Guest posting is a valuable link-building method used to help businesses and organizations showcase their expertise and get noticed by search engines.
It’s a great tool to enhance your link-building strategy and help your business grab some powerful backlinks.
Backlinks are very important for SEO, but you need to make sure that you’re earning relevant backlinks and that your portfolio is diverse.
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What Problems Can Links from Poor-Quality Websites Cause?
Guest posting on a poor-quality website could result in Google and other search engines associating the quality of your site with the poor quality of the site from which you earned a link.
These search engines might feel that you used these sites to earn unnatural backlinks. This could result in them penalizing your site.
True me, you don’t want to get penalized by Google.
Also, internet users that stumble across your link on a website that looks cheap and badly managed might also be put off. They might think that your site is somehow connected to the poor-quality one. Even if the guest post doesn’t say this. The reputation of that site will transfer to your site as well.
So, you need to take the time to do your research and ensure that you target your guest posting efforts only to high-quality, authoritative websites.
Finding the right backlink opportunities can be time-consuming and challenging, particularly if you’re running a business.
There are a lot of factors to consider, and these can take time if you’re not sure about what opportunities exist, what each of them means for your business, and how to approach each one.
To help, here is everything that you need to look for when choosing a guest posting opportunity for your site.
Relevance to Your Niche and Audience
Relevance is vital when you’re building backlinks. If you’re only getting links placed on random niche websites that have nothing to do with the subject matter on your site, you could make search engines suspicious of your backlinks and lead them to overlook your website in search results.
As such, you will effectively undo all of the hard work that you’ve already put into your SEO strategy. So, when looking for guest posting opportunities, you should first try to find the sites that your audience members are actually browsing.
Search for sites that rank well for your target keywords and phrases. You could also explore the backlink profiles of your competitors to find valuable potential guest posting opportunities.
Strong Results Across A Variety Of Metrics
There are numerous SEO metrics available that can help you determine the quality of a website from which you’re seeking a link. Each one views a specific aspect of a site’s potential ranking power.
For example, SEMrush offers insights into the estimated traffic that a site may receive, while Moz’s Domain Authority (DA) assesses the strength of a site’s backlink profile along with other on-page signals.
You can even use this free tool to check for social media share counts. If their content is getting shares, it’s probably a legit site. And if you visit their social profiles and notice they’re using some social media scheduling tool to automate their social activity, that is further proof you’re dealing with a legit site and with a webmaster who knows what they’re doing.
So, it would help if you tried to examine as many metrics as possible.
Working with a Link Building Company
This approach can be time-consuming, but there are solutions out there that you can purchase through link-building companies. For example, one such company has developed an M-Flux formula that combines a variety of relevant metrics to give you a better insight into the guest posting potential of websites.
If you order backlinks through a company like this, they can use a proven formula to help you choose the right guest posting opportunities. And if you work with a really good group, their team can then help you with every step of the process, from outreach to writing the content and checking that it’s live, so you get the best backlinks without lifting a finger.
The important thing is to ensure any link-building company you choose to work with is reputable. As well as a formula like this in place to ensure the links they place for you are high-quality and actually help your site.
Well-Written Content Across The Entire Site
Google and other search engines value quality content, which means well-presented, proofread, and edited articles. These pieces of content need to be informative, not just filler in which to place backlinks.
So, when you’re searching for guest posting opportunities, you should always read a selection of the current content on the site. Look for content that is engaging and provides the reader with the information that they’re looking for.
If you notice any content that’s overly promotional or that is very clearly just for link building, then it’s likely that readers and search engine algorithms will view the site in much the same way.
That’s not good for your SEO efforts if you place a link there.
Avoid sites that don’t produce quality, relevant and insightful content. Even if these sites look good and have pretty images, if the content isn’t up to scratch, then it’s not worth guest posting on the site.
Good Core Web Vitals for Guest Posting Opportunities
In addition to looking at the appearance and content on the site, you also need to consider its functionality. That includes whether the site is optimized for mobile search, the site’s security measures, load times (some sites are lured by enticing hosting offers, and they err).
Furthermore, even whether they’re using a premium WordPress caching plugin.
Core web vitals are now a ranking factor. So, you need to take them into account when you’re choosing a site to guest post on.
All of the core web vitals, as well as other factors affecting website functionality, are part of what Google has named Page Experience. You can get Page Experience reports from the search engine so that you can see more about how well a site is performing.
If the site you’re considering has poor Page Experience, then this might affect its search rankings and negatively impact your site if you guest post on it and link to your website.
Monitor Your Performance After The Guest Post Is Live
Once you’ve selected the right guest posting sites for your organization, reached out to them. Of course, establish a relationship first. Then provide content, and don’t think that your efforts are at an end.
You can just sit back and relax while they put the piece up, right?
The truth is that you need to remain vigilant, even after the link has gone live.
Keep reviewing the website and your own site’s search rankings. If you notice that your site rankings go down or that the site you placed your link on changes in a way that could have an impact on your SEO, then you should consider disavowing the link(s) from on your Google Search Console.
Wrapping it Up on Guest Posting
With these tips, you should now have a greater understanding of what you need to look for when choosing potential guest posting opportunities.
Guest posting is a powerful tool for building backlinks if you do it the right way. If you don’t approach this effort with care, however, you can end up taking a negative hit on your website.
Remember, when you’re pursuing any form of link building, Google is watching!
How are you finding places to guest post on the web? Do you allow guest contributors on your blog? We’d love to know more in the comments below.
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All excellent points, Anthony. We want to guest post on quality sites to align with prospering readers and also, credible bloggers. Gaining exposure helps if exposure is gained in front of a prospering audience who clicks links, follows through and engages your content. It is not about being seen in 1 billion spots but increasing visibility in spots where loyal, engaging readers benefit from our guest posts which organically boosts quality backlinks generated. All good tips here. Thanks for sharing.
Ryan
Well put! It’s about selecting the right spots where your target audience hangs out. Exposing your expertise and your content to other, similar audience members who then are likely to click over to your site to check it out.