Guest posting can be a powerful way to grow your audience, build backlinks, increase domain and URL ratings, and make your brand’s authority. But without clear rules, managing guest posting (both writing for and hosting) can be messy.

Whether you're only hosting guest posts only or engaging in two way guest blogging, having well-structured guest blogging guidelines saves time, improves collaboration, and creates a better experience for both writers and editors.

In this guide, you’ll learn how to create effective, easy-to-follow guest post guidelines that will save headache.

What is a guest post guideline?

A guest post guideline is a document that outlines the standards and requirements for submitting a guest blog post to your website. It’s like a roadmap for guest bloggers to create a blog post.

Though it’s not a formal document, having a guest post guidelines is important if you’re engaging in both writing and hosting guest posts.

Without further ado, let’s understand why having guest post guidelines is important and how to create one.

Why is having a guest post guideline important?

Creating a guest post guideline sets clear expectations and standards for both your hosting website and guest bloggers.

This document can act like terms and conditions. It should specify what is acceptable and what is not and provide a clear framework for the content creation, submission, and post-maintenance process.

In case a guest blogger fails to follow a rule outlined in the guest post guidelines, you have the right to decline hosting the guest article on your site.

For example, if you explicitly write in the guest post guidelines that promotional copy, such as self-promotion, is not allowed, you can remove the copy or simply reject the article.

Moreover, to maintain consistency on your site, it’s important for guest bloggers to understand your branding, written language style, visual requirements, etc. This ensures consistency in style, tone, and formatting, and reduces the need for revisions and back-and-forth communication.

How to create a guest post guidelines?

Here are step-by-step guide on how to create a guest post guideline.

1. Choose a tool to create the document

You can use tools like Notion, Canva, Figma, or a simple Google Docs to create a PDF to send or make it available online without edit access.

2. Explain your product or service

Provide an overview of your business. This helps guest bloggers understand your brand and come up with the type of topics are relevant to your audience.

3. Define your acceptance criteria

Start by clarifying what makes content valuable for organic traffic growth. Require contributors to align with your brand voice and demonstrate expertise in your niche.

Example non-negotiables:
- Minimum domain authority 40+
- Original research/data sources
- No keyword stuffing or black hat SEO tactics

4. Indicate your target readers

Specify who your target audience is. This will guide the guest blogger in using the appropriate language, whether it’s technical or general. Outlining your target readers helps guest bloggers write content that engages your readers effectively.

5. List your target keywords

Provide a list of target keywords that guest bloggers should incorporate into their posts. This helps in maintaining the SEO consistency of your website.

6. Define your content standards and quality requirements

Specify your minimum word count required formatting, and citation standards.

Quality standards should include original research requirements, fact-checking protocols, and plagiarism policies.

Include that proper header tag hierarchy and semantic relevance are mandatory: Require:
- 1,200+ words with readability score ≥70
- 3+ backlinks to .edu/.gov sources
- Schema markup for statistics/data tables

7. Include currently available topics

If you have topic ideas that should be written, you can include the available articles so guest bloggers can write for you. Alternatively, you can also give example topic ideas.

8. Explain your internal and external linking process

For internal linking, explain how you practice internal linking in your website. You can write down the each keyword that a page targets.

This will help guest bloggers to include links to other pages on your website within the guest post with the right anchor text.

Limit external links to 5 per post, requiring:

• Contextual anchor text

• 50/50 nofollow vs dofollow links

• Zero links to gambling/casino sites [Google Spam Policies]

9. Include backlink policy

Be upfront about backlinks. How many author bio links do you allow? What about contextual links within the content?

Most quality blogs limit self-promotional links to the author bio, requiring all in-content links to serve the reader first. Include your nofollow policy if you have one.

Additionally, address requirements for affiliate links, competitor mentions, and link relevancy.

10. Give writing style guide

Specify the writing style and tone of voice that guest bloggers should adopt. For example, you might prefer a conversational tone or a more formal style. Also, clarify where to use italics, where to use bold, and if camel case is part of your branding.

11. Outline requirements for media files

Detail the requirements for visuals, such as images, infographics, templates, and videos. Specify the preferred dimensions, resolution, and any branding guidelines.

12. Explain the submission process

Specify your preferred submission format. Google Docs? WordPress draft? Email attachment? Small details like these reduce friction in your process.

Include details on how to submit the post, the review process, and the expected timeline for publication.

Also, include clear workflow like:

• 72-hour initial response time

• 4-day editorial review cycle

• 48-hour revision window

13. Summarize the general guidelines

In this section, outline all the details regarding the link exchange, word limit, formatting, readability rules, and other essential guidelines for guest posts. This can serve as a checklist for guest bloggers to ensure their submissions meet all the necessary requirements.

Guest post guideline example (PDF)

Here, we’ve created guest post guideline example for an imaginary digital agency.

You can view, download, and use them as a template to write similar guidelines tailored to your own rules and preferences.