fbpx

Footprints for Sites that Allow Guest Posts

Join the 1,000+ brands that trust us for their link building.

Guest posting is a great way to build quality backlinks and identifying footprints is one of the best ways (if not the best) to find sites that accept guest posts within your niche.

Knowing how to spot and take advantage of footprints will make your guest blogging outreach a lot easier, and this mega list of guest post footprints we’ve compiled for you is sure to keep you busy looking for guest posts for a long time!

If you found this article on Google, you are probably well aware of exactly what footprints are and how to use them.

But for everyone else, we’ll first go over the basics of footprints, how to find blogs that accept guest posts, Google search operators, and how to use these extremely powerful tools.

What are Footprints Anyways?

For SEO purposes, footprints are common occurrences on websites that can give you a good idea that they are each doing something in a certain way. Another way to think about footprints is that they are identical elements found on several websites.

Moreover, these specific identifying elements (or common occurrences) can be tracked and cataloged by Google in order to draw connections between domains, gain a better understanding of how websites are related, and possibly sniff out potential search engine ranking manipulators (and deliver a penalty).

In most cases, however, footprints don’t lead to any serious consequences and are generally low impact. But it is best practice to diversify your footprints because some types footprints do not look good and may draw unwanted attention from web crawlers. For example, footprints associated with PBN networks should be diversified as much as possible.

Some examples of footprints to find that should be diversified:

  • Identical IP address across guest blogging sites
  • Identical anchor text on multiple sites
  • Having the same “open” Whois.com information for PBN sites
  • Incoming links are coming from the same position on multiple sites
  • Multiple sites have similar or identical themes
  • Using the same hosting provider for all your sites
  • The same author for all your sites
  • Duplicate content

Try to avoid leaving bad footprints that Google can easily detect like using the same host server / IP address throughout your PBN network and pointing likes from the same position on every page.

Other than that, some footprints to find can be very useful for SEOs who are searching for guest post opportunities. For example, imprinted text strings on the pages of certain content websites that share the same plug-in architecture or guest posting/blog publishing system will help you search for other similar websites.

This leads us to discuss the valuable opportunity provided by guest blogging footprints and the search engine tools you can use to find them.

Guest Post Footprints

One of the hardest things to do is finding guest blogging blogs accepting guest posts or that allow anyone to submit a guest post. This is when footprints are used by guest posting websites to advertise guest blogging opportunities as well as signals to look out for someone looking for guest posts.

Guest post footprints are indicators of blogs accepting guest posts, and when taken advantage of properly, they can cut down your manual search time substantially and allow you to publish your news guest post on relevant sites that matter.

Some obvious examples of these indicators would be finding the text strings “submit an article”, “write for us”, “become a guest blogger”, “bloggers wanted” (guest posts), (news) “submit blog post”, “accept guest posts” (blogs), (wanted) “guest posts roundup”, “suggest a guest post”, “posts blogs that accept”, “guest post was written”, or “become a guest writer” appear somewhere on a website. A site does not necessarily accept guest blogging blogs just because these specific text strings appear on it, but with a little digging (or perhaps an email) you can find out for sure.

Better yet, there are extremely useful Google Search Operators you should use to search for targeted sites that contain these key phrases. Read on to learn more.

Google Search Operators to Find Sites that Accept Guest Posts

Google search operators are special commands you can use when submitting a Google search that help to refine your search in different ways.

Combined with our knowledge of common guest post footprints, we have a recipe for an extremely powerful method in which you will be able to find guest posting sites by the hundreds if not thousands.

There are a lot of search operators, but instead of going over them all, we’ll just hit on the ones that you’ll be using here.

Specific Query – When you put text inside of quotation marks, it searches any site with those exact words in that exact order throughout the site.

ex: “submit an article” finds websites with that exact phrase on the website.

Title Search – Use the search operator intitle:keyword to find websites that have that keyword in a page title. You can also use allintitle:keywords to find sites with page titles with a comination of keywords.

ex: “intitle:SEO” finds pages with “SEO” in the title.
ex: “allintitle:SirLinksalot SEO” finds pages with both SirLinksalot and SEO in the title.

URL Search – This one is just like title search except with URLs isntead of titles. You can use both inurl:keyword and allinurl:keywords as well.

ex: “inurl:SEO” finds pages with SEO in the URL.
ex: “allinurl:SirLinksalot SEO” finds pages with SirLinksalot and SEO in the URL.

Site Search – Using site:domain keywords will allow you to search a specific site for those keywords. This one is a bit different in that it won’t allow you to find many sites at once but is rather used to find information about a specific site.

ex: “site:SirLinksalot.co guest post footprints” searches our site for pages with those keywords.

Here are some other search operators you can use specifically to find guest posting opportunities (try them out with different keywords before “inurl” and see what you can find):

  • inurl:guest post guidelines
  • posts inurl:write for us
  • posts inurl:become a guest blogger
  • guidelines inurl:guest posts inurl:write
  • post guidelines inurl:guest posts
  • site: become a guest post writer

Guest Post Footprints List

Here is a huge list of guest post footprints we’ve put together that will help you to find guest blogging opportunities with Google search operators.

“Add Content” “Submit Post” “Bloggers wanted” “Guest post” “Submit a guest post”
“Become a guest blogger” “Guest post guidelines” “Submit an article” “Want to write for” “Blogs that accept guest blogging”
“Blogs accepting guest posts” “Contribute” “Submit news” “Submit tutorial” “Suggest a post”
“Become an author” “Become a contributor” “Places I guest posted” “Publish your news” “Guest post by”
“Guest contributor” “This is a guest article” “Add article” “Submit article” “Add guest post”
“Guest bloggers wanted” “Guest posts roundup” “Write for us” “Submit guest post” “Submit a guest article”
“Guest bloggers wanted” “Group writing project” “Blogs that accept guest posts” “Blogs that accept guest bloggers” “Become a contributor”
“Community News” “Submit blog post” “Suggest a guest post” “Contribute to our site” “Become a guest writer”
“My guest posts” “Submission guidelines” “This guest post was written” “This guest post is from” “Now accepting guest posts”
“The following guest post” inurl:guest-post-guidelines inurl:guest-posts inurl:write-for-us

 

Using the Guest Post Footprints List

To use these footprints, Google them together with your niche.

For example, a Google search for SEO “write for us” would return results of sites that had both “SEO” and “write for us” on the page, giving a good chance that the site is readily accepting article submissions and is in the SEO niche. Another good example is SEO “guest post guidelines”.

Using these footprints in conjunction with software like Scrapebox can really be a game-changer. This will send a bot to make the searches for you and make note of the domains/URLs that come up for your search query.

You can then reach out to the site owners via email to discuss how you can get an article on their sites yourself, or pass it off to a VA or auto emailer if you choose to go that route.

This will allow you to accumulate a massive guest post list!

Guest Post Footprints Wrap-Up

Now that you’ve read this article, you have a good understanding of what footprints are, what search operators are, and how to use footprints to find guest posting opportunities within your niche.

I have no doubt that you will be finding more guest blogging sites than you know what to do with using our guest post footprints list in no time.

Be sure to check out our articles on best practices for guest blogging and the benefits of guest blogging for more information.

If you know of any other guest posting footprints to find and would like to share them, go ahead and leave a comment. Enjoy!

Chris Tzitzis' headshot for blog.Article by:
Chris Tzitzis

Hey I'm Chris, one of the founders here at SirLinksalot. I'm into building internet money machines (affiliate websites) and specialize in building backlinks. Find out more about me and my link building team.

Questions or Comments?

We are active in our Facebook Group seven days a week and would love to hear from you. Ask us questions, learn from other group members, and share your knowledge.

Join the discussion on Facebook →

Ready To Start Building Your Rankings?

Your link building journey to the top of Google starts today!

Apply for Managed Link Building to get a free analysis and game plan, or order backlinks a la carte.

Link building services that work.

Learning Resources

Blog

Podcast

Live SEO Support