How to vet a guest post site before you buy
Check whether real people read the site, not just what its DR says. Compare organic traffic against domain rating, look at whether that traffic has collapsed since a core update, read what else the site links out to, and confirm it publishes on your client's subject with a real editor behind it. A high DR next to almost no traffic is the most common warning sign. On our own list, 25 of the 202 sites at DR 50 or above get under 1,000 organic visits a month.
Why DR alone tells you almost nothing
Domain rating measures a site's backlink profile. It says nothing about whether anyone reads the site, whether Google still ranks it, or whether it sells links to anyone who asks. A site can be pushed to DR 60 with cheap links while its search traffic falls to zero, and a link from it will do very little.
The scale of the problem is large. BuzzStream analysed over 257,000 guest-posting sites and found 62.4% had between 0 and 100 visits a month. Our marketplace is vetted, and even so, 25 of our 202 sites at DR 50 or higher get under 1,000 organic visits a month. We list them because some have real audiences outside search, but you should know which ones they are before you buy.
The nine checks
Run these in order. The first three rule out most bad sites in a couple of minutes, so you only spend real time on the ones that survive.
- Traffic against DR. Compare organic traffic with domain rating. A DR 50+ site with under 1,000 monthly visits needs a very good reason to be on your list.
- Traffic trend. Look at a year or two of traffic history, not this month's figure. A cliff after the September 2023 helpful content update or a 2026 core update means Google has already judged the site.
- Outbound links. Read the last ten posts. If they link out to casinos, crypto, CBD and payday loans alongside your client's niche, the site is selling to anyone.
- Publishing pace. A site posting dozens of articles a day across unrelated subjects is a link outlet, not a publication.
- Topical relevance. The site should write about your client's subject regularly, not once in a 'general' category.
- Editorial signals. Named authors with real bios, an about page, a contact route and dated posts all suggest someone is in charge of what gets published.
- Sponsored labels and 'write for us' pages. Heavy advertising for contributors, or every post marked sponsored, tells you what the site's business model is.
- Is the page indexed? Search site:domain.com for the site and a recent post. If recent posts are not in Google, your link will not be either.
- Price sanity. Compare the price with similar sites. Far below market usually means a link farm; far above can mean a reseller adding a markup.
What a failing site looks like side by side
| Signal | Healthy site | Risky site |
|---|---|---|
| Traffic vs DR | Traffic in line with DR | DR 50+ with under 1,000 visits |
| Traffic history | Stable or growing | Sharp drop after a core update |
| Outbound links | Relevant, editorial | Casino, crypto, loans alongside everything else |
| Publishing pace | A few posts a week | Dozens a day, every subject |
| Authors | Named, with bios | 'Admin' or none |
| Recent posts in Google | Indexed | Missing from site: search |
The Google policy question you should not ignore
Google's spam policies are explicit. Buying or selling links for ranking purposes, including exchanging money for posts that contain links, is listed as link spam. Google also says paid links are not a violation when they carry a rel="sponsored" or rel="nofollow" attribute.
That tension runs through every link marketplace, including ours, and pretending otherwise would not help you. What you can control is how visible the transaction is. Sites that openly advertise paid posts, label every article as sponsored, and link to anything for a fee are the ones most likely to be devalued, and the ones where your client's link sits in the worst company. Vetting is how you avoid being in that neighbourhood.
A high DR next to almost no traffic is the most common warning sign, and it takes about ten seconds to check.
How to run these checks faster
Doing all nine by hand across a shortlist of twenty sites is an afternoon's work. Two free tools on this site cut that down.
The Publisher Trust Audit runs seven checks on a domain, including outbound link density, topical focus, link-profile balance and acquisition history, and shows the evidence behind each verdict. They are the same checks a site has to pass to join our marketplace. The Relevance Checker tells you whether a publisher is genuinely related to your client's subject, which is the check people most often skip. Both give you three checks free, then ask for a free account. Neither replaces reading the site yourself, but both narrow twenty candidates to the five worth reading.
When to walk away from a site you like
Sometimes a site passes most checks and still is not right. If your client's competitors already have links from it, you add little. If it has ranked well for years but fell sharply this year, wait a few months to see whether it recovers before paying. And if the only thing a site has going for it is a high DR, the fact that it is cheap is not a reason to buy. It is usually the reason it is cheap.
Sources
- Google Search Central: Spam policies for Google web search (link spam)
- Google Search Central: Qualify your outbound links
- BuzzStream: 80 Link Building Statistics (257,000 guest post sites)
- BuzzStream: The Cost of Guest Posts, Based on 500k Sites
Figures are quoted as the studies above report them. Where they disagree, the text gives the range.
Questions people ask
Publications, not placements
Every site on our marketplace was assessed as a publication first: real readers, a real editor, a real publishing schedule. That is the distinction this page is about, and you can check it yourself before you buy.
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