Guest posting is the same strategy that the likes of #Buffer (social media scheduling app) have used to grow massively. In this case study, I share how our marketing agency helped increase the revenue of a client from $160K to $200K within 6 months through guest posting alone. Contrary to popular opinion, guest posting still works (as confirmed by Matt Cutts - who was heading Google's Web Spam Team at the time, as well). However one has to do it smartly and in a non-spammy manner. This presentation will teach you to do exactly that.

1. The Guest Blogging
Process I used to
Achieve $200k in
Monthly Revenue
with Syed Irfan Ajamal

2. Syed Irfan
AjamalAward-Winning Serial Entrepreneur,
Huff Post Columnist, Speaker, SEO
Expert and Content Marketer.
Paul
KlebanovInbound Marketing Strategist &
Webinar Host at SEMrush.com
#SEMrushLive

3. Slideshare.net/SEMrush_webinars
@paulklebanov | @syedirfanajmal |
@SEMrush
youtube.com/SEMrushHQ
Webinar Recording
#SEMrushLive

4. #SEMrushLive
About Me
• Co-founder of Digital Marketing ROI
• Columnist at HuffPo, Business.com and several
other publications
• Specialized in inbound marketing, SEO, and
content marketing

5. #SEMrushLive
Why Guest Blogging?
• Effective
• Economical
• Enriching

6. #SEMrushLive
But…
• “Isn’t guest posting dead? I heard Matt Cutts say
so!”

7. #SEMrushLive
Guest posting is dead…
• …but ONLY IF you don’t do it SMARTLY
• So said Matt Cutts
• And that’s what we’ve proven with this case
study

8. #SEMrushLive
The Case Study
• SEO for a British auto-care e-commerce company

9. #SEMrushLive
• Revenue from organic traffic in October 2014:
$162,580.73
• Revenue from organic traffic in October 2015:
$200,928.19
The Case Study

10. #SEMrushLive
That’s a 23.85% increase by logging only 74 hours
of SEO each month for 6 months (May-Oct 2015)

11. #SEMrushLive

12. #SEMrushLive
The Only Strategy Used
• Guest posting

13. #SEMrushLive
Time Logged
• Logged Hours: 444.24 hours in 6 months (or 74
hours per month)

14. #SEMrushLive
The Team
• 1 senior SEO expert (strategy)
• 2 junior SEO experts (outreach)
• 4 writers
• 1 VA (linkreators research)

15. #SEMrushLive
The Process
• Keyword Research
• Linkreator Research

16. #SEMrushLive
Keyword Research
• The Biggest Metric: ROI
• ROI is directly correlated with the choice of your
keywords

17. #SEMrushLive
Keyword Research
• The most important step if one’s end goal isn’t
just keyword rankings but an increase in ROI
• Using SEMrush to find the ‘low hanging fruits’

18. #SEMrushLive
Keyword Research
• In our case the site was old
• So we downloaded all keywords ranked from
SEMrush and organized them in a way that
keywords which have better positions as well as
large search volume were at the top of the table

19. #SEMrushLive
Keyword Research
• So we found low hanging fruits (keywords with
good searches for which we were at position 7-
20)
• These keywords would be easier to rank than a
keyword which the site has no ranking for or
which has no searches

20. #SEMrushLive
Keyword Research
• More info in: Nick Eubank’s SEMrush article on
keyword research published on 6th Feb 2015

21. #SEMrushLive
This included keywords like

22. #SEMrushLive
Old Rankings: 7-20

23. #SEMrushLive
Content Creation
• Website Content (informational)
• Guest posts (linked to relevant blog posts of our
site)

24. #SEMrushLive
Linkreator Research
• Relevant to the niches of auto, car safety, travel
etc
• DA of 25 or above (we didn’t care much about
the PA at that time)

25. #SEMrushLive
Linkreator Research
• Good UI/UX; great content. No SEO/PBN sites
• Not a competitor but shares the same audience
that our client needs (i.e. car lovers, travelers,
car owners)

26. #SEMrushLive
Email Outreach Template
“Dear [First name of the site’s owner/editor],
While looking for articles on travel, I came across your beautifully
designed site. The recent article on 10 things to consider before
embarking on a long journey was pretty informative.
I am passionate about travel and writing, and hence I wonder if
you would be interested in me sending you a guest post on “10
steps to prepare your car for a long road trip”? I would also be
open to writing on a topic of your choice.
Would you like to see some of my previous articles published at
some good sites?
Regards,
Syed Irfan Ajmal”

27. #SEMrushLive
Key Features of An Ideal
Outreach Email
• Use the right person’s first name (rather than
Dear Sir/Madam)
• Share a specific compliment

28. #SEMrushLive
• Connect that compliment to your pitch
• End with a question
Key Features of An Ideal
Outreach Email

29. #SEMrushLive
Precautions
• No links
• No attachments
• Preferably short email (so no copy-paste of your
article samples in the article’s body) - [Brian
Dean’s 2-step approach]

30. #SEMrushLive
Precautions
• Suggest a couple of topics
• No emails to generic email IDs like
info@traveltips.com

31. #SEMrushLive
Precautions
• No vague compliments; nothing that gives the
wrong impression that you are mass-mailing

32. #SEMrushLive
Precautions
• Mention a recent content piece (which is relevant
to you); mention in your own words and explain
how you have a better and more awesome
content piece on the same or a related topic

33. #SEMrushLive
Precautions
• Never ask for a link!

34. #SEMrushLive
More Outreach Tips
• Make them feel like you KNOW them well
• Your compliment plus you ending with a question
serves a definite purpose (psychology at play)

35. #SEMrushLive
• Always do followups (without disrespecting their time)
• 70-80% anchor texts to branded terms
More Outreach Tips

36. #SEMrushLive
Results Obtained
• Rankings gained or improved for 5000+
keywords

37. #SEMrushLive
Results Obtained
• Rankings for keywords with 5-6 figure search
volume (in UK alone) improved with many
keywords on 1-3 positions and many more on the
first page

38. #SEMrushLive
Results Obtained
• $200K in Monthly Revenue

39. #SEMrushLive
How We Are Making This
Better
• Improved benchmarking
• Investing in social outreach rather than email
outreach only
• More EPIC content
(quality, more content types like infographics, videos
etc)

40. #SEMrushLive
How We Are Making This
Better
• Offering incentives to linkreators
(“I will share your content piece with our
community to 10,000 fans.”)
• Link diversity (investing in other backlinking
strategies)

41. #SEMrushLive
How We Are Making This
Better
• Investing in Bing SEO (as Bing is now used by
around 30% searchers) to diversify organic traffic
inflow.
• More about it at my blog
www.SyedIrfanAjmal.com

42. #SEMrushLive
Through these improvements we have
generate even more revenue for our clients!

43. #SEMrushLive
How You Can Do The Same
• DIY (cheaper but may take more time if you have
less experience)
• Outsource (more expensive, but can be good if
you hire the right company)

44. #SEMrushLive
My Free Offer
• Say Hi/Boo via mail/web
• The best email I get will get a free 30 minutes
SEO consultation
• Email: sia[at]SyedIrfanAjmal[dot]com
• Web: www.SyedIrfanAjmal.com

45. #SEMrushLive

46. #SEMrushLive

47. #SEMrushLive

48. GET A FREE TRIAL
OF SEMRUSH TODAY!
SIAWEBINAR-PWPI5GAI
#SEMrushLive

49. #SEMrushLive