Again, you’re looking for any mention of the word “nofollow” in the description. So if it’s not mentioned there, then the link is considered “dofollow” which passes SEO benefits to the destination link (i.e. a post you’re promoting on your own blog).
Of course, it’s crucial to first check that your target blog actually accepts guest posts—and if they do, whether or not they allow clickable links back to your own content too.
Different authors cropping up on the blog (bonus points if something like “guest blogger” or “guest post” is used to introduce their work). This doesn’t necessarily mean the blog will be open to unsolicited guest blogging submissions though, so don’t automatically assume the flood gates are open.
If a blog says they’re not accepting guest posts, don’t expect them to make an exception for you. However amazing your blog post idea is, you’ll want to spend your valuable time elsewhere.
This is also true if a blog says they only take guest posts by invitation—though in that case, you can potentially contact the blogger (if you have an existing relationship with them) and ask if they’d be willing to look at a blog post outline to get a feel for your style, or go through a mutual connection to get an introduction.
Instead, you want to come up with ideas that are perfect for each and every target blog you’re going to reach out to… not just ideas that are a halfway decent fit for a hundred different blogs. Think bespoke, not off-the-rack.
To come up with a guest blogging idea that’s going to work perfectly for your prospective site, you’ll want to start by doing some keyword research using a free tool (like mine).
Read lots of recent posts on your target blog. If you’re not a regular reader (or if you used to read the blog but haven’t done so recently), you really need to get up to date with the type of content they’ve published recently. If your target blog often writes about blogging costs and web hosting-related topics, then you could pitch them on a guest post that covers more niche blog topics like the best cheap web hosting plans, offering up a review of the top monthly hosting plan options on the market, or exploring the free hosting plans out there—all of which could ladder up to a bigger piece they already have about the overall best web hosting plans for their readers.
Make notes about these posts. What topics have they covered? How long are the blog posts, roughly? Do their posts tend to be high-level and strategic, or focused on specific tactics? Are the posts aimed at beginners or people with a lot of experience? All of this can help you hone your ideas appropriately.
Look at the categories the blog covers, if these are listed in their navigation. You might want to pay attention to categories that haven’t had many (or any) posts recently. These could be good targets for content that fills a “gap” on the blog. Keep in mind, though, that a lack of recent posts in a particular category could signal that the blog has changed direction.
Brainstorm a list of ideas. Don’t just come up with one or two blog post ideas… aim for at least five. Some of them might not be great: that doesn’t matter. You want to keep going till you get an idea that you think would be a perfect fit for that blog.
Perfect your headlines. Be sure you’re taking care to learn how to write a headline for your guest post that’s in a style & tone your target site will resonate with. If not, then it’s likely they’re either decline your submission (because your guest post doesn’t sound like the right fit), or substantially rewrite it before publishing. Use my free blog title generator to come up with AI-powered headline ideas that’ll capture your host blog’s attention.
If they’re not in either of those places, search for “guest post guidelines”, “write for us,” “submit a post,” or “guest posting” on the site. To do this site search, you can type the phrase plus site:[nameoftargetblog.com] into Google, e.g. “guest post guidelines site:ryrob.com” and get more accurate results.
The type of content they do/don’t accept. This will often be common sense (e.g. they don’t want plagiarized content or posts you’ve already published somewhere else), but the guidelines may also cover the topics they’re particularly interested in, or topics that they don’t want right now.
Whether they want you to send them an idea and outline, or a full draft. It’s best to stick to what the blog asks for here (though most won’t reject you just because you sent the wrong thing).
How to format and send your guest post. Some blogs like a Word document, others will want a Google doc, and a few still ask for raw HTML (though this is becoming increasingly rare). You may be given instructions on how to use headings.
There may also be other instructions (i.e. some blogs will ask you to submit your guest post using a specific form, or to use a specific subject line for your email to them).
Make sure you follow these guidelines, as failing to do so could mean your pitch never even gets seen. And if you need some help on the writing front, grab my free blog post templates to jumpstart your process.
If you’re struggling to find guest post guidelines, or if the guidelines don’t make it clear who to contact, I’ve got some actionable tips in this guide to blogger outreach about tracking down the right person to contact (and finding their email address).
What Are Guest PostsSome blogs are happy to be contacted with a full draft of your guest blog post, but many want you to “pitch” the idea first. That’s where smart blogger outreach comes into play.
This normally means writing them an email where you briefly introduce yourself and your credentials, share your suggested guest blogging idea or prepared a great blog title, and outline what your post will be about.
Alternatively, another couple of posts I had in mind are [title of second post] or [title of third post]. Just let me know if either of those sounds like a better fit: I can whip up a quick outline to send over if you’re interested 🙂
I blog at [name of your site] about [topic], and [details of your credentials, if any – e.g. “I’ve been a WordPress developer since 2014”]. If this sounds like a good fit, I’d of course promote my guest post out to my (growing) audience on [social media channel you frequent, or approximate size of your email list].
While this guest blogging pitch is pretty simple and straightforward, there are definitely more nuanced and longer-term relationship building approaches you can take to your outreach as a whole. I highly recommend going through my complete guide to doing smart blogger outreach today.
Even if your guest blogging idea was amazing, they need to see that you can deliver a strong piece of content that’s relevant to their target audience, matches their style and accomplishes some sort of strategic content marketing goal for them.
When you submit your draft guest post, it goes without saying that it should be your best work—especially if this guest blogging opportunity is on a site that can really change things for you.
One way to think about just how you should feel about the quality of your guest post—is to use the bar of making sure it’s up to standards to be a fully ready, top-notch article you’d happily publish on your own blog too.
Yes, you’re calling your guest post submission a “draft” in your pitch, but that’s because you want the host blog to feel free to ask for extensive changes if they feel you haven’t quite hit the mark. From your perspective though, this should be a polished piece of work that’s ready to publish as-is in your mind.
You’ve made your post as valuable as possible to readers. That could mean including examples, adding key blogging tips from the pros, linking to further reading, quoting from industry experts, compiling a free template… doing whatever you can to make your guest post truly useful and helpful. (Don’t go too far: if your host blog normally publishes 800 word posts, you don’t want to send them a 3,000 word monster like my roundup of 25 honest Bluehost reviews, unless that’s already been cleared by their team).
You’ve made it as valuable as possible to the host blog. That means not just producing a great piece of content, but making sure that it helps your host blog out in some way. Normally, this means linking internally to other pillar content on their blog (aim to link to at least two or three of their posts), but it might also mean mentioning their products or their suggesting they opt-in to emails.
Either way, if you can somehow successfully tie your guest blogging efforts into a clear win for the host blog & their readers, then you’re much more likely to get a pitch accepted.
If they don’t allow you to include even a bio link to your own blog in a guest post, then I’d recommend not guest blogging for them as you likely aren’t getting anything in return for creating a solid piece of (free) content for them. Guest blogging needs to be a win-win-win in my opinion.
We’re going to talk more about bios in a moment—but in terms of the body of your guest post itself, you might be wondering whether it’s fine to link to your own content.
The answer is yes, you can usually link to your own content from a guest post when it’s done tastefully and has a clear purpose other than just giving yourself a random link. But, it comes with a bit of nuance.
Relevant: Don’t force a link to content that’s only tangentially related to the subject of your guest post. This is one of the reasons why it’s important to choose a host blog that’s truly on-topic for you, so that there will be natural opportunities to build quality links to your own articles. This is why it’s incredibly important to work with only the most reputable link building services if you plan on scaling your guest posting outreach beyond your own efforts.
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