Crowd links vs guest posts: which backlinks to use

Crowd links and guest posts are two of the most common ways to build backlinks. They are often discussed as alternatives, but they work in different places, with different anchors and at different costs. Here is how they compare.

What each one is

A crowd link is a link inside a message in a real discussion: a reply in a forum thread, an answer on a Q&A site or a post in an online community. You can read more in our guide to crowd marketing in SEO.

A guest post is an article published on another website, written by or for you, with a link back to your site inside the text.

Where the link sits

• Crowd links sit in user-generated content. The page belongs to a forum or community, and your message is one of many on it.
• Guest posts sit in editorial content. The whole article is about a topic chosen for the link, and the site’s owner decides whether to publish it.

Anchor text

In discussions people rarely link with a pure keyword, so crowd links naturally carry brand names, bare URLs and descriptive phrases. Guest posts give more control over anchors because the text is written around the link. That control is also a risk: Google’s spam policies specifically mention large-scale guest posting campaigns with keyword-rich anchor text links as an example of link spam. Our article on anchor text for crowd links explains how to keep anchors natural.

Link attributes

Many forums add nofollow or ugc to links in user posts. Guest post links are more often dofollow, although some publishers mark them as sponsored. Since 2020 Google treats all of these attributes as hints rather than strict rules.

Cost and speed

• Crowd links are cheaper per link and can be placed in larger volumes. That makes them practical for building a wide base of referring domains.
• Guest posts cost more per link because each one needs an article and a publisher, and placement takes longer.

What each is good for

Crowd links are useful for adding referring domains, balancing anchor profiles with brand and URL anchors, and creating mentions in places where people actually discuss your topic. Guest posts are useful for contextual links from sites with their own audience and for pages that need topically focused support.

Using both together

Most natural link profiles contain both kinds of links. A common approach is to build a steady base of crowd links with natural anchors and add a smaller number of guest posts for key pages. The crowd layer keeps the anchor profile balanced, while guest posts add contextual depth.

If you want to see what a crowd link base would cost for your volume, use the price calculator: the price per link drops from $7 to $5 as the order grows.