Definition
Guest posting (or guest blogging) is a link building technique that involves writing and publishing an article on a third-party blog or website in exchange for inserting one or more links to your own site. This method offers a triple advantage: it allows you to obtain quality backlinks, increase your visibility with a new audience, and strengthen your positioning as an expert in your field. To be effective, guest posting should target relevant sites in your niche, offer original content with high added value for the host site's audience, and insert links naturally and contextually within the article body. Google monitors guest posting abuse and penalizes low-quality articles published en masse solely to obtain links.
Key Points
- Prioritize content quality and host site relevance over volume
- Links should be inserted naturally and contextually within the content
- Google penalizes mass low-quality guest posting done solely for links
Practical Examples
Expert article on a sector blog
An SEO consultant writes a comprehensive technical optimization guide for a well-known digital marketing blog and includes a link to their site in the article body as well as in their author bio.
Op-ed in an online publication
A startup CEO publishes an op-ed in a business webmagazine about industry trends, with a contextual link to a key page on their site as a reference.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, guest posting remains an effective technique as long as you follow best practices: target quality sites in your niche, produce truly useful and original content, and vary your link building approaches. Quality guest articles published on authoritative sites continue to generate significant SEO benefits.
Best practice is to limit yourself to 1 or 2 links to your site per guest article, inserted naturally and contextually. Beyond that, the article risks appearing too promotional and the host site may refuse publication. Also include links to other external sources to strengthen article credibility.
Go Further with LemmiLink
Discover how LemmiLink can help you put these SEO concepts into practice.
Last updated: 2026-02-07