I’ve been working in SEO for a long time now, and every year guest posting as a link building tactic and ecosystem has grown because Google continues to reward the practice when executed well.
In this post, I not only want to show you some of the best guest posting services that will be able to carry out the work for you, well, but I’m also going to give you my insights into how to maximize your utilization of guest posts in your link building campaigns and what to look for when analyzing the right services to buy for them.
If you don’t know anything about link building and are looking puzzled at the terminology I’m using in this post, then I first recommend reading Backlinko’s guide to link building and getting a complete understanding first, so you can get the most out of this post.
I’m an SEO realist and an SEO purist, so I will give you my honest opinions on the services and exactly the things I would be looking at when trying to spend my budget to get the maximum ROI possible. And speaking of, that brings me to our very first topic…
ROI-Based Link Building
Every single one of my link building campaigns have one thing in common: Making as much money in return for the spend as possible.
The way we go about this is by having perfectionist and analytical mentalities, by that I mean you want to make sure that your site, OnPage and content is all perfect before setting off building large amounts of links and you want to make sure that those campaigns are based on as much analysis of your site, competitors and the SERPs as possible.
As the great Sherlock Holmes once said, “It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data.”
Try to base your decisions on whatever spend would give you the most ROI over the next 12 months, there is some light analysis you can do based on historical data, so new sites generally require creative thinking or at least some level of insight.
Generally speaking, if you know that historically X type of link has had Y effect on pages on your site, then you can try to calculate how much increased traffic, and thus earnings, the site would make once the link takes its desired effect.
You can use this short Twitter thread I created, to learn how to calculate a site’s TAM, or Total Addressable Market which essentially means the total amount of revenue the site could make per month -
Obviously, all of this math is speculative and it’s not all that consistent, but it’s much better to have investment oriented plans in SEO than to just wing it.
What Pages Should You Build Links At?
As we are building links based on ROI, the pages that will result in the most uplift in revenue for the site are the pages you should be priotizing.
However, most people will automatically assume that linking directly to a money page would be the most valuable because it’ll directly increase traffic to a page, but I think they’re usually wrong because you want to link to supporting content. Yes, whilst linking to your money page might increase that page's rankings, linking to a piece of content that powers up several or even a dozen different pages via internal linking will often result in more rankings, more traffic and ultimately more revenue in your back pocket.
Likewise, any sort of link building is intrinsically risky, as Google could flip a switch tomorrow and a link toxic. However, as Google’s algorithm only affects the page that a link directly links to (And not any other pages on the site) then if you’re linking to supporting content you aren’t directly losing money whereas if a money page tanks, chances are, so does your bottom line.
So, long story short: Prioritize the pages that are going to have the most effect on increasing the site’s earnings via powering up as many pages as possible whilst staying as safe as possible in doing so.
Orphan Guest Posts
One of the ways that we maximize the signals being sent from a link, and our efficiency in building links (as you’d need less overall links than if you just built orphan ones) is by making sure all of our guest posts aren’t orphan pages - This just essentially means that the guest post page itself has got internal links, ************** and backlinks itself, which contributes to the pages overall power and it’s own signals sending on to your site.
Whilst a lot of services will request additional payment for this, it makes the links that much more powerful that it’s often worth paying the extra 20% - 30% on top of the usual guest post price.
Content Creation
There are a lot of services that will offer to write the content for you, but often link building experts aren’t exactly content creation specialists as well. I prefer to ask them to put the content budget into more time/resources into the site selection process, and try to write our own content inhouse so it stays inline with our own site’s quality standards.
If adding a load of extra content to your workload isn’t something you’re looking for, then make sure to request samples from the service vendors before you commit to letting them build links, and if it’s not up to your expectations then see if there are options to improve it or look for another supplier that better matches what you’re after.
Bad Niche Neighbourhoods
For those who don’t know what a bad niche neighbourhood link consists of, you can think of associating your site with niches like gambling, p*rnography, ph*rma, s*x toys and so on.
You don’t want links from sites in these neighbourhoods; many mommy blogs these days create OF content and guides, which would be the exact type of sites you want to avoid.
Unfortunately, there aren’t many services that can support a guest post campaign if your site is in one of these niches, as 99% of sites will reject any content related to them. That being said, check out my reviews below on the services for VelSEOity, Rank Rocker or LinkDelta.
The 5 BEST Guest Post Services
Now that you should have an understanding of how to carry out link building campaigns cost effectively, and what to look for in guest posts then let’s get on to my recommendations for the services you should be using on Legiit.
Authority Rank - Real Outreach Links
The Authority Rank Guest Post Service
Unlike most services out there, Authority Rank are actually doing the niche outreach for real and will often get you links back using their lightning fast system in under 7 days.
At only $80/link, there are not many services in the SEO industry that can live up to the reliability and realness that they provide and comes with fantastic minimum metrics.
Chris - SuperstarSEO Guest Post Links
The SupertarSEO Guest Post Service
Disclaimer: Chris is the owner of Legiit, and whilst I will stick by his services being quality and great value for money, there is still an inevitably obvious incentive to put his services on the list, so do with that information as you will and make sure you’re contacting sellers before committing to large orders.
If you’re looking for guaranteed minimum metrics that guarantee sites with powerful profiles, then the service Chris offers is a no brainer!
Though Chris takes from his own database of sites he’s already done the outreach for, it’s regularly updated, vetted and only consists of the best possible sites that move the needle Which is more can be said 99% of the other database backed guest post providers.
LinkDelta Guest Post Links
The LinkDelta Guest Post Service
The owner of this service, Angelo, has been a passionate student of mine for many years and has consistently improved his knowledge and service offerings.
Whilst he is the most expensive service on this list, you’re guaranteed to get all of my vetting requirements that we discussed early in the post, and he has a 100% satisfaction track record with orders on Legiit, meaning if you’re looking for the highest levels of quality, then this service is likely the one for you.
Whilst most services will allow you to submit your own anchor texts, Angelo requires you just to submit a URL and have them choose the anchor for you, so it makes the links even safer with more natural anchor text. However, some in the SEO space still want to be able to control their anchors, so that can be the one down point of the service for many though I don’t think it should worry those looking to build long term successful campaigns.
Tonay Guest Post Services
Whilst there isn’t one specific service recommendation, Tonay offer a variety of individual sites that you can pick from, as well as packs of guest posts on general news sites.
Most of the sites are either in Home, Law or News but they’re almost all high DR, DA and traffic with reasonable pricing for the levels of links (Starting from around $50/link) you get and you’ll be able to see the domains prior to purchasing.
RankRight Guest Post Links
The RankRight Guest Post Service
Whilst all of the other services in this list exclusively use the guest posting method, this service has a variety of different link acquisition methods that can feed into your campaigns diversity and naturality.
They also have a vetting process that fits in line with mine, and whilst the links are on the slightly more expensive side for Legiit, it’s well worth it if you’re looking to buy a number of links and offset the risk factors with more diversification than other providers can create.
Honorable Mentions
Whilst the above list should be more than enough to satisfy your appetite for links for blog links from around the world, if you still want more, then some honorable mentions should fill that ever growing void in your link juice needs.
VelSEOity
The VelSEOity Guest Post Service
With great pricing, and good turn around times, the only downside to VelSEOity is it’s another database backed provider instead of doing custom outreach.
Whilst they hardly do any volume on Legiit, they have a very good offering and accept almost every niche with a 6 month free replacement guarantee.
Dave Links
The Dave Links Guest Post Service
Whilst he’s a relatively small player on the Legiit platform, the quality I’ve seen from his orders for the pricing he offers has been fantastic.
Based in Australia, they offer affordable guest posts on legit sites for just $99 a pop, or if you’re specifically looking for ones in Aus (Which is hard to find), then you can use his $125 service here, which is what he’s best known for as that’s a great deal for most freelancers or agencies that could easily upsell those links for 2-3x the price to their clients.
Vetting The Links
Okay, so now we’ve gotten our link report back, we can start looking at the links that have been built; what is it we want to look for to make sure we’ve gotten quality work done?
Bear in mind that this will greatly depend on the price of the service and the niche you’re in - If you’re trying to get crypto or casino guest posts for $50-99 a pop, you’re not going to get any sort of quality work. Still, local sites, most affiliate niches and low-medium competition SERPs should be more than fine as long as you’re utilizing them in conjunction with an overall link building and SEO strategy.
On an individual level, for guest posts we generally want to look for the following:
- REAL Sites - No PBNs, Web 2.0s etc
- The Site Content Quality
- Domain and/or Page Level Relevancy
- Wayback Machine History - No Redirects, Spam etc
- Quality Metrics & Referring Domains
- Brand & Entity - Social Profiles etc
- No “Write For Us” or “Contribute” Pages
- No Recent Traffic Hits & Algorithmic Drops
- Links Are DoFollow & No Other Tags
Once your links have passed all of these criteria, then they should be passing you strong relevancy and trust signals that move the rankings of both the individual page its linking to and the entire domain as a whole by increasing the root authority.
And you can always add your own factors, too, at your own discretion.
Link Velocity
If you’re actively building or looking to build a large number of guest posts at your site, I would plan it out and look to drip feed the links as otherwise, you can quickly cause unnatural link triggers in Google’s algorithm and potentially even get penalized if you don’t take enough precautions, though that is extremely rare these days.
In general, your link velocity should match your new page velocity (The number of new pages you’re putting live each day) but also take into account things like site size, age, history, current organic traffic trends and previous actions against the site/domain, if any.
I like to try and build my links sparingly, ensuring I am maximizing my OnPage, content and technical SEO first so that when I do build the links they have the most potential impact they can on the site. Likewise, I try only to build links when my site actually needs them to increase the trajectory, if it’s already rocketing up, then I like just to sprinkle them in to add more fuel to the fire rather than potentially letting the flame go out by overloading the pot.
Bringing It Altogether
Whilst guest posts can be (and usually are) your primary source of dofollow link building, you still need to diversify your overall link profile and make sure that they are working in conjunction with your other link building activities and your site itself.
One link can be that deciding factor between you ranking first or not. Still, individually, you likely won’t see a massive impact from a particular guest post, and it can take several weeks even to take effect.
Having a quality over quantity mindset, putting ROI based on analysis first and ensuring you don’t create unnatural patterns unnecessarily will allow you to thrive using this very accessible and powerful tactic.
Final Thoughts
As an industry, it feels shameful that it’s often this hard to find a good link building provider, but hopefully I’ve been able to give you several options here and give you a much better grasp of guest posting, what to look for and how to get the most out of your money.
And if you’re still in need of extra information, you can always reach out to one of the service providers I listed in this post to see if they can help you with your campaign needs.
With all that being said, I wish you the best of success with your own guest posting.
Download