Everyone knows that building quality external links is important for search engine optimization. In a recent study conducted by SEOmoz, it was found that link building is in the top three activities carried out by SEO marketers worldwide. The problem, however, is knowing how to actually find these opportunities without spending a ton of money or time.
The rest of this post will outline one of many ways to find good linking opportunities. Even better, this method requires no expensive tools or shady deals. All that is required is Google and internet access. 🙂
Step 1
Perhaps one of the best ways to build quality links is through guest blogging on other relevant websites. For step one, start by browsing blogs within your industry. As you scan through these blogs, you will likely see many guest posts. Once you find one blog that accepts guest posts, you have found your golden ticket for many more opportunities by using a specific search query.
To illustrate this concept in a real-life scenario let's imagine that you are a car mechanic. During step one, you find CarAutoBlog123 where John Doe is a guest blogger. The next step is to find other posts where John Doe has written about cars.
Tip For Finding Relevant Blogs
If you are looking to find relevant industry blogs or bloggers, consider using Followerwonk, a relatively new and exciting tool that allows you to, among other things, search and analyze Twitter profile descriptions. While many other websites and apps allow you to search Twitter, Followerwonk distinguishes itself by allowing you to search and analyze profile descriptions.
When using this tool, search common, but descriptive words that will lead you to guest post opportunities. Be sure to narrow your terms enough, so that you don’t get an excessive amount of listings. Also, try sorting on the social authority header to see identify people with a powerful online presence.
Step 2
In step 2, type into Google the following string that is in parenthesis (inpostauthor:"John Doe"). This query shows indexed results where John Doe has written on other blogs. If the blogger has a common name, and the results are showing other people with the same name, feel free to get more descriptive in your search query.
Step 3
By now, you may have found a dozen or more blogs that have accepted John Doe's posts relating to auto maintenance, and these websites are prime candidates for you to submit your own guest posts. However, you are not quite done yet. Continue to scan through these posts, and make note of all of the other guest bloggers who have written on these various blogs.
Once you have organized your list of guest bloggers, use the "inpostauthor" search query with their names, and voila! You have greatly expanded your list of blog owners who accept guest posts. If you want to get really fancy, you can always set an RSS feed up on the search query parameters and have these opportunities sent directly to your RSS reader as they are being indexed.
Tips to Get Posted
At this point in your search, you have identified a group of blogs that allow guest posting, but you still haven’t built any links. It is very important that you follow proper guest blogging etiquette in order to yield the results that you are looking for. Here a few final tips to help you with this process.
- Be Sensible. - Carefully read through the guest blog guidelines. It is plain stupid to not adhere to these, so make sure you follow any special requests by the guest blogger.
- Be Relevant. - If you haven’t already, read through recent posts on the blog, and make sure whatever you plan to write about is relevant to other content on the blog. If you want to write about car maintenance, then do not contact a blogger who only posts only about baking.
- Be Grateful. – When contacting the blog owner, make sure you are respectful and do not have an entitlement approach in your communication with them. Chances are, they receive many guest blog requests, and it would be an honor if they posted yours.
- Be Professional. – When communicating with the blog owner, use proper grammar and avoid excessive punctuation. If you want them to take you seriously, show them you are a credible source, not just someone trying to get a quick link.
- Be Personal. – It is easy to tell if someone is using an email template and mass emailing a group of blogs. Don’t be that person. Instead, personally address the blogger by name and write a friendly email that is specific towards them.
- Be Complete. – If possible, send the owner the blog post that you would like to post in your initial email to them. You want to minimize the work that they have to do. Also include images when appropriate.
Wrapping Up
Getting quality links from reputable blogs is highly important for anyone trying to expand their SEO efforts. Finding good blogging opportunities can be a bit tricky, but very doable. I actually found this blog by using the above technique, and I have had good success in reaching other bloggers in this fashion. While it definitely takes some work to search and write guest posts, it is a great (free) long-term solution to benefit your website’s rankings.
