How To Earn Links With A Guest Posting Campaign: 4 Common Mistakes

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We get it SEOs and webmasters. A guest posting outreach campaign can be a very exciting time in your marketing strategy. It is the perfect opportunity to spread your wings and grow your audience, break out of your mold, and network. Not to mention squeezing some sweet link juice for your SERP rankings by backlink building. 

Can’t wait to get started earning backlinks and increasing referral traffic? That is great, but make sure that you avoid these 4 common pitfalls that can stop a guest posting campaign in its tracks. 

1. Not Doing Enough Research on Guest Posting Platforms 

It is easy to get so excited about the content you are going to create, that where you are going to publish it might seem like an afterthought. 

The truth is that the benefits you get out of guest blogging will only be as good as the platform you publish on. Make sure that you do your due diligence to find a platform that is: 

• Relevant to your industry or niche 
• A high authority site with a tool like Ahrefs 
• A site or publication with a good reputation and that’s trusted within the industry 

Checking the relevance and reputation of a guest blogging site will take more legwork. But, you can start by actually reading the content on their blog and checking out some of the writers and editorial team members. 

Also, remember that the amount of link juice you get via backlinks from your guest post is heavily dependent on that site’s domain authority and relevance. Google awards more link juice for backlinks from higher ranked sites, meaning quality always wins over quantity. 

2. Not Personalizing Your Outreach Efforts 

Guest posting is just as much about connections and networking as it is about spreading your brand name. It is likely that editors for popular publications receive hundreds of emails a day, much of which is spam. 

To stand out from the crowd, and to give your email the best chance of getting opened, employ some personalization. Do some research and find the editor or content curator’s name, at the very least. The Luckyposting.com blog often shares useful information on how to achieve the desired result by building a correct strategy of pitching and gives other useful tips. 

According to MarketingSherpa, open rates are 40% higher with a personalized subject. 

3. Being Too Spammy 

At a time, people were hoping to game Google’s algorithm by stuffing their guest posts with links and keywords. As a result, Google started clamping down on spammy guest posting behavior. 

While guest posting didn’t die as many feared, it did force all parties involved to act more responsibly. In short, you can still use backlinks to your site, but make sure that: 

• The anchor text isn’t too promotional 
• You don’t use too many 
• Link only to valuable content on your site 
• Make sure links are relevant to the topic, the anchor, etc. 

Producing content that is too spammy, will also hurt your chances of landing new opportunities. Editors want content that’s valuable, engaging, and entertaining - not ads. 

4. Not Thoroughly Researching The Topic You Want To Write About 

This is probably the most crucial thing to get right when writing a guest post. Unfortunately, it is also the easiest to get stuck on or to get plain wrong. 

By now, you probably already know how to use keyword and competitor research to identify high-ranking and relevant topics. As guest posting is a more limited opportunity than writing on your own blog, you have to make sure to get this spot on. 

Secondly, you should also check that this exact topic wasn’t already covered in that publication. However, if the existing article is old or outdated, go for it if you can provide more value. Pitching a juicy topic to write about will drastically increase your chances of landing the gig. 

Depending on the exact nature of the platform, you might also have to adjust your topic to suit their audience. Try to identify where you overlap, and target that as a focus for your copy. 

Work For Your Guest Posting And It Will Work For You 

Some argue that you should put even more effort into your guest posts than content on your own blog. That is not far from the truth, as you are putting your brand’s name out there for all to scrutinize. 

While the benefits of guest posting go way beyond writing good content, so does landing opportunities in the first place. A guest posting agency helps businesses come up with a scalable strategy for a guest posting campaign as well as coming up with more effective pitches. 

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