Guest Posting Outreach Finding Sites and Pitching Topics

Finding sites that accept guest posts

Combine search operators with a check of your competitors' backlink profiles in RankLinks to find sites that have published guest content before; a domain that has already run guest posts by other authors is far more likely to accept another than one that has never published outside contributors.

• "keyword" + "write for us"
• "keyword" + "guest post guidelines"
• "keyword" + "contribute to"
• Check competitor backlinks for author bylines that are not the site's own staff

Pitching topics editors want

Editors reject generic pitches such as 'I'd like to write about SEO for you' because they give no indication the writer understands the site's audience or existing coverage. Review the site's last 10 published posts, identify a genuine gap in their coverage, and pitch two or three specific, fully-formed headline ideas rather than a vague topic area.

Managing a guest post pipeline

Because guest posting outreach involves multiple stages, from pitch to acceptance to drafting to publication, track each prospect's stage explicitly inside RankLinks rather than relying on memory or inbox search, so nothing accepted quietly stalls for lack of a follow-up draft.

Key takeaways

• ✓Prioritise sites already publishing guest content from other authors
• ✓Pitch two or three specific headlines, not a vague topic area
• ✓Read the site's recent posts before pitching to find a genuine gap
• ✓Track pipeline stage per prospect inside RankLinks

Why this lesson matters

This lesson belongs to Outreach Link Building, the part of Link Building Strategies where the goal is: run repeatable outreach motions that convert cold contacts into placed links.

Read it once, then do it straight away on a real site inside RankLinks. Nothing here is theory for its own sake — every step produces something you can show a client.

Do it now

1. 1Open RankLinks with sample data already loaded, so you are not stuck on setup.
2. 2Browse real placement inventory.
3. 3Build your first outreach sequence template inside RankLinks' outreach tracker.