How To Increase Website Traffic With Guest Blogging In Three Easy Steps
One of the least understood ways of garnering traffic to your website is guest blogging. Most people think that if they get a few posts put on another website, traffic will begin to trickle to their own site. It makes sense, since people tend to click on the links provided within a post. So it would stand to reason that if you get a post added to another website, people will click on the links and traffic will come pouring in.
That is only half true. For those that have guest blogged for a website before, you know the thrill and agony of watching your website’s traffic analytics. The average experience is this: You post an article and in the next few hours or day you see a spike in traffic – yeah! But, within a few days, your traffic numbers have returned to normal with virtually no overall increase in traffic – boo. In fact, the average net result of increased traffic is less than ten percent of the people that came over from the other website stay.
So how do you make the most out of your guest blogs? You write for SEO. I know that SEO has received a bad name in the last few years, but, after all, SEO just means “Search Engine Optimization.”
Why Do You Write For The Search Engines?
While writing to attract the readers of another blog can yield a short burst of new readers for your own blog, the lifespan of readership for a blog post is relatively short. In order to have sustained results of people pouring into your site month after month, you need to attract the attention of the search engines. And the best way to do this is show Google and the like that you are considered an authority in your niche.
How You Write for Search Engines?
- Write for blogs that are broadly within your niche. If your have a blog about appliance repair, for example, you do not have to stick to other blogs only about appliance repair. But, you will want to write for blogs that will somewhat relate. Branch out to “Do It Yourself” blogs, “Home Energy Saving,” or “Second Hand Shopping” blogs. Just pick a site that is broadly related to your niche. This shows the search engines that a variety of sites consider your a trusted source of information, not just those that are exactly like you.
- Optimize your post for keywords you wish to rank for. You do not have to beat Google over the head with your keywords. If you seed your article with a 1% to 3% ratio, the search engines will get the hint. Just make sure that everything you write is 100% human readable.
- Make sure the anchor text linking back to your site has is comprised of a variety of related keywords. Do not just have you ranking keyword as your anchor text. Make sure that you also have keywords that are related to the keyword you wish to rank for. So, if you write 10 guest blogs, have 2 that are exactly your keyword, 6 that are a variation of your keyword, and 2 that are just your URL. This will ensure that the anchor text appears normal, since this is roughly how 10 different people would link to your website.
Keep in mind that these three tips are a art form, not a science. It is a matter of trial and error. But when the search engines clue into what your blog is about and they see more and more websites linking to you, the search engines will reward your work with traffic that comes pouring in month after month.
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