Local sites are considered by many to be a crucial part of local search optimization in 2010.
I myself am a firm believer that truly local sites, my fellow neighbors and businesses, can rank better in the local search arena than the national and local directories if they focus on creating targeted content and getting targeted local links.
A great way to get valuable local targeted links which bring you link juice, plus drive traffic to your website, is to be a guest author on local sites. This is a very underutilized technique.
Guest authoring is a method for reaching a brand new audience and for increasing traffic and sales. In the event folks like what they read they may not only head to your site or blog, they will send your post to social media websites and link to it from various other sites as well. This all goes towards solidifying yourself on the web.
Finding Authoring Opportunities
Granted there are not that many active sites at the local level but they do exists. Finding them is a bit of a chore sometimes but the best way I’ve found to locate local sites is to use real-time data from Twitter or Google using city and state names as the search term ie; your keyword + Denver, Brighton CO, etc. This is a dead-giveaway on who’s active.
You can also use Google to look for authoring opportunities. Use the search strings listed below to find niche related sites to guest author on.
{your keyword} “guest blogger” OR “guest post” OR “guest article” OR “guest column”
{your keyword} “become a contributor” OR “contribute to this site”
{your keyword} “write for us” OR “write for me”
{keyword} inurl:category/guest
I have set 2 simple conditions to determine whether I would take further action once I found opportunities;
- Active site – fresh content being created on a monthly basis at a minimum
- Zip codes, city’s, states or phone numbers on their site
Another way you can find a guest authoring opportunities is to simply keep your eyes open whenever you are browsing some of your favorite blogs. The #1 way to guest author on someone’s site is to simply ask! You might be surprised by the answer.
Things To Remember
Once you’ve found site that you can contribute to make sure to keep 2 things in mind:
- When writing bear in mind that the post should not be an ad for your own services or products
- Concentrate on a few great keywords in your posts including some long-tail keywords
Guest authoring is one of the best forms of free advertising available online today. Not to mention you are building up your brand and getting authoritative links pointing back to your website. And to top it all off – you are building relationships with your fellow bloggers.
