How to identify high quality guest posting sites in 2024

One of the most popular link-building strategies is guest posting, but in order to gain actual SEO value, you need to be selective about where you guest blog. Spam links from a low-authority site are more harm than good, whereas a high-authority, topically relevant blog can give you valuable link juice. Here are a few things to check and see if the site is worth your while, or if you should just pass it by and not trouble yourself.

1. Check relevance

Start by scanning the site’s overall design, content quality, and audience focus. If the blog screams “generic clickbait,” it’s probably not the best place to plant your content. Also, check if it’s actually related to your industry. Google cares about contextual relevance, so if you sell software for restaurants, you’ll want to guest-post somewhere that at least touches on food, hospitality, or tech topics.

• If the site’s content looks slapped together or stuffed with ads, that’s a clue the site might not be well-regarded by search engines.

• If the blog posts actually engage with a community or have some thought leadership going on, you are on the right track.

2. Evaluate Domain Authority (DA) or Domain Rating (DR)

Metrics like Domain Authority (DA) from Moz or Domain Rating (DR) from Ahrefs are third-party stand-ins for how “powerful” or “trustworthy” a site is. Generally, the higher the score, the more SEO oomph a backlink might pass along. However, these scores are just rough estimates, so don’t take them as gospel.

• A DA or DR above 20 is usually the baseline for a site to be taken somewhat seriously, though you might aim higher depending on your brand’s aspirations.

• Beyond the raw number, you’ll want to see if the site actually has organic traffic. A DR 40 domain with zero visitors might not do you any favors.

3. Analyse traffic trends

A site’s organic traffic can be a solid indicator that Google trusts it (and that actual humans visit). Tools like Ahrefs or SEMrush can show estimated traffic, along with historical trends. If you see a steep traffic decline over the last few months, it might mean the site got penalized by Google for sketchy practices. Linking there could land you in trouble as well. Aim for sites with at least a consistent traffic flow, if not steady growth over time. That suggests a healthy, active audience.

4. Check incoming vs outgoing links

Not enough people talk about the ratio of inbound to outbound links. If a site links out to way more sites than it has linking in, that might be a red flag, because it suggests the site’s mostly a link farm rather than a place for genuine, quality content. A domain having 1,000 backlinks from only 200 referring domains implies it’s getting multiple links from the same small group of sites, which isn’t super impressive from an SEO standpoint. You want diversity. Similarly, if a site is linking out more than it’s getting linked back, it might indicate it’s not particularly valued by the broader web.

5. Look at indexing speed

If your goal is to publish a post that shows up in Google’s search results quickly, you want a site with fast indexing. Find the most recent blog post on the site, copy its exact title, and search for it in Google with “site:[domainname.com] [title].” If that post shows up almost immediately, it’s a good sign Google’s crawling the site often. Repeat this for three to five posts just to see if there’s a consistent pattern.

6. Audience engagement

Dead comment sections, stale social channels, and zero community involvement can be signs of low-quality or inactive blogs. On the other hand, a blog with an active Twitter or LinkedIn presence, even if it’s modest, suggests a real readership. Check their social links to ensure they’re live and actually link to working profiles. If a site claims to have 50K Twitter followers but the link is broken or goes to a ghost town, that’s a warning flag.

7. Fees for guest posts

There’s a lot of debate about the ethics and SEO impact of paid guest posts, but it’s pretty common to see sites charging a “review fee” or “editorial fee.” If a site has decent authority and a transparent editorial process, paying a reasonable fee might be worthwhile. If the site looks shady (e.g., pop-up ads every two seconds or a DR that’s suspiciously inflated), it’s probably better to walk away rather than shell out a pointless $100.

8. Content quality

Beyond just scanning for relevance, pay attention to how well the site’s current articles are written and formatted. If you are aiming to showcase your brand’s thought leadership, the last thing you want is to be next to half-baked articles stuffed with keywords and zero substance. Look at headings, grammar, and the overall depth of articles. If it feels like a content mill, you won’t be doing your brand any favors by appearing there.

9. Look for E-E-A-T signals

Google uses “Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness” as guiding principles. Do this site’s authors have relevant credentials? Do they cite reputable sources? If it’s just random “lorem ipsum” filler or rehashed content from Wikipedia, there’s no real authority there. If the site frequently references known experts or has been mentioned in reputable publications, that’s a good sign it’s seen as more trustworthy.

All in all, the endgame is to snag a link from a credible site that actually elevates your own brand’s credibility. When you aim for sites with relevance, authority, decent traffic, and genuine engagement, you are way more likely to see a meaningful bump in search rankings—and in the eyes of potential customers who wander in through that backlink.