100+ Quality Guest Posting Sites (Updated Post-HCU)

Oct 28. 2024 Update:  The Helpful Content Updates have drastically altered this list. Overall, 94 sites have been hit by the updates in the past few years, and 50+ fell off of this list entirely because they dropped below the “quality” minimums set in the methodology below. Some are in recovery mode; some are not. Keep that in mind when trying to build links from these sites. I added a note in the table to designate if a site dropped traffic at the time of the recent Helpful Content updates.

Most link builders know that what Google says and what Google does can be two very different things.

One practice sits squarely in Google’s gray area: guest posting sites.

In the early days of Google, guest posting (aka guest blogging) was seen as a legitimate SEO strategy, and Google didn’t publicly penalize it. Then, in 2014, Google warned about the potential harm of guest posting if its main purpose was solely link building. Matt Cutts’ infamous blog post advised “sticking a fork in it” because guest posting for links was done.

Today, Guest posting and guest posting sites continue to climb in popularity.

Yet, so many link builders focus on the wrong links, as evidenced by the sites mentioned in top-ranking posts that list “guest posting sites.”

We analyzed 500+ sites included on top-ranking “guest post sites” lists and ran a quality check (so you don’t have to.)

Methodology

After compiling our list based on the sites’ guest post lists, we also added our own sites by using Ahref’s Content Explorer. We looked for sites with clear signals that they accepted guest posts, such as post titles and URLs with the words “contribute” or “write for us.”

Then we manually analyzed our list, looking for five key qualifications:

• Domain Rating above 50
• Monthly Organic Traffic is above 10,000
• They provide dofollow links (and not just to government sites)
• Author names are clearly displayed (vs something like “admin” or “guest”)
• The website is quality, meaning they have E-E-A-T signals and content is high quality, well-written

Note: We aim to keep this list up to date, but if there is a post that you see that you feel doesn’t qualify for the above, please let us know.

100+ Quality Guest Posting Sites

Below is the list guest post sites broken down by general category. There is some overlap between the sites and categories.

How to Identify Quality Guest Post Sites

Guest posting is a great way to build traffic, gain exposure, and grow your brand. There is a right way and a wrong way to do it, however.

When identifying guest post opportunities, you are trying to both choose quality, relevant sites, but at the same time, trying to safeguard the longevity and strength of your post. Nothing is worse than getting a guest post on a website only for that website to get hit by an algorithm update.

As a general insight, companies’ websites (vs. publications) are much more likely to be quality backlinks.

So, here are a few ways to identify quality, long-lasting guest posting opportunities.

Gauge Site Relevance

Simply put, in guest posting, choosing sites relevant to your niche is better for your SEO.

For SEO, links from relevant sites tell search engines that your site is also contextually relevant, helping support your ability to rank.

Posting to relevant sites can also theoretically bring in traffic, leading to better-converting customers — though realistically, this is less likely to happen unless your post gets a lot of exposure.

Check Domain Authority or Rating

Third-party metrics like Domain Authority (DA) and Domain Rating (DR) are built as a proxy for Google’s Page Rank. So, focus on the higher DA/DR opportunities where you can. For reference, the median DR in our analysis was 74.

Tools like Moz’s Link Explorer and Ahrefs’ Site Explorer can quickly give you a snapshot of authority metrics.

You can also use a tool like Majestic’s Trust Flow. However, because none of these metrics are exactly Google’s Page Rank, you’ll sometimes see sites with inflated authority DA or DR for various reasons. That’s why the remaining checks are important.

Overall, the goal here is to weed out poor quality sites.

Relevance vs Authority

In our post about relevant links, we shared the below link relevancy vs link authority matrix.

There is a balance to strike between relevance and authority. A site can be highly authoritative, but if it’s irrelevant, it will not be valuable.

Check Traffic

Organic traffic is one metric that most tools can provide, though they are estimations of traffic, not exact measures. Filtering out sites with low organic traffic generally gets you sites of higher quality because to bring in traffic, they are most likely ranking, which means they are doing something right.

The traffic could be from anything, so this isn’t foolproof either. They could have one unrelated post bringing in a ton of traffic.

Use Ahrefs’ Site Explorer to get a site’s estimated organic traffic.

One of the other things to look at in Site Explorer is the organic traffic graph. Ahrefs provides helpful date stamps for large algorithm updates so you can easily cross-reference to see when a site might have been hit by an algorithm update, which is a bad sign.

In the example below, you can clearly see a site traffic dip coincides with an algorithm update.

Although a traffic dip can be caused by many things, most algorithm updates these days are concerned about a website’s content quality.

Assess Audience Engagement

Assessing audience engagement of your target site is less about your content reaching an active, interested audience (though that’s great if it happens) and more about using audience engagement to signal that real people run your site.

One easy way to evaluate this is to click on the site’s social profiles. You could also look at site comments, if enabled.

In the image below, there are no real posts or engagement from followers on their Facebook since 2021. (Facebook is the only social profile linked to from their site.)

Another sign of poor audience engagement is when social links appear on the website but then link to nothing. This signals that a site was put together using a theme, but no care was given to the details.

Judge Content Quality

Judging a site’s content quality helps ensure that the site won’t get hit with a penalty or drop traffic from a Google algorithm update.

So, first, you want to judge the quality of the site’s content library. Are any posts out of place compared to the site’s main focus?

Take a look at the screenshot below, there are articles ranging from music lessons to the cost of gastric balloons.

Looking at a snapshot of the overall content might not be able to give you a full assessment, after all the site above is a general news site, so they do cover a wide range. So, you’ll also need to judge the quality of the writing itself. Are articles well-written, thoughtful, and well-researched? Remember, Google wants sites to provide helpful content.

The aforementioned gastric balloon cost post has no links to any type of research, nor does it even tell you the cost of the procedure!

The one relevant link it does have points to a clinic that performs gastric balloon procedures, signaling that this is most likely a link building post from said clinic.

Check for E-E-A-T Signals

Evaluating a site for E-E-A-T (Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness, and Experience) involves a few steps. Check out the authors’ credentials to ensure they have expertise and experience in their field.

This site tells me very little about its authors, which isn’t always a bad thing as long as there are signals on other pages, like an About page. But, unfortunately, the About Us page tells us nothing more about the writers or their credentials either.

Then, look for signs of authority and trust, like industry recognition or references from other reputable sites.

All in all, give the site the “eye test”. If things look off, or not as high quality as you’d expect, move on.

After you’ve identified a quality guest post site, find their email address, and use one of our email outreach templates to ensure you get your email seen.

How to Find Guest Posting Sites Using Google Search

The easiest way to find guest posting opportunities is via Google Search. Here is a list of search operators:

For most of these, you can add your industry with the word “AND” to get even closer matches.

For example: “write for us” AND “SEO” if I wanted the SEO industry.

However, some sites may be open to guest posts even if they don’t advertise. Look for the same quality signals listed above. You can find all link building opportunities, including guest posts using BuzzStream’s link building query generator.

Simply fill in the corresponding fields and let the tool do the rest.

How to Use BuzzStream to Find Guest Posting Sites

BuzzStream has three main areas that you can uncover guest posting sites and quickly evaluate and add them to your post.

Add Prospects from Search

BuzzStream’s Research Lists let you “Add Prospects From Search” to find websites relevant to your niche based on keywords and search operators.

You can then add the relevant search queries above and BuzzStream will pull the top 100 search results along with any available contact information where you can then begin to evaluate and email.

Import Existing list

If you already have a list of potential sites (like the ones listed on this post) you can import as a CSV.

You can also import any exported data from Moz, Ahrefs, Majestic, Citation Labs, and Salesforce.

Search the Web and Add Manually

Lastly, if you prefer to do the prospecting yourself via web search, you can evaluate sites yourself and utilize the BuzzMarker Chrome Extension to add relevant sites to your project, gather contact information, and start sending emails.

Frequently Asked Questions about Guest Posting

Which Platform is Best For Guest Posting?

There is no one true platform or site that works best for guest posting. It all comes down to the relevance and authority. Before you spend time writing a guest post, ensure that it has the quality signals mentioned above.

Which Niche is Best for Guest Posting?

There are no niches that are best or worst for guest posts as it all comes down to opportunity. There are definitely niches that have more guest-posting sites available, but that doesn’t mean those sites are more or less effective.

Guest posting can be an effective SaaS link building tactic.

What’s the Difference Between Guest Posting and Link Insertions?

Guest posting is writing a new post and including a link to your site within the article, while link insertion is adding a link to an existing article.

Vince Nero

Vince is the Director of Content Marketing at Buzzstream. He thinks content marketers should solve for users, not just Google. He also loves finding creative content online. His previous work includes content marketing agency Siege Media for six years, Homebuyer.com, and The Grit Group. Outside of work, you can catch Vince running, playing with his 2 kids, enjoying some video games, or watching Phillies baseball.

More Posts by Vince Nero
Website: https://buzzstream.com