DOES HAVING A "WRITE FOR US PAGE" DEVALUE THE BACKLINKS ON A GUEST POST WEBSITE?

We hypothesize that whether or not a website has a “write for us” page does not significantly impact the effectiveness of backlinks placed through guest posts. Many websites source content from multiple writers, and our goal is to see if having a dedicated “write for us” page alone influences a link’s power in SERPs.

In this test, we built guest post backlinks from websites that either do or do not have a “write for us” page. Each guest post featured a unique, long-tail anchor text that was not previously used, ensuring that any observed SERP movements are a direct result of these new anchors. We monitored both exact-match and short-tail variations derived from these anchors to gauge the overall impact of the links on search engine rankings.

Below are the anchor texts selected and an indication of whether the target site includes a “write for us” page:

• “residential brick chimney repair” – Yes
• “local search engine optimization expert in [CITY]” – Yes
• “local flatbed towing company in [CITY] [STATE]” – Yes
• “cheapest tow truck service near me” – Yes
• “difference between water softener and water purifier” – No
• “water damage restoration [CITY] [STATE]” – No
• “affordable residential home painters [CITY] [STATE]” – No
• “affordable bed bug exterminators In [CITY]” – No

To track the effectiveness of these links, we:

1. Observe SERP movements of each exact anchor text + longer and short-tail variations.
2. Assess whether the presence or absence of a “write for us” page correlates with indexing and ranking fluctuations
3. Evaluate link strength by comparing ranking improvements across similar niches with comparable levels of competition and link ‘power’

Finally, we acknowledge there are certain considerations that could affect results, such as site quality, external SEO factors, and the inherent complexity of isolating any single variable (in this case, the “write for us” page) in a live search environment.

As the test progresses, we will document ranking changes and note any additional observations or developments. The primary objective is to see if there is any evidence that the performance of the varying types of links has any noticeable difference and if there is any correlation to having or not having the write for us page. If little to no correlation is found or if the websites without a “write for us page” perform less well, we can somewhat conclude that having this page on the website presents little difference to how the backlinks are counted by Google.

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