your blog stand out even more by publishing any major milestones or showing off your success then even better. In a HigherVisibility article we mentioned a SEMRush article where they celebrated publishing 1000 blog posts and then linked back to the guest writers that earned the most page views. This is a great way to show off while still offering content that matters to their readers. Another announcement may be reaching a certain number of newsletter downloads, subscribers, social shares, and more.
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Start small when finding guest authors.
A really great tactic to reaching influencers is to feature other guest authors on your blog. Start small with writers who may not be quite as well known but can still produce great content. If these “smaller” writers have mutual connections with an influencer you’d like to feature, even better. This also gives you great practice with publishing guest articles in general.
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Ask! And spend a lot of time on your pitch.
Once you have done all of the things above, you’re still more likely to have to ask an influencer to write as opposed to waiting for the influencer to come to you. Spend a lot of time on your pitch and highlight what writing for your blog is going to do for him/her, mention any way you may be connected, and lay out the process.
Extra: You can learn more about how to create a great pitch if you’re trying to contribute content from the experts themselves here.
So Why Is This So Important for SEO?
If an influencer publishes an article on your blog it helps open your blog up to all of that influencer’s loyal readers. This article will also jump off the page if it’s someone that reader’s recognize, which again will draw more clicks to your blog. An influencer should also promote the post via his/her social channels, which gives you a huge amount of visibility to a much larger target audience than you were able to get on your own. The best part: It all happens at once! This will put you on the map and will make it easier to earn natural links.
Do you have any thoughts on drawing influencer into your blog to submit a guest article? Let us know in the comment section below.