Moz Q&A is closed.
After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.
What is the exact difference between guest post and paid links?
-
What is the exact difference between guest post and paid links?
-
@zeitnot When Google analyzes the post, it looks for some key things. One is a sponsored disclosure. It can say “sponsored,” “paid,” or “advertisement,” and should be easy to spot.
Google also checks the content to see if it’s promoting something specific. It may come as paid material if there’s a lot of promotional language or mentions of some products or brands without context.
Another thing Google looks for is affiliate links or patterns of content creation. If a website regularly posts sponsored or promotional content without saying so, it won’t appear as a high-quality source of information. -
The main difference between guest posting and paid links is that with guest posting, you're providing valuable content for free. With paid links, you're just paying for a link. So from Google's perspective, guest posts are seen as more trustworthy than paid links. That's because when someone publishes a guest post on another blog, it's usually because they've been given permission by the blog owner to do so. I've made some guest postings for my friend's website when he started with dropshipping, and I've managed to land a few great guest posts for him, that increased the DR of the site eventually. Now, not gonna lie here, it's definitely a harder way to go, but if you put in the effort and do it consistently you'll see great results with GP, without putting any risk to the business.
-
@zeitnot In Guest Posting, you add your Comments/ Blog content on a High authority website with a link to your website , While paid links refer to posts contributed to a website with monetary charge in exchange for quality backlinks
-
-
@zeitnot In paid guest posting, you get paid for writing a guest post, whereas for paid links, you pay to the linking site. If you want organic links to your site you can try a tool called Postifluence. It's one of the best & affordable SEO tool I have ever used. It helps to find the top ranking guest posting websites and brings high-quality backlinks from there.
-
Guest post are free, while the paid links require payment .
Basically if you pay for guest post it will be counted as paid links. And google suggest using rel="sponsored" for this kind of links.
In reality we pay bloggers or webmasters for publishing guest post , which is not recommended by google.
-
@zeitnot The results shown on Google search are both ads and organic.
Paid results are created by users using Google ads where he/she introduces their ads to Google.
Organic results are shown on Google search results while a software called spider crawls a website and indexes them.
-
@Parker_Adam_916 thanks for fast response.
My second question is how google understands whether the post is paid or natural earn? -
Guest Post – A guest post is ananrticle written by someone else and posted on your website. You do not have to pay anyone to write a guest post. If the author is willing to share their knowledge, then they should be given credit for doing so.
Paid Link – A paid link is any aancle where the writer is being compensated for writing the content. Usually, these articles are sponsored posts. Sponsored posts are often written by people who work at companies that sell products related to the topic of the article. These companies may offer compensation to the writers of the posts in exchange for them promoting the company’s product.
-
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Backlinks from The Sun, New Yor Post, etc...
Hello there, Some of my competitors have backlinks from very well-known newspaper websites like New York Post or The Sun. And it is really obvious that their backlinks are paid ones. On these news websites, they don't talk about ghost writing stuff or "partnership" for backlinks. They only write about banner advertising. So I was wondering how they can get a backlink from them.
Link Building | | Veptune
Do some writers sell those backlinks somewhere else, under the table? Are they in contact with SEO agencies who paid them and if this is the case, does their "manager" know it? or does the company directly have partnerships with SEO agencies? Basically, how to get a backlink from the NY Post or The Sun ? Thanks0 -
Do You Risk A Penalty From Local Paid Directories in 2022?
Hi there, I have a client who wants to advertise in a local directory along the lines of "find your nearest plumber". The directory only has paid listings and they are follow links and they also mention your site or generated landing page may get a nice bump on google. Is there a risk that they may get a penalty for using this directory? The client wants to use it regardless of if it gives them an SEO boost but obviously wants to avoid any penalties at all costs. Thoughts on this? Thanks in advance
Link Building | | Scottlinklater0 -
Should I disavow these links?
Hi all, I have a ski website that I am currently performing a toxic backlink audit on. I have noted that a lot of the links being flagged as toxic/spammy by the tool I am using seem to be the same/similar sites with different URLs. The sites are vaguely related to skiing (relating to helicopter travel options for travelling to ski resorts) but it is concerning me that there are so many of them and they are being flagged as so toxic.
Link Building | | SolveWebMedia
Do you think it is worth disavowing these? Or contacting the owner to ask them to remove the link? I have included an example of some of the links below. https://www.cannes-helicopters.co.uk/index.php?menuopen=21&showcontent=5
https://nice-helicopter.co.uk/index.php?menuopen=21&showcontent=5
https://monaco-helicopter.co.uk/index.php?menuopen=21&showcontent=5 Slightly different site but same favicon icon:
https://monaco-helicopter.co.uk/index.php?menuopen=21&showcontent=5
https://www.whitetracks-holidays.com/Helicopter_Transfers_Villars_Switzerland.htm Thanks in advance for any advice / help!0 -
Back link from site with DA of 72 to a website domain. Clicking on the link redirects to our website not the attended one.
Hi,
Link Building | | JIMBO16
I've ran a back link check and discovered a good back link to a site which then gets redirected back to my company's website. I have a feeling that an old SEO agency has purchased a small website which has a decent link back from a relevant organisation with a high Domain authority and then redirects the domain to our website to get the link juice. What are your thought on this? Is this really bad practise and possibly damaging? Thanks, Jim0 -
How many links per week/month should a link building campaign acquire?
I am running a linkbuilding campaign for my company. I am mostly focusing on guest blogging opportunities and responding to emails from HARO. How many links would I have to acquire each week or month to be considered doing a good job over a 6 month or a year time period? Thank you,
Link Building | | fersu0 -
Nasty links
Hi My first q on here (hoorah!), and it's about links (boo!). I've got what appears to be a handful (but worryingly, increasing in number) of links pointing to my site like this: http://condos.mrgulffront.com/florida-condos-for-sale/320-scenic-gulf-drive-miramar-beach-fl-32550-mls-567591/ I've made contact with the sites concerned, and had only one positive response who flatly denied all knowledge of it. The issue (as far as I can see) is that as in the above example the links (on the bottom right in the grey box) are forever changing so not always visible. Can anyone offer any guidance as to these kinds of nasty links.... I'm right at the v beginning on this "path of seo understanding" so please don't assume prior knowledge! Thanks in advance.... tom
Link Building | | T-J-I0 -
A link with "return false"- OSE sees as a No Followed Link
Hello, I couldn't find a clear answer to the impact on SEO for a link written in this way: [" class="expert_info" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">](w</span>ww.yourwebsite.com<span style=) [Does the "return false" act as a "no follow"? I came across this in our link data in Open Site Explorer which lists these links all as "no follows." However, an engineer I spoke to said that it shouldn't impact search engine behavior. Any ideas? Thank you in advance! -Sarah K.](w</span>ww.yourwebsite.com<span style=)
Link Building | | OneMedical0