How to Do Guest Post Outreach: A Complete Step-by-Step Guide

Guest posting has etched itself as a staple strategy in any link-building campaign. 

A good guest post contribution not only builds high-quality backlinks but can also grow your brand authority and drive targeted traffic to your website.

But a successful guest post outreach takes more than sending cold pitches. It requires intensive research, alignment with the target site’s niche, adherence to the host website’s guidelines, and a value-first mindset.

Whether you’re a seasoned SEO or just diving into link-building, mastering guest post outreach strategy can open many doors for your website. From getting more highly engaged traffic to unexpected opportunities beyond digital. 

This article walks you through how you can effectively implement guest posting. We’ll define guest post outreach, explore its benefits, and provide an actionable step-by-step guide on how to do it.

What is Guest Post Outreach?

Guest post outreach is the process of pitching and publishing a guest article on relevant blogs or websites in your niche. 

It’s a mutualistic (win-win) off-page SEO strategy where you contribute a high-quality article on a host website and earn backlinks in exchange, which transfers link juice, builds your domain authority, and may drive targeted traffic.

Unlike other off-page SEO strategies, like link exchanges and paid backlinks, guest post outreach is often lengthy and time-consuming. In addition to writing a tailored article for the target website, you may not always get the desired response.

These things may happen during a guest post outreach campaign:

• They don’t respond to your email and follow-ups
• They reject your idea, which is often the end of the outreach, unless they provide a topic or invite more ideas
• They accept your idea, give you the go signal to start drafting, but don’t push through with publication
• They publish your content, but only approve one backlink for the article

Despite the fact, the benefits of guest post outreach outweigh its disadvantages, and may even transcend SEO. Let’s look at them below:

Benefits of Guest Posting for Your Website

I have glossed over some advantages of guest post outreach for your website. In this section, we’ll dive deeper into the specific benefits: 

Boost SEO Performance

Guest posting earns you backlinks in exchange for the content you contribute. These backlinks transfer valuable link juice from the host website to your domain.

This emphasizes the importance of choosing websites with high domain authority when guest posting. The higher a target website’s DA, the more valuable the link equity you earn, translating to better SEO performance.

Brand Awareness and Referral Traffic

High DA websites typically receive a respectable number of organic traffic every month. When you successfully contribute a guest post, you may encourage the host website’s audience to visit your content. This is especially true if you target websites with the same niche as yours.

For example, if your website sells fashion-related products, you can reach out and send a guest post to authoritative fashion websites. The target site’s visitors will likely be fashion enthusiasts who shop frequently. Gaining their attention can expose your brand to new audiences and, possibly, earn you some sales. 

Safer Off-Page SEO Approach Compared to Others

Other link-building techniques can expose your website to link spam. This may result in your backlink hurting your SEO instead of helping it.

Guest post outreach is safer because it allows you to build links from reputable, contextually relevant websites through high-quality content. 

Instead of relying on shady tactics or automated link schemes, guest posting involves real collaboration with other site owners. This gives you greater control over where your links appear and how they’re placed.

When done right, guest post outreach ensures that your backlinks are surrounded by relevant content, naturally integrated, and aligned with Google’s quality guidelines. This protects your site from potential penalties and builds long-term authority and trust in your niche.

Build Collaboration and Long-term Relationships

One guest post published and one backlink from a high-quality website is fantastic, but how about more?

Well, if your initial guest post is a great success, it can gain attention from the site’s owner. It is a chance for you to build a relationship with them. This opens doors for other mutually beneficial collaborative SEO efforts.

Moreover, if your site has an equally respectable domain authority as your host website, the guest post outreach may upgrade to a guest post exchange. That means you’ll also receive high-quality content in exchange for a backlink.

They may even go above and beyond, like helping with broken link-building.

Generally Free

A recent survey by Aira found that 25% of companies spend an average of $10,000-25,000 per month on their link-building campaigns. At close second is 19% of companies, investing $2,500-5,000 monthly.

That’s massive!

When I hear businesses spending that much on link-building campaigns, I can’t help but wonder: 

“Why would anyone spend so much money when they can leverage guest post outreach and receive the same high-quality backlinks from industry blogs?”

To be fair, guest posting is more time-consuming and tedious than other link-building approaches. However, it is also less likely to be flagged as link spam, justifying the effort poured into each link.

Having your guest post on a top-level site also adds to your qualification, which you may even post on your social media pages to elevate your SEO.

Step-by-Step Guide to Guest Post Outreach

1. Build a strong content portfolio

As someone who has hired many writers and designers over the last few years, I discovered that nothing is more impressive than a high-quality work portfolio.

According to the University of Kent in the Careers and Employability Department, “You need a portfolio to showcase your work and to help demonstrate your skills to prospective employers.”

In that same respect, you need a portfolio of your best content to demonstrate your writing skills and knowledge when performing guest post outreach.

Think of it this way: your portfolio is your historical track record, which sets what bloggers will expect if they allow you to contribute content. 

In addition, Google wants less spam and better content on the web. Regurgitated AI-generated content will no longer cut it. 

Isn’t that why Google added “Experience” in their search rater guidelines? Plus, that’s the only solution to build an index of organized information that is universally accessible and useful.

You’ve got to understand that building the right links through guest posts is not a whim, and there is no shortcut.

You must prove to blog owners/authors that you’re an expert whose opinions can be trusted.

You’ve got to build a strong content portfolio, which you can showcase at the forefront whenever you send a pitch.

Take a look at Hank Herman’s portfolio page (BTW, one of the best out there!). It is well structured, eye-catching, and displays his articles by categories:

Approximately 95.62% of the time, you’ll need to prove and provide some of the best articles you’ve published in the past.

Your content portfolio has to be strong. But that doesn’t mean you’re doomed if you weren’t featured on Forbes.com or haven’t written many guest posts before.

A “strong” content portfolio usually contains useful, relevant, well-researched, and helpful content.

In other words, you could have 40 articles in your portfolio, but still struggle to convince an A-list blogger that you’re qualified to write for their audience.

Whereas other businesses could have 2-5 valuable articles in their portfolio, but enough to captivate the blog’s author. It’s all about relevance.

Editors are tricky human beings; what they’re looking for in a pitch is just as tricky.

When introducing yourself as a potential guest post contributor, make the work easier for the editor or blogger.

Provide as many published samples of your content as you can. The more helpful content you can provide for review, the higher your chances of getting a “go ahead” response will be.

Remember that when sending content samples for review, you should first and foremost study the blog. If their popular posts contain over 1,000 words, your content sample must follow the same route.

Authority sites, such as Forbes, Moz, and other websites cut from the same cloth, might require you to send 2-3 samples/links of your best work before they even consider your guest post pitch.

2. Find viable sites for your guest post outreach campaign

Moz’s Domain Authority is one of the most important SEO metrics to use when looking for guest post opportunities. Domain Authority measures how well a domain ranks on the first page of SERPs on a 0-100 scale (the higher, the better).

You want to pitch ideas to websites with respectable authority, as gaining backlinks from these sites will rub off some of their “perceived” authoritativeness on you.

Conversely, pitching to sites with similar or lower authority than your website will yield backlinks that aren’t very convincing. We aim to target websites with a 40+ DA.

Of course, Domain Authority is just one piece of the puzzle.

You also have to consider Trust Flow and Citation Flow, which measure the quality and quantity of a website’s backlinks, respectively. For this, you can use Linkody’s website authority checker:

If you have access to specialized SEO tools, you may also consider factors like monthly organic traffic. Ideally, target sites with a minimum of 3,000 monthly web visitors. Remember that backlinks are avenues for referral traffic, and if 10% of those monthly visitors click through your link, that’s an additional 300 people visiting your website.

See, numbers are great. But from what pool of the online website population will you be taking those metrics from?

Guest post outreach is never merely about finding the most visited website. It’s also about choosing the websites most relevant to your niche.

Here, we’ll look at 4 methods on how to find highly suitable guest posting opportunities for your guest post outreach campaign:

Method 1: Search Google for expert guest bloggers on your niche

Do you know any experts or businesses that have been actively guest posting?

In 2012-2013, I was featured on some authoritative blogs. At the time, other bloggers in my niche were just as active, regularly contributing helpful articles to other industry blogs.

The question is, which blogs have these people written for that you can tap into? This is a huge time saver because you no longer have to cross your fingers when you email a blog and wonder if they are interested in featuring your idea.

If those similarly niched bloggers were considered, chances are, so will you.

Some of the prolific guest posters I was aware of at the time were: Danny Iny, Kristi Hines, Gregory Ciotti, Corbett Carr, Neil Patel, Michael Chibuzor, Bamidele Onibalusi, Anna Hoffman and more.

So how do you find the top blogs where these experts have been featured as they were building their own blog audience and customer base?

Simply go to Google and search with these strings:

“Guest post by Gregory Ciotti”

“Article written by Danny Iny”

“This guest post is from Corbett Carr”

“Author bio: Neil Patel”

“Guest post contribution by Michael Chibuzor”

“Guest article written by Bamidele Onibalusi”

When I plug the first search string into Google, here are the returns with links to some of the best guest posts that Gregory Ciotti has written:

Do the same with relevant bloggers in your niche, and hopefully discover a treasure trove of easy-to-pitch websites.

Method 2: Pinpoint blogs that feature industry experts

Another way to find blogs that will easily accept your guest post is to check whether the blog owner has ever interviewed experts before.

A blogger who has interviewed other experts and published the Q&A sessions on their blog is the perfect match for your pitch.

If they can interview others, it only stands to reason that they can accept guest posts on topics related to the same niche or idea.

Let’s look at the top blogs that interviewed some of the guest posting experts above.

Just go to Google and search with these strings:

Neil Patel “interview”

Danny Iny “interview”

Michael Chibuzor “interview”

“Interview with Gregory Ciotti”

The search results below contain pages and videos of interviews with Neil Patel. These are potential blogs to pitch your article idea, and trust me, they’ll listen to you:

Since interviews are now often conducted in podcast formats, you can view the YouTube channel or podcast that hosted the interview. Then, search the name on Google to see if it has a website. 

In the example above, it was Belkins. After a quick Google search, I found their website. Find the contact information, typically on the main menu or in the footer links, and pitch your idea. Voila!

Method 3: Find viable blogs on pre-made target lists

Guest posting is an age-old link-building art form. 

If you’re looking for guest blogging opportunities now, you can rest assured that people from your niche have done it before.

If available, premade target lists are a Godsend because they compile viable websites where you can pitch your ideas. 

This list is similar to a resource page, containing a curated and vetted list of blogs that accept guest posts. What better way to increase your efficiency than having all possible host websites crammed in one place?

Premade target lists are everywhere. Here are search strings to help you find them:

“best guest blogging sites + niche”

“best guest posting sites + niche”

“top sites that accept guest posts + niche”

“top 50 guest blogging sites in [industry]”

“best [industry] blogs to guest post”

When I used one of the search strings, here’s the premade target list of blogs to pitch your idea to:

When I clicked on the first organic result, it provided a list with a “Visit site” anchor that took me straight to the “Submit a Guest Post” or “Guest Post Guidelines” page.

Keep in mind that having access to listicles like these could make it more challenging to make the right choice.

Why?

Because not all guest posting sites are created equal, especially if you’re looking for some authority links that will influence your search rankings.

This brings us back to the first part: consider the metrics. 

DA, Trust Flow, Citation Flow, Spam Score, monthly organic traffic—take all of these things into account.

Once you identify the target websites, proceed with the next step…

3. Come up with high-value guest post ideas

You know how in medieval times, you must come bearing gifts before requesting an audience with a king? 

Barging into the palace and demanding a king’s time would earn you front row seats to your own guillotine presentation. You had to bring something valuable to earn your moment before the throne.

Think of guest posting outreaches in that same regard. You are making the request and want something valuable: a backlink, referral traffic, a smidge of authority. 

So, what’s the best gift? Your ideas.

Coming into a guest post outreach campaign without a prepared, relevant guest post topic is like walking into a king’s court empty-handed. You won’t get far.

Conversely, by offering well-thought-out content ideas aligned to the host website’s niche and tailored to their audience, you’re showing respect for their domain and proving you’ve done your homework.

So, how exactly do you come up with ideas? It happens naturally in many cases.

A quick site visit and some ideas might already come to mind. Note them down to avoid forgetting them. However, it can be challenging to come up with fresh ideas when pitching to a website that seems to have written everything.

There are two ways you can approach this:

Solution 1: Look for content gaps

It’s essential to avoid topics that have already been covered. Perhaps there are specific topics they haven’t written about yet or at least haven’t fleshed out extensively. These are your content gaps.

To find them, visit Google and type the following command to avoid pitching duplicate topics to the website:

site:example.com “keyword”

For example:

site:blog.linkody.com “SEO” 

This will pull up all articles about SEO covered on the website. Analyze the pages and look for gaps that haven’t been discussed yet.

Solution 2: Write on an existing topic but from a different angle 

With billions of pages indexed on Google, websites in your niche may have already covered most possible topics extensively.

However, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be writing about the same thing. In fact, top bloggers are aware that unless they are writing about a newly-discovered asteroid or breaking news about presidential candidates, you’ll rarely find a topic that hasn’t been covered before on some site.

The trick here is not to come up with a groundbreaking idea but to view the topics from a new angle. The safest way to generate content ideas is to look at the target website’s existing pool of content and bridge the target keyword.

For instance, suppose you own a digital marketing agency. Google expects you to gain backlinks from related blogs, either purely digital marketing blogs or those that tackle related subjects, such as:

• Search Engine Optimization
• Social Media Marketing
• Pay-per-click advertising
• Software development
• Graphic designing

You can use tools like SimilarSites, which provides a list of websites that are similar to yours.

From this pool of related sites, visit their content. If your main target keyword is “search engine marketing,” you can bridge your keyword with additional terms to create a powerful headline that will be relevant to both audiences:

• 7 Steps To Creating a Search Engine Marketing Strategy That’ll Increase Sales
• My Fail-Proof Marketing Method For Attracting PPC Leads
• Case Study: How I Increased Organic Traffic to My Sales Blog by 211%

Did you notice how I combined keywords relevant to search engine marketing with terms that a marketer will understand? 

There are practically no limitations. Even if you run an events business, you can still get relevant links from an internet marketing blog. All you’ve to do is bridge your topics perfectly. See examples:

• How I Generate Organic Leads for My Event Management Business
• 2 Powerful Tricks I Used To Increase Click-Through Rate On My Facebook Ads
• Event Management SEO: 17 Tips That I Used to Grow Revenue by 76% in 6 Months

Here’s an example of a post in this manner:

My thoughts? The blogger who published the above article doesn’t have an interest in fashion, but he’s a writer who appreciates creativity.

Moreover, the website has three different blog posts targeting the keyword “fashion blog” but written from different angles: 

• How to start a fashion blog
• Listicle on the best fashion blog examples
• Listicle on the best fashion blog WordPress themes

Solution 3: Identify the topics that generate the most social engagement

The marketing world revolves around social media. You want to see what people are currently talking about to create time-sensitive content that will easily pique their interest and generate traffic. 

Buzzsumo is the best tool for this purpose, or NinjaOutreach can be used as an alternative. These tools explore topics that generate the most social engagement across various social fora like Facebook, X, Pinterest, and Reddit.

For instance, here is an example straight from Buzzsumo’s website:

The tool arranges the pages according to social engagement across platforms.

So, how does this relate to your quest for ideas? Well, you can model your topic suggestions, ideas, or headlines in a way that follows the same sense as those listed.

Building authority links through guest posting doesn’t happen by accident. It’s a deliberate effort.  

This is the ideal content that will appeal to the target audience, aligned with your business goals (e.g, getting leads, increasing inbound links, making sales) as well as following the trend of the blog.

The only way you will build backlinks, grow your domain authority, and generate referral traffic is by following through with this guest post outreach guide.

So, ready to connect with your targets?

4. Connect with your host website’s owner

As a business owner, understanding the basic principles of sales is essential. Rapport is crucial. You don’t see someone in the mall and sell them something without first establishing a point of connection.

It’s incorrect, and it’s unlikely to result in a sale.

In that same vein, if you want to connect with your target list of blogs, you have to put in the work. 

Below, we provided a list of strategies to help you connect with your host website’s owner:

A. Connect with them on social media

Andrew Younderlan, founder of EcomFuel, once leveraged Twitter (now X) to earn a guest post on Shopify’s blog. 

All he did was simply get into the discussion and comment on Shopify’s tweet. He managed to receive a reply, etching his name on the blogger’s brain. That is the starting point for nurturing a mutually beneficial friendship.

You can also connect bloggers and site owners on their Facebook page. A simple heartfelt comment will go a long way. At least, the blogger now knows your name and when you decide to pitch, your name will stand out from strangers.

B. Comment on their content

If you want to delight an influencer, you can just read their latest post, write a valuable and relevant comment, give them an appreciative comment, ask a question, or add your own opinion. 

Make sure you use your real name and picture for better recall:

C. Send a guest post outreach email

After diligently following the initial steps, it stands to reason that you already have a list of sites to target and topics to pitch. All that’s left is to send your outreach email campaign.

This is a crucial part, and trust me, this is where most B2B and B2C marketers fail by the wayside.

As the founder of a content marketing blog, I get pitched every other day. Most of these letters are just gibberish, while others are great.

Jess Ostroff from Convince and Convert once received a fantastic pitch that read:

In reality, every guest post pitch should be about relationship building. Yes, you want some quality links, but that won’t happen unless you’re willing to humble yourself and respect people.

Having someone’s email address doesn’t give you the right to cajole or lure them to a place of discomfort.

When you send an email to the content editor or manager, fluffing up your pitch with stuff like “your website is an inspiration” does absolutely nothing. Ideally, your pitch should be concise and focus on three things:

• Who you are
• What are you asking for
• What can you give them

Craft your pitch with the sole purpose of giving immense value and initiating a relationship. Both are priceless gems.

It’s worth mentioning again: Be brief. Be creative and address editors and blog owners by their real names. Don’t start your pitch with “Hi friend.” It actually can piss off a lot of bloggers, because you’re not their friend yet.

Start with an introduction—tell them what you do, the organization you represent, and what your organization does. If you’ve already written guest posts for other sites, you can choose to mention them too. 

Second (only if not explicitly mentioned that they’re hosting guest posts), ask if the site is accepting guest posts at the moment. 

(Note: Voila Norbert says you may or may not pitch the ideas right away if you’re just establishing a relationship.)

Here is an example template they use when sending cold outreach emails for guest posts:

But if they are accepting guest posts and you’ve made connection with the site owners on other channels, include your ideas. 

Finally, give them a compelling reason to consider your offer. In marketing language, it’s called your unique selling proposition—the one thing that sets you apart from your competition. 

So, which guest post pitch works like magic for us? Well, I didn’t invent it. I still use the one example pitch template inspired by Brian Dean.

Take a look:

Here’s a battle-tested email template to use instead:

---

Hi (name),

I’m a long time reader. You may have noticed my comment on your post on X (awesome article by the way).

I’m writing to you because I’d love to contribute a guest post to Example.com.

I’ve been brainstorming some topics that I think your readers would get a ton of value from:

• Topic Idea #1
• Awesome Idea #2
• Idea #3

I’ll make sure the piece overflows with information that can’t be found anywhere else.

To give you an idea of the quality I’ll bring to your site, here’s a link to a guest post that I recently published on Example.com.

Cheers,

Mommens

---

It goes without saying that each email should be customized. If you don’t get a response, try one more time, then move on to the next prospect.

Some of the people you message will be open to a guest post and express an interest in your ideas. That is why before writing the full article, send guest post topics/headline ideas first. 

A-list bloggers, especially, would prefer to work with you through the entire process. Plus, be patient and humble enough to revise your content along the way.

5. Write the content

If you’ve read through this point, congratulations, because you are now armed with the proper knowledge for building authority links through guest posting.

At this stage, all that’s left is writing the article.

But how exactly?

First, visit the host site’s proprietary guidelines. This set of rules tells you everything you must know before starting with the draft:

• How long should the article be?
• What tone of voice do they prefer? Conversational? Professional? A bit of both?
• How many times should you mention the main keyword?
• Do they have any internal linking guidelines?
• Do they follow the Oxford comma?
• Do they accept stock images?

All of these things will be your article’s focal point. You must follow these guidelines to the T. Otherwise, your outreach efforts might be in vain.

Secondly, research your topic extensively before writing. Back up your content with essential data to emphasize that you’ve done your homework. 

Third, create your own or integrate third-party visuals. Utilize tools like Canva to craft visually appealing content graphics. 

This is so important. Ninety percent of the information transmitted to the brain is visual. According to Content Boost, the human brain processes visual information 60,000 times faster than plain text.

Fourth, only add external links that are relevant to your guest post. This can easily tick off host websites when you insert random links (for backlinks!) that add zero value to the discussion. 

Don’t be those writers who try to cram as many links as possible into articles. Instead, if you were allowed two contextual links, a backlink, and a headshot on the byline, stick to them. 

Finally, add internal links to relevant pages if possible. This is a good practice to boost user experience and give readers additional resources for deeper exploration.

Of course, the above tips should be sprinkled on top of actual good content. It’s pointless trying to add great graphics and following guidelines if your article is trash to begin with. 

Remember what Matt Cutts said? Google considers low-quality guest posts as spam, so ensure your content is informative, helpful, engaging, and valuable.

Should You Use an Email Template During Guest Post Outreach?

A template will undoubtedly make things easier and safer for you, especially ones that have worked before. It can also greatly aid you if you don’t have experience, and by keeping everything in order.

However, there is a catch. 

Some templates are tailored to specific website types, so not all of them may work for you. 

Even if you use a template, alter it to meet the site’s specific requirements. Your pitch should be personalized. But if possible and if your budget allows it, bespoke guest post outreach emails may serve you better.

According to Moz statistics, bespoke emails (or emails written entirely from scratch) work better than templated emails that are just personalized.

I know that sounds confusing. Simply put, a bespoke email means the email is tailored specifically for the recipient, rather than appropriating the recipient into a generic template. 

Of course, writing many bespoke outreach emails will cost more and take longer, so you might want to keep a good balance with personalized templates.

If you’re targeting high-value, high-DA websites, bespoke emails work best!Or, better yet, try to look at the guest post guidelines; they might have an email template for you to follow, just like Linkody does:

In any case, just keep the email straightforward, letting the recipient know who you are, your intention, and the ideas you have in mind.

Common Mistakes to Avoid During Guest Post Outreach

Some actions may make or break your guest post outreach attempt, while others are a big no-no. 

Here are some examples of link-building mistakes to avoid:

Mistake #1: Focusing on yourself too much

Avoid talking too much about yourself. Keep only one paragraph at the top for the introduction, including your favorite content from their website and other formalities.

Mistake #2: Not Making the Pitch Personalized or Bespoke

It is best to create your own pitching template rather than using one from the internet, as it will be more personalized. Avoid generic emails that don’t show any genuine sincerity towards the site owners.

Mistake #3: Over-persuasiveness

The pitch or the follow-up shouldn’t sound too demanding. It should be a request rather than advice. If your follow-up doesn’t receive a response, it’s probably time to move on to the next round. You can contact the website owners later with new and different topic ideas.

Mistake #4: Not following the site’s guest blog guidelines

Almost no site owner will want to accept a guest post that didn’t follow their guideline. It shows that the writer didn’t care enough about the rules. Avoid this mistake at all costs and follow the policies correctly.

Mistake #5: Not maintaining professionalism throughout the exchange

Throughout the process, maintain a formal tone. Using an informal tone or language will only convey an unprofessional impression to the website authorities. Some examples include saying ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ when appropriate.

So, Ready To Start Your Guest Post Outreach Campaign?

Sending your email is just a small facet of the entire guest posting process. Prior preparation and research before sending a pitch are just as necessary, if not more important, than the quality of your writing.

While many bloggers depend on quick link-building techniques to drive traffic to their website, guest posting hits many birds with one stone:

• Boosting your DA through backlink juice
• Building partnerships with similar-niche businesses
• Potentially driving referral traffic to your website

In this guide to guest post outreach campaigns, we outlined the step-by-step process for landing guest post opportunities.

It may seem daunting initially, but it becomes easier once you get the hang of it. Don’t let initial rejections keep you from successfully carrying out this link-building strategy. What do you have to lose, right?

Cheers to your first strategically driven guest post!