What are guest blogs?

Guest blogs or guest blogging are blogs written by people who are not part of a website or blog. They are not part of the regular team and are invited to write a blog about a particular topic. This often involves experts who want to share information about their field. These guest blogs focus on the theme of the website or blog, but from a different angle. In this way the reader can benefit from the knowledge of an expert. The purpose of these guest blogs can vary enormously. Also per party. The editors behind the website or blog may use the blog to better inform their readers and attract more readers. The blog writer himself or herself can use it to promote his or her own business and bring in extra visitors.

Definition of guest blogs

Guest blogs are blog articles that are written on request. This always involves external parties. So not people who already work within the editorial team of the website or blog. These are often experts in various fields, but can also be the owner of a webshop or company. Guest blogging is an important form of content marketing and the associated content strategy.
The website or blog that publishes these blogs will rarely pay the guest blogger for his or her services. After all, the guest blog itself will serve as a quid pro quo. After all, when it is built in the right way, it can have an effect on the authority of their own website. For example, by linking to the author's blog or website in the blog.

The advantages and disadvantages of guest blogs

Writing guest blogs can have both advantages and disadvantages. However, the advantages for the administrators of the website or blog are obvious. They have access to good content that fits the theme of their website without having to pay anything for it. For the authors themselves, however, somewhat different advantages and disadvantages apply:

Benefits of guest blogging

• Generate more visitors to your own website: A link to the author and website can be placed in the blog. In this way, more traffic is generated, which can also eventually lead to more sales for the author.
• You can showcase your expertise: It is not obvious that you have huge expertise in a particular field. However, this is of enormous importance for search engine optimization. The more qualitative the texts that are associated with you, the higher the value of your personal page and the higher the ranking within the search engine results.
• Reach a larger audience: In some fields it can be quite difficult to reach more people. Especially when you focus on a smaller audience. In that case, large websites and blogs can help you reach a larger audience.

Disadvantages of guest blogging

However, guest blogging does not only have advantages for the author. The biggest disadvantage remains the fact that you are giving away free content. What this content ultimately generates is not clear or quantifiable. You do not know whether the time you have put into this free article will actually lead to conversions.