When I started my Internet Marketing journey in 2007, probably the most appealing aspect of running an online business was the location and time-freedom it could potentially provide.
I loved the idea of being able to work from wherever I wanted to and when I wanted to.
This for many people, including myself, is incredibly liberating.
The Internet has opened up so many opportunities for everyday people looking to start a side hustle or even go full-time with an online business.
Whether you want to start a blog, YouTube channel, e-commerce store etc, these can all be worked on in your spare time and from the location you please.
The reason for this post today is because I just got back from vacation and I’m always so grateful and impressed with how fluently I’m able to run my business away from home.
Now of course things are never 100% passive or automatic so it’s important to be transparent about this.
In fact, I had to check in/respond to various emails and I even scheduled two coaching/consulting calls (which was my choice).
Nonetheless I only spent a few hours running my business throughout the almost week long vacation I took.
This to me is absolutely priceless and if you love your business like I do, it doesn’t feel like work anyways.
We are very fortunate to live in this age of the Internet.
And starting/running a type of business like this that offers complete flexibility is incredibly possible!
Set Up an Online Business That Provides Flexibility
You want to try to set up a business for yourself that does not require all of your time and effort each and every day.
Strive for more flexibility.
Part of the reason why I love blogging combined with proper search engine optimization (SEO) is because my website in a lot of cases does the work for me.
(Disclaimer: Like in any business of course there is work involved to keep my blog running smoothly like writing/publishing consistent content, answering emails/blog comments, performing necessary website updates, implementing SEO, crafting YouTube content etc.)
My blog is constantly generating targeted traffic from the search engines (and other sources), capturing email leads, making product/affiliate sales and generating new coaching clients.
And this can all happen while I’m away from my computer.
I look at every one of my published blog articles as online assets that work for me 24/7.
I think taking a break from my normal routine and getting away on a vacation really put things into perspective and helped me appreciate the true power behind running an online business that provides flexibility.
Hence why I wanted to write this short post!
Wrapping Up
No matter what your goals and desires are, it’s important to know that starting a side hustle could be one of the best decisions you ever make.
Whether it’s successful or not, it will be a valuable learning experience you cannot get answer else.
Have you started your online business yet?
If so, does it provide you with enough flexibility?
Being involved with Internet Marketing since 2007, I’ve definitely noticed for certain industries that traffic can tend to slow down around the summertime.
Normally I either see plateaus (month-over-month) or am down slightly (month-over-month) in organic traffic when looking at May, June, July and August.
Yes, this can be discouraging, but no need to freak out!
This is why I always remind people to look at their year-over-year trends as well…Which is a much better way to gauge the overall growth of a website overtime.
Expecting to always see increases month-over-month will most likely leave you quite disappointed and isn’t the best metric to go by when analyzing your organic traffic.
If you are in the green in terms of organic traffic when comparing year-over-year, then this means you’re heading in the right direction.
This longer-term view is a more realistic and accurate way to measure how your website is performing as a whole.
With blogging and SEO in general, you must remain patient and be willing to deal with monthly fluctuation both with search engine rankings and organic traffic.
Just keep producing quality content, optimize your posts and stay consistent.
With that out of the way, let’s jump into some of my traffic data for June 2019.
Organic Traffic (June 2019)- 224 Visits
Organic traffic for June 2019 came in at 224 visits.
Again, not my highest month all-time and a slight dip compared to last month, but that doesn’t deter me!
I am still up noticeably when comparing year-over-year (see data below):
Year-Over-Year Organic Traffic Increases (June 2019 vs. June 2018)
When comparing year-over-year my organic traffic is still up 32.54% (224 visits vs. 169 visits).
Below is a screenshot from my Google Analytics account that plots both June 2019 and June 2018.
This long-term chart is my favorite to look at as it shows me where I was when I started my blog (with ZERO organic traffic) and where I am today.
Be proud of the progress you make on your website, no matter how small the growth is.
This will give you motivation to keep pushing forward.
The chart below now gives us a look at my growth from a different angle.
The blue line represents organic traffic in June 2019 and the orange line represents organic traffic in June 2018.
I’ll be honest, being up 32.54% has not been my biggest year-over-year increase thus far, but nonetheless I’m still trending in the right direction.
I also took a little time off recently (due to being busier than normal) as discussed in my last blogging report video here.
Next Steps/Goals for the Coming Months
1.) Get Ahead of My Content Schedule
Since I haven’t been able to put the time into my blog as I normally do over the last month or so, I really plan on getting back on track and even way ahead of schedule. This is a goal that every blogger should try to acheive. Having content prepared and scheduling it well in advance is one of the smartest things you can do for your blogging business. Whenever I am ahead of my content schedule, it allows me to focus on other aspects of my business whether that be blog graphics, creating YouTube videos, link building, coaching/consulting etc. The great thing about WordPress is that it’s very easy to schedule your posts weeks or even months in advance. Take advantage and try to get ahead of schedule, like I will be doing.
2.) Build More Quality Backlinks
I have a bunch of blog posts right on the edge of ranking really well in Google. Some of these are at the middle to bottom of page #1 of Google. If I can drive these rankings to the top 1-3 positions on page #1 of Google, it would really help drive more targeted traffic to my website. I plan on improving these rankings through additional link building work such as guest posting. I need to build links to both my homepage and the specific blog posts that are on the cusp of ranking well. By increasing the overall authority of my website/pages, this should help me climb further up the ladder.
How was your June 2019?
That wraps up this month’s blogging report!
The key takeaway here is to not get discouraged if you see some monthly fluctuation.
Remember to look at your data over the long-term and compare year-over-year.
However, learning the necessary skills to generate free traffic can radically benefit your blog in the long-run and produce a steady flow of visitors to your website overtime.
Although some of these methods may sound common or even obvious, many bloggers are not utilizing them at all or to their fullest potential.
Below are the exact methods I am using to generate targeted traffic to my blog for free each and every month.
How I Get Traffic to My Blog For Free
1.) Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Truly my bread and butter to drive free organic traffic to my website is through search engine optimization (SEO). Making sure your blog posts are optimized with SEO best practices is crucial if you want to grow your readership and organic reach within the major search engines. Do not underestimate SEO, it can be incredibly powerful. Just ranking highly for the right keyword with a single blog post can bring in a tremendous amount of organic traffic to your website. Imagine ranking for dozens or even hundreds of keywords with your blog content?
The sky is the limit here when it comes to SEO and really should be a primary focus for any and every blogger. SEO is also a skill that you can really fine tune and get better at overtime. Please keep in mind though that just like blogging, SEO is a long-term game. You need to be willing to put in the work on an on-going basis and remain patient before seeing any measurable results. If you’re interested in learning more about how to implement proper SEO on your website, check out my SEO coaching services here.
2.) Quality & Valuable Content
Producing high-quality and engaging content encourages visitors to comment, share, and spread the word about your articles/website. Some of your blog posts can literally be promoted for you by others (via social media, word of mouth etc.) just from them sharing your content. Talk about easy and free traffic. If you focus on creating as much value as possible and continue to solve problems, answer questions and provide solutions, it’s only a matter of time until people start sharing your content. Of course not every blog post you write will be a home run but crafting quality content on a consistent basis allows you to really stand out from the crowd. By publishing comprehensive and helpful content for others to enjoy, you are truly creating online assets that do the heavy lifting/promotion for you (and potentially for years to come).
3.) Posting on Relevant Forums
An old school method for getting traffic to your blog for free is through posting on relevant forums. Try to find a few reputable and highly active forums within your niche that you can become a contributor on. Just like step #2 above, focus on quality here. You will want to identify threads where people are asking questions and provide informative/valuable answers by sharing your knowledge and expertise. Depending on the forum, sometimes you are allowed a link within your signature back to your website. Now we’re not really too concerned about the backlink for SEO purposes as most forums nowadays will add a “no-follow” tag to signature URLs. But we are interested in people clicking on your link which in return will generate more referral traffic for your website (again this is free blog traffic). If a particular forum does not allow you to add a signature, see if you are able to place your website URL within your profile area. If you’re providing enough value, overtime people will most likely click on your avatar and check out your profile/visit your website. To help drive home this example, below is a screenshot of a thread I responded to on WarriorForum (this also got “thanked” by other members which helps boost my credibility and reputation).
What’s excellent about forum threads in general is that they have the potential to get ranked highly in Google. These “question and answer” type threads really tend to perform well in the search engines, which is why you should try to contribute to them. This step is NOT about spamming forums in your niche by posting numerous and low quality responses. Instead try to focus on 2-3 forums very relevant to your niche with the intent of helping people find answers/solutions to their questions. Try to participate weekly in different threads and stay consistent for the best results.
4.) Creating YouTube Videos
YouTube is hot right now and if you’re not utilizing it to cross promote your blog, then you’remissing out on some serious traffic. I’ve seen really good results with adding links in my YouTube video descriptions pointing to specific blog articles of mine. Make sure in your video to mention that you’ve “left a link in the video description” so people are encouraged to click-though to your blog for more information. I’ve captured many quality leads and have attracted new consulting clients and readers this way. Every so often you should also create a blog post and video around the same topic to give yourself the best possible chance of ranking in the search engines. Remember, YouTube videos can be ranked on page #1 of Google as well and this just adds more ammunition to your traffic generation efforts. In my experience, YouTube produces some of the highest quality traffic for my blogging business and with uncapped potential. If you’re camera shy, feel free to experiment with screen share videos, animation videos, PowerPoint presentations (with voice over) or outsource this work for someone else to create. Below is an example of a video description that contains a link to a specific blog post of mine:
5.) Guest Posting on Other Blogs
Guest posting on other websites in your niche can be a great technique to increase the referral traffic coming into your website. Unlike step #3 (forum posting), most guest post opportunities will actually provide you with a “do-follow” backlink which is beneficial to your overall SEO and can also help increase your domain authority as well. Not only do you get the benefit of building a quality backlink (which will help improve your search engine rankings) but you will also have people clicking over to your website from links placed within your guest posts. Oftentimes you are allowed to create an author bio which is a great way to showcase a head shot of yourself, a short description, any social media links and your website URL. You can see an example of this in the screenshot below:
If you really focus on this strategy on a on-going monthly basis, it can really explode your website traffic (both organic and referral). This will take some time to gain momentum, but can be done without having to invest any money in advertising!
6.) Sharing Blog Posts on Social Media
Last but certainly not least is to share all of your blog posts on your social media platforms. I know this sounds like common sense, but many bloggers forget to tackle this step. This can be a great way to almost instantly promote your blog content and at no additional cost. Many times your followers on social media are waiting for you to post your latest and greatest content. This may even be the way they stay up to date with your blog to begin with. Make sure your social media posts/shares are engaging and provide your followers with a sneak preview of your content. Sometimes this is just what you need to give your blog traffic a needed boost and to increase the overall exposure of your website.
Conclusion
There’s no better feeling than generating loads of free traffic to your website from work you’ve done months or even years ago. With some of the methods I’ve laid out above, you should be able to increase your blog readership and overall reach moving forward. There’s no need to tackle all of these tactics at once. Heck, you can even just start with and master one single traffic technique to get your feet wet. I think the most important takeaway here is to be consistent and also patient in your approach. Although these are free strategies to increase your blog traffic, they will indeed take time and effort to see results with. Stick with it, remain persistent and replicate what works!
Today’s post will go over a simple tactic that you can use to improve the overall SEO and architecture of your website.
Internal linking!
Internal linking is something you can get started with as soon as today and should be a main area of focus with each blog post you write moving forward.
Creating a natural internal linking strategy can really help strengthen your website’s SEO and provide a better overall user experience for your visitors.
Although you may not see results right away with this, overtime this can help noticeably improve your search engine rankings and lead to faster indexing of pages by Google.
Let’s discuss internal linking in a bit more detail below.
What Is Internal Linking?
Internal links are hyperlinks on a page of a website that point to a different page on the same website/domain.
An example of this would be a link within a particular blog post that points to another helpful/relevant blog post from the same website.
The best way to do this is by using relevant anchor text to encourage users to click-through to another page of your website. See example screenshot below:
Internal Linking Benefits
There are various benefits to adding internal links throughout your content and website.
Some of these include:
Improved Bounce Rates – Naturally if done correctly, internal links will help improve your bounce rates as visitors will be navigating to various pages of your website, rather than just bouncing off from the first visit. The key is to not overdue it here but instead to strategically place internal links that will encourage user click-through and will help the reader find more helpful content on your website.
Increased Time Spent on Website – Internal linking helps increase the overall time that people spend on your website. If someone clicks on one of your internal links within an article, they are most likely interested in the page/content they’re being directed to, hence they will be spending more time on your website. This is helpful from an SEO perspective as it shows Google that people enjoy your content and are spending a sufficient amount of time on your website.
Helps Visitors Navigate Website More Effectively – If you don’t have any internal linking structure, you are doing a disservice to your website visitors. People want to be guided or told where they can find more valuable content. With internal linking, you are helping your visitors navigate your website more easily and efficiently.
Can Improve Search Engine Rankings/Page Authority by Spreading Link Juice – Internally linking to other pages on your website can help improve your overall search engine rankings overtime. This strategy is especially beneficial if you consistently go back to older blog posts and identify opportunities where you can add a few internal links. Sometimes these older articles have a higher page authority (due to age and potential links being built to them) and can pass powerful link equity/juice to other blog posts.
Helps Google Better Crawl and Index Your Website – Lastly, proper internal linking can allow Google to better crawl your website. This can result in pages being found and indexed faster by the Google crawl bot.
Creating an Internal Linking Strategy for SEO
Now that we’ve discussed exactly what internal linking is and the benefits it provides, let’s dive into how to actually incorporate this into your own website.
1.) Make Internal Links Natural
Most importantly you want to make sure that you only add internal links where they make sense in your content. Internal linking of course is beneficial from an SEO perspective but not if you abuse it. The Google algorithm will easily pick up if you’re overdoing it with your internal linking strategy. Put yourself in the reader’s shoes and try to strategically place internal links where you think they would most benefit them. There is no magic number of internal links, just make sure they are relevantly and naturally placed. Overtime you will get better at identifying areas where you can internally link to other pages/posts on your website. As a result, this should help improve your search engine rankings in the long run.
2.) Use Keyword Rich/Relevant Anchor Text
Using keyword rich and relevant anchor text for your internal links will help both with your SEO and encouraging users to click-through to another page on your website. I would recommend mixing up your anchor text from post to post. Don’t use the same exact anchor text in every single blog post to point to a specific page. Again, make this natural and weave internal links into your content using a diversity of keywords/phrases.
3.) Incorporate Internal Linking into any New Blog Content
Make sure with each new blog post you write that you are adding a handful of internal links to other articles you’ve written in the past and that are relevant. Get into the habit of implementing these internal links for all of your content generation efforts moving forward. This will begin creating a strong internal linking architecture for your website and can help Google better crawl and index your content as well. Use appropriate keyword rich anchor text as discussed above with the intent of helping your website visitors navigate to older articles of yours.
4.) Update Old Blog Posts
Older blog posts can have more page authority since they’ve been published longer and potentially have backlinks pointing to them. You should revisit your old articles to see if there is any opportunity to add additional internal links. This can be an excellent way to give a particular page a nice SEO boost and especially if the page you’re linking from has a solid page authority. This is a tactic that I’ve personally seen really good results with. There are ways to check a page’s authority by using tools such as MOZ but it’s not entirely necessary when just starting out. Just make sure you’re finding natural and appropriate spots to internally link from and let some of these older posts work their magic!
5.) Give It Time
Lastly, you need to give your internal linking strategy some time to see the full benefits. This isn’t a tactic that you will see results overnight with, but if you do this consistently and commit for the long-term, it can really have a positive impact on your overall SEO. Again, each post you write moving forward should contain some type of internal linking structure directing visitors to other helpful and informative articles of yours. Overtime, your internal links will be spreading necessary link juice and traffic across your website.
Conclusion
As simple as this strategy is, internal linking can really help strengthen your website organically, while also provide your readers a better experience navigating through your pages/posts. This can ultimately allow you to build a more engaged following overtime and give you a nice boost in the search engines as well!
Do you currently have an internal linking strategy in place?
It’s important when running a blog to keep in mind that not every blog post you write will rank well in Google.
I especially see with newer bloggers the disappointment after they write a quality blog post and 2 or so months down the road it’s nowhere to be found in Google search.
This is part of the game of SEO.
Some posts/pages will do better than others….Some will be buried, while others will shoot to the top of Google.
Just be sure to learn from the blog posts that are actually performing well in the search engines and try to replicate your process with future fresh content.
Although not every blog post you write will be a home run, below are a few strategies to give you the best possible chance of ranking highly in Google.
SEO Strategies for Ranking a Blog Post in Google
To give yourself the best possible chance of ranking your blog content in Google moving forward, here are a few methods to test out for yourself:
1.) Target the Right Keywords
Probably the most common mistake I see beginner bloggers make is targeting keyword phrases that are far too competitive. If you target keywords that are too broad (example, “dog training”) there’s no wonder why you’re not ranking highly in the search results. Instead try to aim for keyword phrases that are longer-tail and a bit less competitive until you build up the authority of your website. By longer-tail I mean phrases that have 2-6 (or even more) words in them (example, “training your dog to stop barking”). Be sure to use keyword research tools to help you identify these types of terms. There are free options available like Ubersuggest and Keywords Everywhere. Don’t get too hung up on monthly search volume metrics when starting out. Instead just get used to gaining some ranking traction with your blog posts (regardless of the amount of search volume).
2.) Create Long-Form Style Content
Google more than ever is looking to rank in-depth and comprehensive content in their search results. They really appreciate when a topic is covered in full and answers all of the questions on a given subject. With that being said, for some of your blog posts, try to make sure they are 1,500 words or longer, using proper headings to help break up the content. Not every blog post has to be long-form style (in fact, I encourage you to mix it up a bit for your readers/Google), but it is important to incorporate detailed blog posts into your overall strategy for better search engine rankings overtime.
3.) Optimize Your SEO Tags
You will want to optimize every blog post with proper SEO tags. The SEO tags to focus on are your Title Tags, Meta Descriptions, Header Tags (H1, H2, H3 etc.) and Image ALT Tags. To read more about these particular tags and how to optimize them, check out my post here. Optimizing these tags really helps build your SEO foundation and lets Google know which keywords you are attempting to rank for. If you are using WordPress, make sure to install Yoast as they make it super easy to optimize your SEO tags.
4.) Optimize Your Content
Similar to your SEO tags, it’s vital that your blog content is also properly optimized with relevant keyword phrases and internal links pointing to other pages of your website. By adding your target keywords into your copy (without keyword stuffing), you are strengthening your keyword relevancy so Google will better understand your content which can result in higher search engine rankings. Now internally linking to other pages/posts can help users navigate your website more effectively and also spread necessary link equity/juice throughout various pages/posts.
5.) Consistency in Content Generation
Now that we know we won’t get all of our blog posts ranked highly in Google, it’s important that we are consistent in our content generation. If you’re consistent in your content strategy, you really give yourself a much better chance to eventually rank for certain keywords and phrases. Creating content on a consistent basis also gives you the opportunity to target many different types of keyword phrases. I recommend at least publishing 1 blog post per week. This equates to 4 or so per month, which is a great starting point. Another underrated benefit of consistent content generation is that it shows Google that your website is relevant, fresh and constantly being updated. This can help improve your search engine rankings overtime as well.
6.) Build Backlinks to Blog Posts
If you want to really increase your chances of ranking highly in the search results for a given blog post, then you should focus on building backlinks to certain blog articles of yours. A great way to do this is through guest posting. Here you would write an article for another website in your niche. Within your content you are generally allowed to add a link pointing back to your website. Try to build backlinks to specific posts or pages you would like to rank highly for. This not only helps build the authority for your overall website but also for the specific blog post/URL you are targeting.
7.) Add Article Schema Markup
Schema markup helps Google better understand what your content is about and can also aid in ranking for rich/featured snippet type results. Adding article schema markup can really give your blog articles a boost and potentially help them rank better. There is a really great plugin for WordPress that will allow you to easily add article markup to every single one of your blog posts, see here. You should also strive to craft your blog posts with header tags, bulleted/numbered lists, answer specific questions etc. to give yourself the best chance for featured snippet type results.
Conclusion
Ranking your blog articles in Google is no easy task. In fact, it takes lots of trial, error and fine tuning overtime. However, if you follow the steps above and keep producing top-notch content, you give yourself a much better chance. As always, be sure to track your progress so you can make educated decisions on how to approach your blog content moving forward. Understanding your data with certain tools such as Google Analytics, Google Search Console, Ahrefs etc. can really give you the insight you need for higher search engine rankings in the near future!
What is currently working well for ranking your blog content?
One of the biggest problems I see with new bloggers and webmasters is a lack of knowledge on how to build quality backlinks for their website.
This prevents a lot of people from seeing the type of results and momentum that they desire.
Especially with a brand new website, it’s vital that you incorporate consistent link building work into your overall strategy to strengthen the authority of your website/brand.
We want to give Google positive signals that your website is important and relevant enough for other external sources to link to.
If done correctly, overtime, this is a surefire way to gain more traction in the search engines and increase your organic traffic.
In this post we will uncover a super simple technique to build quality backlinks for new website owners and a step-by-step process that anyone can follow.
Why Is Building Backlinks Important?
Before we get into the specific strategy for building backlinks to a new website, let’s briefly discuss why this is important in the first place. These are just a few of the many benefits of building links to a new website:
SEO Purposes
If you want to give yourself a better shot at ranking in the major search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo it’s essential that you adopt an on-going link building strategy. Google looks at the strength of your backlink portfolio as a ranking factor (this is just one of many ranking factors Google analyzes, but it’s very important). Every time you build a quality backlink to your website, you’re basically saying to Google “hey, my website is valuable and important and other people are linking to it”. This is how I’ve seen some of my most significant ranking increases for certain keywords, through building quality and natural backlinks each and every month. This obviously can also result in increased organic traffic when your organic keyword rankings improve. Just keep in mind that it takes some time for this technique to kick in and for Google to recognize new links built to your website. Stay patient and be persistent!
Brand Awareness
Having your link published on external websites is great for overall brand awareness and exposure. Even just one solid/authoritative website linking out to you can be a game changer. Every time you build a quality backlink you should also look at it as building additional buzz around your brand and/or company. Generating backlinks for a new website is such an underrated way to get your name and message out there and can potentially lead to more customers/clients/business down the road.
Referral Traffic
Increased referral traffic is the icing on the cake when it comes to building backlinks to a new website. Whenever your link is displayed on another website, you have the chance of people clicking on that link and visiting your URL. A few backlinks that I have personally built for my blog continue to generate me referral traffic on autopilot each and every month. This has directly led to more email subscribers, SEO/blog coaching students and product/affiliate sales. If your links are published on other relevant websites, this referral traffic is incredibly targeted, primed and ready to take action.
Now that we’ve discussed a few specific benefits of building backlinks to a new website, let’s look into a specific strategy to help you accomplish this.
How to Build Backlinks for a New Website
Now there are many strategies for building backlinks to a new website, but in this particular blog post I wanted to touch upon one of the easiest and most effective methods out there (especially for new website owners).
Guest Posting
Guest posting is simply writing an article to be published on another website relevant to your niche, subject or expertise. Within this article you are generally allowed to place your URL within the content or in an author bio section.
Through guest posting, you really tap into the three benefits we laid out above.
You get the SEO benefits of improved search engine rankings/organic traffic, you generate more brand awareness/buzz and you produce more referral traffic from people clicking on your link within your guest posts.
Also, it’s important to know that guest posting is a win-win for both the writer and the publisher. Other websites are always looking for fresh and unique content. They get rewarded with engaging content and you get rewarded with the backlink and increased web exposure. Truly a powerful tactic!
How To Find Quality Guest Post Opportunities
Let’s look into a few methods to actually find quality guest post opportunities.
1.)Research Relevant Blogs: Start by simply researching related blogs in your niche. For example, if you’re in the technology niche, you may do a simple Google search for:
“technology blogs”
“top tech blogs”
“technology blogs accepting guest posts”
This may sound simple, but I’ve found some really quality guest posting opportunities this way.
2.)Use Search Queries: Drilling down even further, you should try to use strategic search queries in Google such as:
“write for us” + “keyword”
“guest post” + “keyword”
“writers” + “keyword”
“submit content” + “keyword”
“contributors” + “keyword”
This will help you identify websites that are specifically looking for content contributions.
Just replace “keyword” with something relevant to your niche. For example, if you’re in the technology niche you might try “tech”, “technology”, “web apps”, “computers”, “smartphone”, “automation” etc.
Here’s an example of a guest post opportunity I found on Teckrr.com using the search query “write for us” + “technology”:
3.) Utilize Guest Posting Tools: There are tools out there that can help you find guest posting opportunities in your niche that may also be helpful. A couple examples below are:
You will want to look into the domain authority of any potential guest post opportunity.
See MOZ’s domain authority description below:
Domain Authority (DA) is a search engine ranking score developed by Moz that predicts how well a website will rank on search engine result pages (SERPs). A Domain Authority score ranges from one to 100, with higher scores corresponding to a greater ability to rank. Read more here from MOZ.
If you’re trying to build backlinks to a new website, your own personal domain authority is most likely a 10 or below. Therefore, I would only target websites that have a domain authority of say 15 or higher (the higher the better).
To start, building links on any website that has a higher DA than yours will be super helpful.
To check the DA of other websites you can use thisfree DA checker here. Paid SEO tools such as MOZ and Ahrefs are also another option when looking into the DA of a website.
Here’s an example of what you’ll see:
Organizing Your Guest Post List
Now that you know the general process of researching potential guest post opportunities, I recommend compiling/organizing a list of at least 20-30 websites to start.
Important: You need to make sure that the websites you are targeting for your guest posting efforts are relevant to your niche/industry. You only want your content published on websites that make sense so you do not raise any red flags in Google. For example, if your blog is about technology, you wouldn’t want to publish content in the “dog training” niche. Make sense?
The simplest way to put together your list is by using Microsoft Excel or Google sheets. Here you will have columns for the URL, Domain Authority (DA), Contact Email, Status etc. It’s a good place to add notes and keep track of your progress. See below for example on how you can set up your list generation documents moving forward:
Crafting a Guest Post Email Outreach Template
Now that you’ve generated your list, you will want to come up with an email outreach template that you can send out going forward.
Keep this simple and to the point but also make sure it’s unique/compelling (as websites get pitched all sorts of stuff all the time).
You want to make sure your email stands out from the crowd and explains how you will provide value to the webmaster. Point out maybe a specific article of theirs that you really like to demonstrate that you’ve actually taken the time to browse through their website.
It’s also really important that you pitch them3-4 blog topics right in the initial email. I’ve tested this and found that when I presented topics upfront it led to quicker and higher conversion rates.
Here’s an example outreach email for guest posting (feel free to modify to your liking):
SUBJECT: Guest Post Contribution for (INSERT SITE NAME) | Contributing to (INSERT SITE NAME) with a Guest Post
BODY:
Good afternoon,
My name is Evan Hoeflich from EvanHoeflichMarketing.com and I really enjoy the quality content you publish on your website. I especially like this article here (INSERT LINK) as it correlates directly to what I write about on my website. I’m reaching out to see if you’d be interested in a guest post on one of the topics below. I believe it would be of great interest to your readers.
Would you consider any of these topics for your blog?
Topic Pitch 1
(brief description: 2-3 sentences)
Topic Pitch 2
(brief description: 2-3 sentences)
Topic Pitch 3
(brief description: 2-3 sentences)
Kind regards,
Evan Hoeflich
Writing Your Guest Posts
If you get the go ahead from any guest post opportunities, you are now ready to begin writing your article.
Generally you will have to follow some writer guidelines provided by the webmaster, or sometimes you can find them directly on their “write for us” page, example here.
Make sure to abide by these guidelines for the best chance of your article getting published.
Also, make sure that you are provided a do-follow backlink within your article for the best results. This will ensure that Google will follow and credit you for this link.
Conclusion
Mastering the guest posting process takes time, practice and dedication but it is truly one of the best ways to build backlinks for a new website. You need to make sure that you implement this strategy on a consistent basis in order to see the best results. For new websites, this can be an excellent method to get your name out there, increase your search engine rankings and generate more awareness around your company.
Is guest posting something you’re willing to try to build backlinks?
Have you had any trouble with this strategy in the past?
Comparing your data year-over-year really gives you a good gauge to how your blogging efforts are paying off. Let’s take a look at year-over-year comparisons for both April 2019 and May 2019 below:
Organic traffic when comparing April 2019 versus April 2018 is up 147.83% (342 visits vs. 138 visits)
Organic traffic when comparing May 2019 versus May 2018 is up 56.47% (266 visits vs. 170 visits)
Here’s a look into both April & May 2019 compared to April & May 2018 (combined organic traffic is up 97.40% year-over-year – 608 vs. 308 visits):
Next Steps for Driving More Traffic
The summertime in general tends to be a little bit slower for my blog. Knowing this and also knowing that I haven’t put in enough time as of recently, I will be really upping my content generation and overall SEO work. Two areas I will focus on in particular over the coming months are below:
1.) More Consistency in my Content Generation
Now that my schedule has opened up a bit, I really plan on getting back into a good rhythm of consistent and quality content generation. I have a lot of good topics on the way that I think will really help my readers and new visitors that come to my website. Remember, always focus on creating value with your content so you can build a strong relationship and bond with your readers. Some of my future topics are actual questions that I’ve been asked recently that I feel will make great topics!
2.) Hammer the Link Building
I am overdue to build natural and quality links to my website since I’ve been a bit behind in general lately. I will be looking for relevant guest post opportunities in my niche to get both my content and website link published on other authoritative websites. Guest posting is a great way to spread your message, gain more exposure and build quality backlinks to your website. Link building is really important if you want to improve your keyword rankings within Google (and stay there). This can be a great way to noticeably increase your organic traffic and build connections with other bloggers in the process.
Conclusion
As bloggers, we all experience times where we are not able to put in as much time as we’d like to on our website. The past couple of months was one of those phases for me. However, one of the benefits of blogging is that once in a while you can truly take time off and still see organic growth (as I’ve demonstrated in this blogging report). This is why blogging is unique and by no means do you have to be a slave to it. Just make sure that after some time off, you hit the ground running again with fresh ideas, inspiration and valuable content for your readers!
Acquiring high-quality backlinks is still a great way to rank highly on the search engine results pages. Google has confirmed that high-quality backlinks are one of their top three ranking factors. But building backlinks in 2019 can be a bit of a challenge. It’s easy to acquire low-quality links, but those don’t have the same power they once did. In fact, they can even hurt your rankings.
So what are you supposed to do? How can you acquire the types of links Google and other search engines consider to be high quality? Here are five ways to build natural and quality backlinks in 2019.
Create solution pages and informative resources
The most important thing is that you create content that people are going to want to link to. Not many people are going to link to product pages or promotional pages. However, if you solve a related problem on a page or if you create a helpful resource related to your niche, it will be easier to get people to link to that. For example, let’s say you’re trying to build links to a site about weight loss. You can create a page with specific information about eating disorders and contact other sites with resources about eating disorders.
Focus on relationships
Find related sites that are not direct competitors, and build relationships with the people behind those sites. Go to conferences or events. Contact important people within your niche. Follow them on social media and build relationships. Don’t just ask for a link right off the bat. Get to know these people first. Offer them something of value. After you have established a relationship, you can ask them for a link to your site. In many cases, they will be happy to help you out, especially if you have helped them out in some way.
Write a guest blog post
Guest blog post links are still valuable if the site you are writing for is related to your niche. Try Googling “write for us” + your niche to find websites that accept guest blog posts. Make sure your post is well written and well researched. Read the websites’ guidelines and follow them. Don’t just write a promotional post about how great your business, products, or services are, but write a helpful and informative post that is related to your niche. You may find a lot of sites that will accept low-quality posts, but don’t use them. Having a poorly written guest post could hurt your company’s reputation.
Reach out to competitors’ backlinks
There are several SEO tools that will help you to find websites who already link to your competitors. This can be a great place to start when you’re doing outreach in the hopes of building links. If they have a resource page that already links to websites about eating disorders, for example, and you ask them for a link to your resource about eating disorders, it is likely that they will give you a link. There are also a lot of outreach programs like Buzzstream and Pitchbox that will scrape these websites for contact information, which will make it much easier to reach out to them.
Contact link roundup sites
It’s easy to get links on link roundup sites. All you have to do is perform a search like “keyword” + “link roundup” or “keyword” + “weekly roundup” and you will find a lot of sites that meet your requirements. Then all you have to do is find the contact information and reach out to them with suggested content for their next weekly roundup. This will work much better with the informational resource pages that solve a problem the reader is having. Create the kind of content these sites will want to link to.
Even in 2019, high-quality link building is still one of the best tactics for SEO. Your main takeaway from this should be that you want to really focus on creating high-quality and engaging content. It will be much easier to promote your content if it’s informative, entertaining, or solves some type of problem for the reader. Follow the tips above, and you will be building high-quality backlinks in no time.
Author Bio
Sara Crawford is a digital content strategist for WT Digital Agency and an author from Atlanta, Georgia. She has written novels, produced her own plays, and performed as a singer/songwriter. She is passionate about the act of creation, and she adores the written word.
Blogging is just a modern term that we’ve given to the decades-old art of content marketing. Businesses – big or small – have used content marketing to get their message across and attract more customers for a really long time.
Even blogging has existed for a long time now, serving as a content distribution medium. We can confidently say that blogging carries huge benefits for local and small businesses. In this post we’ll be discussing why you should start a blog for your business, and some tips to take it to the next level.
Cost Effective Inbound Marketing
Blogging can be used as a very effective inbound marketing tactic. Instead of spending incessantly on Facebook or Google ads, take some time to devise a content marketing strategy. Try to think of the message your business wants to give out to potential customers.
For example, if you’re a business selling Android app development services, it makes sense to have a blog dedicated to mobile apps and their development. Blogging and content marketing is a natural way to attain and retain customers by providing them relevant and valuable information that will influence their spending decisions. By explaining different topics in a non-salesy way, you form a bond with the customer. They don’t just view you as a company asking for money, but a company with views and real value.
We’re not suggesting that online advertising should be totally ignored in favor of blogging. The scope of online ads is huge, but blogging carries its own significance and huge benefits for businesses big or small. Compared to online ads, blogging is hugely cost-effective and has long-term benefits. Each year, the costs for Facebook Ads keep increasing making it an expensive option.
Your blog on the other hand, gets better as time passes. The older your content is, the better its chances of it appearing in the Google SERPs. That’s not to say that only age matters, you need to focus on SEO, content quality and many other factors to make your blog truly stand out. But that’s a discussion for another day.
Why Every Business Should Have a Blog
If you’re still not convinced to the value proposition of blogging, we’ve got much more to convince you. Let’s start with some hard numbers.
43% of business owners don’t have a clue about blogging, or don’t have an active business blog. Of course these businesses are missing out on more customers and leads, but this is also your chance to get the edge over your competition.
Chances are, some of your competitors aren’t using blogging as a marketing tactic. You can adopt this strategy to get ahead. That’s because 55% of business owners who do use blogging, use it as their number one inbound marketing strategy and say they have benefited from it.
Many companies have adopted a new strategy where people come to them for information on their business domain, rather than pushing sales via outbound strategies. How successful is this strategy? Well, let’s look at some numbers:
800% traffic for businesses that publish regular content
60% lower marketing spend due to blogging
3x more leads for businesses with active blogs
If these numbers still aren’t enough to convince you, we still have many more reasons that might.
Blogging is a great way for businesses to show that they’re an authority on their subject matter knowledge. Businesses that share their knowledge and experience with the audience come off as more authentic as well.
Successful companies are known to publish blog articles to assert authority as a leader in the industry. And you ever have to hire a digital marketing agency to do the heavy lifting for you, pick the one that uses this method. You’ll be surprised as to how many marketing companies out there don’t believe the power of content and blogging.
This helps businesses build trust with customers. So first you build trust with customers, and then you try to sell them products/services, rather than the other way round.
An Opportunity to Create Value for Your Customers
People like to follow brands that tell stories that are a reflection of the customer’s life mission. What people don’t follow are brands that publish sales offers over and over. What do they stand to gain from sales posts?
But even for brands that create great blog posts for their customers, they have to think about adding value so that the customer experience is elevated. Companies need to realize that with blogging, they’re providing something for free in the hopes that the customer will make a purchase from them in the future.
So how do businesses create value from blogging? For a business in the food industry, this could be sharing recipes. For a business that sells smartphones, this could be sharing a list of the best productivity apps, and so on. These are mere freebies for people, but they might just like them enough to become your loyal customers.
An Active Blog Improves Your Business Site’s SEO
Having an active blog that publishes high quality content can do wonders for your site’s SEO. One way that blogging helps SEO is by increasing the number of indexed pages on your website. In fact, Demand Metric says that blogging is responsible for increasing a site’s indexed by pages by almost 434%.
And it’s easy to understand why. When you regularly post quality content to your blog, the search engine crawlers see this new content and index it. The crawlers also look for keywords so this content can be searched for through search engines. The more keywords they find, the better. This is why it’s a good idea to create content that includes keywords relevant to your business.
Final Thoughts – Improve Your Business with Blog Posts
Having an active blog not only gives your website SEO a boost, but it also makes your business stand out. 86% of visitors on a company website want information about products or services. And a blog can become an excellent method of dispensing this information.
A blog post offers you a unique way of positioning yourself and your services. It can help you reflect on your company’s purpose and its values. The blogs should be focused on creating a connection between the reader and the business.
A blog post can be written to directly address a common problem potential clients may be facing. By explaining solutions to the problem, potential clients might find your company to be more competent or trustworthy compared against the competition.
So if you haven’t already, start a company blog. It’s not hard and holds many, many advantages.
Author Bio
Junie Rutkevich is an Internet Media Influencer and working part-time as an SEO Expert in Logic Inbound Tyler team. She has been working as an SEO Expert for more than 10 years, helping local businesses scale up their clientele. Aside from work, she loves spending time feeding the stray dogs in her local shelter.
The goal of this post is to be completely transparent and uncover what I have personally discovered as the good and bad of blogging.
Before we get into the thick of things, let me start off by saying that I encourage anyone to get their feet wet and start a blog for the overall learning experience (and especially because there are so many potential benefits).
However, I also think it’s important to be realistic and highlight a few areas that aren’t so sexy or attractive when it comes to blogging.
We see a lot of blogging success stories online (which are incredibly inspiring), but what we don’t see are the millions of people that are struggling to gain any sort of traction with their website.
Also, the successful bloggers generally had to work pretty hard initially and stay consistent for a long period of time before they gained momentum and saw any noticeable results.
Now again, this article is not trying to scare you away from blogging at all and in fact, in my opinion there are way more pros than cons when it comes to blogging.
But I do want to be honest and list out both the positives and negatives that I’ve experienced.
Creating and running a blog whether it’s part-time or full-time can be an incredible opportunity and hopefully this article will help answer any questions you may have and steer you in the right direction.
Blogging Pros and Cons
Like any type of business, there are pros and cons that should be considered before getting involved. Just because blogging is the right business model for one person, doesn’t mean it’s a good fit for another. Please take the time to read the blogging pros and cons below to see if this is something that you would like to pursue.
Pros of Blogging
1.) Very Inexpensive to Get Up & Running
One of the biggest benefits to starting a blog is that it is incredibly inexpensive to get up and running. Remember, a blog is a business (if you treat it like one) that you can have live on the web for literally $3 per month. Compare this to a brick and mortar store (like a local jewelry shop) and the expenses are way WAY less. This is part of the reason why online businesses in general are so attractive. You don’t have to pay rent, there’s less overall overhead expenses and it’s affordable for almost anyone who wants to get involved.
2.) Flexibility To Work from Anywhere with an Internet Connection
This is an attractive benefit to many aspiring bloggers as you are not confined to one place when you work on your business. You can work from home, the local coffee shop, while on vacation or anywhere where there’s a solid Internet connection. To me, this is insanely liberating and one of the reasons why I started my blog to begin with. I really enjoy working from home and having the option to choose where I spend my working hours. So many people are restricted to an office cubicle for example which I know can feel like being shackled to the ground (I used to work an office job and very much disliked the cubicle lifestyle). With blogging, the flexibility is endless and really provides you with location freedom that so many people strive for.
3.) Asset that Works For You 24/7
For me personally as someone who has always been obsessed with investing, creating various streams of income and entrepreneurship, this is my favorite “pro” when it comes to blogging. Once your blog starts gaining some momentum and especially if you’re beginning to generate a steady flow of organic traffic from the search engines, it turns into an asset that works for you 24/7, 365 days a year. In fact, I wrote a whole post on this here. You can be sleeping, at the park, playing golf, eating lunch etc. and your blog can be working for you, generating traffic, leads and sales on autopilot. Now it will indeed take some work to get to this point and that’s one of my “cons” below, but in my opinion it’s way worth the effort to have an asset like this working for you at all times of the day. Once you publish a blog post, it is up there forever for people to discover.
4.) Can Work Into a Busy Schedule
Many of the successful bloggers we see today worked on their blogs part-time before making the transition to full-time. So the good news here is that people who currently work a full-time job, can absolutely still be building a profitable blog part-time on the side. As long as you’re giving it 1-2 hours per day or alternatively devoting your weekends to your blog, it’s the type of online business that doesn’t require full-time work when first starting out. Blogging is such an amazing opportunity because almost anyone can work it into their chaotic and busy schedules.
5.) No Ceiling on Income You Can Earn
Every blogger’s income will be different, but having the global reach that you do when running a website gives you an earning potential that is really unlimited. With billions of people using the Internet and so many different traffic sources to tap into, it’s not uncommon to hear people making full-time incomes from their blog (and sometimes much more). As bloggers we are always producing more content and working on growing our readership which makes it very possible to earn a very good income and scale up overtime. I will caution that bloggers should not be too focused on income though when just getting started and instead be more focused on providing as much value to the marketplace as possible. If you do this, it will give you a much better shot at earning the type of income that you want from your blog.
6.) Positions Yourself as an Authority in Your Niche
Having your own personal blog is a great way to position yourself as an authority figure in your niche. Building a reputation and credibility is crucially important in the online space and can lead to more people sharing your content and more doors opened. Through blogging you can provide your expertise on a given subject, valuable information, tips, tricks, insights and more to slowly build up the authority for your brand and your website. Having a platform such as a blog to communicate relevant information allows you to really brand yourself as an expert and influencer in your niche overtime.
Cons of Blogging:
1.) Growing Competition
It seems like almost everyone nowadays has a blog and the competition continues to grow each and every year. However, in my eyes, competition is a good thing and it’s important to note that most bloggers will quit only after a couple months of blogging anyways. Keep in mind though that everything is much more saturated in general these days and for example, it’s not as easy to rank on page #1 of Google as it used to be. You will have to be creative in your content generation strategy and really work hard to stand out from the growing competition. This is something to be prepared for when starting your blogging business.
2.) Takes Time to Gain Traction
Each and every blog is unique. Some blogs will grow very slowly and others will grow incredibly fast. In general though it’s important to understand that blogging does indeed take a while to start gaining some traction. Organic growth of a blog does not happen overnight and you will need to be producing high-quality content on a consistent basis. There are also no guarantees that your blog will gain traction in the first place, so some people may think that this is a bit of a gamble. However, if you really stick with it and focus on publishing content that will really help your audience, there’s no reason why you can’t start seeing results for yourself. Just know that you must be in this for the long-term in order to succeed.
3.) Requires Hard Work & Strong Commitment
Let’s face it, you really do have to put in a lot of work if you eventually want to make a career/full-time living from your blog. It takes hard work to style your blog, create quality content, implement proper SEO, build a following and keep readers engaged. It takes hard work to build your email list, create your own products and build up your blogging revenue. Plain and simple, blogging is not easy and requires a strong long-term commitment (as discussed above) in order to have any shot at success. If you’re not willing to roll your sleeves up and put in some serious effort, a blog might not be the best option for you.
4.) Requires Some Technical Knowledge
In order to properly set up, manage and maintain your blog, you will need to be prepared for some technical work. Luckily, if you’re using WordPress they make it really easy to craft your blog the way you want it. Nonetheless, you will still need to install necessary plugins, set up an external email autoresponder, ensure your website speed is fast, equip your blog with necessary tools, widgets and much more. This shouldn’t sway you away from creating a blog to begin with though because all of this can be learned and there is a wealth of information online to help you.
Conclusion
I hope this blogging pros and cons list was helpful and gives you a better idea of what it takes to create, manage and run a blog. Again, this is based off of my personal experience. To re-iterate, the cons of blogging that I provided are definitely not to scare anyone away but to help reveal a few areas where some people may run into obstacles. In my opinion, I think anyone should start a blog if they are really interested and devoted as it will be a learning experience like no other. The pros of blogging to me far outweigh the cons and this can truly be a business model that provides more freedom, flexibility and opportunity for many people!
Have you started your blog yet? If not, you may want to read this here.
If you’re looking for additional assistance and/or coaching, please visit my page here.
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Junie Rutkevich is an Internet Media Influencer and working part-time as an SEO Expert in 