shubhamxseo
Newbie
- Jun 3, 2026
- 16
- 5
Sharing the checklist I now run through before placing any paid link order. Built this after enough bad placements that I got tired of throwing money at sites that looked fine on the surface but turned out to be junk once the link went live. Nothing groundbreaking here but having a written process has saved me real money.
1. Pull the domain in Ahrefs and Semrush both
Never trust the platform DR. Open Ahrefs and Semrush side by side. If both tools show DR within 5 to 8 points of the platform number, the listing is probably honest. If the gap is 15 plus points, the platform is inflating something. I usually walk away in that case.
2. Check the organic traffic trend over the last 12 months
Current traffic number alone tells you nothing. What matters is the trend. A site sitting at 5K monthly organic that was at 25K six months ago is a site in decline. Probably hit by an update. The link will pass less than what the current number suggests. I want to see stable or growing traffic, not a cliff.
3. Manually browse the site for 5 minutes
Open the homepage. Click through 3 to 4 random posts. Check the about page if there is one. Things I'm looking for:
This step takes 5 minutes and catches most of the obvious junk.
4. Count outbound links on a recent post
Open one of their recent guest posts or sponsored articles. Count the outbound links in the body. If there are more than 5 to 7 ******** outbound links in a single article, the page passes almost no equity. The link equity gets diluted across every outbound link on the page. I avoid sites that dump 15 plus outbound links per post regardless of how good the DR looks.
5. Check the backlink profile of the site itself
Pull the site's backlinks in Ahrefs. Look at the referring domain quality. If a site has DR 50 but its own backlinks are coming from obvious PBN networks, link directories, and other low quality sources, that DR is borrowed authority. It will not last and the link probably won't pass much.
6. Search for the domain on Google with "site:" operator
Quick check. Does Google actually index the site's content properly? Are most pages indexed or only a small fraction? If a site has 5K posts but only 800 are indexed, Google has already decided most of the content isn't worth showing. That's a flag.
7. Check if the site has been penalized
Search the domain plus "penalty" or "deindexed" on Google. Also check the Wayback Machine for the last 12 months. If the site looked completely different a year ago, it's probably a flipped domain. New owner, old DR. Risky.
8. Verify the price isn't massively inflated
If a platform is asking $300 for a placement, search the same domain on at least one other marketplace. If the same site is available elsewhere for $150, you're paying convenience premium. Sometimes that's fine. Sometimes you're getting fleeced.
9. Look at the placement page specifically, not just the domain
Domain level metrics mean nothing if your link lands on a buried post that gets zero traffic. Ask the platform or publisher whether the post will be promoted, where it will sit in their content structure, and what category it will be placed under.
10. Read the platform's refund and replacement policy before you click buy
The number of platforms that just take your money and ghost when something goes wrong is higher than it should be. Make sure there's a written guarantee around link uptime, indexing, and replacement policy.
What I skip:
I don't pay much attention to platform internal scores anymore (their proprietary "trust score" or "quality score" metrics). These almost always exist to justify higher pricing. The real signals are in third party data.
I also don't filter primarily by DR anymore. I look at organic traffic trend and outbound link patterns first. DR is a tiebreaker, not a primary filter.
This whole checklist takes about 10 to 15 minutes per listing. Annoying but it's saved me from a lot of bad buys. Curious what other people have in their vetting process and whether there's anything obvious I'm missing.
1. Pull the domain in Ahrefs and Semrush both
Never trust the platform DR. Open Ahrefs and Semrush side by side. If both tools show DR within 5 to 8 points of the platform number, the listing is probably honest. If the gap is 15 plus points, the platform is inflating something. I usually walk away in that case.
2. Check the organic traffic trend over the last 12 months
Current traffic number alone tells you nothing. What matters is the trend. A site sitting at 5K monthly organic that was at 25K six months ago is a site in decline. Probably hit by an update. The link will pass less than what the current number suggests. I want to see stable or growing traffic, not a cliff.
3. Manually browse the site for 5 minutes
Open the homepage. Click through 3 to 4 random posts. Check the about page if there is one. Things I'm looking for:
- Does the content read like it was written by a human who knows the topic?
- Are there real author bios with real LinkedIn profiles?
- Is the design and structure consistent with a real publication?
- Or does it feel like a template site with 12 unrelated categories?
This step takes 5 minutes and catches most of the obvious junk.
4. Count outbound links on a recent post
Open one of their recent guest posts or sponsored articles. Count the outbound links in the body. If there are more than 5 to 7 ******** outbound links in a single article, the page passes almost no equity. The link equity gets diluted across every outbound link on the page. I avoid sites that dump 15 plus outbound links per post regardless of how good the DR looks.
5. Check the backlink profile of the site itself
Pull the site's backlinks in Ahrefs. Look at the referring domain quality. If a site has DR 50 but its own backlinks are coming from obvious PBN networks, link directories, and other low quality sources, that DR is borrowed authority. It will not last and the link probably won't pass much.
6. Search for the domain on Google with "site:" operator
Quick check. Does Google actually index the site's content properly? Are most pages indexed or only a small fraction? If a site has 5K posts but only 800 are indexed, Google has already decided most of the content isn't worth showing. That's a flag.
7. Check if the site has been penalized
Search the domain plus "penalty" or "deindexed" on Google. Also check the Wayback Machine for the last 12 months. If the site looked completely different a year ago, it's probably a flipped domain. New owner, old DR. Risky.
8. Verify the price isn't massively inflated
If a platform is asking $300 for a placement, search the same domain on at least one other marketplace. If the same site is available elsewhere for $150, you're paying convenience premium. Sometimes that's fine. Sometimes you're getting fleeced.
9. Look at the placement page specifically, not just the domain
Domain level metrics mean nothing if your link lands on a buried post that gets zero traffic. Ask the platform or publisher whether the post will be promoted, where it will sit in their content structure, and what category it will be placed under.
10. Read the platform's refund and replacement policy before you click buy
The number of platforms that just take your money and ghost when something goes wrong is higher than it should be. Make sure there's a written guarantee around link uptime, indexing, and replacement policy.
What I skip:
I don't pay much attention to platform internal scores anymore (their proprietary "trust score" or "quality score" metrics). These almost always exist to justify higher pricing. The real signals are in third party data.
I also don't filter primarily by DR anymore. I look at organic traffic trend and outbound link patterns first. DR is a tiebreaker, not a primary filter.
This whole checklist takes about 10 to 15 minutes per listing. Annoying but it's saved me from a lot of bad buys. Curious what other people have in their vetting process and whether there's anything obvious I'm missing.
