It’s likely that you already know that guest blogging is a compelling way to foster brand awareness, make meaningful connections, build strong relationships and generate traffic to your website. But what you may not realize is that guest blogging is one of the most critical elements to include in a modern and effective public relations plan.

If you’re on the fence about implementing guest blogging for your business, you’re struggling to sell the value of it to your leadership, or you’ve never even thought about incorporating it into your efforts, here are our top three reasons why guest blogging should be used to complete your PR program.

1. It builds third-party credibility for your brand and your executives –

When it comes to garnering credibility for brands and executives, guest blogging packs an incredible punch. By contributing unique content to popular industry or topic-specific blogs that answer tough questions, provides insight into the latest industry trends or educates consumers on how to make the right decision, you have the ability to reach a broader audience with your knowledge and expertise. And, because approximately 63% of people perceive blogs with multiple authors to be more credible than their single author counterparts, this makes guest blogging is essential for the blogs as well.

When people are searching for information about a specific topic and they come across content you have contributed to an online publication, they will see that you are knowledgeable in your field, which helps to grow your thought leadership. Over time, bloggers and industry influencers may reach out to you to either be featured as part of your blog or ask you to provide their readers with your insights on particular topics.

Also, the massive need for content required by blogs to effectively engage their loyal followers means that industry-leading blogs almost always accept high-quality content from guest bloggers. Why? Because even those who employ a staff can’t possibly generate all of the content they need to answer their reader’s most pressing questions, give their view from the trenches and serve as an expert in every area they cover. So engaging guest contributors to cover specific topics and provide insight on industry trends is a mutually beneficial way for online publications to get the content they need while giving you the opportunity to promote your thought leadership and elevate your brand.

And, since most blogs allow guest writers to include a brief bio with links to social media at the end of their guest posts, it makes it easy for the audience to connect, engage with your brand and even contact you directly.

2. It allows you to earn backlinks to your site for SEO –

In today’s digital economy, increasing traffic to your website is critical and creating links that trace back to your site is one of the most significant components of a successful SEO program. They are also, arguably, one of the hardest elements to get. However, merely dropping links on spammy directories and other invaluable sites is not only not enough, it’s also likely to lower your credibility with Google, Bing and other popular search engines. Earning links is essential for building a strong backlink profile, and strategic guest blogging is one of the most effective ways to gain valuable links.

That said, if all of your external links are from guest blogs, your link profile will look suspect, so it’s essential to implement a diverse link building strategy that includes developing strong content, actively engaging on key social media platforms, deploying effective email programs, leveraging influencer marketing and more.

3. Guest blogging content has longevity –

Earlier we mentioned how important it is for online outlets to continually meet their needs for ongoing quality content, which means that the majority of guest contributor content remains on the site long after the post is published. In order to guarantee that your posts continue to be a long-lasting source of insight on popular blogs, make sure that your content is evergreen – interesting and relevant for a long period of time and does not become dated.

Generating evergreen content as a guest blogger not only increases your chances of getting published in the first place, it’s essential to building an ongoing contributing relationship.

If your current PR program doesn’t include guest blogging, your previous attempts to engage with influential outlets haven’t been fruitful, or you need some assistance in evaluating which opportunities may be best for you, we’re happy to help.