Guest Posting Offer

[GreatLegalMarketing]

Our company gets pitched on linking to other websites nearly constantly. Recently, we received an offer to guest post on several sites managed by the same person. These sites aren't really relevant to our website, so my instinct is that we should ignore the offer. However, I would really like more backlinks and maybe I shouldn't turn away this offer.

[R0bin_L0rd]

Hey there, I think some of the responses in this thread will give you what you need but just wanted to chip in.

Guest posting is a bit of a contentious topic at the moment, recently Google Reps like John Mueller have said that sites should nofollow ANY guest links (so that includes very reputable sites and relevant posts).

As Marjin says below - I think you're on the money when you talk about relevance. If we ignore Google for a moment - is it likely that users on those sites would click through to yours and convert? If no then it's quite likely this person is offering guest posting to a host of different sites and Google probably has a pretty good idea that the site is spammy. So you're less likely to get a ranking benefit from this and you're not getting direct benefit from the links.

If, on the other hand, there is a way for your site to be relevant to the sites then at the very least you could get users clicking through and converting, which is direct value anyway. If this site is vetting opportunities to make sure they are relevant to the audience it's more likely that they drive value for that audience and don't just write about anything, which means there's more chance of Google seeing the site and links as valuable.

By the sounds of things, this opportunity is in the first category so I'd be inclined to turn it down.

Hope that helps!

[Chris.Menke]

No need to do guest posts until you understand how to value links like the back of your hand.  Otherwise you  are likely to be taken advantage of.  You can be assured that many people who are asking you have very little knowledge of what they're doing or if such links will help or hurt them or you. Study up, practice, investigate, use tools.

[jokosinatra]

I don't think that's very bad. I mean all the big sites and company always get links from news sites and unrelated sites and that's fine. As long as the site isn't low quality, I think it's okay.

[Martijn_Scheijbeler]

You gave the best answer yourself: "These sites aren't really relevant to our website" - That is SEO language for don't do it.