Emma-Julie Fox writes for Pitstop Media Inc, a top rated Vancouver SEO company that provides services to businesses across North America. If you would like to invite the author to guest post on your blog please contact www.pitstopmedia.com

The saying no man is an island is absolutely perfect for the SEO industry. No website can hope to top the SERPs or become known if not for the inbound links and references of other websites.

Moreover with Google now giving more importance to Brands vs. little known small businesses, it has become essential to be seen as an authority figure in your niche to build your business’ brand value.

The key to your internet marketing success is SEO outreach. This is the process of reaching out and contacting other websites/webmasters in your niche with the intention of forging relationships and building up your brand authority authoring guest blogs.

The Advantages Of Writing Guest Blogs

When age is not on your side (in the virtual world, it means if you are not old enough), guest blogs on older authority sites can help you get noticed by search engines and prospects.

Established websites have their own set of followers and subscribers. By getting published on these sites, you get the opportunity to be seen and heard by these people. In search engine speak, it means you get to grab some of the traffic and divert it your way.

Google and all other search engines place high value on links from authority sites; if the website/blog belongs to a similar or associated niche, even better! Finally, being seen on high value and respected websites can add a lot of credibility to your brand.

Yes, Guest Blogging involves a lot of work, but the rewards (read traffic, high value links, better brand value) are well worth the effort.

Effective VS Ineffective SEO Outreach

Many webmasters and business owners are actually doing outreach. The problem is most of them do it the wrong way. Here is a really great article by James Piper about what makes outreach emails work and what makes them fail so badly.

The consensus is this: personalized outreach emails are the ones that get replies. If you have a reliable SEO company helping you with link building, you can give a directive that all outreach efforts should be done in this manner.

Based on that article, plus a few others from webmasters who have blogged about this SEO outreach, here is a step- by-step rundown on how you can conduct a successful campaign of your own:

1.       Scout for leads.

Browse through blogs and websites you think you can write articles for. Also, don’t force yourself into making something for a website.

If you don’t have any ideas for articles the first couple of minutes of scanning the website, better spend the next minutes looking for another website to scope out.

Before you shortlist a website as a potential link partner, make sure you check it’s page rank (should be 2 or above), it’s social metrics (Facebook Page Likes, Twitter Followers) and RSS feed subscribers.

Pro tip: You may use this Google Chrome Plugin to find out a website page rank when you visit it. Enter the website’s URL in Google Reader to get an idea of its subscriber base.

2.       Reach out.

First impressions really count—and sometimes it’s the only thing that counts. So when you email/ send messages (tweets, Facebook messages, etc) to the other webmasters, do it right the first time.

Introduce yourself, how you found the blog/site, clearly state your purpose, be respectful, and don’t commit grammar or spelling errors. Always remember: personalize.

Pro Tip: It’s also a good idea to spend sometime on the blog and make insightful comments about a post or two, after introducing yourself. It shows that you are not sending software generated mails and are actually interested in contributing to the website.

3. Propose the titles you have in mind and politely ask if the webmaster is interested.

It’s considered rude to send a ready-made article alongside an outreach email. Veteran webmasters get the idea that you’re only website shopping.

However, exceptions should be made if the website’s guest blogging guidelines clearly state that bloggers should send in their posts/articles directly.

4. Reply immediately to their emails/tweets/messages.

Monitor replies and respond as soon as possible. Don’t let the other webmasters feel that you’re wasting their time.

5. Produce the promised article.

Write the article that you promised, and it better be good. Give the other webmaster a very good reason to publish your article and not regret it later.

Through outreach you get to collect really valuable links for your personal profile or your website. Link building is the ultimate goal here, and it can benefit both parties in the long run.