I’ve been working on refining guest blogging for over 10 years now, and one niche that can be more challenging than most others is the health, diet, and fitness industry. 

My experience has shown that there is no shortage of poor-quality health-related websites, and that makes filtering through all the crap a lot more time-consuming. 

What I want to show you in this blog is why health guest posts are so unique, what a great link does for your site, and how to find and price the best opportunities. 

Let me start with some basics. 

What Is Unique About Health Guest Posts?

The health, diet, and fitness industry is unique when it comes to finding websites that search engines deem credible authorities in the niche. 

And these are the three main reasons why:

1. Health-related websites can impact people’s lives
2. There are legal and ethical implications for providing health advice
3. Health websites require proof and evidence to support the content

Let’s take a closer look. 

Your-Money-Your-Life (YMYL)

You’ll often hear people reference Your-Money-Your-Life (YMYL) as being a niche where search engines, including Google, pay very close attention. 

While I have no direct insight into how this is done algorithmically, I can tell you that many standard SEO practices won’t work in the YMYL space. 

Google pays special attention to this niche, making it more difficult to get a valuable guest post link. 

Law And Ethics

The second thing you have to consider in the health space is that there are legal and ethical considerations around providing health advice and how you frame it. 

People read the content and are likely to act on what they read. 

That’s why search engines do their best to weed out websites with dubious or poorly researched and written content. 

Evidence Of Claims

One way that Google seems to be addressing the quality of health websites is by having very high standards for proof and evidence. 

You can’t simply put up a blog post about health advice and not back up any claims you make with references to medical journals, research, studies, or even government websites. 

Unless health content authors can back up all their claims, Google will take quite a negative look at the site. 

Remember Google’s medic update from a few years ago? That’s when quality standards started majorly changing. 

Ultimately, these factors make guest posting in the health space so much more difficult. But when you do it right, the rewards can be huge. 

Here’s why. 

What Impact Do Quality Health Guest Posts Have On Your Site?

My company has been building health-related guest post links for over 7 years. 

And through endless research and testing on different types of websites, I’ve narrowed the main benefits down to these: 

• Boosted SEO Rankings
• Direct Referral Traffic 
• Topical And Brand Authority
• Networking Opportunities

Most people only think of the search ranking improvements, but let me explain why there’s so much more to a great guest post link. 

1. Boosted SEO Rankings

The primary reason for guest blogging is to improve search engine rankings and drive more organic traffic to your site. 

While there are tons of different ways to get backlinks to achieve that, a guest post on a niche-relevant website is going to be one of the best ways to push that needle. 

I know, there’s probably some SEO “expert” who just released a theory that backlink strategies are dead and no longer work for ranking improvements. 

But until someone can prove me wrong, I’ll go with the evidence of over 150,000 links that my company has built. 

And guest post links are among the best and most permanent ways to improve search rankings (this article includes more details).

1. Direct Referral Traffic

In general, one of the most undervalued benefits of guest post links is the referral traffic you can get. 

This happens when your guest post does very well, either through organic traffic or some sort of promotion, and then people click on the link to your site. 

In my experience, this can be particularly valuable on health guest post sites because people are generally in a research mode where they want to find out as much as possible and tend to click on links more. 

This is where carefully planning your guest post and the page you’re linking to can help you achieve more sales or other types of conversions like email list sign-ups. 

1. Improve Topical And Brand Authority

Some health blogs out there, like MedicalNewsToday.com and HealthLine.com, have extremely high topical and brand authority. 

Some of that authority passes along with the outgoing link juice, meaning that a link from such sites is a vote of confidence on your site. 

But even smaller high-quality websites (more on this shortly) will have a similar effect through guest posting. 

Remember what I mentioned above about the YMYL niche? 

Well, getting authoritative links from within the health industry will make Google trust your site a little bit more with each new backlink. 

1. Networking Opportunities

Finally, when you find health blogs that accept guest posts, don’t waste that opportunity by just getting a single backlink. 

Try to reach out to the owner and connect with them on social media. 

There’s a very good chance that the owner has created a network of people around him, which you should try to tap into. 

Maybe he also has other sites in the same niche that allow you to get an additional guest post from one outreach contact. 

Do Paid Health Guest Posts Pose Risks?

Now, let me turn your attention to some risks you have to be aware of because not every health guest post is a risk-free strategy. 

Negative Impact Of Low-Quality Sites

We’ve already covered that a great quality health, diet, or fitness-related website will pass some of that authority on through backlinks. 

But what about dodgy health sites that look and feel like link farms? 

The answer to that is not strictly black and white, with Google saying that they simply ignore spammy links. 

But through years of trial and error, I can tell you that guest posting on poor-quality sites isn’t just a waste of your time. 

It can, and often does, negatively impact your search rankings. 

Toxic Content Impacts

One thing you have to be careful about is hidden toxic content. 

See, even if you create a great guest post on a site that has a load of spammy poker/porn/pills content, then you’re taking unnecessary risks. 

I’ve seen plenty of health blogs that accept guest posts but have toxic content on the site. After doing just a few minutes of research into posts that don’t appear on the homepage and the keywords the site is ranking for, it’s possible to identify if a lot of traffic is related to toxic content. 

You can use tools like Ahrefs to look at top pages and keywords. 

Google’s Stance On Guest Posting

Strictly speaking, getting paid guest posts from any kind of website goes against Google’s spam policy. However, identifying paid backlinks is a lot more difficult than it may sound. 

Unless the website owner makes it very obvious that they accept paid guest posts or even label guest posts as paid, it’s nearly impossible for a bot to determine this. 

When it is obvious that a site is taking payment for links, things can turn negative. 

This doesn’t mean that Google might just ignore certain paid backlinks, but the algorithm might also penalize your site for such backlinks. 

Essentially, you need to find health guest post sites that don’t make public noise about the fact they accept payment for links. 

Cost Vs. Benefit

The final risk you have to account for is whether the price you pay for a health guest post is worth it. 

I’ve seen website owners with insane ideas about the value of their guest posts, some asking for thousands of dollars for mediocre sites. 

The problem is that the lower the price of a guest post, the more likely it is that the backlink won’t deliver significant benefits for your search rankings. 

You have to find the right balance of price and quality to get the most out of your guest post budget. 

And that leads me to the most important section. 

How To Find High-Quality Health Guest Posts?

Not every guest post is the same, and the value of the backlink juice you get depends on several factors that you have to carefully assess for every website you’re considering. 

Is The Website Professionally Designed?

The days of simple HTML web design from the early Internet days are long gone, but you’d be surprised how many website owners haven’t moved with the times. 

And when it comes to health guest post sites, professional and modern design has to be the first thing you look for. 

Sites from the last millennium or ones with the most basic default WordPress setup are a clear sign that it’s not a serious enterprise. 

Make sure you browse all sections of the website and assess the design, layout, quality of text and images, and also mobile responsiveness. 

These are all indicators of professional web design. 

Does The Content Link To Supporting Evidence?

This is one of the most important factors when you’re assessing the quality of content. 

Yes, the written words have to make sense and convey that someone with experience in the topic is writing it. However, with health-related content, you also have to check whether articles reference studies and research papers through authoritative outbound links. 

For example, a page about the benefits of vitamins for immunity has to link all claims being made to authoritative studies and research. 

This also has to be a priority for the health guest post that will include your backlink, so make sure you factor that into your guest post planning. 

Do The Content Authors Have A Health Or Medical Background?

Think about the last time you were looking for information about a health issue. Maybe it was about some natural remedies to deal with a cold. 

One of the things you’d probably look out for is whether the websites you found had content written by medical professionals.

It doesn’t always have to be a doctor. 

But you really should only trust advice on a health blog coming from people who have actual experience on the topic. 

Google feels the same, and the way the algorithm most likely goes about it is to check if posts are linked to real people with public profiles and credible references about their education and experience. 

That means you need to check the background of the guest post authors and ensure that there are real people associated. 

What Kind Of Backlinks Does The Site Have?

While this is quite a specific topical niche, there are plenty of health blogs that accept guest posts. 

Even when everything visible on the site checks out, there can still be risks associated with the backlink profile. 

What you want to find is a health-related website that has a lot of backlinks from other health websites–the more authoritative they are, the better. 

Unfortunately, you’ll regularly find websites that try to game the system by increasing their domain authority or domain rating by getting tons of links from sites about gambling, pills, and porn. 

That kind of backlink profile is certainly not going to help and will possibly even hurt your SEO efforts.

What Are The Website Traffic Sources?

One of my priorities when evaluating a potential guest post site is to look for sites with real traffic. 

However, there are ways that owners of health guest posting sites try to make things look better than they are. 

What you need to look for is detailed traffic data that includes: 

• Social media referrals
• Paid traffic
• Traffic by search engine
• Country of traffic

If you only get a chart showing page visits, with no further details, then it could easily be the case that the owner is getting tons of very cheap traffic from paid and social media sources in countries you have no intention of targeting. 

How Do You Price A Health Guest Post?

If you’ve done any outreach at all to find health guest posting sites, then you’ve probably seen a huge range of prices. 

Some sites certainly can justify the price, but you have to understand what factors influence the price. 

Authority Of The Guest Post Website

One of the top factors I look at when it comes to figuring out what to pay for a guest post is the overall authority of the site. 

One way to judge the authority of a website is to use SEO tools to look at metrics like Moz DA or Ahrefs DR. 

While there are ways to artificially increase these with dodgy links, it’s a good first look at whether a health blog has some SEO authority. 

The second method is a bit more complex. 

What I like to do is go through a list of questions about the guest post site: 

1. Do people with medical and health backgrounds create content for the site? 
2. Does content get medically reviewed for accuracy?
3. Are readers engaging with the content on the site and on social media? 
4. Is the site authoritative about a specific health issue or topic? 

The more authoritative a site comes across, the more valuable a guest post will be. 

Website Traffic From All Sources

I mentioned in the previous section that some website owners will game the system a bit by targeting dodgy keywords and cheap paid traffic to make it look like a site is getting loads of visitors. 

What you need to ask the website owner for is a breakdown of the traffic by: 

1. Search engine
2. Social media platforms
3. Country
4. Referrals
5. Paid advertising

What you’re looking for is a very natural mix of all sources, with most traffic coming organically from Google and in the country you’re targeting. 

A health guest post from such a site will cost more, but it’s definitely worth it. 

Overall Quality Of The Backlink Profile

Websites with lots of backlinks from highly authoritative health sources are a lot more valuable than sites with a more generic backlink profile. 

You’ll need to use tools like Moz, Ahrefs, or SEMRush to analyze backlinks and pay careful attention to the types of sites. 

A big warning sign would be a health blog that has a large volume of backlinks from gambling, porn, and dodgy pill sites. 

These aren’t always immediately obvious, so make sure you dig deep to be on the safe side. 

Sites with lots of high-quality and authoritative backlinks are worth a lot more.

Content Quality Requirements

One of the first things you should ask when you find health blogs that accept guest posts is what their content guidelines are. 

The stricter these guidelines are for quality standards, research, and references, the more likely the overall website will have great content. 

While it might seem like it’ll drive up your costs and effort to create the guest post, this is a good sign and one that would justify paying a higher price. 

Placement Of The Guest Post 

This is an important factor most people overlook. Many website owners simply create your guest post, and it ends up as an internal page with no links to it. 

The term used for an internal page with no internal links is orphan page, and it can massively reduce the amount of link juice being passed in backlinks. 

What you want to see is a path of links going from the home page through the inner pages to your guest post. 

It typically involves more work for website owners and, therefore, results in a higher price tag. 

But it’s worth it. 

Social Media Promotion And Paid Advertising

And finally, you’ll pay more for backlinks on health guest posting sites that also promote new content on social media and through paid advertising. 

Not only is this a good sign that you could get some real referral traffic, but it also increases the potential for natural tier 2 links pointing at the guest post. 

If this is available as an add-on service, then it’s definitely worth paying for. 

Additional Costs Specific To Health Guest Posting

The final thing I want to address is the additional costs that newbie guest bloggers often underestimate. 

Cost Of Content

On most other topics, guest posting is something where you can typically write the content yourself to save some costs. 

However, if you want to score a backlink on great health guest post sites, many site owners will have strict quality standards. 

That might mean you have to account for the additional costs of getting a writer with experience in the niche. 

Cost Of Editing

Health blogs that accept guest posts will generally send you their posting guidelines, and you have to ensure your content matches those instructions before you submit it. 

At the very least, this means spending time to check the content you’ve written or ordered. Alternatively, you might need to consider hiring an editor who will validate the content against the guidelines. 

Cost Of Promotion

Some site owners who accept guest posts will offer to promote the content on social media or paid advertising as an extra.

It’s often worth the cost. 

But if it’s not an offered service, then you might want to consider adding to your guest posting budget to promote the page and get some referral traffic and possibly natural tier 2 links. 

Focus On Quality For Your Health Guest Posting Work

There is no shortage of health guest posting sites out there, but my experience has shown that the majority of them simply don’t pass my quality checks. 

You can save yourself a lot of time by looking at the website content, traffic, and backlink profile before you reach out to the owners to get more information and instructions. 

If there are real people with a health or medical background behind the site, and there’s lots of reader engagement on the site and social media, then you’ve got a far better chance of spending your money wisely. 

It’s a time-consuming process but one that pays off hugely in the health niche.