How to Identify High Quality Guest Post Opportunities?

Do you want to increase your chances of steady traffic to your website and build a solid online brand?

Of course! Who wouldn’t want that?

If you have been dissatisfied with the outcomes of your social media and other marketing efforts, it’s essential to find the right alternative strategies to effectively reach larger audiences and accomplish your goals of generating consistent website traffic and building a solid online brand.

And guest blogging is recognized as one of the most effective marketing strategy to achieving these objectives.

According to numerous SEO experts, guest posting is widely regarded as the most potent approach to building links, generating increased backlinks, attracting more visitors to your website, and acquiring valuable leads.

However, when implementing a guest blogging strategy, one of the initial challenges is identifying suitable websites that accept guest posts. It is important to note that not all exceptional websites are open to publishing guest contributions.

Finding suitable platforms to submit your blogs is crucial in maximizing the impact of your guest blogging efforts.

Fortunately, even though not every reputable and exceptional website may be open to accepting different types of guest posts, plenty of authoritative websites still eagerly welcome guest contributions.

If you are prepared to create engaging guest posts offering valuable insights, this comprehensive guide to guest blogging opportunities will help you find quality websites willing to feature your content.

There are many ways to find blogs that accept guest post. Here, we’ve outlined the popular guest posts opportunity finding technique that will definitely help improve your brand awareness.

Leverage Google Search Operators

The reason behind Google’s dominance as one of the top internet companies is well-founded. It is a potent tool that can uncover numerous unseen opportunities to elevate your online business to unprecedented success.

If you are up for this adventure, finding guest posting opportunities would need Google to discover a wide array of authoritative, relevant, and high-quality websites.

By employing Google search operators, you can unearth websites you may not have been aware of that accept guest blogs from webmasters and authors.

Below are some search strings that can be utilized to discover guest posting opportunities:

The reason behind Google’s dominance as one of the top internet companies is well-founded. It is a potent tool that can uncover numerous unseen opportunities to elevate your online business to unprecedented success.

And when it comes to finding guest blogging opportunities, you will need Google to discover a wide array of authoritative, relevant, and high-quality guest blogging sites.

By employing Google search operators, you can unearth websites you may not have been aware of that accept guest blogs from webmasters and authors.

If you don’t know how to find new opportunities, below are some search strings that will help you.

Suppose you are seeking opportunities for guest posting within the topic “content marketing”; you can utilize the following search operators:

Content marketing + “contribute to our site”

Content marketing + “write for us”

This way, you can find opportunities in your business area.

If you are unable to obtain a reasonable number of websites using the search operator mentioned above, there are additional methods you can employ to achieve better results.

Site Search

If there is a high-quality website you want to contribute to, you can utilize this function to find sites that accept guest post.

For example, if you want to submit guest posts for Content Marketing Institute, you can employ the following operator to ascertain whether they accept guest authors work.

To effectively employ the site search operator, you can utilize this search string:

site:example.com search term

This technique tends to yield better results when you have an established relationship with the website in question. Therefore, building and nurturing relationships with relevant websites and influencers is crucial for guest blogging opportunities down the road.

Besides using the “site search” method to confirm if your target website, you can also utilize it for conducting research for the kind of guest post you intend to submit.

If a site already accepted a guest post on a subject it is likely to result in rejection. However, manually scrolling through numerous website pages to ensure they don’t have a similar post can be time-consuming and inefficient.

In such cases, you can employ the site operator to search for the specific topic you wish to write about.

For example, suppose you intend to write an article about Backlinks for the Social Media Examiner. In that case, you can utilize the site search operator to know the existing posts they have written related to link building.

This approach is really useful to avoid a topic that is already covered on the website previously.

Inurl search

In many instances, websites tend to incorporate relevant keywords within their URLs. So, when searching for blogs opportunities as a guest, you may come across URLs that include the terms “write for us.”

While it is important to note that not every website will follow this pattern, you will find a lot of websites relevant to your industry and that incorporate these keywords in their website URLs.

To utilize this search operator, you can enter the following search strings:

inurl: “contribute to our site”

inurl: “write for us”

You can substitute these words with the one that you think is likely to be there in the guest post URL of the webpage.

Intitle search

You can utilize the following search string to discover pages with a particular keyword in their title. This approach can be useful to look for sites that accept blogs within a specific area.

To utilize this search operator, you can enter the following search strings:

Intitle: “Guest column”

You can couple this search string with other keywords such as “Guest post guidelines”, “Guest blog submission,” or “write for us”.

To further refine and streamline your search results, you can combine multiple operators together.

For example, you can merge the “intitle” operator and the “inurl” operator to obtain more precise and accurate outcomes.

In the example provided, the search query involves searching for the desired keyword within the title and incorporating the term “write for us” within the URL.

The tilde (~) operator

You can use this operator to search for terms that closely resemble the word you enter in your search query.

To utilize this search operator, you can use the following search string:

~search term

Suppose you conduct a search using “~write for us,” you will come across results that include terms similar to “write for us.”

This operator helps broaden the scope of the search to encompass related terms and variations, allowing you to explore a wider range of relevant results.

The OR operator

Similar to its application in logic, the “OR” operator can be utilized in Google searches to determine if either of two terms appears. The search results will include pages where either term is present, as well as pages where both terms are present.

This is very helpful since there is no standardized term that every website adopts when discussing guest blogging.

Here is an example of this search operator:

Furthermore, by combining the “OR” operator with the previously mentioned operators, you can further enhance your search capabilities.

For instance, if you want to search for a guest post page on a specific website but are unsure of the specific words they use for guest post page, you can integrate the “OR” operator with the site operator.

Google Reverse Image Search

This a really cool technique for guest bloggers to identify authoritative websites to for submitting guest post pitch.

Step 1: Find an influencer who regularly writes guest post relevant to your niche.

For instance, Neil Patel contributed a lot to the SEO space.

Step 2: Copy the image URL of the headshot utilized in their author bio.

Step 3: Paste that URL into the Google image search bar.

You will get a list of websites where these specific images are featured.

Upon examination, you will discover links to posts that have been published by the respective influencer and read the guest blogs they wrote.

Certainly, prominent SEO expert Neil Patel can be considered as one of the best guest blogger and may be referenced in various contexts beyond guest posts. Now, you just have to conduct some research and create a list of sites sites that welcome guest posts.

Google Alerts

Instead of dedicating time to manually look for guest post opportunities, you can utilize Google Alert. You can create an alert for the query “guest post by.”

This specific query helps you discover posts from websites that may accept guest posts but do not explicitly advertise them publicly. These posts often feature a byline that mentions “Guest post by.”

You can also try the following search strings:

keyword + “guest post”

keyword + “write for us”

“guest post by” + “author name” -site:blogstalgia.com

When you set up this Google Alert, you can receive notifications whenever such posts are indexed by Google, allowing you to identify potential opportunities that might otherwise go unnoticed.

Using Ahrefs Content Explorer

If you haven’t utilized this tool previously, it functions as a compact search engine for web content. It operates on an extensive database containing nearly one billion pages, which is updated daily.

Simply input any word or phrase, and Content Explorer will generate an extensive list of web pages that include the specified keyword.

To find guest posting opportunities using Ahrefs‘ Content Explorer, you can follow these steps:

Step 1: Go to Ahrefs’ Content Explorer.

Enter any word or phrase on Content Explorer. It will give an extensive list of pages with that keyword.

For instance, let us enter “content marketing”.

Nearly 204 thousand pages with the selected keyword in their title tag! That’s an enormous list, and we do not want to explore everything.

Step 2: Now, Filter your search results.

When seeking blogs related to this topic to submit a guest posts on, it is essential to narrow down the results to specifically target websites focusing on this topic.

To accomplish this, you can utilize the “one article per domain” filter, ensuring that only one page per domain, specifically related to the desired topic, will be displayed.

Here we can see that the number went down to 801 pages.

Step 3: Export the compiled list of websites to analyze the domains that are fit for your guest blogging endeavours.

Obtaining such a large number of prospects within a limited time frame through Google scraping is nearly impossible.

However, if you prefer the white-hat manual approach (which we recommend), you do not necessarily require such a vast number of prospects.

The solution is to narrow down the list by applying a “Domain Rating” filter, thereby reducing the number of prospects to a more manageable level.

Domain Ratings are the same as domain authority. Ahrefs suggests categorizing blogs into three groups based on their Domain Ratings. One approach is to group websites with domain ratings ranging from 0 to 20, another group with ratings from 21 to 70, and a third group consisting of websites with ratings of 71 and above.

However, if you are operating in an extremely small niche market, Content Explorer will display only a limited number of articles, around a few hundred, that mention your specific target keyword.

For instance, if you search for the keyword “anchor text,” you will only find a few results.

The solution is simple! Try a broader keyword like SEO.

Twitter Search

Twitter search is an undiscovered treasure trove when it comes to guest posting.

In fact, I have come across prolific guest blogging opportunities on Twitter that would have remained undiscovered through Google alone.

Additionally, Twitter results are more up-to-date compared to Google’s index. This enables you to find websites actively seeking guest posts and stay informed about the latest opportunities.

Here is how to unveil the guest opportunities through Twitter:

Step 1: Navigate to the Twitter search bar and input a simple search string for guest posts, such as “guest post” [keyword].

Step 2: Analyze the search result to identify potential targets.

Within a few seconds, you will be able to find a handful of authoritative websites that accept guest posts.

HARO

HARO (Help a Reporter Out) is a valuable and free tool that facilitates guest blogging opportunities.

By signing up for HARO, you will receive daily emails containing requests from journalists seeking sources for articles, podcasts, and interviews.

You can customize the types of requests you receive based on your preferences and expertise.

HARO is widely utilized by prestigious publications such as Forbes Magazine, Marketing Week, The New York Times, Bustle, and The Wall Street Journal.

This presents you with valuable opportunities to engage with esteemed journalists that you may not have been able to connect with otherwise. It opens doors to collaborate with reputable media outlets and enhances your visibility and credibility in the industry.

There are other alternatives for HARO, such as PressPlugs, Terkel, and JustReachOut.

Linkedin

LinkedIn presents another avenue for exploring guest post opportunities. While it may not be as straightforward as other platforms, it offers a chance to connect with influential individuals in your industry.

You can connect with professionals on LinkedIn and stay updated on their posts and identify when they are seeking guest posts for their blogs. Through your LinkedIn relationships, you can leverage these opportunities and establish collaborations with them.

Reverse Engineer Your Competitor’s Backlinks

When seeking guest post opportunities and generating ideas, one valuable resource to explore is your competitors.

To leverage this knowledge for finding guest posting opportunities, you can employ a strategy known as backlink reverse engineering. To implement it, you can use a tool like Ahrefs.

Step 1: The first step is to identify who your main competitors are in your industry or niche.

For instance, I observed that this particular website had achieved high rankings for numerous keywords within my niche.

Step 2: Once you have identified your competitor, enter their domain or URL in the search bar on the Ahrefs dashboard and click on the search icon.

Step 3: After entering your competitor’s domain, you’ll be taken to the overview page of their website. In the left sidebar, navigate to the “Backlink Profile” section to access various analysis tools.

Here is a list of all their backlinks:

We can see that not many of the links came from guest posts.

However, a good chunk of your competitor’s backlinks came from guest posts, and you can leverage this information to improve your own link opportunities.

The best part of this technique is that you will be able to find sites that do not have a “write for us” page.

Broken Link Building

One effective strategy that I highly recommend, which involves analyzing backlinks, is broken link building. This approach is focused on finding broken links on other websites and leveraging them to create new links for your own site.

To find broken links, you can use a tool like Ahrefs. Here’s how it’s done:

Step 1: Access the Ahrefs Site Explorer tool.

Step 2: Enter the domain or URL of the website you want to analyze in the search bar.

Step 3: Once the results are displayed, navigate to the “Best by Links” report.

Step 4: Sort the results by “HTTP code” to identify any broken links. Look for URLs that have a status code of 404 (Not Found) or other error codes.

Step 5: Click on the broken link to view more details and gather information about the specific page where the broken link is located.

Once you have identified a broken link on a website, the next step is to reach out to the webmaster or site owner and bring the broken link to their attention.

You can inform them about the non-functioning link and kindly offer your own relevant and high-quality content as a replacement for the broken resource.

By offering a high-quality article to replace their broken resource, you have the opportunity to gain additional exposure and increase your link equity.

In this situation, your name, content, and link will be published on the desired website, providing valuable visibility and potential referral traffic to your own site.

Interact with Blog Commentors

You may have observed that many guest bloggers often leave comments on your guest posts.

As you can see, many people have left comments on this post:

Many of these people are folks who run blogs in the same niche. Reply to them.

This is an excellent way to build connections with giants in your niche and get awesome guest post opportunities from sites that do not have guest post pages.

However, remember that this is an advanced guest post strategy.

If you are new to guest posting and have not yet published any guest posts, it is recommended to skip this technique for the time being.

Use Guest Blogging Directories

Utilizing guest blogging directories is another effective approach for discovering websites that allow guest posts. Numerous online directories are available specifically for this purpose.

Although these networks may not feature the largest and most prominent blogs in your niche, they can be an excellent starting point for getting involved in guest posting.

Some widely recognized directories include MyBlogGuest and Guestpost.com.

These directories offer search functionalities that allow you to find relevant websites based on factors such as your niche and target audience.

Additionally, they provide valuable information regarding each website’s guest posting guidelines and requirements.

Reach out to Bloggers and Website Owners

Another way to locate websites that accept guest posts is to directly reach out to bloggers and website owners within your industry.

You can reach out to them through email or by sending a direct message on social media platforms.

Politely and professionally inquire whether they accept posts on their website. When crafting your email or message, it is important to maintain a courteous tone and provide a concise introduction about yourself and your own website. Also, it’s important to implement DMARC reports that will protect your email domain from phishing and spoofing.

Since editors from prominent publications often receive numerous pitches every week. Sending a generic guest post pitch significantly reduces your chances of grabbing their attention. They are not likely to accept your pitch and your email might get deleted immediately.

Therefore, when reaching out to a publication, it’s crucial to craft a pitch that is both unique and relevant to their news outlet while steering clear of a sales pitch approach.

Here is an email template that you can use as a starting point when pitching your guest blog post:

Hi [Journalist’s Name],

I hope this message finds you well. My name is [Your Name], and I am contacting you on behalf of [Your Business]. I have been an avid follower of your blog, [Blog Name], for quite some time, and I truly appreciate the valuable insights and information you consistently provide to your readers. It is with great enthusiasm that I reach out to you today, as I would be honoured to contribute my expertise to your esteemed platform.

Based on the topics covered in your blog, particularly [Topic 1] and [Topic 2], I believe that your audience would also be interested in the following article subjects:

[Subject 1]

[Subject 2]

[Subject 3]

I have recently written a number of guest posts and articles that showcase my subject’s specialism and writing style. Here are a few examples for your reference:

[Link to article]

[Link to guest post]

I believe that my contributions would provide valuable insights and engage your readership. I am open to discussing specific angles or adjusting the topics to better suit your audience’s interests and your blog’s style.

I would be delighted to have the opportunity to contribute to your blog. Please let me know your thoughts and if there is any additional information you require. I hope to hear from you soon!

All the best,

[Your Name]

If you have a large number of bloggers or websites to whom you want to send your emails, it is advisable to utilize an email marketing tool that enables the mass sending of emails to all recipients.

I like to use a tool like GMass that offers a Chrome extension for sending mass emails for guest posting.

Here is how the GMass Chrome extension works:

Step 1: Start by installing the GMass Chrome extension from the Chrome Web Store. Once installed, you’ll see the GMass icon in your Chrome browser toolbar.

Step 2: Click on the Google Sheets button in the GMass extension.

You have multiple options for creating your recipient list: manually entering email addresses, importing contacts from a Google Sheets spreadsheet, uploading a CSV file, or using the “Build Email List” feature of GMass to search for and add recipients.

Step 3: Once connected with the spreadsheet, you will find a pop-up where you can compose your guest post email.

Step 4: Now, insert personalization variables by enclosing them in double curly braces, like {{domain}}.

GMass will replace these variables with the actual values when sending the emails. By doing so, you will be able to send emails to each website/ blogs accepting guest posts with their respective domain names.

Step 5: Then click on the GMass “Send” button to initiate the sending process.

GMass will start sending personalized emails to each recipient on your list, one by one, using your Gmail account.

Once the emails are sent, you will get a notification from GMass saying all the emails have been sent.

Conclusion

The benefits of guest posting are significant. It is an effective strategy for enhancing your website’s SEO and acquiring valuable backlinks. While finding suitable  and the best guest blogging websites may require time and effort, it is a worthwhile investment.

However, if you prefer to avoid all these hustles, an alternative option is to consider utilizing a white-label link-building service. These services specialize in identifying and securing high-quality sites that accept guest posts on your behalf.

With established relationships with publishers, they can effectively pitch your content to relevant websites within your industry. Opting for a white-label link-building service streamlines the process and ensures access to reputable publishers, providing you with valuable backlinks while saving time and effort.

FAQs