Every powerful search engine optimization strategy has one common thread; an effective link building campaign focused on driving traffic to your website.

When it comes to ranking high in Google, inbound links are a critical determining factor. So if you’re looking to rank high for certain focus keywords (and really, who isn’t?), it’s imperative that you implement some great link building practices in order to successfully improve your SEO.

I know what you’re thinking. This is all sounds well and good, but how the heck do you get more inbound links driving traffic to your website?

One of the most effective ways is through guest blogging. By effectively sharing your industry expertise on other successful blogs, you’ll do wonders to expand your reach and improve your SEO strategy.

Check out our guest blogging tips that we employ here at IMPACT in order to improve our link building campaign, get more inbound links, and improve our overall SEO.

Guest Blogging Tip #1: Identify Guest Blogging Opportunities

Once you’re ready to venture into the world of guest blogging, the first step is finding the right opportunities for sharing your expertise. It’s important that you do your research here, as wasting your time guest blogging for a blog that gets little to no visitors from your target market isn’t good for anyone.

Perform a Keyword Search

Come up with a list of relevant keywords your’e trying to rank for, and search for them in Google. Which blogs are coming up? Any good resources? Go through a bunch of the search results pages and develop a list of all the blogs or websites with a blog that are relevant to your message.

The most effective way for finding the right guest blogging opportunity is to first narrow your search to blogs that directly correlate to your company’s marketing strategy. There’s no better way of doing this than by researching which blogs are associated with the keywords you’re trying to rank for.

Research Blog Directories

If you’re having trouble finding blogs through your keyword research, there’s actually four great sites recommended by HubSpot that will help you find the best opportunities for guest blogging.

1. Alltop – This is a great resource due to the amount of quality blogs they feature, as they contain the best blogs from just about every niche. Searching by industry keywords is the most effective way of utilizing Alltop. You’ll surely find some great, quality blogs on here to feature your content.

2. Technorati – Holy blogs, Batman! When it comes to quantity, I’m not sure anyone approaches Technorati. They feature over a million blogs in just about every niche and industry. You can find blogs by searching relevant keywords in the search box, and you’ll be well on your way to finding a slew of great blogs to choose from.

3. Google – It shouldn’t come as any surprise that the biggest search engine online is also a great resource for finding guest blogging opportunities. Find relevant blogs by searching for relevant keywords and niche markets.

4. MyBlogGuest – The biggest guest blogging directory on the web, MyBlogGuest is a community featuring thousands of guest bloggers from all over the world. You can even find guest contributors to contribute to your own blog here.

Guest Blogging Tip #2: Create a Guest Blogging Calendar

Just as it’s important to stay consistent with your own blog, it’s also important to guest blog on a consistent basis in order to effectively execute your link building campaign.

At IMPACT, we’ll set out a time each month for our clients who wish to guest blog, and we’ll generate the desired content to be shared, always staying organized as to never miss a guest blogging opportunity.

Map out a game plan regarding your guest blogging. How often are you looking to do it? Weekly? Monthly?

Stay organized as to never miss a chance to expand your reach.

Guest Blogging Tip #3: Develop Topics Tailored to the Blogs You Wish to Be Featured

Here’s the tricky part. You’ll want to write your blog posts in a manner that’s best suited for the blog that you wish to be featured on.

If you’re really pining to be a guest blogger on a popular social media site, tailor your blog article to focus on how your brand utilizes social media to stay ahead in your industry.

Remember, you’re writing for someone else’s blog, they don’t have to accept your guest post. Stay in line with the overall message of the blog you’re featured on, simply adding your own twist and expertise on the topic in order to add flavor.

This will help to set you aside as a authority on the topic at hand while also effectively creating quality, inbound links to help drive traffic back to your website.

Guest Blogging Tip #4: Track & Measure the Results of Your Link Building Strategy

Tracking the visits, leads, and SEO benefits of your guest blogging is essential in more effectively allocating your time to the ones that are most beneficial for your company.

As certified partners of HubSpot, IMPACT utilizes their software for ourselves as well as our clients to track and measure analytics as they relate to the traffic, visits, and leads generated from all marketing endeavors, including guest blogging.

HubSpot’s software will even tell us how many inbound links each and every blog post we write is producing. Pretty valuable information, right?

We think so too.

If you’re looking to more effectively track and measure the analytics necessary to maintain a powerful SEO strategy with your guest blogging, contact us today, we’d love to help!