Links from other sites remain a signal search engines use, and acquiring them is among the most abused areas of SEO. Search engine guidelines treat manipulative link schemes as violations. Buying link acquisition services requires more scrutiny than almost any other SEO purchase.
Understand the methods
Agencies use a range of approaches. Know which one you are buying.
- Digital PR and earned coverage. Creating stories, research or resources that journalists and publishers choose to cite.
- Content-led outreach. Promoting genuinely useful assets to relevant sites.
- Partnerships and association links. Links from suppliers, partners, event organizers and professional bodies.
- Directory and citation listings. Relevant, curated directories and local citations.
- Guest contribution. Articles written for other sites, which should add value to that site's audience.
- Broken-link and resource-page outreach. Suggesting your content as a replacement or addition.
- Paid placements and link purchases. Payment for links that pass ranking signals is against search engine guidelines unless properly marked.
- Private blog networks and similar schemes. Networks built to manipulate rankings. High risk.
Ask the agency which of these it uses and what share of the work each represents.
Quality signals
Judge individual links by relevance and editorial context, not by a number.
- Topical relevance to your business and the linked page.
- Genuine audience. Real readers and an editorial process.
- Editorial context. Is the link placed because it is useful to the reader?
- Natural variety in anchor text, link targets and site types.
- Pages that exist for readers, not primarily to host links.
- Disclosure where payment or sponsorship is involved.
Third-party "authority" metrics can be a rough filter but they are tool-specific estimates. Do not let them replace judgment.
What to ask for
- A description of the process from idea to placement, including who writes, who contacts and how sites are chosen.
- Sample placements from comparable clients, with page URLs you can inspect.
- Criteria for rejecting sites.
- A policy on payment. Is anything paid, to whom, and how is it disclosed?
- Reporting format. Each link with its URL, date, target page and the nature of the placement.
- Link retention policy. What happens if links are removed?
- Exclusivity and reuse. Are sites used for many clients?
Red flags
- Guaranteed numbers of links per month at a fixed low price, with no description of sourcing.
- Promises of rankings or of "high-authority" sites with no named examples.
- Reliance on a single network of sites.
- Refusal to disclose placements until after payment.
- Anchor text engineered around money keywords.
- Instant delivery of large link volumes.
- Pressure to buy links as the entire SEO strategy.
- Sites that publish on every topic and accept anything.
- "Link insertions" in old, unrelated articles.
Risks to weigh
Low-quality or manipulative links may be ignored by search engines, or in worse cases contribute to manual actions or algorithmic demotion. Recovery can be slow, and cleanup is itself a cost. The risk is not only the money spent but the effect on your site. Ask what the agency would do if a search engine penalty were suspected.
Contract and commercial points
- Per-link vs per-month vs per-campaign pricing. Each shifts risk. See Monthly Retainer vs Project Pricing.
- Minimum term and exit. Avoid long commitments for work you cannot yet evaluate.
- Ownership of content assets created for outreach.
- Replacement or refund policy for links that disappear.
- Prohibited methods written into the agreement.
Reporting and measurement
Counting links alone is a weak measure. Better indicators include referral traffic, brand mentions, coverage by relevant publications and improvement in visibility for pages that received links, with the usual attribution caveats. See Understanding SEO Reporting.
Verifying an agency's claims
Agencies often describe link capabilities in broad terms. On this site, listings show whether a claim comes from the agency's own site, a published case study or independent corroboration, and sponsorship never buys verification. For a link service, prefer claims you can check by looking at actual placements.
Decision approach
Treat links as a by-product of work worth doing: research, assets, partnerships, PR. If a vendor sells links as a commodity, assume higher risk. Put your questions to finalists using Questions to Ask Before Signing, and browse the directory to compare agencies that list outreach and PR as services.