Guest posting has been one of the oldest and most popular strategies to improve SEO rankings and brand exposure. It is the process of writing a blog/article post for someone else’s blog or website. But how to find guest post opportunities in an age of billions of web pages online?
This article will discuss some of the best practices for finding guest post opportunities.
In the following sections, you will learn how to leverage the power of each practice and what to pay attention to when outreaching for a guest post.
How to Find Guest Post Opportunities
There are multiple effective methods you can use to find guest posting opportunities:
- Using Google search operators
- Analyzing competitor backlinks
- Researching social media guest posts offers
- Commenting on blogs
- Using blog directory sites like AllTop.com
- Going through lists of guest posting sites
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Each method has its own benefits and drawbacks, and we will discuss them separately in the following sections.
Using Google search operators
One of the simplest and quickest ways of finding guest post opportunities is using Google, the most powerful search engine in the world.
But how can you use Google to find guest posting sites effectively?
Simple, you can use the so-called Google search operators.
This method lets you find hundreds of guest posting websites online in just a few minutes.
Here’s a table of some Google search operators you can use to find guest blogging opportunities:
| “keyword” + “guest post” | “keyword” + “submit blog post” |
| “keyword” + “write for us” | “keyword” + “looking for guest posts” |
| “keyword” + “guest article” | “keyword” + “guest blogger” |
| “keyword” + “contributing writer” | “keyword” + “become a contributor” |
| “keyword” + “contribute to our site” | “keyword” + “guest author” |
| “keyword” + “guest column” | “keyword” + “write guest posts” |
| “keyword” + “submit post” | “keyword” + “accepting guest posts” |
| “keyword” + “suggest a post” | “keyword” + “looking for guest posts” |
| “keyword” + “submit an article” | “keyword” + “submit content” |
| “keyword” + “become a guest blogger” | “keyword” + “this post was written by” |
Depending on which search operator you use, Google will provide you with a list of guest posting websites to which you can reach out.
Here’s an example:
Performing a competitor backlink analysis
You can reverse engineer and leverage the backlinks leading back to their sites by analyzing strong competitors in your niche.
Doing so will uncover hundreds of guest posting opportunities your competitors have leveraged and use them to your advantage.
To do this, you will need a specialized SEO tool like Semrush or Ahrefs. We will use Semrush to provide an example.
Let’s say we have an SEO blog and are trying to find guest post opportunities in that niche. A strong competitor, in this case, would be neilpatel.com, for example.
We input the domain address into Semrush and review the backlinks, looking for sites where the author published guest posts.
Many of these backlinks don’t point to guest posts, but after a quick search, we were able to find two domains where Neil was a contributing author:
Both are high authority domains and don’t openly state that they accept guest posts.
Social media platforms have become powerful tools for both business and entertainment.
There are billions of people on social media today, and these platforms are also great for sourcing guest posting opportunities.
Many websites and bloggers even use social media platforms as their primary tools for promotion.
The way you search for guest post opportunities on social media is similar to the one using Google search operators. All you have to do is use the desired keyword + the term guest post in the search console.
Here’s an example of how that looks like when we use Twitter:
As you can see, once you enter the desired query, you can find guest posting opportunities within minutes.
Commenting on blogs
If your blog or website is well-developed and attracts thousands of readers every month, then chances are high that those readers are also commenting on your posts.
More often than not, readers also have their own websites or blogs and share insightful opinions through comments.
You can leverage these comments to your advantage by responding to them, building a solid relationship, and trying to reach out for a contributing guest post.
Here’s how to find guest post opportunities using Brian Dean’s strategy:
Following this example, you can find a relevant website/blog that fits your niche, add it to your bookmarks or RSS feed, and start commenting on relevant article posts.
Once your comments start to gain feedback from other bloggers or website owners, you can reach out to them and ask for a guest posting opportunity.
Using blog directory sites like AllTop.com
AllTop.com is a blog aggregating website that groups together the best blog articles from various niches around the world.
It is a website that helps you find new places to outreach and publish guest posts by searching for specific keywords in the site’s search:
AllTop.com does not provide information on which websites offer guest posting opportunities. It would take a bit of legwork to manually open each page and look at whether or not they have such an option.
Similar AllTop.com services include:
Leveraging lists of guest posting sites
The last effective strategy for finding guest post opportunities that we want to share involves searching for and finding pre-made lists of guest posting sites.
This is probably one of the fastest ways to find high-authority websites hosting guest posts.
So instead of manually reviewing hundreds of websites, you will only choose the desired ones from a pre-made list.
Many pre-made lists are available online, and we will share one with over 300+ guest posting sites.
This list includes other valuable metrics, like domain authority (DA), difficulty in acquiring a guest post opportunity, and the type of backlink you will get.
Here are other websites with over
Guest Posting Opportunities to Avoid
Now that you know how to find guest post opportunities using these six effective strategies, let us share some tips on what opportunities to avoid.
Not all guest posting websites will be a good fit for publishing an article.
Many may hurt your website’s traffic and authority, so it’s best to avoid them altogether.
Here are several factors you need to keep in mind when outreaching for a guest post:
- The website demands payment for the post – any website that requires you to pay for a guest post often practices gray or black hat link-building strategies.
- No guest post requirements posted – high-authority websites offering guest posting opportunities often list requirements for each article and writer.
- No editing or review process – if the website does not have a solid editorial team, it may be part of a PBN meant only to drive link juice unethically.
- Poor website design and too many ads – you should avoid websites with simple or non-existing designs that bombard the user with ads, as they completely ruin the user experience.
You Might Be Interested: How to Research Sites for Guest Posting
Conclusion
Guest posts are an effective SEO strategy for gaining quality backlinks and driving organic traffic.
They often work slower in showing results than other strategies like niche edits, but the quality of exposure you get from guest posts is better in the long run.
They also work toward brand promotion and showing your expertise to a broader audience.
Now that you know how to find guest post opportunities, which approach will you implement in your SEO strategy and why?
Tell us in the comments below.