Pre-approval Available On All Blogger Outreach Orders
We were always firm fans of blogger outreach from the outset, both as an agency providing the service and seeing the results that the approach gave (and continues to give) those who utilise it well.
And, when we say well, what does ‘doing blogger outreach or guest posting well’ actually mean? Well, that’s why we wanted to do this guide. This is here for those who may already be doing blogger outreach on their own and want to know they’re approaching it in the right manner, and it’s also for complete beginners who want to start off with this type of link building correctly from the outset.
And in 2026, with LLMs taking what seems like precedence in SEO conversations, is blogger outreach still something that makes sense? Well yes, given that SEO is moving away from just your site and more about broader organic brand perception and wider opinions.
With blogger outreach, you’re able to get in front of key audiences, plus getting the link back to your site. So, for those with a link building budget wanting to spend it on actions for broader organic visibility, you can’t go wrong with having blogger outreach as a main part of your off-site strategy.
Anyway, enough AI blogger outreach rambling. Let’s get into this updated 2026 guide to blogger outreach, right from the start.
What is blogger outreach?
Blogger outreach is a form of link building which focuses specifically on outreaching to, and collaborating with, bloggers and publishers specific to the niche of your website.
It’s arguably one of the most popular retained-styles of link building to this day, as it provides predictable monthly backlink returns and allows website owners to control both the anchor text and URL destination of the link(s) they’re aiming to acquire.
Proper blogger outreach ideally should involve an extensive vetting process, rather than simply based on what one singular SEO tool or software has to tell you about a website. This then ensures that site owners are working with reputable and ‘real’ bloggers, and not getting into the private blog network territory (more on that later).
Is blogger outreach the same as guest posting?
The approaches are very similar, and you may see them being referred to as the same thing (because they are so close). However, blogger outreach refers to the act of outreaching to bloggers in regards to a collaboration, which in the link building sphere means typically that you’re sending content to the blogger with your link housed within.
The blogger gets content that they can utilise in their own SEO goals, and you get the required link (assuming that it’s contextual and the blogger is happy to accept).
Guest posts are very similar, however you would typically have a full author profile on a website when doing a guest post. Blogger outreach is much more focused on the blogger tweaking and working with the content you provide, in the hope that they will also provide a brand mention or link as part of the process within the content provided.
Why is blogger outreach a popular form of link building?
It’s one of the best ways to build backlinks in a way that requires genuine collaboration, but isn’t as time-intensive as something like a larger digital PR campaign. Really it’s similar to journalist requests in that you’re providing content in the hopes that a) it’ll be accepted and b) it’s contain a link.
Like journalist request and expert commentary link building, there’s never any guarantee, but usually smaller bloggers and publishers (whilst still being able to provide fantastic backlinks) have less publishing requirements and red tape than a huge international news site or publication (so the returns are more predictable when we think about turnaround time and monthly link requirements).
This is why we offer backlink packages for blogger outreach, as we typically can assume that orders will be turned-around within 14-28 days of the order being placed (whereas digital PR work is much harder to estimate in terms of if/when a certain release or response will go live).
The blogger outreach link building process
Okay, so it’s all well and good knowing the benefits of blogger outreach and why it’s such a sought-after link building approach. But if you’re doing this yourself, then what does the process actually look like?
1. Find bloggers in your niche
Consider the types of content that the bloggers you want to work with are actually writing.
This initial step is what will separate you from so many competitors in that you’re taking the time to outreach to bloggers and publishers who are genuinely going to be receptive of your content, and you’re not just outreaching to link farms or potential blog networks.
For example, if you run a nursery and want to get backlinks from parenting bloggers, then think of the types of things that bloggers in this niche would be writing about. This could be things like parenting tips, reviews of family-friendly locations e.g. ‘Peppa Pig World Review’, and how-to guides specific to putting prams and baby-related items together.
Some of the above may seem random, but it’s this approach that puts you in the shoes of your target blogging demographic, and means that you’ll likely find bloggers to outreach to that many of your competitors have missed.
2. Assess site quality
Before you start outreaching, you need to know that you’re not outreaching to any websites that don’t already pass your quality checks.
We recommend doing this at the start so that you know that when you get to the outreach stage, and positive responses are good to go in terms of being on your ‘work with this blogger/approved’ list.
Some of the things that you should look out for when assessing site quality are:
- Traffic fluctuations – Has the site been steadily hit by algorithm updates over the last 12-24 months?
- Does the site have related social profiles, and are they active on those profiles? Does the social activity suggest that they’re a ‘real’ person e.g. do they have AI photos and suspect AI content?
- Are they excessively linking-out to casino, forex, or any niches that may be considered ‘grey’?
- Do they publish content consistently that is wildly outside of their niche, which would suggest a private blog network or link farm?
- Set traffic minimums to establish consistency. For example, we only work with bloggers who have over 1ooo organic visitors per month based on Ahrefs data.
3. See who they’re linking-out to
Take a look at who else your approved bloggers are linking-out to, and then look at their backlinks. Using the nursery example again, if you find a blogger that you approve and who has recently linked to another nursery in the last 12 months, then put that site into Ahrefs to see any other bloggers they’re working with.
You can typically find some really unique sites this way, perhaps ones you wouldn’t be finding just based on manual searches alone.
4. Mass outreach
Use a tool like Hunter.io to mass outreach to your approved list of bloggers, but in a way that introduces a bespoke conversation. So, you’re initially gauging interest, and then replying manually based on the type of content you want to send to that blogger specifically (in terms of what they’re likely to be interested in).
Does this process take longer than just mass outreach? Of course. But you can establish some fantastic long-term relationships this way, and show each blogger that you genuinely care about providing them content that they actually want to use.
5. Agree on terms and create content
Once they’ve agreed to a content title, establish publishing requirements and get it written as soon as you can. Then, give the blogger time to tweak or amend the content as they require, so that they can make it fit in terms of their writing style or tone of voice. Remember that it’s a collaboration, not simply you sending them any old content and hoping for the best.
What does a ‘good’ blog or publisher look like?
Quite simply, it’s a site that you know is real and is not build for the purposes of selling backlinks or spamming AI content with a clear disregard for content (and link) quality.
This also applies to their own backlinks too. If you’ve seen a very sharp rise in referring domains, or have seen a large increase in content being publisher in a short period of time, then this could be an attempt to spoof traffic and domain rating metrics, both of which are often used when understanding the overall quality of a publisher.
How to create a blogger outreach checklist to grade websites
It helps to a have a Google Sheet that you can use to keep vetting the quality of the bloggers on your approved list, so that you can understand whether their quality is declining over time, and whether or not they need to be removed from the list.
A simple approach could be something like a sheet with columns where you give the site a ‘Yes’ or a ‘No’ rating. Each column has a question relating to a negative site attribute, and each time ‘Yes’ is selected, the overall rating number increases. This then reflects the score in the final column, so you’re aiming for the lowest score as possible (a zero).
A zero rating with all ‘No’ answers
A rating where multiple ‘Yes’ answers are selected, meaning this blogger is ‘in the red’ regardless of traffic numbers
How is blogger outreach evolving?
Blogger outreach is becoming much more about genuine collaboration and bloggers wanting to actually work with brands they like, or at the very least, receiving content that they know will benefit their target audience.
This also means that you want to show your expertise and overall authority in your initial outreach emails, as bloggers are wary about working with any sites that they would consider of a low quality themselves (in a way that could damage their brand or actual authority if linking-out to these types of sites consistently over time).
What tools should you use for blogger outreach?
It helps to use a blend of tools to understand authority, but then have a final tool that you use as a point of reference.
For example, with our blogger outreach service we use Ahrefs metrics as a final point of judging traffic and domain rating, so that anyone placing an order knows that these are the final metrics that we’re using (but we do use multiple tools for actually vetting sites and getting a ‘true’ read of authority).
But you should also look to use tools like SEMrush, Majestic and SimilarWeb to really get a well-rounded understanding of estimated traffic and overall authority on a per-site basis.
Should you combine blogger outreach with other forms of link building?
Absolutely! We recommend using something like journalist request link building as a core focus for small/medium-sized businesses, and using blogger outreach to supplement links to the root and to informational content like blogs and evergreen guides.
You can then compliment this approach with larger digital PR campaigns (again focusing on growing root authority), and also create the type of content on your own blog/site that journalists and bloggers will link to passively (things like stats pages, calculators and data hubs).
Is pre-approval important?
We will always say yes to this, and it just means that you as the person wanting to outsource blogger outreach link building has the option to approve the bloggers if you want to.
It’s why we offer pre-approval and non-approval options, as some people either don’t want to or simply don’t have the time to pre-approve sites, but at the very least we always want to give anyone ordering with us the option to pre-approve if they wish.
Should you consider link insertion opportunities when outreaching to bloggers too?
Niche edits are still growing in popularity, and it’s easy to see why, as they can work well as supplementary links as part of a broader link building campaign.
The main benefit is that you’re getting a link from a page that already has traffic. Our advice here is that you use the same vetting process for bloggers whether you want to do standalone content being sent to their site, or if you’re focusing on link inserts within existing content. You need to focus on site quality regardless.
Also, think about the context of the link being placed, and really aim to add a link that makes sense within the context of the article, in the same way that you would with traditional blogger outreach. This is why, within our niche edits service, we also offer pre-approval like we do for our blogger outreach service.
Rounding-off this guide
So, there we have our ever-growing guide to blogger outreach. Be sure to check back in throughout the year as we update this, whether that’s with new tools that are released or any changing requirements from bloggers and the types of things you may need to be aware of.
If you have any questions about blogger outreach that are not answered in this guide, then please don’t hesitate to contact us and we’d be happy to answer your questions as best we can.
Happy link building!
