12 Ways To Find Guest Blogging Opportunities

If you are new to link building, one of the most common questions that you may have is how do I find guest blog opportunities?

Well, from leveraging the website lists that accept guest posts to Google searches, social media search, using tools, and competitor backlink analysis, there are a number of ways like these that you can use to find guest blogging opportunities.

However, the problem is it can be really hard to find high-quality websites or blogs that accept guest posts and get worthwhile opportunities for your guest blogs.

So, if you are looking for guest blogging, I’ll share the top 12 ways to find guest blogging opportunities for you in this guide.

But, before getting into the main topic, let’s start with the basics.

What Is Guest Blogging?

Guest blogging is also known as guest posting. It is the practice of publishing relevant content on someone else’s websites as a guest in order to build exposure by getting traffic (referral traffic), authority, and a strong backlink profile.

This means that you are contributing content to another person’s blog, and in return, you are getting a backlink to your own site. It’s all about building a relationship or networking with other bloggers with high-authority and quality websites relevant to your niche.

Guest posting is a win-win situation for both parties. For example, if you can provide great and useful content on another site, it will add value to that site’s users’ reading experience.

In that case, they may be more likely to see your website’s blogs to see your other content. This means it ultimately helps you in driving potential traffic to your website.

Additionally, when your website is referenced by another reputable and already established website, this will help your website to boost the search engine ranking over time.

How Do I Choose A Website For A Guest Post?

Once you are ready to make the most out of your guest post opportunities, so what next?

Actually, guest posting is not just about approaching site owners and publishing content for guest posts; there is much more involved in this process.

You must make sure that you are choosing the right websites to publish your posts. If you post on the best guest blogging sites, only then your guest posts will bring benefits to your site.

When done right, it can be one of the best ways for your website to improve its ranking in the SERP, awareness, and authority and drive qualified traffic; otherwise, it can even damage your website’s reputation.

Now, you may ask, what would be a good guest post site?

Well, you can find the best guest post website or guest posting opportunities considering the following aspects. Here, I’ll use the Ahrefs tool to explain the process. So, let’s get in.

1. Review The Website’s Quality

You should do guest posts to get more people to read your content, not just for the links. And that’s why you should make sure that your guest posts appear on relevant and high-quality sites. It is obvious that no one wants to attach their name to a low-quality website.

This means that while looking for guest post opportunities, you must consider getting a link from a high-quality site that holds higher authority in Google’s eyes. Only then you can get benefitted from your guest posting. So, how do you know if a site is high-quality?

Well, there are so many things to consider, and here are some of them which will help you to identify the authority sites-

• Metrics (higher DA/DR, higher traffic, and lower spam score)
• Higher ranking in the SERP
• Publishes high-quality content regularly.
• Higher reader engagement
• Website’s security, design, and functionality.
• Transparency,
• SEO-friendly as well as user-friendly, etc.

2. Industry Relevance Of The Sites

Industry relevance should be the highest priority in link building. This is because if you get a link from a site that is not related to your industry, you will not be able to generate much value from that website.

The worst part is that due to this lack of relevance, search engines may think that your site is involved in unnatural link-building activity, which could result in your site being penalized by Google.

So, make sure you are selecting the right site which is relevant to your services and products.

3. Check The Domain’s Strength (Site’s Authority)

As I said before, quality is the key when it comes to link building. While high-quality links will improve your website’s authority, the spammy ones will damage your site’s performance as well as reputation.

And one of the best ways to identify the website’s authority is by analyzing the site’s domain authority (DA) or domain rating (DR).

Both these metrics analyze the number of linking domains to each site which provides a rough idea of the value of sites for search engines and thus measures the website’s authority.

However, to determine the website’s authority, you can use some tools like-

• Ahrefs,
• MOZ, or
• Majestic

4.   Look Out For Higher Organic Traffic

It is more likely that your site will attract more qualified traffic if it has a higher organic traffic flow.

For example, if you see that a side has declined traffic like the above image, that means there are some potential issues with that site. The declined traffic is also an indicator of Google’s penalty. Thus, you should avoid such websites.

So, here are some tools that you can use to check the website traffic-

• Google Analytics
• Ahrefs’ Site Explorer
• Website Traffic Checker
• Semrush’s Traffic Analytics

5. Check The Inbound And Outbound Backlinks

Often people overlook this option, but it is also essential to check the number of inbound and outbound backlinks of a site to check how valuable the site can be.

But, here, you need to keep one thing in mind, and that is you should focus on the number of linking and linked-to domains rather than the number of linking and linked-to pages. This is because search engines value those sites with diversified links (referring domains).

For example, a website that gets one link from 10 different sites will be more valuable to search engines than a site that gets 100 links from one site. This method can give you an in-depth indication of a website’s value and popularity for guest posting opportunities. To conduct this analysis, you can use-

• Ahrefs’ Site Explorer
• Screaming Frog
• Google’s Keyword Planner

6. Social Media Presence

It is really easy for your content to go viral if your site has a strong social media presence and high social engagement. In fact, this implies that the website is legitimate and can add value to your website.

Also, there are chances that your guest post will also be shared on different social platforms which ultimately maximized your link value.

Additionally, you should check if the website posts get a lot of comments, interactions, and readership of the site’s content. Remember, the greater engagement a website has, the more value that site has.

7. Check For The Do-Follow Links

For guest posts, you should prefer those sites that offer do-follow links, as the value of do-follow links is much more valuable than that of no-follow links

While do-follow links help pass the authority, link juice, improve your domain authority, and ultimately help in ranking top in the SERP, no-follow links actually do nothing in terms of SEO.

8. Ensure Contextual Links

These are the links that are embedded within the content instead of linking in sidebars, author bios, or unnatural links. While guest posting, you must consider that the site offers contextual links, surrounded by good and relevant content that explain where the link is pointing.

Having contextual links is essential to provide a better user experience and ensure better relevancy of the content. Besides that, this type of link will benefit your website by bringing more traffic, visibility, authority, credibility, and more.

12 Ways To Find Guest Blogging Opportunities

Reading this guide so far, now you understand what sites you need to approach for guest posts. For example, If you are selling lawn mowers, you need to find lawn or gardening-related blogs with an engaged audience of gardeners.

Still, as I mentioned earlier, finding the right blogs that accept guest posts is not that easier. But don’t worry; I will share the most effective 12 ways to find guest blogging opportunities.

1.   Google Searches

It is one of the most common and easiest ways of finding guest post websites. You can start searching websites by using your search terms in different ways. For example-

• Keyword + “submit guest post”
• Keyword + “guest post”
• Keyword + “guest post by”
• Keyword + “write for us”
• Keyword + “become an author”
• Keyword + “accepting guest posts”
• Keyword + “looking for guest posts
• Keyword + “guest post guidelines”
• Keyword + “guest author”
• Keyword + “contribute to our blog”

With all these searches, you will get a huge list of sites that accept guest posts.

Besides that, if you search with your niche + “guest post sites”, you will get a huge collection of websites.

This is not the end yet, as we all know that Google is always up to providing the best user experience; thus, Google also shares some relevant searches also. Just scroll down to the bottom of the search result page, and you’ll see some results like the following image.

This way, you will get some free search phrases to conduct more in-depth research.

Still, this process is very time-consuming, as there are no metrics to see whether the sites are suitable for guest posts. So you have to make a list of each site and analyze their metrics again, and then sort out the worthy ones.

2. Competitor Backlink Analysis

If you want to get the most relevant guest posting opportunity without much hassle, then competitor backlink analysis is a great way for you.

All you need to do is, use some tools like Ahrefs, MOZ, or Semrush’s Backlink audit and get into the backlink profile of your competitors.

Source: Site Explorer by Ahrefs

It’s a really simple process of getting a list of sites that are linking back to your competitor’s site. Since these quality sites have already accepted your competitor’s guest posts, they will be more likely to receive your guest posts also.

Note: You need to check the list to find the best websites because not all backlinks may come from guest posts, and also, there is no guarantee that all of them are authority and high-quality sites.

3.  Outreach To Your Direct Competitor

In this process, you have to outreach your direct competitors for guest posts. Getting backlinks directly from competitors is more effective than getting links through competitors’ backlink analysis.

You can use SEMrush’s Domain Overview tool. Here you will get a list of your direct competitors’ sites that are ranked with the same keyword.

But there is a thing that you need to keep in mind; your direct competitors will rarely accept your guest posts. But if someone agrees, it will work very effectively for your site. For example, the response you get after approaching the websites you get through Competitor Backlink Analysis will be much higher than approaching your direct competitor.

4. Prolific Guest Bloggers

You must know the influencers or big names in your specific industry. With their name, you can easily see where they are guest posting. For example, you just need to use the Google search option and search for-

• Name of the influential person + “guest post by.”
• Your industry name + Influencer bloggers or prolific guest bloggers

In the first way, you can directly see the sites the specific guest blogger has posted upon. And in the second way, you will get the list of your industry’s influential people. In both these ways, you can find some of the best sites for your guest posting opportunity.

Note: Most influencers have guest posts on very high-profile blogger sites, so as a beginner, you may find it difficult to guest post on such high-quality sites.

5. Using Marketplace

The marketplace can be a convenient way for you to find your favorable guest post sites. You can go to any marketplace like Fiverr or Upwork and search by typing your desired niche. Then, from the relevant results, you can check out the gigs and talk to the sellers directly and choose a website to guest post on.

Additionally, you can also open a buyer account in these marketplaces. Then you should create a post according to your requirements. After that, different sellers will bid on your project, and you can choose the service of your choice from there and order guest posts.

6. Leverage The Guest Posts Database

There are several link-building platforms where they build connections with thousands of premium and authority publishers in different niches who are ready to publish your guest post.

The best part is, here, you will get a guest post database including the website URL, price, all the metrics (DR, UR, PA, DA, Spam Score, Traffic), and other relevant info.

The biggest advantage of working with such link-building companies is that you don’t need to worry about the quality, as you are going to work with professionals. Additionally, if you want, you can choose to write your guest blogs by their native and professional writers.

You just need to choose the website based on your niche, price, metrics, and your other requirements and then simply place your order.

7. Social Searches

A lot of guest post bloggers share their latest guest posts on social media platforms. And it is an effective way to reach some of the best websites that accept guest posts in your niche.

Simply search for –

• Your Keyword + “Guest Post,” or
• Look out for your competitor’s social media feeds to see if they share any guest posts.
• You can set up alerts for your specific niche’s prolific guest bloggers to see what they are promoting.

This way, you will get the latest tweets or posts about guest posts in your industry. All you need to do is follow the links and see which blogs are accepting the guest posts.

8. Online Blogging Communities

Blogging communities for digital marketers like LinkedIn, Reddit, Medium, etc., where members share guest posts and sometimes also share the list of blogs that accept guest posts. It’s a great way to find current and future guest post opportunities.

On the other side, when you actively participate and contribute to the discussion or share your resources, there are chances that people will share your post if it is worth it. This way, you will get attention and also can build trust and relationships, which results in people coming to you with new opportunities.

9. Reverse Image Search

It is one of the easiest and most effortless ways to find blogs that accept guest blogging posts. The best ways to try this way are-

• First, you need to find an authority personality or Prolific influencer in your niche.

• Then look out for their image; once you get it, right-click on the image, and click on “search the web for image”.
• And you will get the list of websites on which the specific persons have done their guest posts on.

As these persons are your niche’s leading influencers, there is no need to vet the list as they have done this work for you already.

Note: Sometimes, it won’t be that easy for you to find guest post blogging sites through reverse image search. The reason behind this is that some people use some other or weird names instead of their own names with their images.

10. Use Tools & Software

Another effective method for finding guest post opportunities is using the tools or software. Fortunately, you will find several tools that can help you in this process by automating your campaign.

For example, SEMrush’s organic research, Link Building Tool, Ahrefs’ Site Explorer, Buzzsumo, and GroupHigh can help you find relevant sites that accept guest posts and share metrics or other related information about each website.

11. Blogger Outreach Agency

If you don’t want to go through all these hassles, also you don’t feel confident while choosing the websites for guest posts, then the best option for you is to work with the blogger outreach agency.

Such agencies include a team of outreach professionals who outreach websites for the clients of their niche. They will do all the work on your behalf, and you don’t have to handle anything.

However, the outcome you get depends entirely on the agency you choose. For example, here at Outreach Backlinks, we follow a 100% manual, natural, and white-hat approach to fetch trusted, authority, and high-quality websites to publish your guest posts.

12. Blogging Directories

Blogging directories are a great resource where you can find a lot of guest post opportunities. For example, if you want to discover blogs in multiple niches, you can go to blogging directories like AllTop, Feedspot, etc.

These directories have lists of different blogs in different niches. So, you just type your niche and from the website list choose the most suitable ones. All these blogging directories may be one of the perfect options for your guest blogs that you can’t discover through a manual Google search.

Get Started With Guest Blogging

Now that you have the most suitable list of websites in your hand, now what next? Will you start approaching the sites for a guest post?

No, you should not, as there are some other factors you need to consider before you pitch to the website owners. Let’s find them out-

• Get to know the content structure, audience level, audience type, and content type of the websites.
• Look out for the other’s guest posts.
• Check who the guest bloggers are.
• Find out what type of posts on those sites are doing well.
• Must read the guest post guidelines (if applicable).
• Create high-quality, shareable, and long-form content that will add value to the site that will publish your content.
• Personalize your email for each site owner you are going to approach.

Now, you are all set to send the email to the site owners.

Ready To Boost Your Site With High-Quality Guest Posting?

Guest post is one of the highly effective link-building techniques to reach a wider audience as well as improve brand authority and visibility, and drive more valuable organic traffic to your site.

However, for the first time, you may find it a daunting task. But, with these 12 ways to find guest blogging opportunities, you will be able to get it done effectively. Still, if you need some professional help in shaping your guest post campaign, our agency can help you.

I hope this guide can help you to maximize your SEO impact. Now, it’s your turn to make the most out of guest post opportunities for your website. Also, don’t forget to share your experience and thoughts with us by commenting below.