Is it a bad idea to accept guest posts?

I've gotten a few recent requests for guest posts on two of my sites, but I'm not sure if I should accept. I assume that I shouldn't accept guest posts that link back to my direct competitors for my key terms, but is it a good idea to allow guest posts in general?

Its free content, just read over the articles before posting and of course they are going to link in the article so check site and if its direct competition than dont accept

Its ok
it has to be original content
otherwise reject it

Guest posting is a fantastic way to boost traffic. I use this technique on most of my sites - many of which are authority niche sites. To get the best of both worlds, make sure to ask for a reciprocal link of some sorts. Most webmasters will be happy to do this kind of exchange. It helps to make friends in this world...even if you are selling the same things or monetizing through the same methods.

It may seem crazy to some as many people are often afraid of giving up any precious link juice. In reality, Google is going to see this relationship and reward you with more traffic/ranking. Quality connections are important so make sure that the content of the guest post is quality and if you need to make a change, don't be afraid to ask.

I do this with many websites that I use for Amazon affiliate products and Google affiliate networks. I trade links and posts with other affiliate marketers. To ensure that it won't hurt my rankings, I carefully choose which pages to link to and what type of anchor text to use. In a lot of situations, I have been thanked by the other webmasters because I helped provide some knowledge that they were able to apply to their sites. I have even sold websites to others that I met through reciprocal linking!

guest posts are free content plus you can get some cash, what I usually do is make sure that their is 2 links in the posts, one to an authority site (usually wikipedia) and the other one is their link (assuming it's a good neighborhood)

If the post is quality, why not. Besides you could simply use it as content and hide it from the main page ( change date of post to put it in the archive or something ) so only google sees it as content, not casual visitors.
I'd probably be a douche if they were my competitors and eventually swap their link to a nofollow tho.

If you do your own posts, why not also ask that they post an article of yours (new content) on their site so that the reciprocal linking makes sense also? Everybody wins. And if you write a really good article...you can probably spin it and guest post it in multiple places...

I just follow some basic rules. i personally read some of the content for the 1st several time. then if i like that then i accept them.

Let them know ahead of time that tmit is your policy to read through their content before posting. Also make sure to run it through copyscape (general precaution) just to make sure it is 100% original. If it fits the quality of the other content on your site give them two good links and guest post on their blog in return.

As others have said, this is a great way to get quality traffic.

This is an important thing to do with guest posting. A good thing is if there could be an understanding with the guest writer to not to publish the article elsewhere. That is a way of building content automatically, and without paying.

Gollie said:

Let them know ahead of time that tmit is your policy to read through their content before posting. Also make sure to run it through copyscape (general precaution) just to make sure it is 100% original. If it fits the quality of the other content on your site give them two good links and guest post on their blog in return.

As others have said, this is a great way to get quality traffic.

Click to expand...

If guest are post unique content with related Topic that's excellent for you and your site because it's creating more traffic on you site. In seo point of view if visitor time increases that's good for site.
You have option to accept post or not, you can also check anchor text keyword and link as well.

Use such services as posting via Facebook or Twitter accounts.

markhenry121 said:

If guest are post unique content with related Topic that's excellent for you and your site because it's creating more traffic on you site. In seo point of view if visitor time increases that's good for site.
You have option to accept post or not, you can also check anchor text keyword and link as well.

Click to expand...

Thank you for this helpful post. Highly appreciated.

Why not? If the posts are quality posts and helping your site to be enriched in its contents, why should you avoid it. Plus it will give you a boost in your site's traffic.