Our guide to smarter guest blogging

Guest blogging and Google have had a complicated relationship over the years. Back in 2014, Matt Cutts officially declared that this type of blogging was dead. Six years later, guest blogging is still alive and well. The phenomenon has therefore not disappeared and will, in all likelihood, continue into the future. The key is to do it smart!

In this article, we’ll explain how to approach guest blogging optimally. We’ll also answer the question of whether you should allow guest contributors on your own site.

Why should you guest blog?

There are many reasons to guest blog, especially if you have a new site that hasn’t yet established itself or gained trust in the eyes of search engines.
A few years ago, the answer from an SEO consultant would have been to publish on other sites simply to get a link pointing back to your own site, thereby increasing your site’s link authority. Today, it’s a bit more complex than that, and there are several reasons why publishing your content on other sites is a good idea.

Common reasons to guest blog:

• Position yourself as an expert author in your field.
• Expose yourself and your site to a new audience.
• Create interest in your area of expertise.
• Open doors to new and exciting collaborations.
• Drive traffic to your site.
• Build links to your site and potentially increase its link authority.

Today, few would recommend guest blogging solely for the purpose of getting a link. More factors need to be weighed in when deciding if it’s worthwhile. The list above highlights just a few reasons why you should consider guest blogging on other sites. That said, the main focus should always remain on your own site—make sure it is filled with good, relevant content before you start guest blogging elsewhere.

How to think about guest blogging

Historically, people have guest blogged on both well-known sites and more obscure ones that hardly anyone has heard of. The latter is something you should avoid as a writer, since it’s impossible to maintain a high level of quality if you’re constantly producing new content for a large number of different sites.

In other words, it’s about quality over quantity. By being selective about where you blog, you can invest more time and energy into the articles you write. One really good article on a site where your target audience is present will weigh much more than ten mediocre articles published on irrelevant sites. In most cases, it’s better to focus on quality. Don’t give away great content unless the site is truly a good fit for your brand—otherwise, publish it on your own site instead.

In short, we recommend publishing only on sites that can help you become more recognized as an author in your field or related areas.

How to find good sites to guest blog on

The best way to find guest blogging opportunities is simply to ask. If you don’t ask, you’ll never get to guest blog. 😉

As mentioned earlier, you should be selective with the sites you approach. They should preferably be well known in your niche. It’s often easier if you don’t target direct competitors. For example, if you run a fitness site, asking only other fitness sites may not yield results. However, blogs about food, lifestyle, or workout apparel could be interesting areas to explore, as long as it ties back to fitness.

As an expert in your field, you’re usually aware of which blogs and sites cover your topics. If you want more leads, you can use a simple Google search by entering your niche/topic and “guest blog” to discover potential sites that accept this type of content.

In practice, a search for a fitness site might look like this:

fitness “guest blogger”

Or

fitness “guest blog”

Our tips for creating a process for guest blogging:

• Create a list of the sites, magazines, and blogs most relevant for you to guest blog on (those you can contribute to, but that can also positively impact your own site). If unsure, run the site through a tool like Majestic to check its trust flow (an estimate of how strong the link profile is).
• Start following the company/blog on social media and engage with them there first. Few people appreciate being contacted out of the blue with a “too good to be true” offer.
• Make a plan for how you’ll pitch your idea and to whom.
• Prepare for questions like: Why should they let you guest blog? What can you contribute? What have you written before? These are all questions you should address in your pitch. It’s helpful if you already have a site with plenty of content to refer to. If you can also show that the site you’re pitching to lacks a certain type of content, this can further increase your chances. This requires doing your research. For example, you can quickly check by using “site:domain” plus your topic in quotation marks. If you want to find everything Brath has written about “SEO,” you would search: site:brath.se “sökmotoroptimering.”
• And finally, the most important step: reach out and present your pitch. Just make sure not to send a generic template pitch that someone else wrote. If you’ve followed the previous steps correctly, this should be obvious by now. Quality over quantity.

Should you allow others to guest blog on your own site?

Should you allow others to contribute content to your site/blog? The answer is: “it depends.”
Allowing guest bloggers on your own site can be a good idea if the content is high-quality, well-written, and fits your site.
There’s no reason to let a contributor take advantage of your strong domain without you getting anything in return in the form of quality content.
So make sure to carefully evaluate what the guest blogger wants to contribute, which other sites they’ve written for, and so on. Always proofread to eliminate spelling and grammar errors before publishing. We also want to raise a word of caution regarding images from guest bloggers, as they may sometimes provide copyrighted images.

There are many pitfalls, but as long as you get new, relevant, and well-written content for your site, you should consider giving guest bloggers a chance. Who knows—it could even lead to long-term collaborations between your sites. However, we strongly advise against giving others the ability to publish directly on your site. You must have 100% control over what gets published.

Final comments

No article on this subject would be complete without mentioning how enjoyable it is to be part of the guest blogging process. From researching sites, to pitching ideas to other site owners, to writing the content itself—it’s very rewarding. It’s not an easy job, and it will likely take some time before you gain traction with your guest blogging, but once you get going, many doors can open.
The key takeaway from this article is to always focus on producing quality content—both on your own site and on the sites where you guest blog. With this approach, you’ll increase your chances of becoming a successful guest blogger.