As we wrote in our previous articles related to guest blogging, this practice is probably the best method for not only getting some high-quality backlinks to your website (with the appropriate anchor text) but also a long-term strategy for increasing brand-awareness. Many webmasters are facing difficulties when searching for new blogs where they can write so here are x tips for making your life easier.

1.      Use search operators

This is probably the easiest way for finding laser targeted blogs accepting (inviting) other bloggers to write content for them. The best way for doing this is first looking for how other websites use keywords in URLs and try to create search operators based on them. Example:

“web design” inurl:guest bloggers wanted

“website design” inurl:write for us

“web design” “this article was written by”

Of course, there are many other operators you can put in practice for finding blogs inviting webmasters to write content for them, in exchange of a link back.

2.      Yet again, Google

Although the first method is brilliant for going straight to the blogs offering guest posting opportunities, obviously there are many other industry blogs that accept guest posts but they cannot be traced with search operators. Create a list with the top blogs in your niche, write a nice email and contact blog owners for a guest post. You will have a surprise…

3.      Blogrolls

So you have written dozens of guest posts for different industry blogs, now what? Should you stop here or continue searching for other opportunities? The best way for continuing this strategy is to check out what other websites are listed in blogrolls. Usually they will also accept guest posts and if not, well, it definitely worth a try.

The latest Google algorithm update – Panda/Farmer – created lot of buzz among all webmasters. Many websites lost thousands of visitors, others won, but all folks seem to be quite obsessed about this algorithm change.

However, books about how to avoid Panda have been launched and they seem to be quite successful. There is nothing “magic” related to how not to be hit by this latest update, here are some obvious tips that anyone should take into consideration for dealing with this issue:

1.      No to autoblogs

Autoblogs are usually creating using different WordPress plugins or software specially created to use auto-generated (stolen) content on the websites they are used. Panda should definitely be translated as “death to autoblogs”. Although before this type of websites sometimes were ranking even higher than the original publisher, with this update things have been changed.

2.      No to cheap re-writes

Many webmasters are using for their blogs cheap writers that usually only re-write content found online – this is not quality content and obviously the websites using this type of content will have to suffer in terms of traffic/SERPS.

3.      No to spun articles/PLR articles

Although Google is only a “robot”, it seems that it can make the difference between quality content and spun, rubbish content. From grammar mistakes to even unusual usage of synonyms, Panda addresses to this issue as well.

4.      Yes to unique, quality content

Unique, interesting and quality content has been for ages the sure-way for getting natural backlinks, more targeted traffic, more loyal readers and more exposure in the online environment. Is not something new that you should definitely create top-notch content but it is new that obviously bad content can do more harm than good, now with the Panda/Farmer update.

Following our latest article regarding how to get more content ideas for your blog, here comes this blog post as an answer to “is it enough to just publish content and leave it like that?”.  Basically, one of the major problems today bloggers are facing is the fact that after publishing a certain article they are just leaving it like that, which is totally wrong.

Here are some great tips to get more exposure for your posts and also get them ranked higher in the search engines:

1. Social bookmarking

Always do some social bookmarking on your blog posts. Whether you are doing a Digg/StumbleUpon or even using automation tools for this, social bookmarking is still a great way to expose your posts and also add some value when it comes to search engine optimisation. Not only that but a potential 1^st page of Digg could bring you thousands of visitors in hours.

2. Blog comments

There are several blogs using “Keyword Luv” – a platform that allows users to highlight their latest blog posts only by adding a comment. It is definitely a great way to add some link juice to your newly launched posts, most of the times using your desired title for the articles.

3. Online discussions

Most of the time you will notice lots of community forums ranking higher than you for a certain title/phrase. One of the best tips for outranking them is to actually register, contribute to the forum without spamming it and once you can add signatures just add a simple reply to the very thread that ranks high thus getting a valuable backlink to your blog post. You are getting much more value than anything because that site is ranked due to its authority and once you have received the link from signature a piece of that authority will be passed upon your site/blog post.

Writing interesting and unique content on your personal/corporate blog is not only a great method for dealing with the latest Google algorithm change (Panda/Farmer) but also the key for getting more targeted readers by answering to their questions and queries. There are many ways of getting new ideas for future articles, this article will talk about some of them, maybe the easiest and more popular ones.

1.      Forums

There isn’t any niche that does not have a handful of community forums where users are engaging in discussions related to your industry. Most of them are asking questions, others are creating interesting threads on your topic and by only taking a closer look on what are the trends on forums you can get lots of new ideas to create content on your blog.

2.      Industry blogs

No, this does not mean copying the ideas and re-hashing some articles but many ideas can come just from reading the comments on different blog posts. Usually people are interacting on blogs with questions or by adding value with their responses, you can easily build articles based on what they are discussing about.

3.      Q & A websites

These are probably the best places to generate content ideas from. Websites like Yahoo Answers hold a great value when it comes to real people asking different questions so start browsing through your niche and get some mind-blowing ideas that answer to many people questions.

4.      Social bookmarking sites

Although they are not as popular as they were before, social bookmarking sites like Digg and StumbleUpon still carry a lot of value when it comes to seeing what topics are of interest in a specific niche. As for the other methods above, just search for your keyword and see what is more popular when it comes to related blogposts/articles.

When writing a specific blog post, you might be entitled to think that you will gain visitors only from search engines, visitors that are browsing online to find answers to specific questions. However, one of the best ways to keep them more on your website (and not only) is to create deep links to your older posts whenever it is possible.

This method does not only lower your bounce rate but it is also a great way for building a stronger internal linking structure and more importantly will give a boost to your older posts. But how can deep links be of help?

First of all, you can use anchor text links to your already on-page optimised posts, thus giving them a boost in the search engines results. It is not only external links that count but also internal links play a major role in SEO.

Second, linking to old content from your blog can bring new visitors interested in that specific subject and also increase crawl-rate on your blog thus making it look more authoritative. However you should not rely only on new published posts but here is a trick you should put in practice: go back and take a quick look on your old posts and search for new linking opportunities to other older posts or even new published ones. A great way to boost your deep links and to give more trust to certain pages of your blog.

Although deep links are great for SEO, you should definitely be aware that linking to old/new posts should be done only when they are relevant to your content. Do not create deep links only to create them but do them for your visitors (relevancy) and search engines (anchor text) as well

Guest posting is probably one of the best strategies for getting anchor text backlinks to your website, promote your company/services and increase exposure in your industry, however most of the times this can be tedious while not all guest posts are getting approved thus translating into “work in vain”.

Here are some tips for getting more guest posts approved and published:

1.      Does the blog owner accept guest posting?

There are many blogs that you may want a link from but not all the times you will find owners accepting others’ article on their sites and more often outgoing links. Most of the times you will find a page like “write for us”, “be a guest blogger” or something related that will tell you 100% that that very blog accepts guest bloggers.

2.      Always read their guidelines

Some folks want over 800 word articles, other want them less than 400 words. Some blog owners only accept guest posts on a specific subject and so on. Always be sure to read their “quality guidelines” and follow them closely.

3.      Do not over-promote yourself

Although guest posting allows a link back to your site in author’s bio, that does not mean the article must promote you. You should create an educational piece of content first and if people are interested further they will definitely follow your backlink.

4.      Too many backlinks

Try not to use backlinks in the article content. Although this type of backlinks seems to be the most valuable nowadays, try to avoid this practice and use only one link (with your most valuable anchor) in the author’s bio. Of course, if the owner accepts two links you should use them both (maybe your Twitter page could be a target as well?).