Accepting Guest Posts on Your Blog: The Ultimate Guide 2024

Are you considering accepting guest posts on your blog? Be sure to read this first!

Guest posts have been around since long before I started blogging 6 years ago. They’re a way to share authority, experience, and audiences.

Most guest posters see them as a tree full of juicy backlink fruit.

Most site owners see them as free content that can provide value to your audience, and save you time.

But before you start accepting them, there are some things you should know about the pitfalls of guest posting.

I didn’t know them myself before accepting a bunch of guest posts on my site – and it’s the reason I no long accept them on any of my blogs.

Beyond spammy guest post requests, there can be many issues like bloggers who don’t know SEO, plagiarism, and them not actually saving you time.

Let’s dive into the pros and cons of accepting guest posts on your blog, and how to do it the right way.

What Are Guest Posts

Guest posts are one of the most effective ways to grow your blog’s authority and reach. But what exactly are guest posts and how do they work?

A guest post is, simply put, when a writer creates content for another site and gets paid in a backlink.

Typically you guest post in the same niche or in a nearby niche. For example, a family travel blogger will guest post for a mommy blog.

It’s kind of like freelance writing but instead of being paid in money, you’re paid in a backlink.

You might be thinking, “Nina, why would I give away my writing for free?“

Well, it’s not really for free.

A high quality backlink goes for anywhere from $250-700 per link.

I’ve trialled a link building service where 1 link cost $600.

Meanwhile, with guest posts, you can write one guest post at around 2k words, get three links and technically have been “paid” more than most freelance writers. I don’t know any writers who get paid $2,100 for a 2k word article for a blog!

On top of the backlink authority, you also get to put yourself in front of a new audience to build trust, potentially get new fans, and even get traffic if people click through to your site from the backlinks.

What does the blogger posting your content get?

Free content!

With EEAT, Google loves personal experience. Since you can’t be everywhere at once, you need some supporting material from other experts, and guest posts give you that.

I’ve done guest posts for a New Zealand site about the specifics of dog travel in NZ, for a digital nomad site about my experience as a digital nomad in Eastern Europe, and for a family travel blog about kid-friendly experiences in my hometown.

Those bloggers needed content for their site in those areas, and looked to me as an expert to help fill in the gaps.

I have also accepted guest posts in the past for the same reason – but I don’t anymore, and we’ll talk about why a little bit later.

Guest posting is meant to be a win-win deal.

You get the link, they get the content.

But you need to make sure that it’s a good deal for both of you.

That means quality content, no spammy links, relevant topic and an organic fit with your blog.

It’s not quite as easy as “hey, want to write me free content? Great, deliver it in a month!”

To guest post properly takes some work, as you need to find relevant and reputable blogs that accept posts, ensure you have the experience to speak on a topic related to their niche, writing and editing the posts, then the blog owner editing the post, and eventually after work on both parts, getting it published.

In this post, we’re specifically going to deal with hosting guest posts on your own site. I have a completely separate opinion on guest posting for other people (spoiler alert: it’s a great idea, and you should do it now!).

So let’s dive into the pros and cons of accepting guest posts on your site.

The Pros and Cons of Accepting Guest Posts on Your Site

The Pros

Saves Writing Time: One of the biggest pain points in the blogging world is a lack of time. And writing great content takes time! When you’re pushing for Mediavine or trying to crank out 10 affiliate posts a month, while working a full-time job, you need a “fast forward” button on the writing. What’s faster than someone else doing it for you?

Free Content: The biggest benefit of accepting guest posts is the free content you get for your site without having to hire a freelance writer. Let’s be real: good writers are expensive! And if your blog isn’t making money yet, free content sounds pretty great, right?

Credibility & Authority: When you accept guest posts from respected bloggers in your niche it boosts the credibility and authority your blog. People see that you have a variety of voices giving their opinion on your site and will see you as an expert resource.

Expanding Your Network: Accepting guest posts is also a great way to expand your network by connecting with other bloggers. You can learn from their strategies and build relationships for future collaborations.

Diversifying Content: Accepting guest posts also helps you diversify your content so that you’re not stuck in a “comfort” zone of writing on topics. You can offer different perspectives to your readers for things you don’t have personal experience with, or maybe you aren’t an authority on. I would never write a post about health or medicine, but I would get a doctor to guest post on it.

The Cons

Not Actually Faster: The #1 downside of guest posting is the time it takes to find and vet guest posters, set up guest post guidelines, edit their content, go back and forth if serious edits are needed, and format the content. I hate formatting above all else, yet accepting guest posts means I have to do more formatting and less writing, which is the thing I actually love.

Low Quality & Spammy Content: Accepting guest posts can also make you vulnerable to low-quality or spammy content. You don’t want to be the publisher of a crappy post that’s full of errors or doesn’t have any value. It reflects poorly on your site and could give visitors a bad impression. Many guest posters cut corners, have 0 idea about SEO, and don’t care about quality.

Plagiarism, Duplicate Content & Copyright Issues: If you’re not careful, you could also be subject to plagiarism or copyright infringement if a guest poster is using someone else’s content without permission. You need to make sure that all of your posts are 100% original and have proper citations. When I did accept guest posts, I put every single one through Copyscape to ensure it was unique content.

Losing Control Over the & Tone: Another thing to consider is that when you have other people writing for your site, it can be harder to maintain a consistent voice and tone. People may choose different words than you would use, or even worse, may pull “click bait” style titles or write about topics that are off-brand.

Link Exchange & Unnatural Links: If you’re not careful, accepting guest posts can also lead to link exchange or unnatural links on your site. These are big ranking killers and should be avoided at all costs! Make sure that any post you accept doesn’t include links that go against Google’s guidelines. This can happen when guest posters sneak in spammy links and turn your site into a link farm. You also need to be careful not to get a guest post from someone you guest posted for, as it will slightly diminish the value of the links you were getting from their site.

Broken Links: If the person removes content or changes the URLs of posts they linked to, you might end up with broken links. It can also happen if they decide to abandon their site entirely. It can be confusing the delete the links if they technically earned them, which leads to more admin of chasing them down to sort it out.

Fact Checking: If I accept guest posts on something I’m not 100% an expert on, I will fact check any claims. You don’t want to lose trust with your audience or Google if people make a blatantly false statement like Canada is in the Southern Hemisphere. Again, more work for you.

People Steal Outlines/Keywords: This happens all too often, especially if people know you know SEO. They will wait for you to approve a keyword and/or send them an outline for the post, and then take it and use it on their own site. Technically you can’t copyright that kind of stuff, so you’re just SOL while they get the benefit of your work. Since there are no contracts like with freelance writers, there’s no recourse to prevent this really beyond basic human decency.

My Experience Accepting Guest Posts

I have accepted guest posts on my travel blog long before I knew about SEO.

I would take the content because, hey, it’s free!

But that content didn’t rank or perform on Pinterest (back when that was a thing I was trying), didn’t fit my tone, and often wasn’t even fully on topic for my site (again, this was before I knew what I was doing so I hadn’t 100% niched yet).

I kept accepting guest posts for a long time because I thought: 1) I’m helping out newer bloggers by giving them a mini SEO lesson on how to write the posts, 2) I’m giving backlinks to others, like some sort of pay it forward campaign, and 3) I still wanted free content.

However, every guest post I got frustrated me for different reasons.

Here are a few of the issues I had:

• Truly terrible writing. Had 0 substance and really didn’t help anyone, nor was it readable.
• Too many backlinks included or links to posts that competed with things on my site, even when I said that wasn’t allowed. That lead to a bunch of back and forth – which meant more time I wasn’t writing.
• Formatting takes EONS. Sometimes the writing was great, but it still meant I was formatting it all – which is something I hate. I was “outsourcing” the task I loved and adding more of the task I hate to my day to day.
• No one respects deadlines. I myself have been guilty of this, so I’m not trying to throw stones in glass houses. I get that when you’re not getting paid, it’s just not your priority to deliver on time. But it gets really frustrating when people ghost you, especially if you build it into your content schedule. I don’t chase people don’t for guest posts because if I’m not their priority, I’m pretty sure the article they deliver is going to be rushed and not worth my time.
• People don’t like to do edits. Plain and simple. They want you to do any extra work, which again means more time on your end.
• Blatantly wrong facts included.
• “Original” images were stolen from others.
• A 99% plagiarized post – that they repeatedly claimed wasn’t even though it was almost word for word – apart from one sentence with their bio – the same as a top 10 post for the keyword 🙄
• Not trained to my tone, style, or level of writing
• I used to offer 1 link for every 500 words. So people would just write a ton of fluff to include 3 extra backlinks. I’d edit them down to where they should be word count-wise, and they’d get mad.

I fully admit I am a perfectionist and very very particular about blog content.

That’s because SEO demands it to some extent.

Like a typo here or there? Fine.

But to not use secondary keywords or LSI words, to quote one of my favourite podcasts “Get in the bin!”

So I always knew I had to lower my standards for guest posts, but it got to the point where it was costing me more for my editor and VA to adjust and format the post than if I’d just paid a writer to do it or taken the time to do it myself.

That’s why I stopped accepting guest posts on my sites.

I have occasionally offered it to my Profitable Part-Time Blogger students, but only because I know they have been trained on exactly the way I write posts. Even then, it’s very rare.

Side Note: My Experience Accepting Collab Posts on My Site

I have also accepted collab posts.

Initially, I thought they were better than guest posts because they you get a myriad of people with experience on the topic.

BUT – yeah you’ll notice a trend in this post – it actually ends up taking so much more time than you just researching the stuff yourself.

I did a number of collab posts and here were my main issues:

• Inconsistent tone, formatting, and style.
• Again, late deliveries or chasing people down – especially when they were the one who picked the must have thing on the list. Like someone who had the Trevi Fountain on a list of things to do in Rome.
• No use of keywords, LSI words, or secondary keywords – so a full SEO edit needed to happen
• Their links often weren’t relevant to the post.
• People using fluff to fill the post.
• Even more formatting to do and admin to coral 15 people instead of 1.
• Often didn’t rank as it’s clear to Google that you don’t have the authority – these other random people do. (This varies based on your formatting of it.)
• Hard to edit for content audits down the line.
• If you aren’t in the US niche or aren’t writing about something very general in a round up, it’s hard to find bloggers for it. I blog about Canada a lot and it can be a struggle and a half for a location specific post to get any responses in collab groups.

I’d rather write my content myself or hire writers who I can train to do things the right way. With AI, writing doesn’t take that long anymore so it really isn’t speeding things up.

The reason to accept guest posts or collab posts is for extra authority on other topics in your niche that you don’t have the experience or expertise for.

If you’re going to accept them, you have to do it the right way. I’m going to detail how to do that now, because I do think guest posts are an important feature of our industry and I don’t want them to vanish:

How to Accept Guest Posts on Your Site the Right Way

I no longer accept guest posts, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you shouldn’t accept them for your site.

Create a Guest Post Guidelines Page for Your Site

You must must must have a guest post guidelines page or Google Doc.

Really, if you have writers, you should have one, too.

People need to know your expectations. Just like when you use an AI writer, if you say “write a post about Ohio”, there are way too many ways that could be interpreted.

And someone who doesn’t know your site might not have the same interpretation as you, even of something more niche like “best things to do in Rome”.

If you’re a family travel blogger, you won’t include nightclubs. But a backpacker blogger probably would.

It’s also just good practise to ensure everyone is on the same page.

Here are something to include in your guest post guidelines:

• Your niche. Give them some backstory on your pillars if possible so they understand your values and your mission
• Your target audience – and their specific goals, pain points, and desires
• Your content format and style typically
• The tone of your content
• Always include some notes on things like spelling, use of commas/punctuation, emoji use, etc.
• Your SEO guidelines. Do you require they put it through Keysearch’s Content Assistant (hint hint, this is a good guideline to have)? Do you require they use the keyword a certain number of times? Do you require your FAQs to be a certain length?
• Your submission process and timeline for guest posts. It’s good to be clear about how long it takes for them to be published.
• Always include some terms and conditions. This is a hold over from my law clerk days, but essentially you want to cover your butt if they provide spam content, spam links, or plagiarized content. State specifically what you do and don’t accept, and that you can refuse content with this included. Also state that if it’s found to include it even after publication, you can take it down.
• I like to include my guidelines for what happens if the post doesn’t rank or I choose to delete it later. Will the post be returned to the person? Will it be deleted without warning?
• Clarify the number of backlinks they get and say your rules for them. Can they have “read more” backlinks? Do they have to be links to the same country they’re writing on? How many words can the anchor text be?
• Image requirements, if any
• Disclosure that you’ll edit and add affiliate links
• How they should deliver the document. I often ask for a Google Doc, but I know others who give people a temporary log in as a “writer” on their WordPress to upload it, and others who require a Word document.
• Author bio guidelines, if you’re asking them to include one. I don’t think it’s best practise with EEAT anymore. I use a different method instead.
• Provide a couple examples of your writing style/posts on your site for them to get a feel for your vibe.

Guest Post Guidelines Examples

Here are a few sites in various niches and their guest post/writer guidelines:

• Two Wandering Soles
• Flexible Blog
• Wordstream
• Full Suitcase

Find and Vet Potential Guest Posters for Your Site

If you decide to accept guest posts, the guest poster is incredibly important.

You can find guest posters basically everywhere now. Most Facebook groups for bloggers have a post for seeking guest posts.

You can email your list and ask if any of them want to write a post on a topic in your niche.

You can go on forums or social media and put out and open call.

Or you can, like me, put it behind some form of barrier.

You could only source people from within a course you’re in, where you trust the way they have been taught to write. Or people who have to pass a “test” of some sort – this is hard to get people to do for free.

I always ask people for their blog so I can check their writing style.

Yes, it could be heavily edited or have been written by someone else. But this gives us a baseline to go off of.

You can also check their socials to see how well they communicate there. I don’t do this step because let’s be real, social media captions are vastly different from a blog post. And it’s another step that takes me more time.

A good way to filter out spammy or poor quality guest posters is to have an intake process.

You can do this via email or a Google Form.

Have them follow a few simple instructions. You would be shocked at the amount of people who cannot follow a simple 3 step process for pitching.

My old pitch requirements were:

• Pitch me with “[sitename] Guest Post” in the subject so I know it’s legit and not spam. Now I would change this to be “GP” instead of guest post as I have a filter on my email to send all guest post requests to spam since I don’t accept them
• Include at least 1 specific keyword you would like to write on + the search volume, and share your expertise with it
• Link to your site so I can see your writing

Pretty standard stuff, to be honest. Yet 99% of people would skip at least 2 of those steps.

I’m a busy lady so I’m not wasting my time correcting them. Those pitches went right in the trash.

If you can’t follow instructions that simple, you aren’t going to follow my writing guidelines or put much care into the post.

Provide an Outline

Many people provide an outline to their guest posters.

I’ve had them provided to me many times as well.

It’s one of the reasons why I tell new bloggers to guest post ASAP: it’s SUCH a great way to learn from more experienced bloggers.

If they provide guidelines and an outline, you’ve got a bunch of free learning right there on how they approach their blog.

It also ensures you as the blog owner are getting quality content that fits your style/format.

If you use H2s vs. H3s for lists, then you can preformat that for them.

If you only accept 100 word intros, note that in the outline.

You can also specifically note the types of content to go where, add in some secondary keywords in the outline, and have a bit more control over the final product to ensure it’s SEO optimized.

Don’t Be Afraid to Refuse

If content comes back to you that is subpar, plagiarized, or has any other major issue, you can deny it.

I have turned down completed guest posts before because they were months too late (admittedly, when I had stopped writing on that niche as well otherwise I probably would have allowed it), the content wasn’t legible English, they had written 10x too much for more backlinks, the content had 0 substance, it was clearly AI generated (I love AI content, as long as it’s not a one click “Jasper write a blog post about Rome” kind of nonsense), or they included spammy links.

It’s your site. You have to protect its trustworthiness and reputation.

Don’t publish anything you wouldn’t be ok having your own name on.

Review, Edit, Format, and Publish Guest Posts on Your Site

Ok, so we’ve got the content back from our guest poster, it’s usable, but it needs some tweaks.

Here are my next steps:

• Put it through Copyscape or your plagiarism detector of choice. If it’s too high, send it back.
• You can use an AI detector, but to be honest I still think most are pretty rubbish.
• Run it through Grammarly. I use the free version and find it picks up on things so easily.
• You can also run it through ChatGPT. Ask it to act as a proofreader and then have it check the document for issues.
• Put it into Keysearch’s Content Assistant to max out the LSI keywords and secondary keywords.
• Ensure the main keyword is used often enough (this will vary by keyword)
• You can then edit for tone and style. Or have your editor do this.
• Then format as usual. If you want to speed up this process, I recommend using my AI-Infused Blog Post Templates for Effortless Content Creation. You just have to copy and paste the text into the pre-formatting posts, and you’re golden!
• Rename all their images “[title]-[guestposter’ssite/name]”. This ensures you and your VA won’t accidentally reuse it elsewhere on your site if it’s in your media library
• Add affiliate links and CTAs.
• Schedule the post and let them know when it’s live.

You can ask them to share it on socials if you want. I don’t, as I don’t use socials to promote my blogs (except this one, and even then we all know I just do it for fun cause I have 0 strategies).

Do NOT ask them to link back to it from their site.

That’s spammy of you, and will result in a link swap. It doesn’t fully devalue their links but it does make Google take a second look at them, and could have Google determine it’s spammy.

Plus it’s often of no benefit to you to have a backlink from them, as typically we get guest posts from people with lower DA sites looking to raise it.

Conclusion

Guest posts can be a great way to add content to your site without having to write it all yourself.

However, take the time to vet them properly and make sure you’re getting quality content that fits with your voice and style.

If done right, a good guest post will drive traffic, increase readership, and possibly even give you new ideas.

When it comes to publishing guest posts on your site, the key is to take your time and get it right. Follow my steps above and you’ll be well on your way!

But if you’re just doing it to “save time” from writing, think again. Guest posts take time to host.

If you’re not taking shortcuts, the formatting and the vetting of the writer will be time consuming. Often with AI writers, you can get the same thing accomplished in a fraction of the time.

You could just ask for small quotes for experts to beef out of a post that you don’t have the full qualifications to write on, like something about medicines or finance.

Want to guest post for someone else? Check out this list of travel blogs that accept guest posts!

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