Should You Use Guest Posts Or Articles For Marketing?

| | Guest Post | No Comments

Two of the more common methods for promoting your website are by guest posting on other blogs and submitting articles to article directories. Both give you a chance to find new visitors by showing people what you’re capable of. But which method is better? Ultimately, it depends on what you want to achieve – and each will have its merits at various stages. You should attempt a little of both in order to achieve the maximum reach possible, though if you want to focus on one for the time being the following notes should help you decide.

What is Guest Posting

Guest posting, also known as guest blogging, is a practice in which a writer creates content and contributes it to another website or blog. Typically, the guest writer is an expert or authority in a particular field, and the content they provide is relevant to the audience of the host website.

The purpose of guest posting can vary, but common reasons include:

  1. Exposure and Brand Building: By contributing to other websites, writers can increase their visibility and reach a wider audience, thus building their personal brand or promoting their business.
  2. Backlinking and SEO: Guest posting often includes a brief author bio with links back to the writer’s own website or blog. These backlinks can improve the writer’s website’s search engine ranking by indicating to search engines that the site is reputable and authoritative.
  3. Networking and Relationship Building: Guest posting can also be a way to connect with other professionals or influencers in one’s field, building relationships that may lead to future collaborations or opportunities.
  4. Sharing Expertise and Knowledge: It allows writers to share their expertise, knowledge, and insights with a new audience, positioning themselves as thought leaders in their respective industries.

For host websites, guest posting can provide fresh content for their audience, bring in new perspectives, and sometimes even help attract traffic from the guest writer’s followers or subscribers.

It’s important for both the guest writer and the host website to ensure that the content provided is high-quality, relevant, and adds value to the audience. Additionally, guest posting should adhere to any guidelines or requirements set by the host website regarding content, formatting, and links.

What is Article Marketing on Directories

Article marketing on directories refers to the practice of writing and submitting articles to online article directories for the purpose of promoting a website, product, or service. This strategy was more popular in the past, particularly in the early days of internet marketing, but it has seen a decline in effectiveness due to changes in search engine algorithms and a focus on quality content.

Here’s how article marketing on directories typically works:

  1. Content Creation: A marketer or business owner creates articles that are relevant to their niche or industry. These articles often provide valuable information, insights, or tips related to the products or services they offer.
  2. Submission to Directories: The articles are then submitted to various online article directories. These directories act as repositories for a wide range of articles on different topics.
  3. Inclusion of Links: Within the articles, the marketer may include links back to their own website or landing pages. These links serve the purpose of driving traffic to their site and potentially improving their search engine rankings through backlinking.
  4. Visibility and Exposure: Once published on the directories, the articles are available to be viewed by the directories’ users. Depending on the popularity and visibility of the directory, the articles may receive some level of exposure to readers interested in the topic.
  5. SEO Benefit (in the past): In the past, article marketing was also used as an SEO strategy to improve a website’s search engine rankings. The links from the article directories were seen as a way to increase a site’s authority and visibility in search engine results.

However, it’s important to note that article marketing on directories has lost much of its effectiveness over time. Search engines, like Google, have become more sophisticated in their algorithms, and they now prioritize high-quality content over quantity and prioritize natural, relevant backlinks over those obtained through article directories. As a result, many article directories have lost credibility, and the practice of article marketing has declined in favor of other content marketing strategies such as blogging, guest posting on reputable sites, social media marketing, and influencer collaborations.

Guest Posting vs Article Marketing

By writing a guest post on a high-ranking blog, you tap into potentially hundreds of thousands of existing subscribers who can also subscribe to your own blog. Any post you submit is likely to stay on the blog for a long time and gain a higher page-rank, while articles may eventually disappear from directories. You have the opportunity to build authority in your chosen niche very quickly if your post is of good enough quality. Once your guest post is live then it has the potential to drive you targeted traffic very quickly, as well as in the future if the blog owner continues to promote it.

Article Marketing vs Guest Posting

Guidelines for submitting articles are rarely very strict, while you often have to meet a number of specific requirements for a guest blog post to be accepted. You have the ability to target certain keywords, and write specifically to optimize your site for them or draw targeted traffic based on these search queries. Most article directories will publish your article within one day, and the longest wait will be about one week. There is no limit to how many articles you can submit, but blogs can only accept a certain amount of guest posts at any given time. You can submit the same article to as many directories as you like, but blogs will require a guest post be written solely for publishing on their site (though if it isn’t accepted you can use it elsewhere). Articles you post to directories can also be picked up by other website owners and published on their site, resulting in even more back-links.

In Conclusion

If your aim is a quick burst of targeted traffic, with the potential to gain a lot of subscribers for your blog then guest posting may be your preference – so long as your writing is up to scratch. On the other hand, if your ambition is to build up a lot of back-links and gain occasional subscribers then article marketing is the best choice. As a blogger, your focus will likely be on connecting with people through guest posting, while anyone else will usually get a much greater benefit out of increasing their search ranking by submitting articles.

Tags:, ,

Related Posts