Getting links on competitor's blog

[pbhatt]

An SEO agency I'm working with has asked if we're okay with guest posting on a competitor's blog. What are the negatives of getting a link from a competitor's blog?

Two things I thought of:

1. They can remove the link at any time - why wouldn't you as a competitor?

2. I generally don't want to alert my competition what I'm doing for SEO and how I'm doing it.

Is that enough to not pursue those links? Thanks in advance for your thoughts!

[Bryan_Loconto]

Guest posting can be beneficial, however you are right about getting a post on a competitors site, they can remove your link at any time and they will learn your strategy. I would look for a similar niche rather then a direct competitor.. ie if your site is selling funny t-shirts you can guest post on humer sites...

The SEO agency that you are working with, what is their incentive? Do they want anything in exchange for the blog post?

[pbhatt]

The agency's incentive is to post the content on a good, relevant site - so a competitor's blog technically meets that criteria.

The competitor's incentive is to get more content on their site and add internal links to the post for their own site.

[Chris.Menke]

Unless you have an established relationship with the competitor and you're communicating to them directly, and you're the one discussing the guest post with them, and there is discussion and understanding between the both of you of what value you each should get of of this guest post arrangement, I wouldn't do it. In the end, it's not going to be worth anyone's time.

[Bryan_Loconto]

As long as they are not going to delete your link you are good, but that's a risk you will have to take if you go through with it.

IMO it's better to post the article on your own blog and look for relevant media outlets to share it. Why give your valuable content to another competing site? Sure you can get one link your site as a reference, but why not be the reference that they link to naturally.

[pbhatt]

I can also approach this a different way: Would you ever link to your competitors? Would a good piece of content for your blog or site be worth giving them a link?