Guest posting

What Google allows and what it does not

Google addressed guest posts directly in May 2017: it "does not discourage these types of articles in the cases when they inform users, educate another site's audience or bring awareness to your cause or company", but "what does violate Google's guidelines on link schemes is when the main intent is to build links in a large-scale way back to the author's site". The warning signs it listed include stuffing keyword-rich links into articles, publishing across many sites, using writers who do not know the topic, and reusing the same content (Google Search Central blog, May 2017).

Google's current spam policies name the practice in their list of link spam: "links with optimized anchor text in articles, guest posts, or press releases distributed on other sites", along with exchanging money "for links, or posts that contain links". A paid guest post is within the rules only if its links are qualified with rel="sponsored" or rel="nofollow" (Spam policies for Google web search); see rel=sponsored and rel=ugc.

How widely it is used

Guest posting was the most used tactic in Authority Hacker's survey, by 64.9% of 755 link builders (Authority Hacker). Use and results differ, though: in Reporter Outreach's 2026 survey, 42.4% of 500 SEO professionals use guest posts but 18% call them their best tactic, against 45.6% and 34% for digital PR (Reporter Outreach), and in Editorial.Link's survey 16% rate guest posting the most effective tactic for 2026 (Editorial.Link).

What guest posts cost

In BuzzStream's 2026 analysis of 257,267 guest-post sites listed by link vendors, a guest post cost $295 on average bought directly from the site and $461 through a vendor; through a vendor, about $200 on a DR 0 to 9 site and about $3,000 on DR 80+ (BuzzStream). The same study rated 96.2% of those sites low quality by its DR and traffic thresholds, and 39.6% had an estimated organic traffic of zero (BuzzStream). More in the Link Pricing Index.

Doing it within the rules

Write for the host's readers first: a site you would want to be read on, a topic you know, an angle its editors have not covered. Keep links few, relevant and naturally worded, which usually means your brand or a descriptive phrase rather than a keyword. Check the host's organic traffic and the other links it publishes before you pitch. The full method is in the guest posting guide and the guest post quality checklist.