Guest blogging has many advantages, but it also has its pitfalls for obvious reasons. Any SEO consulting services provider will tell you that guest blogging can improve your site’s reputation and its SEO. In avoiding the dangers of out-of-kilter guest blogging, here are some of elements to look for.

1) Several ads above the fold

There are ad-greedy sites, and Google penalizes these sites by removing them on SERPs. Google doesn’t want to see these ads because they ruin the user experience out-and-out. Matt Cutts mentioned that the first thing to see on the website must be contents, not ads. On the other end, a site with ads doesn’t necessarily mean a bad guest blog site as long as the site isn’t devaluing itself with too many ads.

2) Unpleasant or outdated design

Spammy-looking sites are actually spam sites. Give any site an eyeball test, and you would know if it is spammy or not. Contents must be visible above the fold. Clear navigation directions must be evident as well. There should be either a sitemap or navigation header as well as a linking structure. Navigation must be consistent as well on all web pages. These are important elements for SEO. Without proper URL link structure, the search engines may not scroll the guest blog at all, or it may perceive it as a single page that effectively dilutes the keyword. Your goal should be finding websites with clear navigation and linking structures.

3) Random and far-ranging topics

Unorganized contents are a tell-tale sign that the site is spammy. These sites intent to rank for any given keyword and rake in revenues. Guest blog-worthy sites are those that cater to a specific niche or have topics organized in silos. Better yet, find sites and blogs about your niche especially those that deal with single subjects. It is okay to find sites about different subjects, but make sure that the topics somehow complement one another.

4) Content publication approval

Guest blogs must be edited by the site owner before publishing. If it doesn’t review or edit guest posts, it’s a red flag. Sites which give publish privileges have questionable validity. Sites that value their content as well as editorial structure value their reputation so much that they cannot allow poorly written articles to be publish on their sites. ‘Submit for Review’ icon or button gives any blogger the confidence how much a site values its integrity.

5) Stringent editorial process

Credible sites that welcome guest posts have an exhaustive list of requirements. A lengthy editorial guideline is a good sign because of the risks involved. Google is currently on a crackdown of unscrupulous guest blogging networks. These rules thereby are put in place to avoid devaluation and penalties that Google may impose on the network or site such as de-indexing the website.

6) Above 50 domain authority

Rule of thumb: guest blog on sites whose domain authority exceeds yours. This is how you can increase backlinks. Sites with domain authority that is lower than 25 are categorically spam sites. If your site’s domain authority is 52, don’t bother writing for a site with 39 domain authority. Look for anything higher than 52. The higher the domain authority, the higher the rank and the stronger the traffic.

Some SEO experts said that link building is dead. If it is, why is guest blogging still alive and well? So you won’t be victimized by deceitful site owners, you have to be extremely cautious. Look, choose and write carefully. Stay as vigilant as possible when hunting for the good sites to guest post. Weed out the bad ones and you will gain huge benefits eventually.