Heroic Search

Contributor Guidelines

Contributor Guidelines

Thanks for your interest in writing for our Link Building Blog. We are eager to read your advice and to share it with our readers. Hearing from experts in various niches helps us and our followers to maintain a fresh perspective on the latest trends in our industry. Here’s what you need to know before you send us a pitch.

Acceptable Topics

Heroic Search is a link building and content marketing firm, and we cover topics that our target audience is interested in within that niche. We welcome you to pitch topics that reasonably fall under the umbrella of link building.

Rather than write a topic that’s likely to have already saturated the blogosphere, try to give us a unique angle. Write about something you know about. Better yet, write about something you’re an expert at. Keep in mind that you’re sharing this information with other business people who are already at least somewhat familiar with the subjects we write about.

You may want to share insights about chatbots, Artificial Intelligence (AI) or Augmented Reality (AR) — these are definitely hot topics. Rather than share something like, “How to Use Chatbots in Your Marketing,” we would rather you write something more specific like, “How to Use Chatbots to Speed Up Your Link Building Campaigns.” In a nutshell, keep your topics centered around link building, as well as very targeted.

What to Do Before You Pitch

Before you pitch your topic, browse through the relevant category pages above to make sure we haven’t already covered your idea. If we have, think about whether or not you can change the angle of your post.

Next, do a quick Google search for your topic and make sure you can write something that provides at least as much value as the first three results you find. We want your guest post to be sincerely helpful for our readers.

How to Pitch Your Topic

We do have a contact form on our website and we read everything that comes in. But, unless you already have a contact at our company, it may be quicker to send your ideas directly to info(at)heroicsearch.com. Let us know what you want to write about and why our readers might like to read it — don’t be afraid to boast (a little bit). Please include links to other articles you’ve written.

Editorial Standards

Word Length: 1200-1800 words

Proofreading: Make sure to proofread your post before you send it over. Some minor typos can be corrected by our editor, but we want to see that you have taken the time to ensure that your post is well-structured. If you need a little help, Grammarly can help.

Tone: Your piece should be conversational, engaging, and straightforward. Content needs to be informative, solution-driven, and easily digestible. We appreciate clever humor, but please don’t include anything too cheesy.

Keep it SEO Friendly – MUST INCLUDE:

  • Keyword: Use at least one (long tail) keyword that you might have a chance to rank for.
  • H1 Title (containing focus keyword)
  • Meta Description around 150 characters (containing focus keyword)
  • Focus Keyword in the first paragraph/ first 100-200 words
  • Bulleted and Numbered Lists should be used when they are helpful.
  • Header Tags (H2/H3/H4s) are a MUST to break up sections.
    • Sections should never exceed more than 300 words.
    • Focus keywords should be used in some header titles where appropriate.
    • Content under each header should directly address the header topic.
  • Hyperlinks to reputable sources (expert quotes, industry insights, data, etc).
    • Do not include promotional links to your website homepage or landing page in the body of your article.
    • If you include links to your website content (blog posts, videos, etc.), make sure it is hyper-relevant and helpful for the reader — Never throw in a link to your website just for another backlink.
  • Relevant images/screenshots should be included in the article – when sending over the finished piece, please also include a link to a Google folder containing your images.

Submitting Your Draft

What to include:

  • A short bio – just a few sentences.
  • Include a link in the bio to your company website if you like.
  • Your Gravatar email address (important).
  • Links to social media profiles.

What to Expect

Once your draft has been approved, you should hear back from us within 24 hours. If you’ve waited 72 hours and haven’t heard anything back, we probably missed your email or it’s been buried in the abyss — it’s okay to follow up. We try to publish posts in a timely manner. Once your article has been approved, you shouldn’t have to wait more than a week for it to go live.

If you would like to choose the publication date of your article for promotional purposes — social media scheduling, etc. — please let us know in advance (in the body of the email when you send your draft). Once your post is live, please share it on social media to help spread the word, and we will do the same.

 

 

Last updated February, 2019.