Should I accept Guest Posts on my site?

[feelfreeto]

Although I have only about 30 articles and a bit of DR/AS, I get people emailing me and asking if they can publish a guest post to get a ******** link to their site in exchange.

Is it a good idea to accept these posts to get more content on my site or is it better to stay away from that? What are the pros and cons?

 

[Mr Positive]

Pros: free content, publicity

cons: they can blast links at your site, they can send plagrised content

 

[feelfreeto]

Pros: free content, publicity

cons: they can blast links at your site, they can send plagrised content

Oh, the cheap links blasting is probably the worst part I haven't thought of.

 

[cozziola]

Oh, the cheap links blasting is probably the worst part I haven't thought of.

Tell them if you send links to the article I will remove the page.

 

[feelfreeto]

Tell them if you send links to the article I will remove the page.

That's a nice touch, thanks.

 

[onlywin]

We get 3-10 of these a day. Imo it's only worth it if their content is top notch/if they are a reputable company.

 

[Soucha]

I would be picky about it.

I used to be more lenient until a guy sent hacked 100 hacked casino links to a site of mine and essentially ruined something I worked very hard on.

Nowadays I always ask to see their website in advance (and reject them ahead of time if their website has any sketchy links, etc), where they want to link to (if they do at all, because in one of my niches I get an occasional guest poster that doesn't want anything in return at all), and send them a list of guest posting guidelines/requirements.

What I have found is that the authentic guest posters (the ones that you actually want to guest post on your website) are usually going to send you their website and often their name in the first email anyways, because they are proud of it. They usually let you know who they are and why they want to guest post on your website.

I usually skip the emails that are obviously templates sent out to 1,000,000 email addresses.
Those are spammers, and since they are spammers, in my opinion, they run a higher risk of spamming your site.

 

[GSERP]

Check SERP of the site which they exchange with you.. if their site have much potential then yours's, then you can go ahead. Hope they wont take risk on activities..

 

[alonelywriter]

cons: they can blast links at your site, they can send plagrised content

For OP
Solution : Check the content before publishing and manually submit it for them.

 

[Logical Ranker]

If the content is good and unique.. Then go for it.. Also check the links in the articles make sure they are not spammy..

 

[Digirulz]

This makes your site active by posting content regularly. Check with the quality of the article and accept only legit sites.

 

[india]

Good to accept guest post but have some quality check before publishing. You might get a lot of guest requests if your DA is higher than 40.

 

[Mrcucubaux]

I would say yes but only if you can moderate it.

 

[Peter Trebek]

If they will write in your website topic and will not advertise yours competitors why not. Also you can tell them that you can add only no-follow links which will not do any harm to your website.

 

[SeedPhrase]

ask for M$ not in exchange

 

[TheSoloAct]

So, I read all the replies and this is valuable stuff for many website owners here, so I thought maybe I'd distill it all into a list. I'll update if more new tips come this way. I am not the OP.

• Content: has to be good, check for plagiarism.
• Their site: good ones will show their site in the initial email, if not, ask for it. Analyze the site's spam score and DA on Moz or something. If it's low and if the site looks fine, no issues.
• Prepare a set of guidelines (what topics you are okay with, what you're not okay with).
• Ask which page they will link to.
• Specifically tell them to not spam even though that's sort of a given. Tell them you only want to get 1 link or however many you'd want. In case they spam, you will remove their post.
• Make sure their content is 500 or 700 words+ (better), has some relevant keywords, maybe 1-2 other outlinks as well, and at least one media. Put this in guidelines if you want them to do all this hard work before submitting.

Imo I believe that one should make a guideline for guest posting anyway to cross-reference yourself and to avoid spammers. When a website starts getting these emails (given they are not spam mails), it's only logical to spend some time to make a guidelines doc rather than explaining everything all over again.

 

[7th Sense]

You can do that. But check their url and also content quality before publishing

 

[anglikan]

Tell them if you send links to the article I will remove the page.

Whats the point of guest post if you are not putting any link in the article?

 

[feelfreeto]

Whats the point of guest post if you are not putting any link in the article?

He meant if they blast the URL with shitty backlinks to increase the authority of their article on my site.