How to Rank your Website on Google using the Power of Guest Posts (& Stan Ventures Case Study)

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Guest posting can be a great way to build brand and awareness but it can also be a great way to build backlinks to increase your rankings on Google and other search engines.

Google

In this post, I want to share with you exactly what guest posting is, how and why it works, how to find guest posting opportunities, how to send emails effectively and how to write your posts that get accepted.

And I’ll also share with you a recent case study we did with Stan ventures and how we got from ranking #10 (bottom of page 1) to rank number #1 & 2 in under 14 days.

stan-ventures-ranking

First, What is Guest Posting?

As the name suggests, we are posting/publishing content as a “guest” on someone else’s blog or website.

guest posting diagram

So Why Guest Post? What are the benefits?

We do this for a few reasons such as building your brand and getting traffic to your own website.

For example

I’m sure you’ve seen YouTuber’s collaborate with each other or appear as guests in one another’s videos, right?

This helps expose the guest to a new audience, in turn helping them build their own following.

So it’s pretty much that same concept but with websites & blogs.

But another very enticing reason is that we are able to get backlinks to your website.

A backlink is simply a link from one website to another.

backlinks

Each link is sort of like a vote. Some links are worth more votes than others.

Generally, the more relevant & quality backlinks you have – the more “popular” your website, therefore Google ranks you higher.

And guest posting is one the best & most effective ways to get backlinks ethically. It plays an important role for just about any website from affiliate niche sites, local business sites, eCommerce sites, online service-based sites, and more.

Let’s see how it works.

The process of guest posting is very straightforward.

  • Find relevant & quality sites that accept guest posts
  • Send them an email/pitch
  • Write the article, add our links and submit for review and publishing.

Right now, you’re probably thinking why do websites even accept guest posts can’t they just create content themselves?

While many can and do write the content themselves. Accepting guest posts gives them great unique content for free.

With your content, it can provide their existing audience with a new and unique perspective – perhaps covering a topic that they themselves don’t have experience in.

The posts themselves can also drive traffic from Google – which they can also monetize a number of ways including – affiliate links, own products, services, banner advertisements etc.

It’s a win-win situation.

Important things to consider before starting

While guest posting is an extremely powerful tactic in ranking a website but just by itself – is not gonna help. You must understand and do a few things before you get started.

#1 Keyword Research – Have you found appropriate keywords to target for your site? 

#2 On-Page Optimizations – Have you optimize your on-page factors? Such as Titles, Meta Descriptions, Tags, Keyword Density etc. You can use YOAST SEO or Rank Math (for WordPress users). 

#3 User Experience & Speed – This is increasingly important with the latest “page experience” update. Make sure all pages are mobile-friendly, the design is good, usable, easy to navigate, and ensure your page loads in under 3 secs.

#4 Searchers Intent – Do your page and content match the searcher’s intent? This means that your target keywords + content should all satisfy exactly what the user is looking for and looking to do.

Let me explain.

Years and years ago, when I first got into SEO. 

I was doing keyword research. And I found an “amazing” keyword.

It was “maxi dresses”. It had over 100,000+ monthly searches and the competition was “low”.

And after looking at the top 10, it didn’t seem like there were any Affiliate type of websites.

I thought, wow… I’m gonna create a review website, with a lot of content and rank for this keyword. The use my amazon affiliate link and make a boatload of commissions. Everything looked amazing, I was inspired and really thought I could do it.

But I was so wrong.

In the top 10, were category pages of eCommerce websites. Yes, they didn’t have much content and weren’t optimized great (this was back in 2012-13 btw).

But the thing is – when people search for “Maxi dresses”. They are looking and expecting to browse and purchase dresses NOT read my review about them.

I built the site, added the content, optimized, built links and it just didn’t seem to rank at all.

Then I realised…My page doesn’t match what the user is actually looking for. They wanted to browse an ecommerce store and just buy. They didn’t want to read about Maxi dresses and which one is better etc.

So to ensure your content matches intent, look at the top 10 results and see what is currently ranking – it will give you a good idea of what content/type of pages to create.

If you are just starting out with SEO, I recommend watching my full 3-hour free video covering Search Engine Optimization in detail with many examples. And for those of you who want to learn how to start an affiliate niche website, I’ve got a video too. These are value-packed videos!

Step 1: How to Find Guest Posting Opportunities

There are way more than 2 methods to finding sites to guest post on.

But let’s be real, you don’t need to use all of them – I just want to show you what’s worked well for me and will work for you.

There’s no need to overcomplicate it.

So let’s get into it.

#1 Method – Leverage Existing or Build New Relationships

Most people focus on the 2nd Method, which I discuss below – but I’ve found this one to be extremely effective at getting some very good backlinks from great domains without much hassle.

And it is to simply leverage your existing relationship you have with people you know or to create new ones by giving first.

Here are a few examples for a different type of sites:

Affiliate Site Owners – You can contact your affiliate managers, this is easier if you’ve made some sales with them before or they approached you to promote their products. Start off by contacting those who have their own in-house program or are smaller companies.

Local Business Website Owners – If you run a small business, it’s likely you’ll have suppliers who you order from regularly. Get in touch with them and see if you can write an informative piece for their blog. They’ll probably want to write for your site too!

Besides this, you can sponsor local clubs and associations such as offering a special discount for their members. We did a few like this for our clients, where we offered discounts for a student association for a nearby University. Build that relationship, then see if they need some content for their blog later down the line (extremely effective).

eCommerce Websites – Send out products to bloggers/influencers asking for feedback without any strings attached. You can ask if you can post on their blog or sometimes if you have an affiliate program – they can write a review for your product too.

And if you have suppliers who have websites, see if you can publish an article there too.

Online Freelance/Service Based Website – Give your time and offer your services for a review/testimonial – then later reach out.

Digital Products Website (i.e. software, plugins, tools, etc) – Give access to your tools for free to influencers and bloggers who would find your products helpful. Very similar to how you would do it – if it was a physical product.

Build that relationship over time, then ask them if you can write something helpful for their audience. If they love the product, they might even share it naturally! Happens a lot actually.

The basic strategy here is to give first, then ask. Simple but it works.

#2 Method – Utilizing Google Search Strings

An easy & great way to find thousands of potential sites that openly accept guest posts is by utilizing Google search.

So you can go to Google.com and type in search strings like:

Keyword + Write for Us (Try different keyword variations before trying other strings & Look onto page 2,3 etc)

Keyword + Guest Posts (You can find a lot of lists)

Keyword + Submit an article

Keyword + Become a Contributor

Keyword + Contribute

Keyword + Guest Posting Guidelines

Keyword + Suggest a Post

Keyword + Submit Content

Keyword + Submit Post

By entering the keyword, it can search for related sites and the “write for us” search string will look at the content on the page which has those words there. 

google search strings

There are also other methods, for example using Ahrefs, SemRush, and other paid tools – which can also help in finding sites to get links from.

But by just using these two methods – you should be able to find dozens of sites that would keep you busy for months and perhaps years! 

So take action and try to keep things organized perhaps in Google sheets – so you can easily see which sites you’ve contacted, waiting for a reply and posted on etc.

Step 2: Qualify the sites

Once, you’ve identified some sites that you could post on – the next question is should you?

Could your time be better spent?

Yes, it could but it depends. If you are just starting out and it’s your first few guest posts – besides relevance, the metrics shouldn’t matter too much cause you need to build up your portfolio/experience. And you can’t be too picky.

As you level up, then you should definitely take the metrics of the sites into consideration.

Generally, you should look for a few things:

  • Relevance – is this site relevant to your site? Could you create a useful article for them? (You should look for relevance regardless – if it’s your first guest post or not)
  • Domain Authority – Links from higher domain authority sites will give more link juice. i.e. a Website like forbes.com with a DA of 95 is going to be a lot more powerful than a site with a DA of 15. Normally the higher the DA, the harder it will be to get a link from there.
  • Activity – Are they still posting, do they get traffic? If they haven’t posted anything for months, then its unlikely they’ll reply.

You can download UberSuggest’s chrome extension to check domain authority, traffic of the sites, etc.

ubersuggest chrome

Once installed, you can click on the Ubersuggest icon (normally on the top right of your browser) to analyse the site. You’ll be able to see the traffic, domain authority, backlinks and more.

ubersuggest

I’d start off with at least DA 10+ and above sites. Some newer sites might have a lower DA but you’ll be able to spot a good site with potential when you see one. i.e. they may be active on other channels and they are just getting started with their blog/website.

Step 3: Ask/Pitch your Idea

The next step is to send your email or fill in their form. I recommend sending emails from your domain. I.e. [email protected] as it’s more professional. With most web-hosting providers, you can create a free domain email within their dashboard area or cpanel.

Normally, your email should include a few things.

  1. Introduce yourself in 1-2 sentences
  2. Showcase your work 2-3 latest posts (either from guest posts or content from your own website)
  3. Suggest topic ideas and also ask if they have suggestions

So for example:

Hi John, 

Hope you are well,

I’m Hogan from abc.com – Love your work especially xyz. 

I noticed that you are accepting guest posts and was wondering if I could contribute.

After doing some research, I have a few topics in mind that could be great for your blog, 

#1

#2

Here is some of my most recent work:

#1

#2

Let me know what you think or if you have suggestions feel free to share them.

Regards,

Hogan

For existing relationships, it would depend on your relationship and previous conversations. Sometimes it could be as simple as just asking first, then discuss the topics and things after.

Hey Jane,

Was just wondering if you guys accept guest posts, if so do you have any guidelines or topic ideas.

Cheers,

Hogan

Step 4: Write Your Post

When writing your posts, your content should appropriately overdeliver for the type of site. So what I mean is that generally, you’ll notice a few types of sites.

Tier 1 – The sites with active readers, something that you read regularly. Top-notch quality, content is unique and experience-based. High DA or potentially top sites in the future. High word count per post (1500+ words or more often 3000+ words per post)

Tier 2 – Get’s traffic but doesn’t have an active reader base, a decent quality site perhaps written by various writers rather than one main author. (750+ words)

Tier 3 & Others – You will know when you see one, and it’s likely – you wouldn’t want to waste your time.

So you should always look at what’s been posted and the type of quality required and aim to overdeliver based specifically for each site.

So for example, you wouldn’t want to spend weeks writing a 3000-word post for a Tier 2 type of site! Neither do you want to submit a 750-word article for a Tier 1 site, right?

Besides that, you should write like how you would for your own posts and always check the guest posting guidelines for each site as they may be different.

The most common guidelines include:

  • At least 750+ or 1000+ words
  • Unique content which adds value, not published elsewhere
  • Proper structure, grammar and spelling
  • Internal linking and linking to trusted sources where appropriate
  • 1 link to your site (No Affiliate Links!)
  • Provide Meta Description & Tags (for on-page SEO)
  • Author Bio + Profile Pic
  • Add Images, Screenshots & Diagrams
  • Optimized Images (Width max at 1000px and in JPEG format, Height can be different). Size of images no larger than 250kb each.

For free images which don’t require a credit you can use sites like unsplash or pexels.

For more specific images – I recommend paid stock images from Adobe stock.

For screenshots – I personally use and recommend CloudApp (It’s free!), make sure to resize your screenshots so they are optimized.

How should you link to your site?

The general rule here, is to link to your page that you want to rank as naturally as possible.

If you can – you can use the exact match anchor or a variation of it.

So for example. 

If you want to rank for the keyword “Carpet Cleaning in Melbourne”.

Your Guest Post could be like:

How to Easily Remove Carpet Stains in 5 Mins (Without any Chemicals)

You’ve probably just made a mess, right?

Or you’ve just decided that today is the day and you want to get rid of that annoying stain.

This carpet cleaning technique I’m about to show you is used by the professionals and it gets rid of the most stubborn stain and leaves your carpets feeling fresh and new.

It’s going to require some scrubbing and household ingredients, but that’s about it.

What we need:

#1

#2

#3

So as you can see, we’ve incorporated it naturally – we wouldn’t do a link like “This carpet cleaning in melbourne technique…”

Alternatively, just link it as “website”, “our blog”, “visit for more” or other generic terms that make sense. You can also use your URL as an anchor.

Note: Don’t use an affiliate link as this isn’t good practice. However, generally, it’s fine it you want to link to a page where you have affiliate links on it. As long as it’s appropriate and doesn’t appear spammy in anyway.

Can you hire writers?

Yes, you can hire ghost writers who are experts in their respective industries to help you write topics which you aren’t familiar with. You can give them the title, subheadings and any inspiration. You find them at places like fiverr, upwork, freelancer or iwriter.

Top writers typically cost between 0.02 – 0.07 per word. So for a 1000 word article at $0.05 – it will be around $50 USD.

Note: Before hiring check their samples, and before approval of articles check if it’s unique by using a tool like copyscape. You’ll need some credits if you want to check it by pasting in the text. If the article is duplicate, sometimes the content won’t index on Google and the link juice won’t pass through.

Step 5: Follow up & Tips

Once you’ve sent the article to them, I recommend asking for a ballpark date of when to expect it to be published. That way, once a week has passed – from the date they mentioned you can email them back to check on the status.

Sometimes it can be days, weeks or even months before they post your content. Some larger blogs – may also have editors and change some of your text. So get ready for that.

When they post the article, I recommend replying to the comments if any as well as sharing the article on your own social media to help promote it.

Besides that, it’s pretty much about rinse and repeating. But always focus on over delivering and doing the best you can.

People respect good work.

Readers may start becoming a fan of your work too and start following you.

By doing good work, it will allow you to eventually become an authority in your niche and open up many opportunities to guest post on popular sites (they will contact you).

Real Guest Posting Case Study (ft. Stan Ventures)

Sometimes guest posting can be quite tedious and take a lot of time. From outreach to content creation, following up with emails, and just waiting for your articles to be published.

And it has definitely stopped me from doing more.  

But recently Stan Ventures actually reached out to me after seeing one of my videos to see if I’d like to try their guest posting service.

Honestly, I am a bit skeptical when it comes to these services – as I’ve purchased many SEO services in the past and it wasn’t great. But, I noticed a few bloggers and YouTubers mention them such as WPEagle & Doug Cunnington.

So I thought why not?

So I gave them a local business website in the auto niche with a Domain Authority of 16. We targeted one main keyword and a variation of it which were both ranking on the bottom of page one bouncing at around #9-10.

We did a DA 30, DA 40 & DA50 Guest post link. (DA = Domain Authority)

My client didn’t want me to share the sites that we posted on, so I’ll share a few which Stan Ventures kindly shared with me to show you guys the type of sites we published on.

#1 motorverso.com | DA 56

#2 automobilesreview.com | DA 56

#3 autopartsguideline.com | DA 20

#4 motorward.com | DA 67

#5 didyouknowcars.com | DA 25

#6 businessmotoring.co.uk | DA 33

motorverso stats
didyouknowcars

Some of these sites found by the outreach experts were gems.

Around 2 weeks after posting 3 guest posts, our keywords moved up to 2-3. Now it’s bouncing around 1-2! 

stan-ventures-ranking

This keyword has quite a decent commercial intent, which has already led to a few inquiries on our online quotation form.

Other related keywords for that page, also moved up.

other-keywords-up-ranking

Honestly, it’s not surprising since we are getting a contextual link from a high domain authority site that is relevant to our niche. 

But instead of taking weeks or months to get a link live, it was a matter of spending a total of 10-15 minutes. As everything is pretty much handled by their outreach & content team. You just need to approve the articles and websites.

The whole process was super efficient, saving me a ton of time and it was posted on a quality site that I probably couldn’t have found by myself. 

This is perfect for people who are looking for a hands-off approach for their link-building strategy.

Another important note is that they also offer link replacement in case the link gets removed or the website is taken down. (Not many providers do this!)

So needless to say, I highly recommend trying out their outreach guest posting service & through my discount link (affiliate) – you can get 50% off for a limited time.

P.S. If you need recommendations, they can also provide that – just ask and you can get a free audit.

How To Order Your Guest Posts

#1 Click on the sign in/sign up button on the top right of page.

sign up stan ventures

#2 Select the “Blogger Outreach Service”

select blogger outreach

The higher domain authority packages will generally be better sites overall, get more traffic and pass more link juice then the lower tier sites. But you may want to start small and see the results for yourself 🙂

#3 Select the package based on your budget & needs

Select Guest Post Package

#4 Once you’ve paid, you can enter your information here such as your anchor text & target URL.

manage order

You will also recieve updates on your order here.

order updates
My personal recommendations

While the articles are unique, I recommend adding in as a “special request” that you’d like to review the articles – especially if you are posting on behalf of a client. Sometimes, I go in there and correct a few things.

Alternatively, you can submit your own article provided it meets their requirements.

You can also request the links to where they will post your articles for review.

How many links do you need?

This can be hard to answer, because of so many variables. For example:

#1 Current authority, age of your site, type of site
#2 Current ranking of the page
#3 Competition levels of keyword

Sometimes it can be a few links, like in the case study. But other times, you’d need dozens or hundreds depending on the competition. I’ve found that in general – local business websites which have page ranking already, just need a few links 3-5 to give the page a big boost.

I recommend targeting pages that are already ranking within the top 100 and that you are likely to see a good ROI from it. You can also get in touch with Stan Ventures to give you an idea before ordering.

If your site has a low domain authority – focus on lower-medium keywords first. Because when targeting harder keywords, you won’t be able to compete (yet) with sites with thousands of backlinks and that are able to get links naturally.

Conclusion

Guest posting is one of the best and most effective ways of building a brand as well as getting links back to your website that really makes a difference as far as website ranking is concerned!

But before engaging in any campaign, make sure your foundations are set. i.e. good keyword research, implementing on-page optimizations, great user experience (inc. fast page load times), and ensuring content matches searcher’s intent. Without taking care of those factors first, then no amount of guest posts will be able to help you rank your website.

If you are looking for a company to do the heavy lifting – I recommend trying Stan Ventures. Especially if you are looking to give your money pages a boost, they can really work some magic giving you time to focus on your own content.

And the final tip is to always do your best work. If you do really good work, people will find you. You don’t need to find them. You don’t need to go out to network, you don’t need to give anything away, you don’t need to actively find guest posting opportunities.

Focus on the value, and people will come to you.

Hopefully, you’ve found this tutorial helpful – Let me know if you have any questions below!

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