To guest post, or not to guest post? That is the question! Actually, that’s not quite today’s question, although it’s close. Instead, we’re going to talk about whether you should accept guest posts on your site. Like everything involving guest posting, it’s a complicated issue with no simple answer. But there are definite pros and cons.
Why Would Someone Want To Guest Post On Your Site
If you have a blog on your site and you rank in Google, eventually you’ll receive requests to contribute to your site.
Guest posts are great opportunities. They allow the writer to reach a new audience. It can increase their name or brand recognition. And those are good things.
Links are good things, too. They can lead to referral traffic to the author’s site. And properly.-used links can also be a signal to search engines about the quality of a page.
However, you should think about whether you want to accept guest posts at all. And if you do, be sure to handle them correctly.
The Advantages of Accepting Guest Posts
We’ll look at some reasons you should accept guest posts to your site first. But don’t stop reading with this section! It’s important to take the trouble areas into account, too.
Content
The simplest reason to accept a guest post is that it is new content for your site. Generating content is hard work.
Sure, you may have had dozens of ideas when you started. But you’ll soon realize that it doesn’t take long to burn through them all. And even creating articles around your ideas can be a grueling process.
So if someone’s willing to give you material free, that’s awesome!
Reach
You could also gain exposure. How? It’s easy to see how the contributor gains exposure. But if they write on your site, they may also share that post on their own social media. They might even link to it from their site.
So if they have an audience of their own, there’s potential that their audience could find you, too.
Money
You could even accept paid guest posts. So it could become a source of income if you choose to charge. Of course, you can only charge according to what others see as the value of your site.
Disadvantages of Accepting Guest Posts
There are at least as many disadvantages to accepting guest posts. That’s not to say you shouldn’t do it. But you have to do it right.
Quality
One issue that arises is quality control. Not everyone who wants to write for your site is a good writer. And not all of them represent quality websites. You don’t want your site associated with an inferior one.
Sometimes, they may even offer quality but they represent a different viewpoint than yours. Allowing diverse viewpoints is good. But if you’re selling Pepsi, you don’t want them touting the benefits of Coke.
Self-defeating competition
You can also run into problems with unintentional competition. What is their site about? The best guest posts come from sites that are tangentially related to yours. But if they’re in direct competition, you probably don’t want to connect too closely.
Too many requests
Another issue is dealing with the sheer volume of requests for guest posts. If your site is doing well and it’s obvious that you accept guest posts, you could quickly become overwhelmed. Filtering through them can be overwhelming.
Too many guest posts
This is different from too many requests. It’s also one you have a bit more control over.
Let’s say you want your website to be the authority on shucking corn. That means your site should work on establishing that authority. If you accept too many guest posts, though, you’re diminishing YOUR authority. Instead, your site seems more like a clearinghouse for related material.
Google Penalties
Many prospective contributors are only interested in getting a link from your site to theirs. We’ve talked already about good links vs. bad links in guest posting. But as of early 2020, it seems like Google is also penalizing the site that hosts guest posts if certain practices aren’t followed.
That means you have to set your links up correctly. We’ll talk about that a little more below. For now, let’s just say that you could have issues if Google gets suspicious.
Some Tips If You Decide To Accept Guest Posts
As you can see, there are good reasons to accept guest posts. But there are also things to be cautious about. We aren’t saying, “Don’t do it.” But if you choose to take articles from outside contributors, these tips will help..
Be choosy
We’ve been there: the first couple of times you get asked to accept a guest post, it can be pretty exciting. You’ve made it, and someone’s noticed you!
Don’t get blown away, though. Think about who’s making the request. Look at their website. Does it offer high-quality material? Is it well-redacted? That’s a good sign of what you’ll get for your site.
Remember that you don’t have to accept every request. You shouldn’t accept every request. Only take those that look promising and will add to the quality of your site.
Keep it rare
Did we say be choosy? You may need to be even more choosy.
As your site grows in size and quality, you’ll get more requests and better ones. Top-flight sites don’t need to spend time guest posting, but there are plenty of mid-levels sites that want to increase their exposure.
In the beginning, you might accept lower-mid level sites. As you go on, you may have to raise your standards. You may even have to say “no” when there’s a likelihood of getting a good post.
We haven’t seen statistics on this, but our “feel” is that you should only take one guest post for every 8-10 of your own posts.
Keep editorial control
Ok, you get an email asking if you could publish a guest post. They tell you what website they represent – and it could be worth it!
But before firing off a response saying, “SURE!”, you’ll want to exchange a few emails with them. First, you need to know what they want to write about. Hopefully, they’ll give you three or four ideas. Maybe one will fit your strategy – but that just means you can go to step 2!
You want to be sure that the contributor understands that you may reject their submission, too, if you have issues with it. If you don’t feel it’s clear or that it makes valid points, you won’t want to publish it.
Also, be sure that you can make minor edits to it for grammar and spelling. Some people may write in a different style. Different countries can have different spellings or colloquial phrases. And sometimes, the writer might not be a great writer. You might want to make adjustments to make it fit more with your audience.
Use the proper rel attribute
This last tip is the most technical point but it may be the most important, at least for your search ranking.
Every link on the web can have certain attributes. One of them is “rel”. And this helps describe how the link should be treated.
Now, some of you who know a bit about HTML are going to say that not every link has a “rel” attribute. From a coding perspective, that’s true. But when there’s no attribute written, Google assumes it’s a “dofollow”. So for our purposes here, we’ll consider that the attribute is there even though it’s not explicit.
Your content management system (CMS) should make these easy to add.
“Dofollow” (do follow) is the default attribute. It’s usually not even included.
This type is for “earned” links. That is, it’s a link that’s based on the quality of the page it links to and you know that page to be trustworthy. In a way, this attribute means you’re endorsing the link. This is the type of link that most guest post contributors are after – but it’s not necessarily the type you should give them.
“Nofollow” (no follow) links are a way to say that you’re not endorsing the linked page. It used to be the only choice for this. Many sites use “nofollow” on all external links just to avoid issues with search engines.
Recently, Google began recommending two new attributes.
“UGC” (user-generated content) is the proper tag to use for links in forum comments or the comment section of a blog. It’s another way to show you aren’t endorsing the link. Some platforms, such as WordPress, now add this to links in user comments by default.
Finally, the “sponsored” attribute should be used for any links that are paid for with money or by other considerations. You may still think the link is trustworthy, but this attribute shows that it’s a form of advertising.
Keeping all of these straight can be tough, but following the guidelines will help protect your site.
Conclusion
There’s no harm in accepting guest posts on your site as long as you do it carefully. Only accept quality material and make sure it adds value for your readers. And follow Google’s guidance on properly using the “rel” attributes to show what type of link it is. With the tips here in mind, you can have contributors to your site without risking your own ranking.