Should you guest post on a site with no quality links?
-
Suppose a site is related to your industry and has a relatively good domain authority of 49. However when you look at their link profile it is mostly directories and they don't seem to have any natural links from quality sites. Would you still take the link if they offered to publish your guest post?
-
It's not just about getting links to boost your rankings. Think about the potential referral traffic too. A great blog post on a site relevant to your niche can send you well qualified traffic that converts well. At the end of the day, it's not traffic the site needs - it's business. Also think about your positioning - If you visit a bunch of sites about fly fishing and see guest posts from the same person on just about every site you visit, you're going to think that they are more likely to be an authority on the subject. Just make sure the articles are good! Don't just cobble together a low value blog post just to get the link. Think about your positioning, think about the particular audience of the site and create something worth reading. If you've been offered a guest post then it's not unreasonable to ask a couple of questions about the site's visitors. What kind of thing are they looking for and how many readers of the blog are there? Even if you just get your name/brand in front of your customers, that can be a good thing. If you were given the opportunity to talk to a group of potential customers - how big would the group need to be to make it worth your while?
-
Three good answers.
As you know, it is hard to get quality links, so they have experienced the same problem as everyone else. If the directory links are relevant, and there are no egregious ones, it isn't likely to do you harm.
In addition, you can't see all of the links the site has, so you don't know if there are better links or worse links also.
With a DA of 49, it can't be too bad, so if it is in your industry and you already checked out the other content and you didn't find any bad outgoing links, then it looks like a good opportunity.
-
Sure would.
1. Nothing lives or dies by a single link (spam or not).
2. If you have a link profile that doesn't elicit the red flag, those few links from spam-ish sites with descent authority seem to help out in my experience.
3. It's in your industry, so even a cookie-cutter 'directory' has it's place when it is highly relevant. It's still an effective way to build links no matter what the fear-mongering SEOs say
-
If they have good content, unique and not spammy looking content, I will take the link. I would also look at the kind of sites they are linking to and as long as it's all good, closely related and there's no junk in there, it's a good link in my eyes.
I would also make sure that majority of my links are not coming from guest blog posts, that's what I would worry about more. Just making sure the link profile is as natural as possible. And don't always do anchor text links only.
I hope that helps.
-
Directories are not that bad if they are related to the site, I would look deeper into the link profile, to me it sounds like a decent site if their is numerous quality content and they also have a decent amount of traffic and keywords driving traffic to the site I say go for it.
-
Absolutely I would. If your entire link profile was made up of these sites that would be a different situation. But if it has a high DA/PA, and it's in a related niche, then I definitely would.
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
-
Other sites linking to our site through sitewide footers
Hello, We have other sites linking to our site through images in sitewide footers, resulting in a link from every page of each site. Those sites are not owned by us and they decided to link to us on their own. They usually link to us as their "sponsor" or "partner", sponsor as in sponsor of some event and partner as in we sometimes work together on joint initiatives. I've searched Moz forum and other articles, but haven't been able to find an answer to this question. We'd like to make sure Google doesn't consider it to be spammy and we don't get any sort of penalty. Should we ask them not to link to us through those images in a sitewide footer or ask them to simply add "nofollow"? We don't want to remove those links if they are not considered to be harmful and removing them will hurt our DA/PA.
Link Building | | marynau0 -
Can you duplicate on site Blog Posts to Google Plus
I have read from an authorative source that you can duplicate your blog posts on your google plus account without issues as google knows that this is your 'property'. is this correct and what would be the value in doing so? until we have need sign posting new blog posts with a link. Ash
Link Building | | AshShep10 -
What Should You Do About Low-Quality Press Release Syndication Sites Linking to You?
Suppose a company did a press release and linked to you in it. The press release was republished on some high quality sites but also over 50 low quality press release syndication sites from all over the world. Suppose that they used a money keyword anchor text to link to you. Would this be harmful to your site? What action would you take? Should we disavow these 50 links?
Link Building | | ProjectLabs0 -
Link Building Techniques: Guest Blogging - Is it Okay or Not?
I was reading this page here: http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=66356 "[...]Buying or selling links that pass PageRank. This includes exchanging money for links, or posts that contain links; exchanging goods or services for links; or sending someone a “free” product in exchange for them writing about it and including a link." So assuming you provide high quality guest posts to high quality blogs, is it okay or not to use this method as a link building technique?
Link Building | | sbrault740 -
Footer Links And Link Juice
I'm starting to learn about link juice and notice in GWMT > Traffic > Internal Links, that the list is in this order by the links counted on each page. Some are in the footer and some are in the header, with some being more important than others commercially i.e. /register /privacy /terms /search /sitemap /disclaimer /blog /register So I am wondering if I should add a 'no-follow' attribute to the footer links i.e. privacy, terms, disclaimer and leave the others as they are? Does this help retain link juice on each page where the links appear? Or am I missing the point all together? This is my website: http://goo.gl/CN0e5
Link Building | | Ubique0 -
Links from Related Sites with Low PR or semi-related sites with High PR?
Is it better to get a link from a site with lower PR but related content or higher PR but semi-related or unrelated content? For example, if I sell shoes, would a link from a PR1 or PR2 shoe or apparel site be better or a link from PR4 website that sells books be better? I'm not talking about sites with completely unrelated content, but how relevant is PR in obtaining relevant links if I am trying to raise the PR and rankings of my own site?
Link Building | | applesofgold0 -
What are the new ways of Link Building which will get quality links?
Hi We are doing following kinds of Link Building: 1. Article marketing 2. Directory Submission 3. Guest Blogging 4. Press Release submission 5. Infographics (Viral Marketing) I know blog commenting and links from discussion forums are considered as greyhat / blackhat by google. So I want suggestions on some other ethical(Whitehat SEO) ways of Link Building to get quality Links. Also suggest me some Free article submission sites which give " dofollow-links" Thank You
Link Building | | Virrtuo0 -
Searching for Quality "Follow" Back Links
I'm in a highly competitive national market where the top sites have links from between 325 and 1300 unique linking root domains, therefore, you have to have an aggressive approach just to get on the map. (I'm at 317) If we were talking about needing 50 good links, I could take the time to cultivate relationships, get to know people, and get 1 or 2 great links from each webmaster, but the scale of the challenge is out of control. My competitors, and myself, seem to all be getting links in the following ways: Hoards of directory links. Some high quality paid links from industry sites ($2,400 per each link per year) and hundreds from 9-$49 per year. At the bottom of the list of most all my competitors, there appears to be some links from their early beginnings that were reciprocal linking arrangements. Blogs where they submitted articles and have good links back to their sites. Paid ads on sites all over the internet that link back with their specific key words. Some from relevant sites, but mostly from sites that would give them a good deal and have high enough traffic and/or page rank. Blog comments with a link back to their site; sometimes with good anchor text and sometimes you're forced to have to use your web site address as the anchor text or even your name. (Does that even do any good?) My dilema is where to find 1,000 good places to get links and I don't do black hat? I can write good quality comments on blogs from a wide variety of industries, but most are now eliminating the possibility of using my anchor text other than my web site and my name. As I scour the playing field, it almost appears that it has become a "pay to play" proposition as far as getting links everywhere other than writing good blog articles, but then what good does it do to have 500 blog articles coming from a handful of linking root domains? You're just stuffing the ballot box! As for me, I'm in the teens with all the high value phrases I need and must come up with a better strategy for the home stretch. In all the other varied statistical measurements that I see on SEO Moz, I'm no lower than #5 out of the top 10 competitors in any of them except Alexa rank. So, I'm close but it seems so far away! Would appreciative and be grateful for some wisdom from the community! Lowell
Link Building | | lwnickens1