Is this link worth paying for? A checklist before you buy

Start with the question that matters

A link is worth paying for when it sits on a page real people read, on a site that covers your subject, and stays there. Everything else is detail.

The trouble is that the numbers most sellers quote are not the ones that answer that question. Domain Rating, Domain Authority and Trust Flow all describe a site's link profile. None of them tell you whether anyone reads the site. A seller who leads with authority scores and goes quiet on traffic is telling you something.

So work through the checks below in order. Each one takes a few minutes, and a site that fails an early check rarely deserves the later ones.

1. Traffic before authority

Open the site in Ahrefs, Semrush or a similar tool and look at estimated organic traffic, not just the authority score.

• Is there meaningful traffic at all? Set your own minimum and stick to it. A site that ranks for nothing is unlikely to pass much value to you either.
• Which way is it heading? Look at the traffic chart over two or three years. A steady or rising line is good. A cliff usually means a Google update caught the site, and the reasons it was hit may still apply.
• Does authority match audience? A high Domain Rating with a trickle of traffic is the classic sign of a site whose links were built to sell links. Real publishers tend to have authority and traffic that move together.
• Where does the traffic come from? Check the top countries. If you sell to Australians and nearly all the site's readers are elsewhere, the link will do less for you than the numbers suggest.

2. Topical fit

Search engines read links in context. A link to a Melbourne accounting firm from a well-read small business site makes sense. The same link from a site about fishing gear and celebrity gossip does not, however strong that site looks on paper.

Check the pages that bring in the site's traffic. Most tools list the top pages and the keywords they rank for. If those are on your subject or close to it, good. If the traffic comes from one unrelated viral post and the rest of the site is thin, the site is not really about anything.

Ask yourself a plain question: would a reader of this site be glad to find your business mentioned here? If the honest answer is no, keep looking.

3. Signs of a link farm

Link farms are sites that exist mainly to sell links. They are easy to spot once you know what to look for.

• A write for us page that offers everything. Every niche, every topic, a price list, and no editorial standards mentioned.
• Recent posts that are all placements. Scroll the last few weeks of articles. If almost every one links out to a business, the site is a shop, not a publication.
• Thin, generic writing. Short articles that could sit on any site, with no author who seems to exist and no sign of a reader.
• Many outbound links per article. Several commercial links in one post, often to unrelated businesses.
• Mixed with banned niches. Casino, betting, crypto, adult or payday loan links on the same site. Even if your link is clean, the company it keeps is not.
• Sold through a long seller list. If the same site appears on several resellers' spreadsheets at different prices, it is being sold to everyone.

One of these signs is a reason to look harder. Two or more is usually a reason to walk away.

4. Permanence and link type

Before you pay, get clear answers to three things.

• Is the link dofollow? Paid links should be marked sponsored or nofollow under Google's guidelines, and many good publishers do exactly that. Those links still have value through readers and brand exposure, but they pass less ranking credit. Price them accordingly.
• Is it permanent? Some sellers remove links after a year or quietly switch them to nofollow. Ask directly and get the answer in writing.
• Will the article be indexed? A post buried where search engines never reach it, or blocked from indexing, does nothing for search. Ask where the article will sit and how it will be linked from the rest of the site.

5. The content itself

The article carrying your link matters as much as the site. A useful, well-written piece that a reader would finish is more likely to be shared, linked to and kept. A thin article written around your anchor text is more likely to be ignored by readers and discounted by search engines.

Keep the link natural. Use anchor text that describes the page you are linking to, not an exact-match keyword repeated across every placement. If you cite other sources, list them separately so your link is the one that stands out in the body.

6. After you pay, check it is live

Plenty of placements go wrong after the invoice is paid. Check each one.

• Is the link on the page? View the source, not just the visible page, and confirm the URL and the rel attribute are what you agreed.
• Is the page indexed? Search for the article's URL in Google, or check it with a tool, a few weeks after it goes live.
• Is it still there later? Re-check your placements on a schedule. Links that disappear or change type are common, and you will only know if you look.

Keep a simple register: site, URL, date live, link type, price and the date of your last check. It takes minutes to maintain and saves you paying the same seller twice for a link that has gone.

The short checklist

• Real organic traffic, steady or rising, from your market
• Authority and traffic that tell the same story
• Pages and readers that match your subject
• No link farm signs and no banned niches alongside
• Clear terms on link type and permanence
• An article worth reading, with natural anchor text
• Verified live after publishing, and re-checked later

A site that clears all seven is worth considering. A site that fails the first two is not worth paying for at any price.

Where to go next

If you would rather not do this site by site, our editorial links service places links for our own clients on vetted sites with real readers and relevant topics, each checked before purchase and verified live. To see where your own site stands first, run the free site score.