Guest Articles: Making them click

Guest Articles: Making them click. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand that the higher a company’s ranking is on a search engine’s results page, the more clicks that website will get and thus, the growth and success of that business. A great way to optimize the likelihood of being on the front page of Google is through guest articles.

If you don’t already know, guest articles are when an article’s written on a third-party website with do-follow links back to the website that you want to generate traffic for. Google and other leading search engines take the quantity and quality of websites that have these do-follow links and thus will give a more favorable ranking of your page based on how many of these quality links you have. 

It’s a common mistake for SEO optimizers to think that’s when the hard work ends. Find a company that’s happy for your article to be published on their site, scribble a quick article with a few backlinks, and voila! You’re number one on Google! That’s sadly not the case. While, of course, a key part of any competent SEO will find guest article sites that have a strong Ahrefs Domain Rating (DR), that’s the easy part! Now you need to ensure that readers are engaged. You see, it’s one thing for Google to see that you have plenty of links back to your homepage, but this alone may not have the impact you’re looking for. What you need are clicks. 

The greater number of clicks that readers hit to go back to your website has two great benefits. First, they’re clicking for a reason! They’re intrigued about the products you offer and want to check out your entire store or portfolio. Just like that, you might gain a brand-new customer! Even if this visitor leaves empty-handed, it’s still beneficial to your business. It will turn the link into a ‘high-quality link’ meaning a search engine will consider it more legitimate and thus help your page rank higher. That’s what we’re going to talk about now. How you can write the highest quality guest articles to help your website climb the charts! There are two main ways of doing this. Attractive design and high-quality written content. Let’s start with the latter.

Create a masterpiece

Do you want to know the best way to get readers to actually read your articles? Well, and you’re not going to believe this, but the best thing to do is to make them readable. Yes, we know, that’s not exactly a revelation. But how exactly does one write something that will get readers hooked? 

First things first, don’t overcomplicate things. We know you want to show off your vocabulary, but for most blogs, readers want to be engaged, not constantly thumbing through their dictionary to figure out what discombobulate means. Keep it light and even if the subject matter is a little dry, that doesn’t excuse you from making a joke or a lighthearted comment. 

That being said, you have to be professional. If you’re going to explain the best analytics, it’s best to know A) What you’re talking about and B) Correctly applying the technical terms to prove it. There’s a fine line between using needlessly fancy words and making sure readers are gaining an understanding of the topic matter. It’s just your job to find it. 

You should check out the blog articles on Purpose Printery’s page. The B Corp takes care of everything a business needs for its printing and promotional campaigns. These topics feature in the blog, but there are also in-depth topics such as what B Corps is and the future of business. It’s worth visiting this blog page to get an idea of how to write captivating content. 

Another thing to remember when writing is to keep your sentences snappy. It’s not the best practice to have a whole paragraph as a sentence. Having a bunch of commas, semicolons and a hyphen or two isn’t great for readability. Ten to fifteen words per sentence is a good barometer. Every now and then, shorten it to just a few words to give an added punch. Just like this. 

Also worth remembering is not every website that accepts guest articles is going to double-check it for typos and grammatical errors. Readers will be put off ever visiting your website if you haven’t even remembered to cross your ‘t’s’. 

Size matters. A guest article that’s little more than a paragraph with a few links sprinkled in will not attract much attention. Likewise, going on and on about the same idea just to multiply your keywords won’t do much for your long-term success. 1200-1800 words should be plenty. Use lots of keywords, especially in the first couple of paragraphs.

Liven things up

Okay, you’ve written your jaw-dropping article. It’s fun yet articulate, informative but not headache-inducing. Collecting your Pulitzer Prize has gone from dream to destiny. You’ve submitted it, popped the champagne, and… nothing. If websites could have cobwebs, yours would be covered. Before you send us an abusive tweet saying all our writing tips should be sent to the tip, think about the style as well as the substance. 

First, pictures. Listen: it’s the 2020s. Do you honestly think anyone has the attention span these days to read over a thousand words without having a pretty picture to look at? Don’t just slap any old image down and call it a day. They need to be high-quality and vibrant. Don’t forget a caption. Captions should be one of two things. Either a funny little tidbit to gain a giggle or a cool fact or statistic that emphasizes the point you’re making in that section of text. Regurgitating a similarly worded sentence that was in the paragraph above isn’t going to impress anyone. 

Last but not least is the design. This one’s a little bit trickier because it’s less to do with your talent and more with whoever’s in charge of the website you’ll be posting on. While we SEO optimizers spend a lot of time looking at the URL rating, the look and feel of the website, although less tangible, can also play a part in a successful backlink to work.

Our rule of thumb: if it looks like it’s from 1993, it’s best to give it a miss. No matter how well-written your piece is, or the expert snaps your photographer took, if clip art and Times New Roman are present, the page will be closed before you wow anyone with your survey results. 

If there are any graphic designers out there looking for inspiration, or an SEO optimizer who wants to see how it’s done, check out DGW Branded articles on how to wow the audience before they’ve read a single word. This B Corp knows marketing. They make branded merchandise for businesses that are both affordable and sustainable. They took this marketing expertise for their articles – big, bright pictures and a distinctive, contemporary look across their platform, making this an essential visit to understand how to create content! 

Ta-Dah! 

And there we have it! By following these simple steps, you’ll have the ultimate guest articles just ready to send customers straight to your website!

Just remember, you can follow these steps, but if you’re posting on websites with little traffic, your article might sink without a trace. Always do your research on which websites to post to.

Ahrefs is a great analytical tool that measures a website’s domain performance. It’s only when you’ve completed this step that this article will help you with the next step. It’s pretty straightforward; just find the right websites to send your guest article to. Follow this guideline to hook readers back to your website, and you’ll be an SEO expert in no time. Just remember to thank us when you collect your Pulitzer Prize. 

Author bio for this guest post:

George Amodio is a business writer, specializing in sustainability and believes the success of a business can be measured by purpose as well as profit.