Guest posting for backlinks and SEO is nothing new. Most online businesses already do it in some form.

But not that many companies use guest posting for traffic and lead generation. 

If you’re one of them, that might change after reading this guide. Today, we’ll cover everything from why only targeted traffic is actually valuable to the mistakes businesses make when using guest blogging for traffic.

So, if you want to generate SEO leads more effectively, this guide is for you. 

What Is Guest Posting, and How Does It Drive Targeted Traffic?

Guest posting means writing an article for someone else’s website while following their guest submission instructions. Why would you do that? Most businesses guest post to get backlinks and improve their SEO.

But you can get more out of this tactic.

One of the less obvious benefits is getting targeted traffic. Essentially, if you do quality guest blogging, you:

1. Post your articles on relevant websites that your target audience visits,

2. Show your expertise (for a service or personal brand) or effectiveness (for a product),

3. Get exposure to readers who trust you a bit more than an average cold lead. Because they already know the website where you publish your article.

Why You Don’t Need Just Any Traffic

According to HubSpot’s State of Marketing Report, SEO and blogging are still the top marketing channels by ROI.

Source: HubSpot

But here is an issue.

In order to make any of your SEO tactics (including guest blogging) effective, you have to be smart about your goals.

Often, when it comes to marketing, it’s easy to fall into the “numbers trap.” When you simply chase growth for the sake of it. But what businesses really need are metrics that are aligned with their objectives.

In the title of this guide, we said targeted traffic. And this was international. Because you don’t need more clicks to grow your business. You need relevant clicks.

When you focus on targeted traffic, your guest posts are much more likely to bring you:

• Quality leads,

• People who go further down your SEO funnel, 

• And conversions, whether it means buying or performing any other action.

How to Get Targeted Traffic With Guest Posting in 6 Steps

Now, let’s check the most important guest posting tips that will help you attract your target audience and improve your brand visibility.

Step 1: Find the Right Websites in Your Niche

Targeted traffic only comes from relevant sources.

Imagine you have a business in finance, but you find a perfect gardening website. Yes, it isn’t relevant. Still, it has great SEO metrics and high editorial standards. Would it be that bad to get published there?

Well, for SEO, it might still work from a certain angle. But if you want to generate relevant traffic, a guest post there would be useless.

Sure, there’s a chance that someone is interested in both gardening and finance. But how big is that chance?

So, instead, focus on finding websites that:

• Operate in a similar niche (or a very related one),

• Target at least one of your audience segments,

• Make sense for your business.

A good question to ask yourself is: would our ICP hang out there? If the answer is “yes,” go for it. And if it isn’t a 100% yes, it’s a no.

Step 2: Build a Guest Post Outreach Strategy to Get Accepted

Even though guest blogging seems to be about “blogging,” it’s just as much about negotiation. Once you find a website that works well for you, you have to convince its editors that you’re the real deal.

That’s why you have to master pitching and outreach.

It’s a lot like cold emails or calls. You have to “sell” your idea to someone who couldn’t care less about you.

So, how do you make your guest post outreach work?

1. Personalize. If you just take a typical template online and send it to dozens of websites, most likely, you won’t get any replies. Because you aren’t the only one doing that. So, always personalize. For example, you can reference one of their articles or maybe even the editor’s post on social media.

2. Offer a solid idea. Typically, you’d suggest a topic you’re interested in writing about. Make sure your idea is interesting and relevant to the website’s content.

3. Give proof. Here, you can briefly mention your experience, results you’ve achieved, previous work, etc. The idea is to show why you’re the best person to write that piece.

4. End with a CTA. Of course, you can end with “Looking forward…” But what if you ask a simple question instead, like “Would you like me to send you an outline?” or something else actionable that only needs a simple “yes” or “no” response.

5. Sound human. We have to mention this in the age of AI. Look, put yourself in that website owner’s shoes. Most likely, they receive dozens of pitches every day. So, make an effort to write an actually honest email.

Also, try to go beyond just emailing an info@ address or filling out submission forms. If you don’t get responses, find the website’s editors or writers on LinkedIn, Twitter, etc.

Get creative, and always write like you’re talking to a person, not just a corporate email address.

Step 3: Write Guest Posts That Convert

When it comes to guest blogging, many people ask themselves how to write content that gets accepted. And that’s the right thing to think about. Because if website editors don’t like what you submit, you won’t get published.

But if, on top of getting backlinks for SEO, you also want to get targeted traffic and leads, you also have to understand how to write guest posts that convert. Not just get accepted.

Here are a couple of things to keep in mind:

• Provide value. For an average person on the internet, clicking any link takes effort. That’s why you have to give your readers a really good reason to make that effort. And that’s exactly why your guest post needs to be genuinely good and different.

• Create a skimmable structure. Guest blogging gives you a lot of freedom. Sure, you have some editorial guidelines, but you can structure your article as you wish. So, be smart about it. You can use shorter paragraphs, more H2s and H3s, bullet points, visuals, anything that gets people to read. And, of course, make your link stand out. 

Speaking of links, that’s a really important point. So, let’s look at it in more detail next.

Step 4: Place Links Strategically for Maximum Traffic

As your goal is to get targeted traffic from guest posts, you have to use your backlinks strategically.

If you bury it somewhere in the middle of the article, it might still work for SEO. But it won’t be nearly as effective for brand visibility and lead generation.

That’s why try these two things:

1. Place your link where people can see it: If we were adding someone’s link for referral traffic in this guide, we wouldn’t hide it here under some random Step 4. We’d naturally place it somewhere in one of the first sections where it made sense.

2. Include a clear CTA: If your links just look contextual, that usually isn’t enough to get real clicks. So, aim for something pain- or benefit-driven. Things like, “If you’re tired of X, there is a solution,” or “If you want to get X, here is how you can do it.”

Step 5: Promote Your Guest Article After Publishing

This is a step many skip. And it’s understandable. Why would you promote someone else’s website? But the thing is, the more reach your guest post gets, the more traffic you receive.

Besides, if it’s high-quality, expert content you’re proud of, why not share it?

There is no right or wrong here. You can promote it as you like. But here are the most common ways:

• Your social media. Summarize some of the main points you wrote about and share them with your audience.

• Email marketing. Create a separate email or mention your guest post in your newsletter.

• Second-tier links. If you want your article to rank better in SERPs, you can link to it from another guest post. This way, you’ll pass some link equity both to your website and to the site that accepted your guest publication.

There is also another unexpected perk.

When a website owner sees that you're involved in the process, this can turn into a long-term collaboration. Who knows, maybe they have other websites in your niche. Or maybe they know someone who knows someone. Well, you get the idea.

Step 6: Measure Your Results (Not Just Referral Traffic)

Even if your goal is to get more traffic from your guest blogging, it can’t be the only thing you measure. 

After all, you want to get that traffic for a particular reason. More leads. More subscribers to your newsletter. More downloads of your gated content. Whatever that goal is, you have to track metrics that are directly tied to it.

That’s exactly why you can’t only track referral traffic.

These are some of the other metrics that could be effective:

• Conversions. Measure how many people actually sign up, subscribe, convert, or take any other action.

• User behavior. Track how users interact with your website. Do they check multiple pages? What pages are those (blog, pricing, anything else)? Where do they drop off? All these things can help you understand the quality of those leads.

• Bounce rate. If your bounce rate is high, it’s usually a sign that something is off. Maybe the website you chose for guest blogging wasn’t relevant enough. Or maybe the page people landed on didn’t match the promise of your CTA.

You can also track which CTAs perform better, which pages on your website have the highest conversion rates, and which guest posting sites are the most effective.

All this data will help you get even more targeted traffic from guest posts in the long run.

Common Mistakes That Kill Your Guest Post Traffic

Sometimes, you can do everything “by the book” and still see no traffic from your guest publications.

If that’s the case, most likely, you need to adjust one of the following things:

1. Irrelevant websites. If you choose a website that isn’t related to your business, you won’t get much traffic. Not because your content or product/service is bad, but because that website’s audience simply isn’t interested in what you offer.

2. Low-quality pages. This again comes down to choosing the wrong site in the first place. If it has no real organic traffic, most likely, no one reads it. And getting leads from a ghost town is very unlikely.

3. Weak content. If the guest article you submit isn’t valuable, why would anyone go further and check your website? Either show your expertise, or don’t expect that content to bring you any clicks.

4. No CTAs. When you do guest posting purely for SEO, a contextual link is enough. But if you want it to convert, you need a natural call to action that encourages people to click.

5. Random links. If your link doesn’t make sense for the topic you cover or the anchor is deceptive, even if you get some traffic, it won’t be relevant. 

6. Not an appropriate target page. When your main goal is conversion, the target page you link to matters a lot. An average blog post typically doesn’t convert. But a pain-driven, conversion-optimized landing page is much more likely to.

Final Thoughts

Using guest posting for traffic is like an unexpected extra benefit.

Backlinks help you improve your domain authority and increase your brand visibility. But a traffic-focused strategy also helps you attract more people to your website. Relevant people who understand your niche and are much more likely to convert.

Frequently Asked Questions

How can you get targeted traffic with guest posting?

By publishing on websites that your target audience already reads, writing useful content, and adding clear, relevant CTAs that make users want to click.

How can you find guest posting sites in your niche?

Look for websites that are closely related to your industry. You can start by googling “your niche” + “guest posting,” “write for us,” etc. Then, check where your competitors get their backlinks from. And if those come from guest publications, reach out to those pages.

How should you write guest posts that convert?

First, focus on providing real value and making the article easy to skim. But also pay attention to your link. Place it for maximum visibility and make sure that the page you link to matches what the reader expects and was written for conversions.