3 Important Tips for Writing a Guest Blog Post

Writing a guest blog post can be a great way to get more backlinks for your website! I highly recommend reaching out to therapists and asking if you can write a blog post for their site, or better yet write one for each other’s site so you get fresh content on your site as well!

Step 1: Finding a Site to Post On

I’ll be honest. I have a tendency to say “no” when some random person asks to write a blog post for me.  Why? Because I assume they’re just trying to get a backlink and have no clue the quality of their posts…or even if they’d write the post themself.  Therefore, I recommend you start with therapists you already know.  Or ask on a therapist Facebook page who would be willing to let you write one.

Step 2: Get the Most Out of the Post

This is where my tips come in.  Your time is valuable.  But you want good SEO, so you’re committed to writing a few guest blog posts.  How do you make sure you get the most return on your time investment?  Here are 3 tips to help ensure your blog post helps both you and the person you are writing it for:

Don’t Post Duplicate Content…But Consider Similar Content

If you publish the same post on more than one site, Google may see it as “duplicate” content.  Therefore, it could actually hurt your SEO.  However…similar content is allowed!

For instance…you might write a post for your own counseling website called “2 Important Tips for Improving Communication with Your Spouse.” In the post, you describe how using active listening and finding common ground can help improve communication in a marriage.  Then, for your friend Sarah’s counseling website you may write “2 Important Tips for Reconnect With Your Teen.”  Guess what?  You describe the exact same two communication techniques here!  The difference is that your introduction, examples, etc. refer to the relationship between a parent and teenager son or daughter.

This way, you can write several blog posts quickly.  You already have a topic and outline for the blog post, you just adapt it to a different population for each website!

Make it Easy for the Website Owner

Your guest blog post (if well written) already makes the website owner’s life slightly easier in that they’re getting fresh content on their site for free. However, when it comes down to it, you asked them for the post.  Therefore, they’re basically doing you a favor.  So, make their life easy.  Write a quality post with at least 500 words.  Take a look at their website and try to include a few internal links to other pages on their site.  Break up large sections of text with subheadings that use keywords. Consider adding a Call to Action at the bottom of the page where you recommend the readers use their services.

There are small things you can do if you’d like.  The easiest guest blog post I’ve used on my site was when the writer also included 3 pictures (with suggestions for alt text) and even a suggested meta description!  Guys, all I had to do was basically copy and past the post onto my site then schedule for a day when I know my site gets traffic!

Give Yourself Backlinks

Now we address the reason you’re writing this post in the first place.  At the bottom of the page include a small section.  Title this “About the Guest Author.”  In this 2-3 sentence paragraph include several backlinks to your own site. Here’s one way to format it:

____ is a therapist (backlink to your “about” page) and the owner of a counseling center in _______ (use counseling center in location as anchor text to link to your home page).  She/he specializes in _______, _________ and _______ (backlink to each of your individual service pages).

If relevant, you may also mention how you know the owner or someone at the practice your are posting on.

Are You Ready to Work on Your Website’s SEO?

Maybe you’ve been reading my blog posts for awhile.  You’ve started using the tips I’ve provided.  But the bottom line is you want to move to the top of Google faster.  You’re ready to grow your private practice.  If this sounds familiar, you may be ready for SEO Consulting services.  Whether you’re wanting to learn to do your own SEO work or wanting someone else to optimize your counseling website for you; Simplified SEO Consulting would love to help. We offer both SEO Training for practice owners as well as monthly SEO packages. Please reach out by e-mail or simply go ahead and schedule your free consultation to talk about how our services might be able to help you.