How to Vet Sites for Guest Posting
A practical checklist for evaluating whether a site is worth a guest post placement — the signals that matter, the ones that don't, and the red flags to walk away from.
Most "guest post evaluations" start and stop at Domain Rating. That's a mistake. DR is a useful filter — it's not remotely sufficient. I've seen DR 40 sites that outrank DR 70 sites for the same query. And I've seen high-DR sites where a placement actively hurt rankings because of link neighbourhood.
Here's the full checklist I use with clients.
Step 1: Is it relevant?
Relevance is the single most important criterion. In 2026, a relevant DR 30 link beats an irrelevant DR 60 link almost every time.
Ask:
- Does this site publish content in the same niche or one clearly adjacent to mine?
- Would a real reader of this site plausibly be interested in my product or content?
- Does the topic of the proposed article naturally flow into mine?
If all three are no: walk.
Step 2: Does it actually get traffic?
DR can be gamed. Traffic is harder to fake.
Use Ahrefs, SimilarWeb, or SE Ranking. I want to see:
- Organic traffic: 2,000+/month for Silver-equivalent quality. Less than 500/month and we're paying for a ghost site.
- Organic keywords ranked: 500+ — a real content site ranks for hundreds of keywords naturally.
- Traffic trajectory: flat or up. A site that's lost 80% of its traffic in the last 12 months is algorithmically broken and will take you down with it.
Step 3: Is the site indexed, healthy, and not penalised?
Quick checks:
site:domain.comreturns expected number of results- Homepage ranks for its own brand name
- No suspiciously few indexed pages relative to total articles
- No giant drops in visibility in the last year (Ahrefs visibility graph tells you this instantly)
Step 4: Check the outbound link profile
This is the step people skip and it's where the real risk lives.
Open the site and look at recent articles. What are they linking to?
Green flags:
- Links to genuinely relevant sources — Wikipedia, authority publications, research papers
- Occasional branded mentions of products in-context
- Editorial links to other articles on the same or similar sites
Red flags:
- Links to unrelated commercial sites (essay writing, online casinos, SEO services)
- Links that read as paid placements without disclosure
- Links in footer or "partners" sections that are clearly paid
- Anchor text that's aggressively commercial on every outbound link
If you see the red flags, walk. Your site will be in the same neighbourhood.
Step 5: Look at recent content quality
Open 3-5 recent articles. You're checking:
- Written by a human (or at least a well-edited AI-assisted human)
- Real word count, real information, actual point-of-view
- Images that aren't just generic stock
- Bylines that identify actual authors
- Comments, shares, or other engagement signals
Thin AI-generated fluff is easy to spot. So is content that's just spun old articles.
Step 6: Check domain history
This catches expired-domain-bought-and-rebuilt situations.
- Wayback Machine: has the site always been about this topic, or did it pivot from "cheap flights" to "SaaS reviews" in 2023?
- Whois: when was the domain first registered? When was it last transferred?
- Branded search for the site name: does it have any history outside SEO forums?
Step 7: Link neighbourhood
Google considers what sites you're linked to and what sites link to you.
Open Ahrefs' Referring Domains report for the site:
- Majority of backlinks from genuine content sites? Good.
- Majority of backlinks from obvious PBN networks, directory dumps, or foreign-language spam? Walk.
The final decision
After all seven checks, ask yourself one question:
Would I proudly show this placement to another SEO consultant?
If the answer is "yes," it's a good link. If the answer is "it's complicated," it's borderline. If the answer is "I'd hide it in a portfolio review," don't buy.
Sites already vetted for you
Weelinx runs steps 1-7 automatically on every submitted site before admitting it to the marketplace. Sites that fail are rejected with specific feedback. This is why our Bronze tier actually means something — we reject the bottom of the market before it reaches buyers.