By Matt Flowers, Owner of Ethos Copywriting

 Is your website getting buried in search results? Take comfort in knowing that you’re not the only one (and the fact that we’re spelling out an effective solution to the problem through search engine optimization and content creation in this piece).

 According to HubSpot, growing organic SEO ranks as the No. 1 sales priority for businesses in 2018. Coming in second: Blog content creation. However, SEO is intricately connected to content creation, that savvy business owners can crush both marketing goals with one solution: guest blogging.

 Too, it’s worth noting that “content distribution” also made it into the top five prerogatives for businesses. So in effect, you may be able to crush three goals with this blog-centric approach.

Blogging versus Guest Blogging

Is blogging worth it? Undoubtedly. Even Google spells it out: “[Providing high-quality content] is the single most important thing to do.” More specifically, building a top-notch blog, updates section, or news page on your site will help:

• Humanize your brand
• Increase leads
• Increase search engine traffic
• Position your business as an authority
• Strengthen your social media presence
• Tap into long-tail search queries 

However, it also matters where you post this high-quality content. Without question, high-quality onsite blog posts can bolster your site’s search authority. Researchers at Moz found that the quality, quantity, and relevance of content total 14.94% of Google’s ranking signal. That being said, this search giant’s elusive algorithm appears to weigh backlinks as a clear indicator of trust and authority. 

For instance, domain-level link features, such as the number of links to your domain, trust/quality of links to your domain, and your domain-level page rankings comprise 20.94% of Google’s ranking factors. Likewise, page-level link elements (number and quality of links, anchor-text distribution, etc.) make up another 19.15%.

This means nearly half of Google’s ranking factors are based on backlinks. To put this into perspective, a high-quality guest post with a backlink can effectively produce the same SEO boost as two to three long-form blogs (>1000 words) on your own site.

But how do you “get,” or more precisely, “earn” a backlink? Arguably the best approach is to actively guest blog. This method may entail reaching out to relevant, trustworthy websites within your industry. Because you’re adding quality content to their site, they’ll generally allow you to include a link in your piece. 

However, it’s critical that you look into the domain authority (DA), page authority (PA), and spam score of the site for which you’re considering to write a guest post. If their domain and page authority ranks low (ranges from 0 to 100) and their spam score (ranges from 0 to 17) high, chances are you want to decline that “opportunity.” 

Likewise, savvy publications will put the kibosh on spammy articles that attempt to use black hat SEO techniques like inappropriate anchor text (the text that appears highlighted in a hyperlink) and auto-generated content as this puts their website at risk of being flagged as spam.

Be the ERCGP’s Guest

It can be difficult to find a high-quality website that allows business owners to submit a blog. For that reason, it’s imperative to consider your connections when brainstorming places to guest post. 

Fortunately, when you’re part of Erie Regional Chamber and Growth Partnership (ERCGP), you’re eligible to submit four pieces per year to their “Business Brief” blog! By guest posting, you’re not only going to crush your organic SEO, content creation, and content distribution goals, but you’ll be engaging with your community, industry, and potential customers.