Outreach - Guest Blogs & Articles

[BeckyKey]

Hi

I know how old hat guest blogs are - but is all lost for high quality articles being placed on relevant sites?

I am trying to decide where to put my offsite SEO efforts - we have no outreach strategy at present.

Do I ignore articles altogether & focus on SEO/Social campaigns? Or try and do both?

It's only me internally, we are looking to outsource some of the work but not all.

Help!

Thanks!

[RobCairns]

Hi Becky,

As always, the answer may depend on your situation. For example:

What are you trying to achieve?

• Rankings?
• Traffic?
• Leads?
• Awareness?

What is your target audience?

• B2B? B2C?
• Local? Regional? International?

What resources are available to you?

• Content team?

In my experience, guest blogs and outreach articles committed to relevant sites are still effective for generating interest and communication in a B2B atmosphere. They may not translate directly to leads, but they put you in a position to receive communications from a variety of contacts assuming you choose the right method, message and influencers.

As a general rule, the more condensed your target audience, both geographically and industry-wise, the more effective a content campaign will be. It works wonders if you can establish yourself as an authority.

On the flipside, that will require time and resources, so the question is whether or not you can afford this both cost-wise and time-wise. I would shy away from social media unless your business specializes in visual products/services. Technical SEO is always valuable to have (especially on-site) but beware of anything involving PBN's and linking strategies involving purchased links (obviously).

To answer your question directly:

1. Get your site in good working order to receive visitors/leads
2. Find influencers in your market and see whether they offer options for guest posting
3. Look for relevant communities - if you can produce high-quality content, then give it a shot! It might take a couple of months but it's a good investment.
4. Look into linking opportunities while pursuing #'s 1)-3) above. If you can't get direct traffic and leads out of the deal, perhaps you can gain on the technical SEO side!
5. Technical SEO is a faster solution than content marketing, but will not get you far on its own. Content marketing will take some time, but it has enormous benefits if you do it right. The balance is key, but I would absolutely not sacrifice the production of content and value in order to gain links.

Hope this helps! If you need clarification or a follow up (or just want to talk shop) feel free to reach out!

Best of luck,

Rob

[EGOL]

I would pick a couple product categories that....

• you will be selling long term

• you are able to write about from deep experience

• you receive numerous customer questions

• your customers have lots of repeat orders for consumables and accessories

Then I would start writing detailed product guides and publish them on my own website.  Make this a library of information about those products. How to select, how to use, how to repair, interesting things that people do with them.  Make this the best guide to these products on the web.

Start with a single product category and offer a newsletter.  Then, when you add a couple of pages to your guide, send them to these people.  Focus on information about the consumables and accessories.  Announce new products and show how you use them.

[Roman-Delcarmen]

Very good answer, when I see answer like yours I realize how much I have to learn.

[EGOL]

Thank you, Roman.

This is a way to build your content, grow a tribe, and sell from a newsletter, all at the same time.

We are building a website using this method.

[DonnaDuncan]

You said "I am trying to decide where to put my offsite SEO efforts". That starts with having high-quality content. EGOL's suggestion is an excellent one.

I'd also consider investing in some high-quality video content to complement and enrich the written. It could potentially appeal to a wider or different audience.

In deciding where to focus your efforts first, in addition to EGOL's screening suggestions above, I'd do some searching for things like "How to choose an office chair", "How to prevent light weight Dolly accidents" and look for venues with no or outdated content you could offer to help out by having them link to your own.

[BeckyKey]

Hi

This is all very helpful thank you!

My goal the the moment is rankings. We are a generalist in terms of what we sell, everything you need for your business in one place.

But will be concentrating on 5 core areas. Our target audience is all businesses - which is a difficult one to define.

In regards to technical SEO, I can make recommendations but the development team are in France so I am not in control of everything & it is hard to get things done.

In terms of resource, not very much. No content team.

My concern is, if I spend a lot of time writing/researching quality content am I missing out other valuable tasks I need to be doing.

I also think, if we are producing all this great content - but have no social channels how will anyone see it? I know newsletters help, but I think we need more.

So to add to the content, I have the social aspect to think of as well.

I know it all needs to be done, I just want to make sure I'm covering everything somehow

Thanks!

[BeckyKey]

Thank you! Always provide some great tips, do you use social media to share this content on your own site?

[BeckyKey]

I hadn't thought of looking for outdated content so this is really helpful too!

[DonnaDuncan]

Not sure if you're asking EGOL, me, or both of us but yes, I do share this type of content on my own site. I also look for other venues and opportunities to get more eyeballs on my content. For example, you could search Q&A sites for people asking related questions and offer specific advice and include your post so long as it's helpful.

Not surprisingly, Moz has some additional suggestions on ways you can promote your content.

https://moz.com/beginners-guide-to-content-marketing/content-promotion

[EGOL]

We publish all of this content on our own site.

We don't syndicate, share, or guest post anything.

Instead we promote the library of information on every page of our website, link to it in the persistent navigation, guide customers to it when they write to us for information, feature it in a newsletter that we send every month, and let industry groups know that it is available for viewing on our website.

That's what we do.  Our customers and site visitors then share it for us.