Guest Posting Sites List: How to Find and Vet Sites That Accept Posts

The best guest posting sites list is one you build yourself, using search operators, competitor backlinks and marketplace filters, then cutting it down with a 10-point quality check. A downloaded list of 500 "top guest posting sites" is out of date the day you get it, and many of its entries sell links to anyone. Below are 4 well-known publishers whose contributor pages we checked on November 9, 2026, then the methods that find hundreds more in your niche.

Last updated: November 9, 2026

Why is a ready-made guest posting sites list a bad shortcut?

A ready-made guest posting sites list is a bad shortcut because it ages fast, ignores your niche and sends you to the same sites thousands of other people already pitched.

Four things go wrong with recycled lists:

• Sites change. Blogs get sold, stop taking contributors or lose their traffic after a core update.
• No niche fit. A list of 300 general sites helps a dentist and a SaaS founder equally, which means it helps neither.
• Editor fatigue. The top 50 sites on public lists get the most pitches. Your email lands in a pile.
• Link sellers. Many "guest post websites" on these lists exist to sell links. Google's spam policies treat links bought to manipulate rankings as link spam, so a list full of them is a liability.

So we won't hand you a list of 500 domains with made-up metrics. Don't trust anyone who does. We'll show you how to build a better one.

The figure maps the whole method. Three ways to find sites feed one filter and one check, and only the sites that pass get a pitch.

Which well-known guest posting sites accept contributors?

These 4 well-known sites had live contributor pages when we checked them on November 9, 2026. Each one bans or limits promotional links, so treat them as authority and audience plays, not as link sources.

Notice the pattern? The best guest posting sites protect their readers first, and they say so in plain words on the very page where they invite you to write for them, which tells you how much a self-serving pitch will get you there. If you want a byline there, pitch an idea only you can write. For links that pass ranking signals in your own niche, you need the methods below.

How do you find guest posting sites with search operators?

You find guest posting sites with search operators by pairing your niche keyword with phrases that sites use on contributor pages, such as "write for us" or "guest post by".

Swap fitness for your own topic:

• fitness "write for us"
• fitness intitle:"write for us"
• fitness inurl:write-for-us
• fitness "guest post by"
• fitness "contribute" OR "submit an article"
• fitness "this is a guest post"

The last two find guest posting blogs that publish outside writers but have no formal page. Fewer pitches reach them. Good.

A few habits save hours. Search 3 to 5 close synonyms of your niche, not just one, because editors describe the same topic in different words and a single keyword misses half the blogs that would say yes. Open results in batches of 10. Paste every domain into a sheet before you judge any of them, then remove duplicates. And when a result shows a price table for "sponsored posts in any niche", skip the site. In practice, that one line tells you most of what you need to know.

How do competitor footprints reveal guest post websites?

Competitor footprints reveal guest post websites because the sites that already published your competitors' guest posts have shown they accept contributors in your niche.

Two ways to read those footprints:

1. Author names. Find the founder or content lead of a competitor. Search "by Jane Doe" or their name plus "guest post". Each result is a host that took their work.
2. Backlink gaps. Ahrefs' Link Intersect and Semrush's Backlink Gap tool both show sites that link to your competitors but not to you, as of November 2026. Ahrefs describes Link Intersect on its Link Intersect page. Filter the results for URLs with "/blog/", "author" or "guest" in the path.

When you export the gap report, sort by the number of competitors each site links to. Sites linking to 3 of your rivals are warm leads. Our guide to competitor backlink analysis walks through the gap method step by step.

Which tools help you build a guest post site list?

Free search operators, a backlink gap tool and a marketplace filter cover most of what you need to build a guest post site list. Each one finds a different kind of site.

You don't need all four. When you run one free method plus one paid or marketplace method, you'll usually have enough sites for a small campaign of 10 to 20 pitches, and you can add the others later if the reply rate stays low.

What 10 checks should a guest posting site pass?

A guest posting site should pass 10 checks on traffic, relevance, editing and outbound links before you pitch. Run them in this order, because the first 3 remove the most sites.

1. Indexed. Search site:example.com. Few pages indexed? Stop. Skip the site.
2. Real organic traffic. Open the 12-month graph in Ahrefs or Semrush. Look for a steady line, not a spike and a crash.
3. Right country. Check where visitors come from. A US firm gains little from readers elsewhere.
4. Topic fit. Read the last 10 posts. Health, crypto and roofing in one week means a general link site.
5. Outbound links. Count commercial links in those 10 posts. Casino, loan or essay links on an unrelated blog are a red flag.
6. Real authors. Bylines should lead to real people with real profiles.
7. Editing. Look for consistent formatting and fixed typos. Someone should be reading submissions.
8. Link terms. Confirm in writing whether links are dofollow, nofollow or sponsored, and where they sit.
9. DR against traffic. A DR 60 site with 200 monthly visits is suspect. Read the score next to the traffic.
10. Network footprints. The same theme, contact email and price list across "different" sites points to a network.

Our guides to what makes a good backlink and how to check backlinks go deeper on checks 2, 5 and 9. When you're short on time, the cards below sum up what a pass and a fail look like.

Guest post site list decision table: pitch, pay or skip?

This decision table turns your 10-point results into one of three actions for each site on your guest post site list.

Worked example: from 200 results to 6 pitches

Every number in this worked example is hypothetical. Say you sell accounting software for freelancers and run 5 search operators across 3 niche terms.

That gives you about 200 results. After removing duplicates, 140 domains remain. Topic fit cuts it to 60. Real organic traffic leaves 25. The full 10-point check passes 9, and 3 of those charge a price you won't pay. You pitch 6.

Now time it. At about 8 minutes per site for the first 4 checks, 140 domains take roughly 19 hours. The deeper checks on 25 sites add another 4. That is close to 23 hours of research before one email goes out. Say 2 of the 6 editors say yes. You now have 2 strong guest post blogs for your niche and a sheet you can reuse next quarter.

Should you use a marketplace instead of building a list?

A marketplace replaces the finding step, not the judging step. You still read the metrics, check the live site and decide, but you skip the searching and the cold pitches.

LinkBasket tracks each order until the link is live, then checks it weekly for 12 months. In the LinkBasket inventory, each site page shows DR (Ahrefs), DA (Moz), organic traffic, referring domains, Moz spam score, top country and language, typical delivery time, link type and whether a sponsored tag is added. Domain names show after a free account, with no card needed. You can filter by niche, DR, traffic, price and country.

Know what you're buying before you pay for it.

What lowers the risk is relevance, real traffic, an editorial site, a natural anchor and a sponsored tag where the publisher adds one. To compare platforms, see our review of the main guest post marketplaces.

Which edge cases change how you build the list?

Five situations change how you build a guest posting sites list: a tiny niche, a local business, a regulated topic, a non-English market and a site that wants a traffic guest post.

• Tiny niche: operators may return only 20 sites. Widen to neighbouring topics that share your reader. A bike-fitting studio can pitch running, triathlon and physio blogs.
• Local business: add your city to every operator, such as "write for us" Leeds. Local news and association blogs count.
• Health, finance, legal: editors want credentials. Lead with them in the pitch.
• Non-English markets: translate "write for us" into the local language. Many good hosts never use the English phrase.
• "Traffic guest post" offers: a seller promising guaranteed traffic from a guest post is selling something they can't control. Skip it.

For broader lists of link sources beyond guest posts, our backlink sites list covers other site types.

When should you stop building lists and get help?

Stop building guest post lists when your site has a manual action for unnatural links, or when your outreach replies stay under 1 in 20 after 3 rounds of better pitches.

• Manual action: fix the old links first, with an independent SEO auditor who sells no links.
• Bad reply rate: the problem is usually the pitch or your own content, not the list.
• No time: if 23 hours of research per campaign is too much, a specialist outreach agency or a marketplace is cheaper than your evenings.

FAQ

Are free guest posting sites better than paid ones?

Free editorial sites usually give a cleaner link, because an editor chose your post on merit. Paid sites can still be relevant and have real readers. The difference is risk: paid dofollow links fall under Google's link spam policy, while an unpaid editorial link does not.

How do I know if a site accepts guest posts?

Look for a "write for us", "contribute" or "submit" page in the footer or menu. Don't stop there. If there isn't one, search the site for "guest post" or look for author bios that link to outside companies. When unsure, send the editor a short question before a full pitch.

Do guest posting sites give dofollow links?

Some do. Many large publications allow no promotional links, or mark them nofollow. Paid placements should carry a sponsored tag under Google's rules. Ask before you write and inspect the live link after it publishes.

How many sites should be on my guest posting sites list?

Aim for 20 to 50 checked sites for a first campaign. A list of 500 unchecked domains wastes more time than it saves. Expect only a small share to say yes, so a longer list of good sites beats a short list of famous ones.

Next step: build your list or browse sites you can check

Read what guest posting is if you're new to the tactic. To skip the search, browse publisher sites in our link marketplace inventory with a free account, or order through our guest posting service.