Crafting a Digital Identity for Remote Work via Guest Blogging

Despite remote work being the norm for a few years now, it feels like it was only yesterday when it emerged from relative obscurity. Before 2020, as per U.S. Census data, roughly nine million Americans worked from home. After that year, the figure more than tripled to almost 28 million. The rippling effect reached every facet of a worker’s life, from commuting to health insurance.

Remote work will most likely persist in the next few years, and employers demanding a return to the traditional workplace can expect stiff resistance. This doesn’t imply that such an arrangement isn’t without its issues. For instance, a lack of physical contact may effectively curb the spread of disease, but it also leaves clients in the dark regarding who they’re transacting with.

The challenge to brands today entails proving their reputation to the billions that scour the Web for information and, more importantly, solutions. One method seeing an increase in popularity is guest blogging—publishing content on third-party sites.

Guest blogging explained

In detail, guest blogging or posting is a content marketing strategy involving creating and posting articles and other forms of content on websites other than the author’s own. These publishers can range from blogs to general news sites, preferably with high authority in their respective niches. 

A writer of a guest post is commonly known as a guest author or contributor. Their relationship with the publisher is limited to supplying content to the latter. Some sites like Forbes may credit them as members of in-house groups to enhance their credibility as leaders in their corresponding fields. However, they neither own nor work for the publication.

More than professionally created content, guest content contains at least one link to the author’s website. It can be found somewhere in the content body, the author bio, or both. If the guest post piques readers’ interest, the link can lead valuable traffic to their site, contributing to the brand’s online exposure, especially in search results.

Not everyone can think of a good topic, let alone write a blog post or article about it. Yet, helpful content is a must if brands expect to remain competitive, if not stay one step ahead, in the current business environment. In this case, they can count on a guest blogging service to deliver quality content in their names, publisher guidelines permitting.

Identity in the digital space

Conveying an individual’s identity and credibility in remote communication has been a persistent issue for the longest time. Such a thought might not have crossed Alexander Graham Bell’s mind when he invented the telephone in the late 1800s. Some accounts even suggest that Bell himself didn’t apply for a patent in the Patent Office, instead tasking his lawyer.

Whether or not that’s the case, prompt identification has grown more crucial with the advent of digital media, namely the Internet. While you can argue that solutions such as videoconferencing exist, customers rarely engage in a video call with a brand in the initial stages of their customer journey. Before anything else, they’d want to gauge the brand’s reputation through its content.

Guest blogging is a viable method for such a need. By producing consistent quality articles and blog posts and publishing them on sites without any stake in a brand, companies can establish their authority in their market. Furthermore, the content may reach leads or potential customers who might not have found the brand otherwise. 

As mentioned earlier, earning readers’ interest with your guest post can motivate them to learn more about the author. The backlink placed on an important idea in the content body, or a call-to-action message, is instrumental in leading traffic to where the guest author wants them to go. The landing page can be anything from the homepage to a specific product or service page.

Guest blogging remains a staple in content marketing among freelancing individuals or business owners. It isn’t the quickest way to build brand authority and identity, but its benefits go beyond backlinks and traffic. It’s more about establishing healthy relationships.

Simply put, you never know when you’ll find a rainmaker perusing your well-written guest post. Such a person carries enough influence (e.g., a sizeable following on social media) to endorse it to their followers, be it a content creator or an industry consultant. Suddenly, your once-unheard-of brand becomes the talk of the industry, thanks to someone famous talking about it.

As a guest content creator, all you need to remember is to “build relationships, not links.” Avoid a mindset where you generate guest content for the sake of earning backlinks. Instead, plan your content strategy around how you want to appear to customers and industry leaders alike.

Some dos and don’ts

The rules of guest blogging vary by publisher. Some sites may prohibit certain keywords, while others may only allow one or two links in the content. 

That said, they have many rules in common, as they want their content to rank in search results as much as the contributor does. In this instance, look no further than Google Search Essentials, an extensive guide outlining content creation best practices.

Discussing every point in the guide warrants its own article, but here are some of the most important ones.

DO: curate helpful content

Too many people are fixated on curating content for the sake of pleasing search engines, but even the latter say this isn’t right. Instead, they should focus on creating content users would search for and peruse. Google calls this “people-first content.”

The elements that constitute such content can be subjective. That said, answering Google’s guide questions on the subject can aid you in coming up with suitable topics and the in-depth research to go with it. Keep in mind that you’re trying to become an authority in your niche, so you don’t want your content to be lacking.

DON’T: plagiarize

You don’t have to be a full-time journalist to understand plagiarism is bad. Pulling parts of or entire articles and passing them off as the author’s own work is frowned upon, not just from a marketing perspective but also an ethical one. 

Despite this understanding, plagiarism is in the spotlight once more with the introduction of chatbots like ChatGPT. Some say it isn’t technically plagiarism because its job is to retrieve information for answering queries. Only when users copy-paste generated content without citing the primary sources does it constitute such.

DO: use the right keywords

Because user activity on the Internet mainly begins with search engines, guest content should incorporate suitable keywords. They can be individual words or full-on questions, though the latter are more effective in ranking content. 

Keyword research lets you find the right search terms. While you can perform one using free tools and a bit of insight, professional-grade research employs online tools as it entails going through a lot of data. The subscription to one can cost an arm and a leg per month, so brands outsource their content planning to specialized services.

DON’T: go overboard with keywords

Packing every nook and cranny of a guest post with keywords, even if using variations, is a great way to be deindexed from search results. Known as keyword stuffing, search engines have long outlawed this practice because it doesn’t add value to the content. 

If you write your guest post the same way you talk to people, there’s no need to worry about having too many keywords. Nevertheless, some professionals insist on sticking to a specific keyword density, which ranges between 2% and 10% of the total word count. Regardless, it won’t make the content more visible on the Web. 

DO: be picky with your publishers

Getting guest content published isn’t like sending it to as many publishers as possible and hoping that some stick the landing. This shotgun approach would waste the time and effort that went into researching and writing the pieces. 

Instead, choose sites that are more likely to publish your piece. Reputable ones like the New York Times may be great for exposure, but they get plenty of pitches from various contributors daily. Conversely, low-authority sites may not get as many pitches but also don’t receive as much traffic.

Of course, your choice of publishers should match the content topic’s niche. An article about upcoming smartphone models will make more sense appearing on a technology news site or a general news site’s technology section. 

Following these guidelines also works for refining a brand’s online identity. Preferring quality over quantity makes for a responsible brand, not overly promotional or aggressive in pandering to its target audience. 

Conclusion

With remote work here to stay, at least for the meantime, it falls on the remote worker to ensure their professional identity in the digital space. While they can ask their clientele to contact them via video, those starting their customer journey prefer checking out their content before anything else. It’s their way of determining a professional’s competence.

Fortunately, all one needs to make it happen are two things: their own website and well-written guest content. When used together, you can have a digital identity that fellow professionals and the general public will come to respect.

If you require help with content, Wishup can help. Schedule a free consultation to learn more about our content and social media services, or send us an email at [email protected] to learn more.

About Author

Haze Baylor

Haze Baylor is a freelance consultant with six years of experience tailoring content strategies for companies and organizations. In his free time, he travels the world in search of the best places for stargazing.