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
-
Reputable Place For Guest Posts
We do our SEO in-house, and I don't have the time for blogger outreach. Does anyone know of a reputable place where I can submit our content to be pitched to relevant outlets for backlinks and US traffic? I am not in it for someone creating our content; I write it myself and have a degree in the content I produce. I am looking for a place that gets REAL US traffic, not some P.B.N. sites or those where I can create accounts at a post myself. I want real traffic from relevant, reputable blogs or a place where I can have them use my content and find niche sites for me.
Link Building | | tammysons1 -
Blog post outreach for backlinks
Hi all, My understanding of obtaining backlinks by way of blogpost outreach is that it's best to include several outbound links to related high domain websites within blog post copy (as well as a link to the website you're marketing, obviously) such as this post https://www.scoopearth.com/why-should-you-use-royalty-free-music-for-youtube-videos/ or this one https://small-bizsense.com/how-to-create-quality-content-for-your-business/. However, I've recently read a few articles that suggest that from a human perspective only having one clear link in the copy, such as this post https://www.clichemag.com/entertainment/movies/the-benefits-of-royalty-free-cinematic-music-for-your-videos/, increases the chance of the reader visiting the site in question. I guess the thinking is that if there's only one link to be clicked on it increases the chances of click-thru, as opposed to the reader possibly clicking on another external link that's only there because of current SEO advice. So is it best to follow SEO guidelines and include several outbound links within guest blog posts, or is it better to only have the one link to your client's site (to focus the readers attention on it)?
Link Building | | JCN-SBWD0 -
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 -
What is the difference between anchor text and external links?
I understand you 'Pro's' may fins this a silly question. But I'm a visual learner and I can't seem to grasp this. I've read the pages MOZ has provided on anchor text and external links and my question is, how are they different? And which one is more important to seo? Can someone who has a great ability to simplify things, please help me understand this. They seem very similar to me but, I know there has to be more to it. External links: External Links are hyperlinks that point at (target) any domain other than the domain the link exists on (source) **Anchor Text: **Anchor text is the visible characters and words that hyperlinks display when linking to another document or location on the web. Thanks is advance, Lauren.
Link Building | | MissThumann0 -
Paid Directory Links
To my surprise, I couldn't find a clear answer to the questions "Do paid directory links violate Google guidelines?" I know Matt Cutt's recently had a video on paid links, but it didn't really cover paid directory links. Are well-curated directory sites that charge for inclusion violate Google's guidelines? A good example would be the business.com directory.
Link Building | | RickyShockley0 -
How can I find the best sites to guest post on while linking back to my article?
Whats the best way to find sites to guest blog on. There are just so many and I don't want to make bad choices so my current rankings don't get hurt
Link Building | | aronwp0 -
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 -
Link Frequency
I understand that good link building is all about the quality of the link / the anchor text attached to it. But, what about frequency? Should I build until I can't build anymore? or create a plan to submit links to a certain # of sites per week/month?
Link Building | | pricefutures0