Guest post backlinks are a powerful and commonly used tactic in SEO. In short, these are links you earn by contributing content — usually a blog post — to another website in your niche. Guest posting has become a standard practice for establishing authority, enhancing brand awareness, and generating organic traffic. However, it’s crucial to follow best practices and stay within Google’s guidelines to avoid penalties.
This article will provide you with a comprehensive guide on guest post backlinks and how to build an effective guest post backlink strategy.
An Overview of Guest Post Backlinks
Guest post backlinks are backlinks gained by placing content on another website as a content contributor. These backlinks usually point to the page you wish to promote on search engines. They are meant to be natural and of high quality, not just keyword-stuffed to drop backlinks
Besides editorial, edu, or gov backlinks, guest post backlinks are a high-value type of backlink. These backlinks can help you increase your website’s authority and popularity. You can get traffic from visitors from the host site. Therefore, these backlinks can contribute to higher rankings as they originate from reputable and niche-relevant sites
Overall, guest post backlinks can be one of the most effective white-hat link-building strategies, provided you approach them with a focus on creating high-quality, authentic, and people-first content.
Guest Post Guidelines: 8 Steps to Build an Effective Guest Post Backlink Strategy
Step 1: Define SEO goals and analyze competitors
You need to define what you want to achieve when using guest blogging efforts: increase domain authority, drive more organic traffic, or improve search engine rankings for specific keywords.
This definition will give you insights into your guest blogging strategy, the types of content you should write, and the sites you should place backlinks on within your niche
To analyse your competitors, you can use tools like SEMRush or Ahrefs to identify which sites your competitors place guest posts on and the quality of these backlinks.
Step 2: Find High-Quality Blogs for Guest Posting
You can search for guest posting opportunities through Google search operators, competitors’ backlink profiles, social media (like Twitter and LinkedIn), online communities, forums, and mega lists of popular blogging sites.
Your Partners
Let’s start with the easiest: your partners. Whatever your industry, you likely work in partnership with other companies.
A partner is a prime target for guest posts because you already have an existing relationship with them, so they’ll be easier to convince. In addition, you likely work in the same field, so the link will have good thematic relevance to your site. This makes a win-win partnership,
From experience, your partner sites are always the easiest sites to place a guest post backlink pointing to your sites.
Google Search Engines
Most websites that accept guest posts have a dedicated page inviting contributors to send them the guest post
You can use the following keywords in particular to find opportunities on the Search Engine
- keyword “guest post”
- keyword “write for us”
- keyword “contribute an article”
- keyword “become a contributor”
- keyword “guest article submission”
- keyword “submit your article”
- keyword “guest blogging opportunities”
- keyword “guest post guidelines”
- keyword “guest post submission”
- keyword “accepting guest contributors”
- keyword “guest post request”
- keyword “submit a guest post”
Use these advanced search operators to find more guest posting sites
Contact Authority Websites
In your sector, there are undoubtedly blogs you consider to be “giants.” List these platforms and contact them to see if they would be open to publishing a guest article.
Unfortunately, some highly authoritative blogs may not accept guest blogging SEO partnerships from newer websites.
Moreover, most blogs do not necessarily indicate whether they are interested in guest blogging, SEO, or sponsored articles. It’s up to you to reach out and send them an appealing proposal to seal the partnership.
Spy on Competitor Sites
If your competitors are also doing guest posts, why not tap into their own list?
At Scapbot, we found a 30% conversion rate on sites that had published articles from our competitors.
The question you’re probably asking is: how can I find out where my competitors have published guest posts?
To do that, you can use tools like SEMrush or Ahrefs. These tools allow you to identify all of your competitors’ backlinks. Then, all you need to do is manually identify the guest posts. For example, you can filter by “Blogs” on Ahrefs to save time.
Join Social Groups Specializing in Link-Building and Guest Blogging
Beyond searching on Google, social media is one of the most common methods to find guest post websites. Many groups dedicated to guest blogging and SEO are active on social networks, including Facebook and LinkedIn.
However, in these communities, you should not expect to get several high-quality backlinks if you cannot offer a high-quality guest blog in return.
Get Interviewed as a Blogger
This tip is suitable for experts or influencers in a specific niche. But how can you get interviewed? There are several solutions. The first step is to network by attending seminars and meeting industry professionals, engaging in conversations with them, and potentially receiving interview requests.
You can also make yourself stand out as an influential blogger by writing relevant, high-value articles. And if, despite your efforts, you still don’t get any requests, don’t hesitate to reach out to platforms that regularly publish interviews.
Step 3: Narrow Down Your List of Target Websites
Publishing great content on a poor-quality website filled with AI-generated content is a wasted effort. You may receive some traffic, but your audience will likely not engage with the article due to its lack of quality.
In such cases, all the time and energy you invest in your guest post won’t yield any real returns—neither improved SEO on Google nor valuable visitor engagement.
That’s why prioritizing quality sites for your guest blogging efforts is crucial. To assess backlink quality, here are a few elements to check:
Once you’ve completed this first step, you should end up with a substantial list (on our side, it had over 400 entries). So how do you prioritize which sites to reach out to?
I recommend creating an Excel spreadsheet with the following data points to help you decide:
Traffic
The higher its estimated monthly traffic, according to tools, the better. You should choose good traffic website to enhance your backlink profile.
DoFollow
The first thing to check is the type of links the site allows. If the links are nofollow, the link contributes less to your SEO.
Be careful—some sites might mark in-article links as nofollow but allow dofollow links in the author bio. In that case, it might still be worth considering.
Topical Relevance
This is a more subjective criterion. Does the site cover topics that are closely related to yours? If not, the backlink will carry less relevance and SEO value.
Authority
You’ll also want to assess the authority of the site. Does the website you want to post on have a strong backlink profile itself?
To estimate authority, you can rely on various SEO metrics provided by different tools:
- Trust Flow and Citation Flow (Majestic)
- Domain Authority (Moz)
- Domain Rating (Ahrefs)
Content Quality
Finally, and perhaps most subjectively: Does the site publish high-quality content? If the site has a strong editorial standard, it tells you two important things:
- It’s probably harder to get published there, which means your competitors might also struggle to get featured.
- Google is more likely to value and reward the content coming from that site.
Step 4: Build Genuine Relationships With Publishers
Once you have made an initial selection of candidate sites, you will need to send them a partnership proposal, which they can accept or decline. If you choose a direct approach without going through a guest blogging platform, you will need to prepare an email that presents:
- Your website
- Your objectives, such as obtaining a backlink with a specific anchor text
- 3-5 ideas for an article topic
Some bloggers will take the time to give you feedback. You’ll sometimes need to answer their questions and even adjust your proposal. Depending on each person’s expectations and requirements, you’ll need to do what is necessary to strike a fair balance. The key is to achieve a configuration that satisfies both the guest and the host.
A guest blogger sometimes requests 2 or 3 backlinks instead of just one, which may not be suitable for the host site. If the spot is truly high-quality, it might be worth settling for only one backlink in return. You’ll need to negotiate and decide on a case-by-case. If you find a good deal, consider maintaining a partnership with them to collaborate on future projects.
Step 5: Write the Article
If you want to write a blog post that truly stands out, there are several key points you shouldn’t ignore that will help you create a high-quality guest post:
Firstly, to write a guest post that resonates with the host website’s audience and drives traffic to your own site, it’s essential to understand the target audience of that website and adapt your branding and tone accordingly.
Secondly, follow the guest posting guidelines of the website, including rules about formatting, word count, and topics to cover.
In addition, make sure your guest post gets the clicks it deserves by crafting an attention-grabbing headline that clearly conveys what your article is about. Use data and examples to support your arguments, and include engaging images and videos to help illustrate your ideas.
You can also use SEO techniques, such as relevant keywords and internal links, to improve the visibility of your article in search engine results.
Finally, consider adding a sentence that encourages readers to visit your website and learn more about your brand.
Step 6: Send your pitch
It can be quite challenging to get the attention of blog or website owners. To increase your chances of being accepted for publication on their website, consider writing a personalized email that directly addresses the blog owner and makes a strong case for your guest post idea. Always start by introducing your brand or business and highlighting the unique value you bring.
Keep in mind that a blog owner’s first response may not be a clear yes or no; sometimes, you don’t receive any response. Take the time to build a relationship with them and don’t hesitate to state your intentions. Being polite and persistent will help you find good guest posting opportunities. Make sure your pitch aligns with the content and theme of the blog you’re targeting to increase your chances of receiving a positive response.
Be patient, send follow-up emails, and stay in touch with the sites or blogs you’re interested in. You never know what’s going on behind the scenes — there may be other brands already waiting for their turn to publish an article. In most cases, you’ll eventually receive a yes or no response, and you can proceed accordingly.
Step 7: Promote your guest post
Publishing your guest post is only the beginning. You should promote your guest post by informing your audience that a new article is available to drive traffic to it. To do this, you can share your guest post on social media and encourage your followers to leave comments.
Engage with the audience of the website that published your article through comments and social media to build relationships and create a sense of community around your post.
Step 8: Track Referral Traffic and Other Metrics
To follow up on your campaign, just compare the performance of your post with the goals you set in the first step, such as increasing referral traffic, building more backlinks, gaining audience engagement, and improving domain ranking.
As you are not the blog owner, you may not have access to analytics that show the effectiveness of your guest posts. That’s why you can use analytical tools like Google Analytics to track the referral. This information will help you improve your future guest posts and attract new leads to boost your engagement.
You can use Google Analytics to track referral traffic (by source, medium, and domain) to your website or landing pages and create advanced audience segments based on this data to gain insights into visitor behavior.
In guest posting, you compile a list of websites, find guest posting opportunities, pitch articles, and share them across various social networks. Even if results come slowly, a guest post has the power to enhance domain authority, traffic, credibility, and search engine rankings. You just need the right tools to speed up your guest posting process.
50 Free guest post sites
Below is a list of guest post sites categorized by general category. There is some overlap between the sites and categories.
| Sites | DA | DR | Link |
| https://futuramo.com | 39 | 46 | Write for us |
| https://www.sitepronews.com/ | 59 | 73 | Write for us |
| https://www.digitalgpoint.com | 47 | 32 | Write for us |
| https://www.entrepreneurshiplife.com/ | 40 | 62 | Write for us |
| https://businesstraverse.com/ | 55 | 61 | Write for us |
| https://todaybusinessupdates.com | 52 | 40 | Write for us |
| https://landscapeinsight.com/ | 56 | 40 | Write for us |
| https://www.sitepronews.com/ | 59 | 73 | Write for us |
| https://www.benzinga.com/ | 86 | 86 | Write for us |
| https://promo.com/ | 65 | 52 | Write for us |
| https://www.getresponse.com/ | 83 | 51 | Write for us |
| https://buffer.com/ | 90 | 65 | Write for us |
| https://webflow.com/ | 81 | 65 | Write for us |
| https://www.marketingtechnews.net/ | 56 | 36 | Write for us |
| https://www.chatterbuzzmedia.com/ | 41 | 31 | Write for us |
| https://blog.contactpigeon.com/ | 41 | 36 | Write for us |
| https://www.elephantjournal.com/ | 77 | 41 | Write for us |
| https://www.adoptivefamilies.com/ | 56 | 30 | Write for us |
| https://modernmama.com/ | 59 | 22 | Write for us |
| https://www.boundless.org/ | 55 | 34 | Write for us |
| https://www.ibelieve.com/ | 56 | 41 | Write for us |
| https://www.atlantaparent.com/ | 50 | 39 | Write for us |
| https://www.naomikizhner.com/ | 41 | 29 | Write for us |
| https://thehearttruths.com/ | 43 | 30 | Write for us |
| https://afineparent.com/ | 49 | 30 | Write for us |
| https://www.momnewsdaily.com/ | 34 | 34 | Write for us |
| https://amyandrose.com/ | 36 | 33 | Write for us |
| https://www.ultraupdates.com/ | 77 | 36 | Write for us |
| https://craftgossip.com/ | 59 | 36 | Write for us |
| https://lifehacker.com/ | 91 | 62 | Write for us |
How to Optimize Guest Post Content
Once your pitch is accepted, the real work begins. Keep in mind that even at this stage, your article could still be turned down if it doesn’t meet expectations. To avoid that, you should ask for the editorial guidelines from the site owner before you start: word count, tone of voice, and any specific requirements. After that, share a draft outline and introduction first. Getting early feedback helps you spot and fix issues before you invest too much time.
Deliver high-quality writing that matches the site’s standards. Meeting (or even exceeding) expectations will maximize your chances of seeing your article published.
Choose Your Topics Based on Your Goals
You should choose topics that serve your goals, whether that’s increasing your traffic, improving your SEO performance, generating leads, or boosting your sales.
Then, proceed step by step:
- Try to identify which pages on your site you want to highlight through guest blogging.
- For each target page, choose a general topic that matches your expertise and would be helpful to readers.
- Next, you can start using keyword research tools, such as SEMRush and Ahrefs, to fuel your topic ideas.
Guest posting is not just about getting a backlink — it’s also about providing real value while maintaining SEO best practices.
Optimize Your Guest Blog Post
I’m providing you with some tips for a guest blog post of high quality. Firstly, you should write long, compelling content (at least 1000 words/article), The text should be broken into small paragraphs to make your article easy to digest. Optimize your article with relevant keywords for improved SEO. Images and graphics should be implemented into your text to make the content more readable.
Include an internal link to your own content and also an external link to other publications, such as studies, data, and expert opinions, to enhance the content’s authority. Following Google’s EEAT recommendations, you should add your signature and explain what makes you a specialist on this topic.
Crafting an Effective Call-to-Action (CTA), if possible
If the site host accepts, you should wrap up your post with a compelling CTA, inviting readers to take action. For example:
“Download our free checklist for eco-friendly workouts.”
A relevant, non-pushy CTA can boost conversions without harming your relationship with the host site.
Find Content Ideas
You have a few options here. You can choose a popular topic and provide additional content that builds on what has already been published on the site—provided there isn’t already an article on the subject. Alternatively, you can submit an editorial, guide, or opinion piece on an entirely new topic that is intended to go viral.
To find an interesting topic, you need to
- Stay updated with the latest developments and social media trends.
- Explore trending headlines, questions, and content ideas using tools like Buzzsumo.
- Subscribe to newsletters, publications, and RSS feeds.
- Check Google Trends to find popular topics, see how interests evolve, and discover related topics.
Another thing you can do is research their competitors and find content gaps or topics they haven’t yet covered. Perform a simple search on the site: domain “keyword/topic” to check if it has already been covered by your guest post site.
Create a thematic map centered around a general keyword (buyer persona), a type of content (infographics), and guest post keywords (buyer persona statistics). Keeping this thematic map in mind, perform keyword research and note the search volume, difficulty, user intent, and related keywords.
FAQs
How Long Does It Take to See the Results of Guest Post Backlinks?
The results from guest post backlinks are not usually immediate. It can take anywhere from a few weeks to several months to see measurable improvements in your rankings, referral traffic, and overall SEO performance. This timeframe depends on factors such as the authority of the linking site, the speed at which search engines crawl and index new links, and the competitiveness of your target keywords. Patience and consistency are key.
