How to Guest Post for SEO in 2023

What Is Guest Posting?

Guest posting (or guest blogging) is a marketing tactic that involves writing articles for other websites in order to promote your brand.

Here is a guest post example that Semrush’s Marcus Tober contributed to Adweek:

Sharing your expertise with relevant audiences can help you:

• Build your personal profile
• Raise brand awareness
• Drive traffic to your site

Many marketers use guest posts to build links for SEO. (Links are like “votes of confidence” and can benefit Google rankings.)

But guest blogging SEO is a contentious topic.

Are Guest Posts Bad for SEO?

Guest posts are not inherently bad for SEO. (They can even be beneficial—more on that later.)

An article on the Google Search Central Blog states: “Google does not discourage [guest posts] in the cases when they inform users, educate another site’s audience, or bring awareness to your cause or company.”

But guest articles can be bad for SEO.

Because Google may issue a “Google penalty” (or “manual action”) against a site that engages in manipulative linking practices. This can lead to the site ranking lower in search results. Or being omitted from search results altogether.

Manipulative linking practices include (but are not limited to) the following:

“Excessive” guest posting:

“Excessive” guest posting occurs when a brand is trying to get links on as many sites as possible. This leads to a lot of poor-quality content. Which is bad for the web and bad for Google.

One of the main signs of excessive...