We get a lot of questions about guest posts vs niche edits. When to use them in your link-building strategy and what are the pros and cons? Both are super powerful links that everybody should use in their link-building strategy.
TL;DR
Niche edits are contextual links inserted in already indexed content, that already have social shares, page-specific backlinks, and comments. That is why their power is more predictable than guest posts.
Guest posts are posts specifically written to place your backlinks. You have more control over the relevance of the content with your backlink, and you can use it to build authority / pitch your company/service more specifically.
Don’t incorporate niche edits too early in your link-building campaign. First, your website needs the authority for people to update old content and insert a link to your website.
Guest Posts
Guest posts are the most common links built in any link-building strategy. You control the subject of the article you are developing and by that you are building super-relevant links to your website. You can also pitch yourself or your service more in guest post articles. The “downside” of this all is that you have to spend time developing and writing the content, finding visuals, etc.
Pros of Guest Posts
Credibility and Authority: By contributing valuable content to reputable websites, you position yourself as an industry expert, fostering trust and credibility among your target audience. Also, this helps you reach a wider audience and makes you able to engage with potential customers.
Relevant Backlinks: Together with the website owner you control the subject of your guest post article. This gives you the ability to build super-relevant backlinks to your pages.
Click-Through Traffic: New articles are placed in the new sections of the blog and often these articles are shared on social media. This generates views and click-throughs referral traffic to your website.
Cons of Guest Posts
Time-Intensive: Finding suitable websites, auditing them, pitching your ideas, and waiting for approvals can be time-consuming. It requires patience and persistence to secure guest post opportunities.
Expensive: These days, most websites ask for a placement fee, also you have to invest in developing content. If you don’t outsource this, you have to write them yourself and this costs valuable time.
Uncertain: You don’t know for sure if your guest post is going to generate social shares, comments, and/or page-specific backlinks. With niche edits, you know what you are getting.
Niche Edits
Rather than creating new content, niche edits involve strategically inserting anchor text and backlinks into existing articles on relevant websites within your niche. Let’s explore the advantages and disadvantages of utilizing niche edits in your link-building strategy:
Pros of Niche Edits
Affordable: Although the prospecting and outreach phase is the same as guest posts. The chances of landing a link are a bit higher(who doesn’t want a few quick bucks for adding a <a href> tag. Also, you don’t have to develop the content. This saves you time and money.
Quick Placements: Content ideation and development can easily take a week or longer. After that, your guest posts get added to the content calendar, and this can add weeks to the publishing date (and backlinks). Publishing a niche edit link is almost always done within a few hours.
Cons of Niche Edits
No Showcasing Of Expertise: Unlike guest posts, niche edits do not provide an opportunity to demonstrate your knowledge and expertise through your content.
Expensive: Although it gets harder and harder it is still possible to land guest posts without money. This makes it easier for the newbie webmaster to build links(time vs money). We never found the opportunity to build a niche edit without paying money.
Limited: Niche edits can not be your only link-building tactic. because that would look suspicious in the eyes of Google. Try to keep the ratio under 60/40 (GP/NE). Also, do not build niche edits in the first (few) months for a new domain. No authority website will add a niche edit link to a new website without traffic, so this will look suspicious.
Conclusion
Guest posts and niche edits are proven tactics that will land you high-quality backlinks that will improve your backlink profile.
When using these tactics you should keep in mind that your backlink profile needs to look natural. Don’t stop guest posting just because niche edits are more cost-effective and require less time. Both tactics should be part of your link-building campaign.
With Niche Edits you know what you are paying for, you can order a link from a page with backlinks, traffic, and social shares. But with guest posting you can match the subject of your article perfectly to your website and if it will acquire backlinks and shares is a bit of a gamble.