When someone approaches your blog with a guest post, you need to vet that person (1/4)

First, Google their name and see if you can find them on LinkedIn and other places. Do they seem like a real, reputable, credible person? Make sure they don’t just work for a marketing company or SEO agency that builds links for people.

Then check out some of their previously published articles. Are they quality posts? Is the writing good?

Look at the blogs or outlets they’ve posted on. Have you heard of them? If not, put them into tools like SEM Rush or Moz’s Link Explorer. Do these sites have at least 50 other root domains linking to them, or are they new websites with little credibility?

There’s nothing wrong with betting on a new up-and-coming writer, but you need to watch out for spammers who are using fake websites to create the appearance of respectability so that they can ruin your website with low-quality writing that’s just an excuse for shady link-building tactics.

Contributor: Brian Carter from keynotespeakerbrian.com