If you work in marketing, chances are, you get dozens of requests every week (if not day!) from people asking to guest post on your website. While some of those requests may be genuine ones, on the whole they are poorly researched, and badly automated (one forgot to add a name and just had the field [Name]). 

They will often claim to create really relevant and engaging content that will definitely change your life. Some might even offer to pay for the honour of being on your website. And then it turns out their product is light years away from your own business. 

Why are there so many of these? Link building is still a popular and powerful way of boosting your rankings on search pages. In other words, the more links that go to their website from yours, the better for them, as it will give them a new tick of credibility.

Unfortunately, to accept these, especially if the content has nothing to do with what you do, is a great way to negatively impact your own rankings, and dilute any authoritativeness you may have built up over time. 

I'm not just talking about SEO here. Imagine you work in a fintech company but you've decided to accept a guest post on the best way to clean your sunglasses. Your readers would be hella confused about what's happened to you, whilst prospects researching your expertise would probably back away swiftly.

So think twice before accepting unsolicited guest posts (and think thrice if they're offering money as that would make it a sponsored post). A good set of questions to ask yourself is:

• Are they an expert in their field?
• Does their company/product/service align with yours?
• Will the post reflect well on your brand/website?

If the answer to any of these is no, then maybe you should pass up that exciting opportunity.

Related article: How to fail at cold emailing completely.