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How we vet guest post sites
The checks a site must pass to stay in our catalog, and the checks we run on every link after it is published. These run automatically, not once at sign-up.
Every week we confirm each of our 58 sites loads, is open to Google (no noindex, robots.txt allows Googlebot), has a sitemap, still publishes, and shows no injected spam posts; failing sites are hidden automatically. Every published link is then checked daily for being live, dofollow and indexable.
Weekly site checks
| Check | What we look for | If it fails |
|---|---|---|
| Homepage loads | The site answers with a normal page, not an error | Hidden from catalog |
| Open to search engines | No noindex on the homepage; robots.txt lets Googlebot fetch the homepage and posts | Hidden from catalog |
| Spam injection | Recent post URLs scanned for machine-generated junk slugs, a common sign of a hacked site | Hidden from catalog |
| Still publishing | Date of the newest article; we flag sites with nothing new in 60 days | Flagged for review |
| Sitemap | A valid XML sitemap is available | Flagged for review |
| Publishing volume | Unusual spikes of posts in one day | Flagged for review |
The newest article date and recent titles you see on each site page come from this check, so they are at most a week old.
Daily checks on every published link
- The page loads, and is not a deleted or redirected post.
- Your link is still there, pointing at the URL you ordered.
- It is still dofollow: no nofollow, sponsored or ugc attribute added later.
- The page is indexable: no noindex in the page or the X-Robots-Tag header.
Short outages, timeouts and bot challenges are not counted as a lost link; we only act on a confirmed change. If a link is lost within 12 months, we restore it or move it to a comparable site at no cost. You can also run our free link check on links you bought elsewhere.
What the numbers mean
DR (Domain Rating) and traffic are Ahrefs estimates. A high DR with very little traffic usually means the site has links but not readers, so compare both, plus the date of the newest article. The current catalog median is DR 39, and 46 of 58 sites published in the last 30 days.
What we will not sell
- Sidebar, footer, blogroll or sitewide links.
- Placements on pages set to noindex.
- Sites we cannot name to you before you pay.
Frequently asked questions
How often are sites re-checked?
Every site in the catalog is re-checked automatically once a week. A site that fails a hard check (it does not load, is set to noindex, blocks Googlebot in robots.txt, or shows machine-generated junk posts typical of a hacked site) is hidden from the catalog until it passes again.
How are links checked after publishing?
Every link we publish is fetched daily. We confirm the page loads, the link to your page is still there, it is still dofollow (no nofollow, sponsored or ugc attribute) and the page is not set to noindex. If any of those fail within 12 months, we restore the post or move it to a comparable site for free.
Where do DR and traffic numbers come from?
Domain Rating and monthly organic traffic are Ahrefs estimates. They are useful for comparing sites, but they are estimates, so we also show each site's newest article and recent titles so you can check activity yourself.
Do you place sitewide or footer links?
No. Every placement is one link inside the body of an article. We do not sell sidebar, footer, blogroll or author-box links.